CHA P. IX. The holy Eucharift. Take ye and eat; This is my Body, (Math. xxvi. 26.) 2. WHA A. 'Tis the body and blood of Jefus Chrift really prefent under the fpecies of bread and wine. Q. How do you prove that the body and blood of Chrift are really present in this facrament? A. By the word of God, as expounded by the divine authority of the holy Catholick Church. 2. Was the real prefence always held ? A. Yes: It was held by all Chriftians in the pri mitive Church; by the ancient Councils and Fathers; and never called in queftion for many ages." 2. Were there not many, who have oppofed it in latter times! A. Yes: In like manner many oppofed the Divinity of Chrift and the Holy Ghost. Thofe who oppofe the real prefence as held by Catholicks, are at a lofs to determine what they are to believe of this great facrament. Q. How fo? A. Some of them hold that the body and blood of Chrift is prefent in figure only, as Zwinglius. Others, that it is prefent by its virtue, as Calvin. Others by Faith, as the Church of England. Others together with the bread and wine, as Luther maintained. 2. How did the Church define against them? A. That the whole fubftance of bread, by confecration, is changed into the fubftance of the body of Chrift; and the whole fubftance of wine into his blood: which change is fitly and properly by the Catholick Church called transfubftantiation. (Council of Trent, Seff. 13. cap. 4.) 2. But But is not this making a new article of Faith? No: It is only an explanation of the truth of the myftery, as it was always believed. INSTRUCTION. As all the revealed myż fteries of Faith are above our comprehenfion; yet Reafon as well as Faith teaches us to affent and firmly believe them all, upon the authority of God the revealer, and his Church, the Teacher of them: As we believe the world was made out of nothing by his only word Fiat: Let it be made; and that the dead fhall rife to life at the very call; Arife ye dead, and come to judgment: So we believe the mystery of the holy Eucharift upon his word: This is my body: This is my blood. The holy Catholick Church, which was taught and inftructed by the Apoftles, fo expounding it as we believe it. God requires not your comprehenfion of the mystery, but your Faith; and has pronounced thofe happy who have not feen, and yet have believed, (Jo. xx.. 29 ) The wonderful miracle of the loaves and fishes, feems to have been wrought by Chrift, to prepare and difpofe the minds of his difciples to the belief of this divine mystery, which foon after he laid open to them in these words, I am the living bread, who came down from heaven. If any one fhall eat of this bread, he fhall live for ever, (Jo. vi. 51, 52.) But what was the bread, which they were to eat? He tells them in very plain words: And the bread, which I will give, is my own flesh, for the life of the world. (Jo. vi. 52.) The Jews wrangled and faid, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? (ver. 53.) Here we fee the unbelieving Jews were the first that doubted of the real prefence. And what anfwer did he make to them? How did he go about to explain his words? Not in a figurative fenfe, but confirms what he had before taught in fuch a fenfe, as plainly implies a real prefence of his body and blood blood in this facrament. Jefus therefore said to them; Amen, Amen, I say to you, unless you shall eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and fhall drink his blood, you fhall not have life in you, (ver. 54.) He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath life eternal, and I will raife him up to life at the last day. For my fle is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed, (ver. 55, 56.) This truth he also revealed at his last supper, when he first inftituted this great facrament. Hear his words As they were at Jupper, Jefus took bread, and bleffed it, and brake it, and gave it to his difciples, and faid, Take ye, and eat, This is my body. And taking the cup, he gave thanks, and gave it to them, faying, Drink ye all of this; For this is my blood of the New Teftament, which shall be fhed for many for the remiffion of fins, (Matth. xxvi. 26, 27, 28.) As they were eating, Jefus took bread, and bleffing, he brake it, and gave it to them, and faid, Take ye, This is my body. And taking the cup, giving thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank thereof, and he fays to them, This is my blood of the New Teftament, which shall be fhed for many, (Mark xiv. 22, 23, 24.) And taking bread, he gave thanks, and brake it, and gave it to them, faying, This is my body, which is given for you: Do ye this in remembrance of me. Alfa the cup after he fupped, faying, This is the New Teftament in my blood, which shall be shed for you, (Luke xxii. 19, 20.) The fame truth is clearly and fully delivered by St. Paul, writing to the Corinthians about the ufe of this facrament, who at the fame time declares he had received his doctrine from Chrift himself.---For I received of our Lord what I delivered to you: That the Lord Jefus, the fame night he was betrayed, took bread: And giving thanks, he brake it, and said, Take ye, and eat: eat: This is my body, which shall be delivered for you : do ye this in remembrance of me. As alfo the cup, after he had fupped, faying, This cup is the New Teftament in my blood; do ye this, as do ye this, as oft as ye shall drink it in remembrance of me, (1 Cor. xi. 23, 24, 25.) It cannot be denied, but the written word in these texts is clearly expreffive of a real prefence; and that the denying of fuch a real prefence, as Catholicks hold, cannot ftand together with the plain, obvious, literal fenfe of God's word. Therefore, those who deny the real prefence, contend, that the words of Scripture above cited, are to be taken, not in a literal, but a figurative fenfe; and that the Eucharift is the body and blood of Chrift in figure only, and to be taken by the receivers, only as a bare remembrance of his death. If we afk them, by what authority they forfake the literal, fenfe of God's word, and turn fo many plain texts of Scripture to a figure; they have no answer to make, but that it is their Opinion, and the private judgment of their Sect, that fuch is the true fenfe of Scripture. Catholicks on the contrary, take the texts of Scripture above cited, in the obvious literal fenfe, and believe it as a prime article of their Faith, that the body and blood of Chrift are truly, really, and fubftantially prefent under the fpecies of bread and wine in this facrament, and that by the Confecration, a converfion or change is made of the whole fubftance of the bread into the body; and of the whole fubftance of the wine into the blood of Chrift. If any one ask the reason of this our belief, or why we follow this interpretation of Scripture; be it known to all, that we do not follow our private Judgment herein, but the authority and doctrine of the whole Catholick Church and General Councils, which have clearly defined it. Their authority in thus expounding Scripture, ought to be decifive of C this this controversy, as well as of the controversy of the Trinity and Incarnation against former herefies. It is true, the word Tranfubftantiation and real prefence is not found in Scripture; neither is the word Confubftantial,or Trinity, or Incarnation, to be found there; 'tis fufficient that the fenfe is there; of which the holy Catholick Church is the Judge by authority from God, not private Reafon. None but infidels will deny, but God can change one substance into another, as he did the water into wine at the marriage of Cana: fo when he faid, Take, eat, this is my body; he by the fame omnipotent word changed the fubftance of bread into the fubftance of his body: but it is a great misfortune, as well as a great fault, to want Faith. EXHORTATION. O! Chriftian foul; how much are you bound in gratitude to venerate and adore this divine myftery, while the outward fign is fo vifible, the fignification fo plain, and the inftitution of it fo manifeft! For why was the Eucharift instituted and given to us under the forms or species of fuch things as we eat and drink, but to fignify that Chrift, really present in this facrament, is the food of fouls? O! dive not into this or any other mystery of Faith; for nothing can perplex the mind more, than a vain fearch into them by human reason: they are not the proper object of reason, as being above the fphere of human reafon. As God has pronounced the word, This is my body; take it in that fenfe the Church in all former ages ever understood it. The Church was inftructed from its foundation in this, as well as all other mysteries of Faith, by the Apoftles. SECT. |