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bowed their heads to thee; and vouchsafe that without condemnation, they may par. take of these immaculate and life-giving mysteries, for the REMISSION OF SINS and COMMUNICATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT."

The Liturgy of Nestorius: " O Lord, may the grace of thy Holy Spirit come and dwell and rest upon this oblation, that the participation of these holy mysteries may be to all that receive them for eternal life, for resurrection from the dead, and for expiation of bodies and souls, and for eternal salvation.”

The Liturgy of Severus: "Send upon us thy Spirit, the Paraclete: may he descend upon us and upon these oblations set before thee, and sanctify them, that this bread may be made the life-giving body, the body of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins and eternal life, to those that partake of it; and may he make the mixture that is in this cup, the blood of the New Testament, the life-giving blood of the Lord God and King of all, Jesus Christ, for the REMIS

SION OF SINS, and eternal life, to those that receive them."

The Ethiopic Liturgy: "Send thy Holy Spirit and Power upon this bread and this cup, and grant that they may be to all that receive them for sanctification and fullness of the Holy Ghost."

The Ethiopic Liturgy contains also the following Prayer: "O Lord, who sittest upon the Cherubim, and beholdest thy people and thine inheritance, bless thy servants and thy handmaids and their children, and give to every one who cometh to partake of thy wonderful table with a pure conscience, REMISSION OF SINS, together with the HOLY SPIRIT, for the salvation of soul and body, and the obtaining the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven, through the grace and favour of thy only-begotten Son."

I will not add to the number of citations, as these are sufficient to shew the SENSE OF ANTIQUITY, respecting the bene fits annexed to the Eucharist. All the antient Liturgies, by whomsoever composed, or compiled, concur in proving that PARDON AND SANCTIFICATION were the advantages

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vantages expected from worthy commu nion. On this point there was a general consent of all Christian churches, however they might differ in matters less essential.

The opinion of Archbishop Wake on the authenticity of antient Liturgies is candid and probable: "As for the Liturgies," says he, "ascribed to some of the Apostles, as St. Peter, St. Mark, St. James, there is not, I suppose, any learned man at this day, who believes them to have been written by those holy men, and set forth in the manner that they are now published. They were indeed the antient Liturgies of the three, if not of the four, Patriarchal Churches; the Roman, (perhaps that of Antioch too,) the Alexandrian, and Jerusalem Churches, first founded, at least governed by St. Peter, St. Mark, and St. James. However, since it can hardly be doubted, but that those holy Apostles and Evangelists did give some directions for the administration of the blessed Eucharist in those churches; it may reasonably be presumed that some

of

of those orders are still remaining in those Liturgies, which have been brought down to us under their names; and that those prayers wherein they all agree (in sense, at least, if not in words, were first presented in the same, or like terms, by those Apostles and Evangelists; nor would it be difficult to make a farther proof of this conjecture from the writings of the antient Fathers, if it were needful in this place to insist upon it.'

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If we allow these Liturgies, in their present forms, not to be authentic; yet there is little doubt but that their writers, whoever they were, caused them to convey the ideas and doctrines which prevailed at the time of their composition; and this is sufficient for our purpose; which is to prove, that the early Christians, who may be supposed to have been within reach of tradition from the Apostles themselves, were universally of opinion, that the Eucharist, properly celebrated, conveyed, to worthy communicants, GRACE AND RE

MISSION.

I have already accounted for the appli

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cation

cation of the term, Sacrifice, to the feast upon the sacrifice, which occurs in the Liturgies. It was a catachresis, or abuse of terms, adapting the name to popular conception; and, indeed, including the idea of a feast on a sacrifice, without which a sacrifice was incomplete *.

* I will here take occasion to remark, that a reliance on LITURGIES, (or divine service) on attendance at prayer, or the Sacrament, without proper dispositions, as an OPUS OPERATUM, and not as an OPUS OPERANTIS, is one of the absurdest and most mischievous of the PAPAL errors.

"Relying," says an old writer, "on the OPUS OPERATUM is as BAD DIVINITY as it is LATIN." Sq MANY sermons heard (he proceeds) SO MANY prayers made, so MANY alms given, (all OPERA OPERATA) which many sCORE up to themselves, and RECKON upon; will shrink in the tale, when God takes account of them, and will prove sermons not heard, prayers not made, alms not given; BECAUSE NOT DONE AS HE

REQUIRES.

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THOMAS FULLER, 1640,

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