it represents. The Church, then, can receive no damage or prejudice by this doctrine, as some men, and in particular my adversaries, seem to fear on the contrary, it is a great benefit and advantage to her to be thought so primitive as to teach and practise it. For it is one of the objections which the Papists bring against us, that we have no sacrifice, as may be observed from what I have before cited out of Archbishop Bramhall. And I can assure my adversaries, from good authority, that there is now a person of great quality in France, who is kept back by no other cause from coming to the Church of England, but that he is told "she hath no Sacrifice :" to which his learned correspondent here, who is one of the French ministers, in answer hath assured him, that the Bishops and Clergy of the Church of England freely teach the doctrine of the Eucharistical Sacrifice, as it was taught and practised in the purest ages of the Catholic Church, which, I may presume, from the gentleman's objection, he understands very well.-pp. lxxi-lxxiii.

...

I must here say that there is no reason why the Reformed should be afraid of believing the holy Eucharist to be a Sacrificial service, or the bread and wine to be the proper oblations of it, forasmuch as, according to the ancients before the eighth century, we teach them to be not the "real," but only the "mystical," or "sacramental" Body and Blood of CHRIST. There is, therefore, a very plain and intelligible difference between the Eucharist's being the Sacrifice of the real Body and Blood of CHRIST, and its being a real Sacrifice of His mystical Body and Blood. They are inconsistent and incompossible one with the other, because mystical and real differ as much as the substance and its shadow, the verity and its type, or a thing of any sort or kind from the thing that is its image. All this is comprehended in the distinction betwixt "mystical" and "real;" the one as I have said is a contradiction and bar to the other, and therefore great must be their ignorance or prejudice who cannot distinguish the pure Primitive from the Popish doctrine of the Eucharist, and where ignorance or prejudice is not in the case, it must be evil designs and passions that make divines especially inveigh against their brethren, who teach the Sacrament of the LORD's Supper to be

the representative Sacrifice of CHRIST'S mystical Body and Blood. Whether or no my adversaries be men of the latter sort, I leave it to their readers to judge. . . In the mean time, I shall believe the holy Eucharist to be an unbloody Sacrifice, and of a sacrificial nature for the seal and sanction of the new Covenant, in the whole ministration, and all the parts and rites of it, from presenting the bread and wine to GOD upon the Altar, to the consumption of them in the holy, federal, and sacrificial feast; and that this notion of it is most suitable to the Evangelical Covenant, as a seal and sanction thereof, and altogether worthy of the New and royal Law, and of its one Lawgiver, the antitypal Moses, our LORD JESUS CHRIST. And as I believe it to be a doctrine and institution most agreeable to Christianity, as the mystical Judaism, to have one Sacrifice succeed in the room of all the Jewish Sacrifices, so I think it very proper not only to illustrate the nature of the holy Eucharist as a Sacrament, but to render the mystery more tremendous and adorable, and the Christian priesthood more venerable, and the devotion of the faithful more flaming both before, at, and after the holy Communion, as furnishing them with special and proper matter, not only for holy and comfortable meditations, but for prayers and praises to the FATHER, and intercessions with Him in the name of His SON JESUS CHRIST, and of the HOLY GHOST, to whom with the FATHER in the unity of the Trinity, be all honour, worship, and glory, now and ever. Amen-pp. lxxx-lxxxiii.

I hope I have now said enough to make it appear, that all the ancient Churches believed the bread and wine to be the proper subject matter of the Christian oblation in the holy Eucharist, or the sensible things which they really offered and believed, ought to be really offered to GoD in that holy service, for the sacrificial feast, and by consequence, that they thought it to be an outward Sacrifice properly so called.-"Account" prefatory to the third edit. pp. iv, v.

It hath the honour above all the Sacrifices that ever were, to be the representative of the Sacrifice of the Cross; and the value and dignity of it above all other Sacrifices, consists in being the representative of that propitiatory Sacrifice for the sins of the

whole world. It was instituted by our LORD for that noble and adorable purpose; and therefore, were I to define the Eucharistical Sacrifice, it should be in these forms: The Eucharistical Sacrifice is an oblation of bread and wine, instituted by JESUS CHRIST, to represent and commemorate His Sacrifice upon the Cross. Wherefore, to represent and commemorate the Sacrifice of CHRIST upon the Cross, being the great end of its institution, and the special part of its definition, by which it differs from, and is dignified above all other Sacrifices, it may be said of it in this respect, "We offer a Sacrifice, or rather the remembrance of a Sacrifice;" without meaning that it is not a proper Sacrifice, but only intending to set forth its super-eminent dignity above all other Sacrifices, in being instituted for a remembrance of the Sacrifice of CHRIST.-Pp. xxxiii. xxxiv.

