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A. That which is given by the priest is, as to its substance, bread and wine: as to its sacramental nature and signification, it is the figure or representation of Christ's body and blood, which was broken and shed for us. The very body and blood of Christ, as yet it is not. But being with faith and piety received by the communicant, it becomes to him by the blessing of God, and the grace of the Holy Spirit, the very body and blood of Christ: as to those who come unworthily to it, it is made damnation, i. e. it renders them worthy of it, and without repentance, will certainly consign them over unto it.

4. Q. How does the bread and wine become to the faithful and worthy communicant the very body and blood of Christ?

A. As it intitles him to a part in the sacrifice of his death, and to the benefits thereby procured to all his faithful and obedient servants.

5. Q. How does every such communicant take and receive the body and blood of Christ in this sacrament?

A. By faith: and by means whereof he who comes worthily to the holy table, is as truly intitled to a part in Christ's sacrifice, by receiving the sacramental bread and wine which is there delivered to him, as any man is intitled to an estate, by receiving a deed of conveyance from one who has a power to deliver it to his use.

6. Q. What are the benefits whereof those who thus receive this holy sacrament are made partakers thereby?

A. The strengthening and refreshing of their souls by the body and blood of Christ, as their bodies are by the bread and wine.

7. Q. How does such a receiving of this holy sacrament strengthen our souls?

A. As it adds a new confirmation to us every time we receive it, of God's mercy towards us, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ; and thereby fortifies and corroborates us more and more, in the discharge of our duty, and to a resistance of all such temptations as may be likely to draw us away from it.

8. Q. Does it strengthen us in any other respect besides this?

A. Yes, it does: for being thus secured of a part in Christ's sacrifice for us, we are thereby fortified against all doubts and fears of our salvation; are confirmed against the apprehension of any present dangers or sufferings for righteousness sake; which we shall reckon not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us: and, finally, are strengthened against the fear of death itself, which we are hereby taught to look upon as a passage only to a most blessed and everlasting life.

SECT. XLIX.

Of Transubstantiation, or the real Presence maintained by the Church of Rome; and the manifest absurdities and impossibilities of it.

1. Q. Is this the only way in which you suppose Christ's body and blood to be really present in this sacrament?

A. It is the only way in which I conceive it possible for them to be present there. As for his Divine nature, that being infinite, he is by virtue thereof everywhere present. But in his human nature, and

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particularly his body, he is in heaven only; nor can that be any otherwise present to us on earth, than by figure and representation; or else by such a communion as I have before been speaking of.

PROOF SUBJOINED.-Acts, i. 9, 11. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly towards heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

1 Cor. x. 16. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?

2. Q. Does not Christ expressly say, that the bread is his body, and the cup his blood?

A. He does say of the bread and wine so taken, blessed, broken, and given, as they were by him in that sacred action, that this is my body, &c.; and so they are. The bread which we break is not only in figure and similitude, but by a real spiritual communion his body: the cup of blessing which we bless, is by the same communion his blood, 1 Cor. x. 16. But this does not hinder, but that, as to their own natural substances, they may, and indeed do still continue to be what they appear to us, the same bread and wine that before they were.

3. Q. What think you of those who believe the very elements of bread and wine, (by the words of Christ) to be really changed into the body and blood

of Christ, and to have nothing of their own remaining, but the mere species or appearance of what they were before?

A. If any do really believe this, I think they contradict both sense, reason, and Scripture, in so doing. 4. Q. Do you suppose that we ought to judge of a thing of this nature by our senses?

A. I know no other way of judging of sensible objects, but by our senses. And if I must not believe what I see, and taste, and smell to be bread and wine, 1 may as well resolve not to believe any thing at all. 5. Q. Is not the word of God more to be relied upon than our own senses?

A. I do not at all doubt but that we ought, without all controversy, to believe whatever the word of God proposes to us. But where does the word of God require me to believe any thing in opposition to my senses, which it is the proper business of my senses to judge of?

6. Q. Does not the word of God say, This is my body?

A. It does say so of the bread so blessed, given, and received as it ought to be in this sacrament; and accordingly I believe that it is so. But does the word of God anywhere say that it is not bread? Or that I am not to believe it to be bread, though my senses never so evidently assure me that it is?

7. Q. Can the same thing be Christ's body, and bread too?

A. I have before shewn you, not only that it may be so, but that it truly and really is so: bread in substance, the body of Christ by signification, by representation, and spiritual communication of his crucified body, to every faithful and worthy receiver.

8. Q. How is transubstantiation contrary to our reason?

A. As my reason tells me it is a contradiction to say of one and the same natural body that it should be in heaven and on earth; at London and at Rome at the same time: that it should be a true humane body, and yet not have any one part or member of such a body: to omit a hundred other absurdities that are the necessary consequences of such a belief. 9. Q. How does the Scripture contradict this belief?

A. As it tells us that Christ's body is in heaven ; absent from us: that there it is to continue till the day of judgment: that he has now a glorified body, and is not capable of dying any more: whereas the body we receive, in this holy sacrament, is his crucified body; his body given for us; his blood shed for us; which can never be verified in his present glorified body.

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PROOFS SUBJOINED.- Acts, i. 9, 11. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. biii. 21. Whom the heaven must receive until the times of the restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets, since the world began. Romans, vi. 9, 10. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more: death hath no more dominion over him. For in that

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