48 The Mode of Christ's Presence, a Mystery. 8 perfected, she regards it as But as to the mode of the so 'divine a thing,' so 'hea- Presence, following the Divenly a food,' that we must vines of our Church, and, as not presume' to approach I believe, the Fathers of the it with unprepared minds, Church, Ihave never thought, and that sinners, although or rather I have withheld my they only partake of the thoughts. To repeat now, bread and wine, partake of words which I used as apthem to their own condemna- pealing to the Church of tion, because they impiously England from the judgdisregard the Lord's Body, ments of those who had which is truly present in that power here: "My own beSacrament. Hence it is that lief was cast (so to speak) in the Church believing firmly the mould of the minds of in the real Presence of the Bishop Andrewes and Arch'precious and Blessed Body bishop Bramhall, which I and Blood of our Saviour regarded as the type of the Jesus Christ,' speaks of the teaching of our Church. Eucharist as high and From them originally, and holy mysteries,' exhorts us with them, I learnt to reto consider the dignity of ceive in their literal sense, that holy mystery, that our Blessed Lord's solemn 'heavenly feast,' that 'holy words, This is My Body,' Table, the banquet of that and from them, while I bemost Heavenly food,' even lieve the consecrated ele'the King of kings' Table 2." "ments to become, by virtue 5" Which being . . . so dangerous to them that will presume to receive it unworthily."-Exhort. in Com. Off. "St. Paul exhorteth all persons diligently to try and examine themselves, before they presume to eat of that bread and drink of that cup."-Ibid. "We do not presume to come to this Thy Table, merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in Thy manifold and great mercies."-Prayer before Consecration. 6 "So is the danger great if we receive the same unworthily. For then we are guilty of the Body and Blood of Christ our Saviour: we eat and drink our own damnation, not considering the Lord's Body; we kindle God's wrath against us; we provoke Him to plague us with divers diseases and sundry kinds of death."-Exhort. in Com. Office. 7 Prayer before Consecration. Post Communion Prayer. 8 Exhort. Com. Office. Hom, xxvii. p. 1. 2 Hom. xxvii. P. 1. 9 Ibid. "Under the Form of Bread & Wine" language of Homilies. 49 of His consecrating words, them because they were there truly and really, yet spiritu- used. I have never taught ally and in an ineffable way, any thing physical, corporeal, His Body and Blood, I carnal, but spiritual, sacralearnt also to withhold my mental, Divine, ineffable. thoughts as to the mode of And when I have said, as I this great mystery, but as could not but acknowledge, a Mystery' to adore it.' that I could not see how With the Fathers then and the Roman Catholics could our own great Divines, (ex- mean less by "the accidents plaining, as I believe, the of bread and wine" than we true meaning of our Church,) by the substance, this was I could not but speak of the not to draw our doctrine to consecrated elements, as be- theirs but theirs to ours. If ing, what, since He has so it be granted, as they must called them, I believe them grant, that all the natural to become, His Body and properties remain, size, form, Blood; and I feared not, solidity, the same distributhat, using their language, I tion of particles, whereof should, when speaking of the elements are composed, Divine and 'spiritual' things, the same natural powers of be thought to mean other- nourishment or exhilaration, wise than spiritually,' or the same effect upon the having disclaimed all nervous system and every thoughts as to the mode of other physical property, I their being, that any should do not know what remains, suppose I meant a mode which we mean to affirm which our Church disal- and they to deny. But I lows." have said this, not as adoptI have then, in my adapted ing their mode of explanabooks, retained the words tion, which is not acknow"under the form of Bread ledged by the Greek Church and Wine," because they are any more than by our own; the words used in the Ho- but as hoping that our difmilies, "of the due receiving ferences were not irreconof His blessed Body and cilable, and that we are conBlood under the form of demning a popular physical Bread and Wine." I have interpretation, which they meant them in the same cannot consistently hold. I sense in which the Homilies mention this because I have use them, and have used acknowledged this, when E 50 English Church rejects a material change only. consulted. I have said that real moment upon this subit appears from our Article ject" ["our Lord's Sacraitself, that it condemns Tran- mental Presence"] "would substantiation, in the sense of seem to be-first, Whether implying a physical change. our Lord is truly present, as This appears from the words, is affirmed in this work, or "is repugnant to the plain whether the transaction is a words of Scripture," i. e. in mere appeal to our imaginathat it entitles the conse- tion? Secondly, If our Lord crated element, "bread; " be truly present, is it under "overthroweth the nature those conditions in which of a Sacrament," in that a He is an object to the senses Sacrament is "a sign of a of men, i. e. as above defined, sacred thing," and on this materially, or in some other view, the sign would be the manner? The Church of thing itself. If any imply England, in denying Trannot a physical change, the substantiation, means Article does not apply to parently to deny a material them. presence, for she explains I may give here Arch- the subject by saying that deacon Wilberforce's recent there is no Corporal Presummary, premising only sence of Christ's natural that, in justice to him, the Flesh and Blood:' and she whole note, which contains states, as her ground for the ground of it, ought to this assertion, that 'the truth be studied 5. of Christ's natural body' "The questions of most requires it to be in one 6 ap It 4 "The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the Body of Christ? For we, being many, are one bread and one body for we are all partakers of that one bread." 