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also feared not boldly to proclaim them to be so, and assign them their due prominence. Still let us not forget, with all gratitude, that it is one thing to possess a service, claiming to be a Liturgy, which really wants those essentials, and it is another to be content with and thankfully use a Liturgy in which these are not wanting but obscured.

Throughout the old Liturgies, equally of the Western and the Eastern Churches, there is the constant recognition of a doctrine which is not in modern days undisputed. I mean, that there is a real and material Sacrifice in the Eucharist. I would make but a very brief remark upon this subject, the rather because there are several excellent works which treat fully of the matter. Still some notice seems not unnecessary, that upon that ground the ancient English Uses should not labour under any prejudice.

Whatever may be the evidence for many chief truths received in the Church, whether for Episcopacy, for Infant-Baptism, for the Observance of the Lord's Day, or for the Inspiration of Sacred Scripture, the same evidence, both in kind and degree, is there for the doctrine of a true Sacrifice in the Supper of the Lord. There are texts from the Sacred Scripture which cannot reasonably be explained other than by referring to a Priesthood, an Altar, and a Sacrifice: there are abundant testimonies from the Fathers of the first three centuries, clearly enough teaching us, in spite of their habitual caution when speaking of so great a Mystery, how these texts are to be understood, if we would understand them rightly. We must be prepared to doubt every practice and every article of faith of the early Church, if we are determined not to allow the force of

the multiplied witness which can be brought to bear upon this point; from Fathers, and Councils, and Canons and Rituals, all telling us the same thing, all speaking to us in every nation, with one voice, of the Altar and the Service, and the Sacrifice.

68

And these are words which are not to be explained away. Not only are modern opinions and notions of no value in opposition to the original records of the Christian Church, but upon those records we are bound to put the same meaning in which they were at first understood. The Oblation, the Cup, the Bread, a Sacrifice, the Table of the Lord, the Altar, Blessing the sacred Elements, Offering them, Giving thanks to God, are terms whose meaning could not be mistaken, when Jews and Heathens were in the habit of offering sacrifice: neither would such words have been employed either by the Divine Writers or by the Fathers, unless they were to be understood in their then general and proper sense. dangerous must have been the use of them, if they were to be interpreted metaphorically only, at a time when the Church was anxious above every thing to destroy utterly belief in and reverence for idols, and heathen ceremonies and rites.

How

A denial of the Christian sacrifice leads easily to a denial of the Priesthood. There cannot be the one

68" If it be said, S. Paul calls the Holy Board a Table: I answer, No, not simply a table, but the Lord's Table. 1 Cor. x. 21. And I have elsewhere proved, that by this expression we are to understand an Altar; for wherever else it is used in Scripture, that is clearly the meaning of it. As the reader may be satisfied, by perusing the four places, where we meet with this word in the Old Testament; viz. Ezek. xli. 22. xliv. 16. and Mal. i. 7. 12. The truth is, the Table of the Lord was the most honourable title that the Prophets and Apostle could give to a proper Altar.” Johnson. Unbl. Sac. 1. 311.

without the other, and there is little need of the latter, where the former is not appointed. From saying that there is no sacrifice except what is literally and entirely spiritual, a few steps bring us to the abandonment of a Priesthood, of the Episcopate, to a contempt of the great grace of orders and Apostolic benediction, to a rejection of Tradition as the recognized expositor of Holy Writ, to a setting up of our own judgments, whatever we may assert to the contrary, as the infallible guides whom we are determined to obey.

The command, "When thou fastest, be not of a sad countenance, but anoint thine head and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret," has been allowed to be a conclusive scriptural argument for the necessity of fasting under the Christian dispensation. What reason then have any to deny the same conclusion for the continuance of a proper Altar, and therefore for a proper material Sacrifice, to be drawn from the text, "if thou bring thy gift to the Altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift."

It has been argued that our present Liturgy speaks of the "sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving;" and also, "that we offer and present unto the Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice;" and therefore that there is no other sacrifice, and that the Priest does not also offer the Body and the Blood of Christ. But we might quite as justly conclude from the words of the Collect for the Sunday next before

69 See Mede upon the argument from this text. Works. 390.

Easter, that the sole end of our Blessed Saviour's taking upon Him our flesh, and suffering death upon the cross, was "that all mankind should follow the example of His great humility."70

I would notice a charge which is very often brought against the advocates of the Christian sacrifice, viz. that of priestcraft: a word of ill meaning in its common acceptation, calculated to arouse the passions of the ignorant, and the alarms of men who are anxious to deny what they do not wish to be the truth. Let it however be followed with the contempt and dislike and ridicule which usually are in its train: these are vain weapons of offence, these are but most insignificant annoyances in comparison with the sharper pains that Saints endured of old: from those pains at present, by the great mercy of God, the Church of England is free: yet whether they again recur or not, whether we have only lesser evils to contend with, (and then, perhaps, so subtle is the adversary, we shall be accused of seeking, and provoking, and saying we are strong to resist what we confidently believe is not about to happen :) let us speak boldly all that we believe sincerely, let us hold back no portion of the whole Word of God. In this country, where so many thousands claim to be baptized and confirmed members of the Church, every Priest sins who conceals the truth only through fear of giving offence. His plain

70 Collect. Almighty and everlasting God, who of thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent thy Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility; Mercifully grant, that we may both follow the example of his patience, and also be made partakers of his resurrection, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

duty is "with all faithful diligence to minister the Doctrine and Sacraments of Christ, as the Lord hath commanded; and to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God's word;" and he must claim and must assert, so that he may lead his people to seek it at his hands, that he and others of his order, are the sole dispensers of the best gift of God, the food and earnest of immortality, the bread of life, the Body and the Blood of Jesus Christ.

And another charge: that they who would speak thus are but Romanists in disguise; or at least are wavering, and tending Romewards. Surely upon every point on which we rightly can, the more we can establish a similarity of doctrine, I would not say of practice, between ourselves and the Church of Rome, the more we shall keep stragglers away from her, and promote good feeling between the two communions. They cannot be few in number among us, who would hesitate to express their earnest prayer that the English and the Roman Churches were at one again, and that through the Western world there might be fellowship once more; which, when in God's good time it comes, may well be looked upon as an earnest of a restored communion with the East, to a healing of the divisions which have torn asunder that One Church, of which the seamless robe of her Incarnate Lord was the appointed type.

And yet, how deep is the gulf between us! apparently the doctrines of Transubstantiation and of Papal Infallibility present an impassable barrier: most certainly they do now, because the Church of Rome denies communion to all who do not consent to them. So long as that unhappily shall be her practice, it will be our duty to contend against them: it will be our duty no less to

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