Burnet on Article XXIX: Of the Wicked which eat not the Body of Christ in the use of the Lord's Supper

THIS Article arises naturally out of the Former, and depends upon it: For, if Christ’s Body is corporally present in the Sacrament, then all Persons good or bad, who receive the Sacrament, do also receive Christ: On the other hand, if Christ is Present only in a Spiritual Manner, and if the Mean that receives Christ, is Faith, then such as believe not, do not receive him. So that to prove that the Wicked do not receive Christ’s Body and Blood, is upon the Matter the same thing with the proving, that he is not corporally Present: And it is a very considerable Branch of our Argument, by which we prove that the Fathers did not believe the corporal Presence, because they do very often say, That the Wicked do not receive Christ in the Sacrament.

Here the same distinction is to be made, that was mentioned upon the Article of Baptism. The Sacraments are to be considered either as they are Acts of Church-Communion, or as they are federal Acts by which we enter into Covenant with God. With respect to the Former, the visible Profession that is made, and the Action that is done, are all that can fall under human cognisance: So a Sacrament must be held to be good and valid, when as to outward appearance all things are done according to the Institution: But as to the internal Effect and Benefit of it, that turns upon the Truth of the Profession that is made, and the sincerity of those Acts which do accompany it. For, if these are not seriously and sincerely performed, God is dishonoured, and his Institution is prophaned. Our Saviour has expresly said, that whosoever eats his Flesh, and drinks his Blood, has eternal Life. From thence we conclude, that no Man does truly receive Christ, who does not at the same time receive with him both a Right to eternal Life, and likewise the beginnings and earnests of it. The Sacrament being a federal Act, he who dishonours God, and prophanes this Institution, by receiving it unworthily, becomes highly guilty before God, and draws down Judgments upon himself: And as it is confessed on all hands that the inward and spiritual Effects of the Sacrament depend upon the State and Disposition of him that Communicates, so we who own no other Presence but an inward and spiritual one, cannot conceive that the Wicked who believe not in Christ do receive him.

In this Point several of the Fathers have delivered themselves very plainly.

Origen says, Christ is the true Food, whosoever eats him shall live for ever; of whom no wicked Person can eat: ¹ for if it were possible that any who continues Wicked, should eat the Word that was made Flesh, it had never been written, Whoso eats this Bread shall live for ever. This comes after a Discourse of the Sacrament, which he calls the typical and symbolical Body, and so it can only belong to it: In another place he says, The Good eat the living Bread which came down from Heaven; but the Wicked eat dead Bread which is Death.

² Zeno Bishop of Verona, who is believed to have lived near Origen’s time, has these words, There is cause to fear that he in whom the Devil dwells, does not eat the Flesh of our Lord, nor drink his Blood; though he seems to communicate with the Faithful; since our Lord has said, He that eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood dwells in me, and I in him.

St. Ierom says, They that are not Holy in Body and Spirit, do neither eat the Flesh of Iesus nor drink his Blood; ³ of which he said, He that eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood hath eternal Life.

⁴St. Augustin expresses himself in the very Words that are cited in the Article, which he introduces with these words; He that does not abide in Christ, and in whom Christ does not abide, certainly does not spiritually eat his Flesh, nor drink his Blood, tho he may visibly and carnally press with his Teeth the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ: But he rather eats and drinks the Sacrament of so great a Matter to his Condemnation. And in another Place he says,⁵ Neither are they (speaking of vitious Persons) to be said to eat the Body of Christ, because they are not his Members; to which he adds, He that says, Whoso eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood abides in me and I in him, shews what it is not only in a Sacrament, but truly to eat the Body of Christ and to drink his Blood. He has upon another Occasion those frequently cited Words, speaking of the difference between the other Disciples and Iudas in receiving this Sacrament,⁶ These did eat the Bread, that was the Lord (panem Dominum) but he the Bread of the Lord against the Lord (panem Domini contra Dominum). To all this a great deal might be added to shew, that this was the Doctrine of the Greek Church, even after Damascene’s Opinion, concerning the Assumption of the Elements into an Union with the Body of Christ, was received among them: But more needs not be said concerning this, since it will be readily granted, that if we are in the Right in the main Point of denying the corporal Presence, that this will fall with it.

Footnotes

1. Comment. in Matth. c. 15. ↩

2. Tom. [?]. Spi[?]il. Sacr. d’ Ach[?]ry. ↩

3. In cap. 66. Isaiae. ↩

4. Tract. 26. in Joan. ↩

5. Lib 21. de Civ. Dei. c. 25. ↩

6. Tract. 54. in Joan. ↩