TRUTHS MAINTAINED.

(No. VII.)

THE EUCHARIST.

BY JAMES BIDEN,

MONCKTON HOUSE, ANGLESEY, HANTS,

AUTHOR OF "THE TRUE CHURCH."

LONDON

AYLOTT AND CO., 8, PATERNOSTER ROW.

1854.

THE EUCHARIST NOT A SACRIFICE, BUT A COMMEMORATION OF

A COMPLETED SACRIFICE.

THE Eucharist is beheld from two opposite points of view. From one, a belief is engendered that it is an emblem or symbol: from the other, that it is a continuous reality. Thus two opposing theories are raised. Within the range of these two theories are found many diverse minor opinions, but these may be classed with one or other of the opposing theories.

The Romanists and High Churchmen hold the bread and wine to be the real body and blood, and to manifest the corporal presence. Protestants of every hue hold them to be emblems, and symbolically to represent the body and blood. The former class believe in transubstantiation, or, the Real Presence in transmuted elements; the latter, in unchanged elements, and in sacramental or spiritual presence. The former hold the Eucharistic rite to be a true sacrifice; the latter, a commemoration of the one true sacrifice.

The opinion of the latter I shall attempt to maintain. It is my purpose to show that the Eucharist is not a sacrifice but commemorative of a finished completed work-the sacrifice "once offered "-" once for all."

It is not denied that the rite is commemorative by those who advocate it to be a true sacrifice, but they contend that besides being commemorative it is a true propitiatory sacrifice.

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And, necessarily, great importance is attached to the maintenance of this opinion. For not only, if it be true, are the consequences flowing out of it momentous, but it follows that a sacrificial priesthood is essential. If the bread and wine be changed by consecration there needs a consecrating medium. Well, therefore, is the doctrine of transubstantiation, or, the Real Presence, called "the hinge of the question between the two religions."*

On this very important subject, it is needful that we fully comprehend the doctrines that flow out of the two theories. For this purpose we will place before our readers the published declarations of the Roman Church, and of one of her earnest living advocates; and with these the doctrines of a Protestant, though not as we think fully, reformed Church-the Church of England. A reason for giving the doctrines of the Anglican Church, is, not only because they are opposed to the Roman, but because, through misconception of her doctrines, and by reason of what there is yet left of the levitical element in her constitution, some of her members are advocating the doctrine of a true Eucharistic sacrifice. We shall, therefore, present our readers with the opinions of these apostate members.

The canons of the Church of Rome concerning the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist, as decreed at the Council of Trent,

are

CANON I.-If any one shall deny, that in the sacrament of the most holy Eucharist are verily, really, and substantially contained the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ, and consequently the whole Christ; but shall say that He is only therein as in a sign, or in figure, or virtue ; let him be anathema.

CANON II.-If any one shall say, that in the sacred and holy sacrament of the Eucharist the substance of the bread and wine

* Lectures on the Eucharist, Dr. Wiseman, p. 102.