THE THEOLOGICAL WORKS OF THE REV. JOHN JOHNSON, M.A., VICAR OF CRANBROOK IN THE DIOCESE OF CANTERBURY. VOLUME I. OXFORD: JOHN HENRY PARKER. M DCCC XLVII. The nature of the Eucharist is explained according to the sentiments of the Christian Church in the four first centuries; PROVING, That the Eucharist is a proper material Sacrifice, That it is to be offered by proper officers, That the Oblation is to be made on a proper Altar, To which is added, A Proof, that what our Saviour speaks concerning eating His Flesh, and drinking His Blood, in the vith Chapter of St. John's Gospel, is principally meant of the Eucharist, With a Prefatory Epistle to the Lord Bishop of NORWICH; Animadversions on the Reverend Dr. Wise's Book, which he calls The Christian Eucharist rightly stated: And some reflections on a stitched book, entituled, An Answer to the exceptions made against the Lord Bishop of OXFORD's Charge. Nil aded quod obduret mentes hominum, quàm simplicitas Divinorum operum, i. e. Sacramentorum, quæ in actu videtur; & magnificentia, quæ in effectu repromittitur. Tertullian, De Baptismo, mox ab initio. Κρατοῦμεν τὴν ΟΜΟΛΟΓΙΑΝ ἕως ἂν ζήσομεν [ζῶμεν. Ed. Ben.] By JOHN JOHNSON, M.A. Vicar of Cranbrook in LONDON: Printed for ROBERT KNAPLOCK, at the EDITOR'S PREFACE. CONSIDERABLE delay has occurred in the publication of this Volume, from accidental circumstances. Owing to the difficulty of obtaining a copy of the Second Edition, (which came out in 1724, in the Author's life-time, and which is now become extremely rare,) it was found necessary to begin working with the First Edition, (that of 1714;) and the Volume had been completely prepared for the press as early as July last, before a copy of the Second Edition was ob-tained; which, of course, involved a thorough examination de novo. For the loan of that copy, the Committee is indebted to the courtesy of the Rev. C. L. Cornish, M.A. of Exeter College. All the passages, inserted by the Author in his Second Edition, have been distinguished in the present by being inclosed in brackets; only it must be observed, that where instances occur of single words bracketted, they have been put in by the Editor on his own responsibility; and he trusts that it will clearly appear from the context, that in the very few instances of their occurrence such a course was necessary. There are several passages in the text of the First Edition, which the Author has entirely omitted in the Second; these it has been thought advisable to retain in the present Edition in the shape of notes. The reader will thence have an opportunity of discriminating the shades of theological difference (if any such really exist,) to which Johnson's mind was subject in a decade of years; and the Editor is thereby spared the invidious task of assuming their arbitration. A few sentences only have been entirely omitted, which the Author has withdrawn in his Second Edition, and wherein he had been betrayed, by the heat of controversy, into an undue asperity of expression. It may be as well to remark, that wherever the word 'Sacrifice' is here employed to designate the mysterious oblation |