BY M. D. TALBOT.
"In the second Gospel the communion was ordered to be delivered with the following words, 'The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul to everlasting life. But it was soon discovered that this form savoured of the corruption of Popery; within a few years, though it had been adopted by the aid of the Holy Ghost, it was expunged, and a new form substituted by the aid of the said divine spirit. The Eucharist was no longer the body of Christ; by the magic touch of an Act of Parliament, it was converted in a bare resemblance of his death, ' Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee; and feed on him in thy heart by faith and thanksgiving.' This new form, with the declaration in the articles, gave offence to many whose minds could not keep pace with the principal Reformers in the godly career of innovation; and in the third of Elizabeth it was determined to quiet their alarms, and to allure them to the Established Church, by adopting a language more conformable to their feeling and belief. Hence in the delivery of the communion, both the forms of Edward the 6th were ordered to be united, that the objections of the Catholic might be removed, without offending the scruples of the orthodox believer; and in the article, the denial of the real presence was obliterated, and in its stead an explication introduced, which according to the prejudices or judgment of the reader might, from the manner in which it was worded, denote either the real existence or the real non-existence of Christ's body and blood in the Lord's supper. This, I believe, will prove to be the true history of the obscurity which prevails in every official document on the nature of the sacrament; the best interpretation of the unknown tongue, under which the established Church has chosen to veil her real sentiments."— (See Gilbert, Bishop of Sarum, on the Thirty-nine Articles, art. 28.)
In conclusion now, my Lord Bishop, I assert, that every religion is to be avoided which contains heresies that have been condemned by the Catholic and Apostolic Church, the ground and pillar of truth, and which have always been considered as such by her; but all these new religions contain such heresies; they are, I maintain, nothing more or less than a heap of different heresies propagated and taught in past ages by several heretics, and all of which, I repeat, have been uniformly anathematized by the universal Church, therefore they are to be avoided.
"In the second Gospel the communion was ordered to be delivered with the following words, 'The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul to everlasting life. But it was soon discovered that this form savoured of the corruption of Popery; within a few years, though it had been adopted by the aid of the Holy Ghost, it was expunged, and a new form substituted by the aid of the said divine spirit. The Eucharist was no longer the body of Christ; by the magic touch of an Act of Parliament, it was converted in a bare resemblance of his death, ' Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee; and feed on him in thy heart by faith and thanksgiving.' This new form, with the declaration in the articles, gave offence to many whose minds could not keep pace with the principal Reformers in the godly career of innovation; and in the third of Elizabeth it was determined to quiet their alarms, and to allure them to the Established Church, by adopting a language more conformable to their feeling and belief. Hence in the delivery of the communion, both the forms of Edward the 6th were ordered to be united, that the objections of the Catholic might be removed, without offending the scruples of the orthodox believer; and in the article, the denial of the real presence was obliterated, and in its stead an explication introduced, which according to the prejudices or judgment of the reader might, from the manner in which it was worded, denote either the real existence or the real non-existence of Christ's body and blood in the Lord's supper. This, I believe, will prove to be the true history of the obscurity which prevails in every official document on the nature of the sacrament; the best interpretation of the unknown tongue, under which the established Church has chosen to veil her real sentiments."— (See Gilbert, Bishop of Sarum, on the Thirty-nine Articles, art. 28.)
In conclusion now, my Lord Bishop, I assert, that every religion is to be avoided which contains heresies that have been condemned by the Catholic and Apostolic Church, the ground and pillar of truth, and which have always been considered as such by her; but all these new religions contain such heresies; they are, I maintain, nothing more or less than a heap of different heresies propagated and taught in past ages by several heretics, and all of which, I repeat, have been uniformly anathematized by the universal Church, therefore they are to be avoided.
