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earth. Wherefore, in the Eucharistic Office, we not only intercede for our brethren in the flesh, but commemorate also those who have passed the barriers of death; and knowing that "they without us shall not be made perfect", we pray for admission together into glory;-" that we with them may be partakers of Thy heavenly kingdom." On particular days, their anniversaries, the Apostles and others are mentioned by name. All this is agreeable to primitive practice, as our Homilies intimate in the following passage:-"As he (St. Augustine) witnesseth in another place, the martyrs and holy men in times past were wont after their death to be remembered and named of the priest at Divine Service, but never to be invocated or called upon."1

It has been a pious opinion of the Church that the holy angels are especially present with us in the celebration of the Eucharist. Hence our chant, "With angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven,

1 "We make mention also of those who are before departed, first, of the Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, and Martyrs, that by their entreaties and intercession God may receive our prayers."-S. Cyr. Cat. Myst. v, c. 9.

we laud and magnify Thy glorious name; evermore praising Thee, and saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth are full of Thy glory; Glory be to Thee, O Lord Most High." "In this giving of thanks by Christ our Lord, for whose merits they be only acceptable", writes an old bishop of our Church," "the priest prayeth to be joined and associate with the angels and archangels, and all the whole army of the blessed spirits in heaven, who then do assist the priest, and be present there in the honour of Him who is offered, praising, honouring, and adoring the majesty of Almighty God." In King Edward VI's First Book, there was a prayer that God would command our Eucharistic

"prayers and supplications by the ministry of His holy angels to be brought up into His holy Tabernacle before the sight of His Divine Majesty'.3 Indeed, if at any time

1 Communion Service.

2 Watson's Wholesome Doctrine, &c., p. 79.

3 "Think to what an honour thou art admitted! What a table thou enjoyest! a table at the sight of which the very angels themselves tremble, and dare not so much as look upon it without fear, for the rays of glory which break forth from it. And from this we are fed; of this

in this mortal life, it must be at the celebration of the Holy Communion, that it can be said of us :-" Ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and Church of the first born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant." (Heb. xii, 22, 23, 24.)

The Communion takes place immediately after the consecration. "The minister first receives it in both kinds himself, and then proceeds to deliver the same to the bishops, priests, and deacons, in like manner (if any be present), and after that to the people also in order, into their hands, all meekly kneeling".1

we are partakers; and become one body with Christ, and one flesh. Who shall declare the wonders of the Lord, or shew forth all His praise?"-S. Chrysostom, in his Sermon on the Blessed Philogonus.

1 Rubric before Distribution. "It is most requisite that the minister deliver the bread and wine into every particular communicant's hand, and repeat the words in the singular number: for so much as it is the propriety

NAMES OF THE EUCHARIST.

The names by which the ordinance in question is most commonly designated by English churchmen are, the Holy Mysteries, the Christian Sacrifice, the Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, the Lord's Supper, and the Blessed Eucharist. The meaning of the four former has been sufficiently explained in the foregoing statement of the "Nature of the Eucharist". We shall therefore, in this place, content ourselves with merely accounting for the adoption of the two latter appellatives.1

of sacraments to make particular obsignation to each be. liever, and it is our visible profession, that, by the grace of God, Christ tasted death for every man."-Answer of the Bishops at the Savoy Conference.

1 Besides the terms already cited, which are applied to the Holy Eucharist in the Homilies, the following also occur:-The Holy Oblation; the Memory of the Lord's precious Death; Medicine of the Soul; High Mysteries; Dainties for the Soul; the Bread and Cup of the Lord; the Annunciation of His Death; Celestial Banquet and Feast; Costly Supper; Spiritual Food; the Nourishment of our Soul; a Heavenly Refection; Invisible Meat; a Ghostly Substance; Reverend Communion; Heavenly Memory of Christ's Death and Passion; Celestial Food; Love; Heavenly Banquet; Sacred and Fearful Mysteries; Table of Peace; Table of Quietness; Table of Pity; Mystery of Peace; the Sacrament of Christian Society;

1. The Lord's Supper.

We find St. Paul applying this name to the Holy Communion in 1 Cor. xi, 20, where he says:-"When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper." The primitive fathers after him made frequent use of the name; and our own Church adopts the same term in her Communion Service, Catechism, Articles, and Homilies. This name seems to have been originally derived from the last supper, at which our Lord instituted the Eucharist.

II. Eucharist.

We continually meet in the earliest writings of the Christian fathers, the word eucharistia, or thanksgiving, applied both to the service and to the consecrated elements. It would seem, indeed, as if St. Paul alluded

Mystical Bread; Wholesome Bread and Drink: to which may be added from the Communion Service,-Spiritual Food and Sustenance; a Divine Thing; Heavenly Feast; Holy Supper; the Banquet of most Heavenly Food; Pledges of Christ's Love; a Constant Remembrance of His Death; Perpetual Memory of His precious Death; and the Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving.

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