I have been necessitated to write all this upon mentioning the additions which I have made in this edition of my book, to what I had said, in the former, of the Eucharistical Sacrifice, but now I have done for ever with that subject, and with all others that will require such labour and study as, through age and infirmities, I am no longer able to endure. If it meets with any more opposition, I leave the further defence of it to those learned younger divines, or students of Divinity, who are conversant in the ancient writers of the Church. GOD, of His mercy to it, increase the number of them.-p. xxxv.

SHARP, ARCHBISHOP.-Life by his son, Archdeacon Sharp.

Though he admired the Communion office, as it now stands, yet, in his own private judgment, he preferred that in King Edward's first service book before it, as a more proper office for the celebration of those mysteries; nor was this the only office that he thought might be rendered more suitable to the respective occasions for which they were compiled; which judgment probably he had formed from that examination of the Liturgy which he was concerned in, as one of the ecclesiastical commissioners in King William's reign, for reforming the Liturgy and Canons. But though he had these sentiments, yet he ever blessed GoD

that our public worship was so pure as it is; our rites so simple and inoffensive, and our discipline in no worse a state, all things considered.-vol. i. pp. 355, 6.

ID.-Sermons concerning the Sacrifice of the Mass.

Sermon xxiv.

Thirdly, To complete the Christian Sacrifice, we offer up both the aforesaid oblations or Sacrifices with a particular regard to that one Sacrifice of CHRIST which He offered upon the Cross, and which is now lively represented before our eyes in the symbols of Bread and Wine. That Sacrifice of His we now commemorate before God; we plead the merits and the virtue of it before Him, and for the merits, and by the virtue whereof, we have the confidence to offer up unto God the two forenamed Sacrifices, and the confidence to hope they shall be accepted. And in this sense we will not deny, that we offer up even CHRIST to His FATHER; that is, we commemorate to GOD what His SON hath suffered; we represent to Him the inestimable merits of His passion; and we desire God, for the sake of that, to be at peace with us, to hear our prayers, and accept our oblations. In this sense, I say, every Protestant offers CHRIST to His FATHER; and it is in this sense that St. Chrysostom speaks, when he says, • What then, do we not offer every day? Yes, we offer, by making a commemoration of His death: And we do not make another Sacrifice every day, but always the same, or rather a Remembrance of that Sacrifice.' And in the same sense says Eusebius, 'we sacrifice a Remembrance of the great Sacrifice.'

In these three things consisted the whole of the Christian Sacrifice, as it was held by the primitive Fathers: They first offered to GoD of their substance, then they offered their prayers and their praises, and at the same time they commemorated to GOD the death and Sacrifice of CHRIST, by the merits of which they hoped and they prayed, that both their oblations and themselves might be accepted.

And these three things our Church observes at this day; for, after we have made our offerings, and begged God's acceptance of them, as I said before, we come to beg of God that He would

mercifully accept our Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving; and we humbly beseech Him to grant that, by the merits and death of His SON JESUS CHRIST (which we have now commemorated), and through faith in His blood, we and all His whole Church may obtain remission of our sins, and all other benefits of His passion. And we here present unto Him ourselves, our souls, and bodies, as a lively Sacrifice to Him; yet being unworthy, through our manifold sins, to offer unto Him any Sacrifice, we beseech Him to accept this our bounden duty and service; not weighing our merits, but pardoning our offences, through JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD. So that having offered up our Sacrifice of Alms, and our Sacrifice of Devotions, for the rendering these two acceptable; we plead, we commemorate before GOD, the Sacrifice of our Lord JESUS CHRIST.

This is the whole of the Christian Sacrifice, as the ancients understood it; and, if the Church of Rome would be content with such a Sacrifice as this, I know none that would oppose them. And I am sure, if they go further, and pretend to any other Sacrifice than this, they go without precedent in antiquity. We offer up our alms; we offer up our prayers, our praises, and our selves. And all these we offer up in virtue and consideration of CHRIST'S Sacrifice, represented before us by way of remembrance or commemoration, nor can it be proved, that the ancients did more than this this whole service was their Christian Sacrifice, and this is ours. But the Romanists have invented a new Sacrifice, which CHRIST never instituted; which the Apostles never dreamt of; which the primitive Christians would have abhorred; and which we, if we will be followers of them, ought never to join in.

COMBER, PRESBYTER.- Companion to the Altar.

Whatsoever benefits we now enjoy, or hope hereafter to receive from ALMIGHTY GOD, they were all purchased by the death, and must be obtained through the intercession of the Holy JESUS. And for a perpetual memorial thereof, we are not only taught to mention His Name in our daily prayers, John xiv. 13. and xv. 16. but are also commanded by visible signs to commemorate and