Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Thorndike. L'Estrange.

67

with one mouth, bear witness to the Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist. Neither will any one of them be found to ascribe it to any thing but the consecration, or that to any faith, but that, upon which the Church professeth to proceed to the celebrating of it. And upon this account, when they speak of the elements, supposing the consecration to have passed upon them, they always call them by the name not of their bodily substance, but of the Body and Blood of Christ which they are become." Epilogue iii. 4. p. 30.

L'Estrange's Alliance, chap. vii. page 209.
Commenting on the Form of Administration.

"The Body of our Lord, &c.] If you take a view of the elder forms, as they stand lateral to the Common Prayer, you may perceive this constituted by the coupling and uniting of the other two, which were before unlawfully divorced: for the first form in the first book, excluding the words commemorative of Christ's Death and Passion, which those Divine Mysteries were ordered to represent, as it is the precise formula of the Mass-Book, so might it be suspected as overserviceable to the doctrine of Transubstantiation, to which the Romanists applied it. Again, in the next Book, the Commemoration being let in, and the Body and Blood of Christ shut out, that Real Presence which all sound Protestants seem to allow, might probably be implied to be denied. Excellently well done therefore was it of Q. Elizabeth's Reformers, to link them both together; for between the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist, and the Sacramental Commemoration of His Passion, there is so inseparable a league, as subsist they cannot, unless they consist. A Sacramental Verity of Christ's Body and Blood there cannot be, without the Commemoration of His Death and Passion, because Christ never promised his Mysterious (yet Real) Presence, but in reference to such Commemoration: nor can there be a true Commemoration without the Body and Blood exhibited and participated; because Christ gave not those visible elements, but His Body and Blood to make that spiritual representation."

Ibid. chap. x. p. 300.

"Indeed if consecration be of any import, if with God it reconcileth any thing effectual towards the making those elements the Body and Blood of Christ, if in us it createth any

68

L'Estrange. Taylor.

greater reverence to those dreadful Mysteries, then certainly that consecration must needs excel all others which is made in the full congregation."

Taylor.

"It was happy with Christendom, when she, in this article, retained the same simplicity which she always was bound to do in her manners and intercourse; that is, to believe the thing heartily, and not to inquire curiously; and there was peace in this article for almost a thousand years together; and yet that transubstantiation was not determined, I hope to make very evident; "In synaxi transubstantiationem serò definivit ecclesia: diù satis erat credere, sive sub pane consecrato, sive quocunque modo adesse verum Corpus Christi ;" so said the great Erasmus: "It was late before the Church defined transubstantiation; for a long time together it did suffice to believe, that the true Body of Christ was present, whether under the consecrated bread or any other way:" so the thing was believed, the manner was not stood upon. And it is a famous saying of Durandus; "Verbum audimus, motum sentimus, modum nescimus, præsentiam credimus: "We hear the word, we perceive the motion, we know not the manner, but we believe the presence;" and Ferus, of whom Sixtus Senensis affirms that he was vir nobiliter doctus, pius et eruditus,' hath these words: "Cum certum sit ibi esse Corpus Christi, quid opus est disputare, num panis substantia maneat, vel non?" "When it is certain that Christ's Body is there, what need we dispute whether the substance of bread remain or no?" And therefore Cuthbert Tonstal, Bishop of Duresme, would have every one left to his conjecture concerning the manner : "De modo quo id fieret, satius erat curiosum quemque relinquere suæ conjecturæ, sicut liberum fuit ante Concilium Lateranum:"Before the Lateran Council, it was free for every one to opine as they please, and it were better it were so now.'-But St. Cyril would not allow so much liberty; not that he would have the manner determined, but not so much

[ocr errors]

as thought upon. "Firmam fidem mysteriis adhibentes, nunquam in tam sublimibus rebus, illud quomodo, aut cogitemus aut proferamus." For if we go about to think it or understand it, we lose our labour. 66 Quomodo enim id fiat, ne in mente intelligere, nec linguâ dicere possumus, sed silentio et firmâ fide id suscipimus:" "We can perceive the thing by faith, but

cannot express it in words, nor understand it with our mind," said St. Bernard. 66 Oportet igitur (it is at last, after the steps of the former progress, come to be a duty), nos in sumptionibus divinorum mysteriorum, indubitatam retinere fidem, et non quærere quo pacto." The sum is this; The manner was defined but very lately: there is no need at all to dispute it; no advantages by it; and therefore it were better it were left at liberty to every man to think as he pleases, for so it was in the Church for above a thousand years together; and yet it were better, men would not at all trouble themselves concerning it; for it is a thing impossible to be understood; and therefore it is not fit to be inquired after." Real Presence, vol. ix. p.

421-23.