1 Cor. x. 16, 17. 5 Doctrine of the Incarnation, Ed. 3, note on cx. p. 543 sqq. may here be briefly said, that the groundwork of the passage is the entirely distinct meaning of the words "matter" and "material," "substance" and "substantial," "as used by those who adopt the Baconian, and those who adopt the Aristotelian habits of thought." "The Baconian" (and such is our popular language) "will speak of that which is material in man as equivalent with that which the senses can discern; or he will define matter to be that of which our senses are fitted to take cognizance." The Aristotelian means by 66 'substance," "6 an abstract notion which the intellect obtains by disregarding those accidents, by which one individual of a class is distinguished from others." "The ideas," thus, "have no relation to one another." No adoration to any Physical or carnal Presence. 51 place; i. e. that it is subject Wine there bodily received, to these conditions, which or unto any Corporal [i. e. render it a suitable object Physical, Carnal] Presence for the senses of mortals. of Christ's natural Flesh and She means to deny, therefore, Blood. For the Sacramental that our Lord's natural body Bread and Wine remain still is in such sort present as in their very natural subthat we should discern those stances, and therefore may things of which we partake not be adored (for that were to be flesh and blood, were idolatry, to be abhorred of not the senses of men super- all faithful Christians); [this naturally withholden from would be acknowledged by discerning a glorified body. Roman Catholics them How far it is correct to say selves;] and the natural that this notion is affirmed Body and Blood of our Saby others, it forms no part viour Christ are in Heaven, of the present work to inquire." and not here; it being against the truth of Christ's natural Body to be at one time in more places than one." On the subject of the Adoration of our Lord at the Holy Eucharist, I have I have explained the word simply, I believe, on one Corporal" by "carnal" or occasion, retained the words, "" physical," because the "Adore Him with profound framers of this rubric delireverence." I had disclaimed berately rejected the denial "language" on this great of the words "real and esmystery, implying (to speak sential," which stood in the reverently) a local confine- first articles under Edward ment and humiliation of VI., and substituted the Him Who vouchsafes to word " corporal." "For a feed us with Himself, which real Presence of the Body the Fathers would not, cer- and Blood of Christ in the tainly do not, use." I fully Eucharist," says Wheatly, accept the words of the Ru-" is what our Church frebric at the end of our Com- quently asserts in this very munion Service, that "no office of Communion, in her Adoration is intended, or Articles, in her Homilies, ought to be done, either unto and her Catechism." But the sacramental Bread and the statement, that" Christ's 6 Advertisement to Paradise for the Christian Soul, p. 52 it. Christ's Natural Body is in Heaven. 6 Natural Body is in Heaven, mode of a true Body." not on earth," is the received" Doubt not," he says, doctrine, not of schoolmen " that the Man Christ Jesus only, but even of the Coun- is now there, whence He cil of Trent. And so far shall come; and hold in from the Sacramental Pre- memory and keep faithfully sence of our Lord at all im- the Christian profession, plying any Natural Presence He rose again from the of His Body, Divines even dead, ascended into heaven, of the Roman Church have sitteth on the Right Hand ruled that it even excludes of the Father, and shall' not "From the nature of come' from any place than the thing," says Lugo, thence to judge both quick "the Sacramental Presence and dead.' And He shall of Christ does not require so come, as the Angels' any Natural Presence of words testify, as He was Christ." And be assigns as seen to go into heaven, i. e. a reason the very reason in the same form and subassigned in the Rubric, "any stance of the flesh to which definitive adequate Presence He gave immortality, but implies, that the subject is took not away its nature. in such wise there as not to According to this Form, He be elsewhere; therefore the is not to be thought to be Sacramental Presence of diffused every where. For Christ doth not in itself re- we must beware that we do quire the Natural Presence; not so establish the Divinity yea, rather it in itself re- of the Man as to take away quireth that Christ hath not the flesh of His Body. For any other presence than it followeth not, that that that." which is in God is every It is matter of faith that where in such wise as God the Natural Body of our is. God and Man are One Lord is at the Right Hand Person, and Both is One of God" circumscribed" in Christ Jesus; every where place, "in a certain place of by that which is God, in Heaven," says St. Augus- heaven by that which is tine 8, "on account of the Man." Whence Alexander 7 De Sacr. Euch. Disp. v. sect. 8. 8 Ep. 187 ad Dard. § 41. 9 Ib. § 10. Hugo de S. Victore extracts from this Epistle his de Sacr. 1. 2, p. 1, c. 13. |