Wesley Corpus

An evil practice attending this evil doctrine is, the depriving the laity of the cup in the Lord’s supper. It is acknowledged by all, that our Lord instituted and delivered this sacrament in both kinds; giving the wine as well as the bread to all that partook of it; and that it continued to be so delivered in the Church of Rome for above a thousand years. And yet, notwithstanding this, the Church of Rome now forbids the people to drink of the cup ! A more insolent and barefaced corruption cannot easily be conceived ! Another evil practice in the Church of Rome, utterly unheard of in the ancient Church, is, that when there is none to receive the Lord’s supper, the Priest communicates alone. (Indeed it is not properly to communicate, when one only receives it.) This likewise is an absolute innovation in the Church of God. But the greatest abuse of all in the Lord’s supper is, the worshipping the consecrated bread. And this the Church of Rome not only practises, but positively enjoins. These are her words: “The same sovereign worship which is due to God, is due to the host. Adore it; pray to it. And whosoever holds it unlawful so to do, let him be accursed.” The Romanists themselves grant, that if Christ is not corporally present in the Lord’s supper, this is idolatry. And that he is not corporally present anywhere but in heaven, we learn from Acts i. 11; iii. 21. Thither he went, and there he will continue, “till the time of the restitution of all things.” 7. Consider we now what the Romanists hold, concerning the sacrament of penance. “The matter of the sacrament of penance is, contrition, confession, and satisfaction; the form, “I absolve thee.’” We object to this: You say, “The matter of a sacrament is something sensible,” perceivable by our senses. But if so, penance is not a sacrament.