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fore were true to their principles, varying their expressions according to circumstances, accommodating themselves to their readers and hearers; obscure and reserved to the non-initiated, clear to the faithful, and dogmatical to the neophytes.

After the lapse of many centuries, our age has been distinguished by the expedient resorted to on the part of your controversialists, who, to prop up their opinions by the authority of tradition, have gone in quest of numerous passages in the ecclesiastical writings, where the fathers were evidently constrained to speak with reserve, and confine their expressions to what was external and sensible in the Eucharist. Had they been honestly in search of the doctrine believed and taught in the primitive ages, instead of consulting writings in which the fathers were under the necessity of veiling their thoughts, they would have preferred those in which their inmost belief was necessarily brought to light. Why do not your teachers prefer the society of the faithful and the neophytes, and listen with them to the discourses delivered, with closed and guarded doors, by Cyril of Jerusalem, Ambrose of Milan, Chrysostom of Antioch and Constantinople, Gaudentius of Brescia, &c. &c.? Why, after the conclusion of the instruction, do they not assist at the liturgy immediately succeeding? Why do they not follow the priest to the altar? Wherefore not repeat with the pontiff, the admirable supplications addressed to heaven? Wherefore not advance to the sacred table together with the faithful, and the recently admitted christians, who for the first time are going to participate in the holy mysteries and adore them? He who at the present time seeks to become acquainted with the primitive belief, would

naturally adopt this method. It is the only rational way of proceeding. But your instructers turn to the writings that were published to the world, sit down with the catechumens and listen to their instructions. Acting thus they meet only with a few allusions to the Eucharist, thrown out on the way, or accidentally introduced by the subject. . Assuredly there is nothing here to be learned but the passing and trifling information that the fathers thought proper to communicate to the initiated; and it is not at all to be wondered at that your instructers should discover no additional elucidation of the subject, so long as they persist in associating themselves with the catechumens. Let them join the initiated, and the bandage will be removed from their eyes and all obscurity will be at an end; if after this they mingle with the catechumens, the enigmatical discourses there delivered will be no longer to them a subject of embarrassment: Like the rest of the faithful, they will catch the hidden meaning designedly concealed under ambiguous expressions; and will know how to pass from the veil and appearance, to the object that is veiled and signified.'

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"We call it also a mystery, for another reason; which is, that we believe not what we behold, but behold one thing, and "believe another: for such is the nature of our mysteries. I, who am a believer, consider a thing after one manner; and the "unbeliever considers the same thing after another. When he hears speak of baptism, he considers only the water; but I, not "only consider the visible matter, but much more the purification of the soul effected by the Holy Spirit, not judging by the eyes "of the body of what appears there, but by the eyes of the soul. "In like manner, when I hear mentioned the body of Jesus Christ, "I conceive what is said, in one way, the unbeliever considers it

If the professors of the protestant religion had pursued this proper and simple method, they would not have lost their time and labour in accumulating passages, in which the fathers referring, as behoved them, to nothing more than the sensible part of the Eucharist, have described it under the appellations of bread and wine, of a sign, a figure, a type, a symbol and a sacrament: and catholic polemics would not have been obliged to compose so many works to explain the multitude of passages, which never will prove any thing else, than that they spoke obscurely of the mystery, when it was impossible for them to do otherwise."

I am, however, far from wishing to deal fraudulently with you, and take you by surprise: if you still are in doubt and uncertainty as to the doctrine of the fathers touching the Eucharist, you are

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"in another: and as children, looking into books, know not the power and signification of the letters and understand not what they see; and as, when an illiterate person receives a letter, he sees nothing but ink and paper, while one who can read, discovers "words, communicates with an absent friend, and can convey what "answer he pleases in reply; so is it with the mysteries: although "unbelievers hear them spoken of, they do not understand "them but the faithful being instructed by the Holy Spirit, know "the virtue and efficacy of what is there concealed.". -Saint Chrysostom, in his discourse on the treason of Judas.

'These expressions we ourselves are continually employing. They are found used by those fathers, who most clearly establish the doctrine of the real presence and transubstantiation. Recollect here the remarks we have made together on this particular.

"M. Nicole, among others, has, with unwearied industry, entered upon a lengthened discussion of all the texts objected by his adversaries; and has demonstrated (the term is not too strong) that they are all reconcileable with the catholic doctrine and that there is not a single one that is inconsistent with it.

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perfectly at liberty to communicate this letter and also the foregoing ones, to any of your instructors whom you wish to consult. I have but one request to make; which is that, if they still pretend to have the fathers on their side, you will require them to produce those writings, in which the fathers were bound to explain themselves clearly and distinctly. Insist upon their bringing forward the instructions delivered to the neophytes between their baptism and communion. Tell them that this is what they are bound to do for you. For, most undoubtedly, then was the time to explain in what the mysteries precisely consisted; then must the developement have been made, of what they were to know and what they were to profess. Consequently, it is from these dogmatical and elementary documents that we now learn to a certainty what the prelates taught, what they had learned from their predecessors, and their predecessors from the apostles. Of this you cannot be too frequently reminded. Let your ministers produce, if they can, one single dogmatical instruction of the above description, in which it is declared to the neophytes, before their admission to the communion, that the communion is received

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kneeling for the avoiding all such profanation ❝and disorder as might otherwise ensue; for a "signification of our humble and grateful acknowledgment of the benefits of Christ therein given: "that no adoration is intended or ought to be done, ❝either unto the body of Christ, or the sacramental "bread or wine, for that the sacramental bread and "wine remain still in their very natural substances "and may not be adored, and the natural body and "blood of our Saviour is in heaven and not here; it being against the truth of Christ's natural body

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"to be at one time in more places than one.” Where will they find that such language was ever employed to the newly baptized? The opposite is the fact: in the most distinct terms, it is the adoration of Jesus Christ present in an ineffable manner, by a change of nature in the gifts offered: it is the same body that was born of a virgin, the same blood that was shed upon the cross, to which we are bound to pay upon the altar, a still more profound adoration than the magi paid to him in the crib; no one receives them without having first adored them; and so far is it from being sinful to adore him, that we should sin by not adoring him.

This you have seen-you have heard the catechetical instructions given to the neophytes. Others than these I know not of. Were there such, or could additional ones be discovered, they would not be found to contain the doctrine of your Church. For it is impossible that they should have believed and taught at the same time the figure and the reality, the change and not the change of substance; impossible they should have taught that the heavenly and eucharistic bread must be adored, and that this adoration would be idolatry.

I leave you, Sir, to reflect soberly and candidly on what you have learnt respecting the important question that fills the last five letters. When you have done this, I must request your attention to a

proof of a totally different character.

Putting aside all discussion of texts and monuments, I undertake that the doctrine of the Catholic Church on

to prove

The words and sense of the declaration, concluding your liturgy, are at shocking variance with all the ancient liturgies.

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