Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 1.djvu/247

. For as much as he is there ready by the order of the Church to do it, and goes as far as he can in the Service appointed for it, without the actual administration of it; and therefore that the fault is wholly in themselves that it is not actually administered, because they will not make up a convenient number among them to communicate with him. Which is a most excellent order; for the people hereby have not only Holy Commandments solemnly proclaimed, the Epistle and Gospel for the day, the Nicene Creed, and prayers proper for that occasion read to them; but they are likewise put in mind of their duty to their  in receiving His most Blessed Body and Blood, and upbraided with their neglect of it. For which purposes also, I think it very expedient, that the order of the Church for the reading that part of the Service at the Communion Table, even when there is no Communion, be duly observed.

The next Rubric, in the same place, that concerns our present business, is this; "And in all Cathedral and Collegiate Churches and Colleges, where there are many Priests and Deacons, they shall all receive the Communion with the Priest every Sunday at the least, except they have a reasonable cause to the contrary." Where we see that the Church doth not command, but supposes that the Sacrament is constantly administered in all such places; taking it for granted, that it is never omitted there, where there are so many persons devoted to the service of ; but that there is always a sufficient number to communicate. But she absolutely commands, that all Priests and Deacons that belong to such foundations, shall receive the Communion with the Priest every Sunday at the least, except any of them have a reasonable cause to the contrary, (which the Ordinary of the place, I suppose, is to be judge of:) they are bound therefore, all and every one of them, to receive it every Sunday, which notwithstanding they cannot do, unless it be administered every Sunday among them. Wherefore if there be any such places where it is not so administered, or any such persons who do not, without just cause to the contrary, receive it every Sunday in the year, I do not see how they can answer it to to the Church, or to their own consciences. Neither are they bound to receive it only every Sunday, but every Sunday at the least: which plainly supposeth that it is administered upon other days as well as Sundays. For otherwise they could not