This devotional work on the Eucharist was published in 1679, becoming a standard work of the period and then passing through fifty-one editions by 1751 (Stone, 1909: II, 457-458).  The work contains a number of meditations and prayers aimed at assisting those preparing for Holy Communion to do so worthily and thereby obtaining the benefits of the life and death of Christ and the spiritual presence of his body and blood.  The following material from this work will help to establish its view of the Eucharist.

“O my Jesus, Thou savest me by Thy blood!  In this Thy Sacrament Thou art set forth crucified, and I behold Thy wounds, from whence by the hand of faith I pluck forth these comfortable words of life, ‘My Lord and my God’.  My God!  Mine, for Thou hast partaken of my human nature, and Thou hast made me to partake of Thy divine nature; Thou hast taken upon Thee my flesh, and Thou has communicated unto me Thy Spirit.  In this Thy Holy Sacrament Thou communicatest body and blood, flesh and spirit, Thy whole manhood, yea, Thy very Godhead too. … The bread and wine I eat and drink is not more really my food than Thou, my Jesus, in whom I believe and trust, art my God. … The faithful communicant doth receive that which the Word found, to wit, preservation unto life everlasting both to his body and soul.  For the humbled sinner, believing in the Incarnation, death, and passion of Jesus, and receiving this bread and wine in token that God hath given Him for our sins, and relying on Him as his only Redeemer; this doth convey to such a penitent believer all the benefits of the birth and the death of Jesus.  And, as the bread and wine, being received, do communicate to us all the strength and comfort that they contain, so the worthy receiver, by apprehending and embracing a crucified Saviour, draws persuasions of his pardon and encouragement to his graces, and so spiritually eats the flesh of Christ, and drink his blood. … Christ, to show His love towards us, has given us His own bread, and of His own cup; nay, He hath given us His own body as bread, His own blood as wine, for the nourishment of our souls.” (A Week’s Preparation towards a Worthy Receiving of the Lord’s Supper, cited in Stone, 1909: II, 458).

This passage suggests a moderate realist presence of Christ in the Eucharist.  The crucified Christ is said to be set forth in the Eucharist and the body and blood of Christ is received by the communicant.  This is not done in an immoderate manner since the work states that the communicant ‘spiritually eats the flesh of Christ, and drinks His blood’.  The communicant is said to partake of Christ’s ‘divine nature’ in the Eucharist, whereby Christ’s communicates his Spirit, to the effect that in the ‘Holy Sacrament Thou communicatest body and blood, flesh and spirit’.  In what is a very realist expression, the work states that in the Eucharist Christ communicates his ‘whole manhood’ and ‘very Godhead’.  This is suggestive of both divine and human forms of Jesus being communicated in the Eucharist and as such must be seen to imply some form of immoderate realism in relation to the ‘whole manhood’.  Despite this the identification of the body and blood of Christ with the bread and wine of the Eucharist is weak in this work.  Indeed the author states that Jesus is more his real food than the bread and wine.  It may be that the author is distinguishing here between a heavenly food and an earthly food and saying that the whole manhood and very Godhead of Christ is contained in the heavenly food and received by trust and faith, and that this is more food than earthly food.  If this is so, then the conclusion of immoderate realism is lessened and moderate realism is strengthened.  Whatever the real case here, it seems that the nature of the realist presence of Christ in the Eucharist is not entirely consistent in this work, since in a later part of the passage quoted above the eating and drinking is spoken of as spiritual.  The linking of the sign and the signified relates more in this passage to the receiving than it does to the elements of bread and wine. 

This mixing of immoderate and moderate elements of realism continues in the following passage:

“O most good and gracious Jesus, Thou before Thy sufferings and death didst bequeath a most excellent gift unto Thy children as a pledge of Thy love, leaving for us Thy most sacred body to be our meat, and Thy most precious blood to be our drink.  O Thou true food of my soul, receive me, who am to receive Thee, quicken me with Thy Spirit, feed me with Thy flesh, satisfy me with Thy blood, and let me receive life from Thee to act and to live unto Thee.” (A Week’s Preparation towards a Worthy Receiving of the Lord’s Supper, cited in Stone, 1909: II, 458-459).

Jesus body is described in this passage as meat and his blood is described as drink.  This immoderate sounding language is however, modified by a description of this food as a food of the soul, suggesting that the food is spiritual food.  The mixing of immoderate and moderate language continues however, with expression which ask for a spiritual quickening, but a feeding with Christ’s flesh and satisfying with Christ’s blood.

Another passage continues this theme, saying:

“I am not worthy, O Lord, I am not worthy to come into Thy presence, much less to eat at Thy Table the flesh of the sacrificed Lamb. … Vouchsafe, good Lord, I humbly beseech Thee, so to work in my heart with Thy grace and Holy Spirit that I may worthily receive these holy mysteries to the reviving and refreshing of my sinful soul; that I may purge out the old leaven of my corrupt and wicked nature by hearty and unfeigned repentance; that I may spiritually eat Christ’s flesh, and drink his blood by a true and lively faith; that I may effectually feed upon the merits of His Incarnation, passion, resurrection, and ascension by virtue of Thy sweet and comfortable promises made unto us in the word of Thy Holy Gospel; finally, that I may be partaker of all the fruits and benefits of that most precious and perfect sacrifice which He in the body of His flesh offered up once for all upon the cross for the redemption and salvation of mankind.” (A Week’s Preparation towards a Worthy Receiving of the Lord’s Supper, cited in Stone, 1909: II, 459).

Here it seems clear that despite the immoderate sounding language of this passage the meaning is cast in terms of moderate realism.  The author speaks of eating the flesh of the sacrificed lamb, but doing this eating spiritually, with the grace of Christ working in the heart.  It is by this spiritual eating that the communicant receives the benefits of Christ’s passion.  It seems that the author of this work, despite what at times is suggestive of immoderate realism, is really speaking in moderate realist terms.