"The doctrine of the Church of England, and generally of the Protestants, in this article, is,—that after the Minister of the holy Mysteries hath rightly prayed, and blessed or consecrated the Bread and Wine, the symbols become changed into the Body and Blood of Christ, after a sacramental, that is, in a spiritual real manner: so that all that worthily communicate, do by faith receive Christ really, effectually, to all the purposes of His Passion: the wicked receive not Christ, but the bare symbols only; but yet to their hurt, because the offer of Christ is rejected, and they pollute the Blood of the covenant, by using It as an unholy thing. The result of which doctrine is this: It is bread, and it is Christ's Body. It is bread in substance, Christ in the Sacrament; and Christ is as really given to all that are truly disposed, as the symbols are; each as they can; Christ as Christ can be given; the Bread and Wine as they can; and to the same real purposes, to which they are designed: and Christ does as really nourish and sanctify the soul, as the elements do the body." Ibid. 424.

"This may suffice for the word 'real,' which the English Papists much use, but, as it appears, with much less reason than the sons of the Church of England: and when the Real Presence is denied, the word 'real' is taken for 'natural,' and does not signify transcendenter,' or in his just and most proper signification. But the word substantialiter' is also used by Protestants in this question, which I suppose may be the same with that which is in the Article of Trent, "Sacramentaliter præsens Salvator substantiâ suâ nobis adest." in substance, but after a Sacramental manner:' which words if they might be understood

[ocr errors]

in the sense in which the Protestants use them, that is, really, truly, without fiction or the help of fancy, but in rei veritate,' so, as Philo calls spiritual things ἀναγκαιόταται οὐσίαι, “ most necessary, useful, and material substances,' it might become an instrument of a united confession.”. . . . Ibid. p. 427.

“One thing more I am to note in order to the same purposes; that, in the explication of this question, it is much insisted upon, that it be inquired whether, when we say we believe Christ's Body to be really' in the Sacrament, we mean," that Body, that Flesh, that was born of the Virgin Mary," that was crucified, dead, and buried? I answer, I know none else that He had, or hath: there is but one Body of Christ natural and glorified; but he that says, that Body is glorified, which was crucified, says it is the same Body, but not after the same manner: and so it is in the Sacrament; we eat and drink the Body and Blood of Christ, that was broken and poured forth; for there is no other body, no other blood, of Christ; but though it is the same which we eat and drink, yet it is in another manner: and therefore, when any of the Protestant divines, or any of the fathers, deny that Body which was born of the Virgin Mary, that which was crucified, to be eaten in the Sacrament,—as Bertram, as St. Jerome, as Clemens Alexandrinus, expressly affirm; the meaning is easy;-they intend that it is not eaten in a natural sense; and then calling it corpus spirituale,' the word 'spiritual' is not a substantial predication, but is an affirmation of the manner, though, in disputation, it be made the predicate of a proposition, and the opposite member of a distinction. That Body which was crucified, is not that Body that is eaten in the Sacrament,'-if the intention of the proposition be to speak of the eating It in the same manner of being; but that Body which was crucified, the same Body we do eat,'—if the intention be to speak of the same thing in several manners of being and operating: and this I noted, that we may not be prejudiced by words, when the notion is certain and easy and thus far is the sense of our doctrine in this article." Ibid. 430.

[ocr errors]

"In this Feast all Christ, and Christ's Passion, and all His graces, the blessings and effects of His sufferings, are conveyed." Holy Living, vol. iv. p. 268.

When the holy man stands at the Table of Blessing, and ministers the rite of Consecration, then do as the Angels do,

who behold and love and wonder that the Son of God should become Food to the souls of His servants; that He who cannot suffer any change or lessening should be broken into pieces and enter into the body to support and nourish the spirit, and yet remain in heaven whilst He descends to thee upon earth; that He who hath essential felicity should become miserable and die for thee, and then give Himself to thee, for ever to redeem thee from sin and misery." Ibid. p. 269.

"Have mercy upon us, O heavenly Father, according to Thy glorious mercies and promises, send Thy Holy Ghost upon our hearts, and let Him also descend upon these gifts, that by His good, His holy, His glorious Presence, He may sanctify and enlighten our hearts, and He may bless and sanctify these gifts,

That this Bread may become the Holy Body of Christ.

Amen. And this Chalice may become the life-giving Blood of Christ. Amen."

Office for the Holy Communion, vol. xv. p. 299. "In the act of receiving, exercise acts of faith with much confidence and resignation, believing it not to be common bread and wine, but holy in their use, holy in their signification, holy in their change, and holy in their effect: and believe, if thou art a worthy communicant, thou dost as verily receive Christ's Body and Blood to all effects and purposes of the Spirit, as thou dost receive the blessed elements into thy mouth, that thou puttest thy finger to His hand, and thy hand into His side, and thy lips to His fontinel of blood, sucking life from His heart; and yet if thou dost communicate unworthily, thou eatest and drinkest Christ to thy danger, and death, and destruction. Dispute not concerning the secret of the mystery, and the nicety of the manner of Christ's Presence; it is sufficient to thee, that Christ shall be present to thy soul, as an instrument of grace, as a pledge of the resurrection, as the earnest of glory and immortality, and a means of many intermedial blessings, even all such as are necessary for thee, and are in order to thy salvation. And to make all this good to thee, there is nothing necessary on thy part but a holy life, and a true belief of all the sayings of Christ; amongst which, indefinitely assent to the words of institution, and believe that Christ, in the Holy Sacrament, gives thee His Body and His Blood. He that believes

« AnteriorContinuar »