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

[…]

The Exposition.

HIS Article is an Inference or De- dudlion from the former. For since a Hvely Faith is the Mean whereby we eat the Body of Christ in the Lord’s it follows, that wicked Men, who

Supper I have not this

Faith, cannot poilibly be Par-

takers of Christ. And St. John tclJs us, i John -3. 6. that if’ujefay that ive ha-vc Fellow fJjip with hm and walk in Darkness, we lye and do 7tot the ruth : Bat if we walk in the Lights as he is tn the Ligfjt we have FellowJJyip one with another and the Blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanfeth us from all Sin, That such wicked Men as

receive

Thirty -‘Nine Articles. 66^

receive the Sacramental Bread and Wine, eat Art\XXIX. and drink Condemnation or Judgment to them- f selves, and fm against Christ, by ufmg such Things as are Holy in an unworthy Manner, hath been already proved from i Cor. xi. 29. under the XXVth yrticle.

Moreover, this Article which I am now con-

fidering, which is drawn up in the very Words

of St. Attguftine in his XXYIth Treatife on

St. John^ plucks up the Dodlrine of Tranfub-

ftantiation by the Roots. For if the Elements

of Bread and Wine are changed into the Body

and Blood of Christ, ftridly and literally speak-

ing, no Reason can be afligned why wicked

Men, and even Mice, may not eat the Body of

Chrifl. Thus much they of the Church of Rome

acknowledge, and fay withal, that the Host,

or Sacramental Bread, by whomfoever, or

whatfbever devoured, is the Body of Christ, as

long as any Appearance of it remains. So that

according to this Dodrine, we must give no

Credit to what S. Paul&ith to the Cor’mthians^

I Cor. X. £i. Te cannot drink the Ctip of the Lord,

and the Cup of Devils : Te cannot he Partakers

of the horde’s ^ahle^ and of the ^ahle of Devils.

Or to what he faith Chap. xi. ver. 20. where,

speaking of their disorderly Communions, he

tells them, that this zvas not eating of the Lord’s

Supper *.

Article

An Expofitioii on the

Notes

• SeeAntoniniFlorent. Summ. Parr III. c.6. §. 3. Norpelli Cat. p. If?, if4. J?i//^» of Chrillian Subjection. Part I V, p,628. F/>W ot the Church. Book III. Apperxd. c. iS.