Friday 24 February 2017

The Catholic Doctrine Of The Eucharist. Part 41.

BY M. D. TALBOT.

Now for other unequivocal British Protestant authorities. Observe! I speak not of transubstantiation for the present, but of the real presence only.

Dr. Andrews of Winchester is allowed to have been one of the brightest lights of the Church of England, his words alone would decide the point: " Christ," says he, addressing Cardinal Bellarmine, " said, this is my body; he said not in this, or that way, that it was so; we agree as to the object, the whole, the only difference respects the modus or manner of the presence.—Præsentiam, inquam, credimus, nec minus quam vos veram.—We believe the true presence no less than you do."1 "And the king too believes Christ to be not only really present, but truly adorable in the Eucharist; and as for my part, I do with St. Ambrose ' adore the flesh of Christ in the mysteries.'"2 Reader, is not this sufficient for my purpose ? However, I will add a few more authorities.

"As I like not those who say, he is bodily there, so I like not such as say, his body is not there. Because Christ says, it is there; St. Paul says, it is there; and our Church says, it is there; really, truly, and essentially, and not only by way of representation or commemoration; for," says he, "why would our Saviour bid us take what he would not have us receive. We must believe it is there. We must know what is there. Our faith may see it, our senses cannot." 3 Could Gregory the 16th himself say more ?

"The altar," says Archbishop Laud, " is the greatest place of God's residence on earth; yea, greater than the pulpit; for there it is, hoc est corpus meum. In the pulpit it is at most, hoc est verbum meum! And a greater reverence is due to the body than to the word of the Lord; and to the throne where his body is present, than to the seat where his word is preached." 4

1 Andrews's Answer to Bellarmine's Apology, chap. I, p. 11.

2 Ibid. chap. 8, p. 104.

3 Lawrence's Sermon, p.p. 17, 18.

Laud's Speech in the Star Chamber, p. 47