twelve hundred years, and until a confessed alteration was made in one of them? What takes place still, according to all Liturgies, and in all Churches, with that single exception.

Now, it is clear, that if upon consecration a proper Object of Divine worship is forthwith present, and demands and exacts such worship without fail; if it be so, that the Majestical Throne of God is for the time transferred to the altar of the Church, or that the altar becomes His Majestical Throne; then of necessity must real worship be from that moment obligatory: nor could any feature be more indispensable, or more universal, than a provision for such immediate worship. But not only is such a provision not universal, but there is not, it is confessed on all hands, a single Liturgy in the world that, within the period specified, contains such a direction for the faintest gesture of worship to be offered to the Elements immediately on their consecration.

And if no proper worship took place at this juncture in the Office, this is decisive of the whole question. It is to no purpose to allege, that at a later stage of the Office the Eastern Churches express the most intense reverence, and use gestures of actual worship, and to claim this as an act of adoration of the Elements as God Almighty. If that which is upon the Altar after consecration challenges Divine worship at all, it does so from the moment of consecration : the lapse of time cannot make it more adorable than it is; nor can they be justified who. withhold that worship for an instant. The Church of Rome wholly accepts this theory, and acts upon it. In vain, therefore, is the least shadow of countenance for the proper worship either of the Elements or of a Eucharistic. Presence, sought for from any degree of reverence which was anciently rendered, or is rendered to this day, some time after the consecration has been completed. And in all ancient Liturgies it is some time after that event, in many cases a very long time after it, that a special act of worship is enjoined. In the Liturgies of the East from about the third or fourth century, prayers and intercessions of very great length (occupying from five to twelve or thirteen columns in the

"Uti omnes inter Catholicos eruditi fatentur, post Berengarii hæresiam ritus in Catholica Romana Ecclesia invaluit, scilicet post Consecrationem elevare Hostiam et Calicem, ut a populo adoretur Corpus et Sanguis Domini." Muratori, De Rebus Liturgicus, c. xix. p. 227, And again, "Adorationi

printed edition)' intervene between the consecration and the "Prayer of bowing down," at which the solemn prostration referred to takes place. The same was anciently the case, only that the interval was shorter, in all the Liturgies of the West, the Roman included. In the Roman, as originally constituted, the celebrant makes a profound "act of bowing down," as in the Eastern rites, but not until some time after the consecration; and this, in all probability, was accompanied by the same on the part of the people.

Now let us allow for a moment, for supposition's sake, that all this intensity of worship was directed towards the Elements, or towards a worshippable Presence of Christ, resulting from their consecration. In this case we are asked to believe that the Church of God for twelve hundred years knew that a Presence of God, or of Christ, absolutely demanding Divine worship, was upon her Altars, and yet deferred to pay that worship until a late stage of her service.. This is simply and absolutely incredible.

But the truth is, as appears on the slightest examination, that the devout prostration and adoration, which thus took place, was not addressed to the Elements, or to any Presence of God or of Christ on earth. It was, so far as it found utterance in words at all, expressly directed to God, or to Christ, in Heaven: while its peculiarly profound character, and its outward gesture, were manifestly dictated by a sense of awe in the prospect of immediate reception of the awful Gifts, and through Them of Christ Himself.

In the first place, this "Prayer of bowing of the head,” and this profound prostration, take place before the elevation, (the real intention of which will be considered presently). This alone entirely differentiates the action from the novel Western elevation and worship immediately after the consecration, with which it has been

It is clear even from hence that it is not directed towards the Elements at all. But next, the exhortation to the action is, "Let us bow our ritus, post annum Christi MC. invectus." See above p. 56, p. 56, note a, and p. 87.

7 Bee, for example, Neale's Tetralogia, containing the Greek St. James', St. Chrysostom's, and St. Mark's Liturgies, pp. 139-169, or his General Introduction, pp.570–630.

8"Profundè inclinatus, junctis manibus, et super altare positis." Missale Rom. "Corpore inclinato, et cancellatia manibus," (Sarum, Ebor.), "inclinat se devotè ad altare," Hereford.)

heads to the Lord," or "to Jesus." And whither the prayer was directed, the Liturgy of St. Chrysostom, the present Greek rite, plainly declares: "Hear us, O Lord Jesus Christ, our God, out of Thy Holy Dwelling-place, and from the throne of the glory of Thy Kingdom, and come and sanctify us; Thou that sittest above with the Father, and here unseen art present with us, come and give us to partake of Thy spotless Body and precious Blood." Nothing could more distinctly exhibit the mind of the Eastern Church in reference to the nature and degree of our Blessed Lord's intervention and Presence in the Eucharistic Rite, than this prayer. He is addressed as in Heaven, on the Throne of His glory; He is prayed to come and give the worshippers of His Own Body and Blood. They are not deemed to be Christ Himself; They are clearly distinguished from Him. Yet all the time He is believed to be invisibly present: doubtless in that manner and sense in which He is present by His Divinity in all the ordinances of His Church; not in a peculiar manner, as the effect of the consecration of the Elements. Both He Himself, as thus present, and His Body and Blood as sacramentally so, are recognised and reverenced; but as in Heaven, and as there only, is He worshipped.

And that the peculiar and intense humiliation and awe expressed at this time arose from the prospect of reception of the Gifts is clear from the contents of the accompanying prayers, (as, for example, St. Chrysostom's just quoted); and from hence, that all that follows, in all the Liturgies, is by way of preparation for reception.

There is one striking action more especiallyanciently common, as it should seem, to all Liturgies, though it has now disappeared from some, and is probably misconceived in all,which tends to invest the reception with a very awful character, and to explain yet further the deep reverence here expressed. It is the "elevation" already referred to. The Elements, one or both, were lifted up towards Heaven with mysterious words, desiring that they might be received up to God's heavenly and spiritual altar. The words generally used in the

The Bread was actually lifted in the Liturgies of St. James (8yriac), St. Basil, St. Chrys., the Armenian, Coptic St. Basil, Roman, English, Mozarabic. But in St. James' (Greek) it is the "Gifts;" and in all they are named in the plural in the accompanying prayer: "hæc" (Rom., Sarum, &c.,) i.e., the Bread and Cup.

East, and which we find also in one Western Office, the Spanish, were, "The Holy (Things) are lifted up to the Holy (Places). 10" This desire was sometimes most distinctly expressed in the "Prayer of bowing down;" as, for example, in the Roman,-"We suppliantly beseech Thee, Almighty God, command these Things to be carried up by the Hands of Thy holy Angel to Thy Celestial Altar in the sight of Thy Divine Majesty."" This, which occurs also only only a little earlier, in St. Mark's Liturgy, is to the same effect as St. Chrysostom's "Prayer of bowing down," namely, for Divine acceptance; but it specifies more distinctly the idea of the Gifts being mystically carried up to the Heavenly altar. 2

The rationale of this rite (derived visibly from the Jewish "heaving" of the peace-offerings3) is manifest from what follows in the Roman form more especially; namely, “that as many of us as by this participation of the altar, shall have received the most Holy Body and Blood of Thy Son, may be fulfilled with all celestial benediction; through the Same Christ our Lord, by Whom," so it no doubt anciently proceeded, though the memento of the departed is now interposed,) "O Lord, Thou who ever createst these good things, sanctifiest, quickenest, blessest, and givest them to us;" after which follows the "lifting up " itself, with the Lord's Prayer for right reception and for freedom from all evil. The idea is that the Body and Blood of Christ, mysteriously exhibited here on earth, may by contact with the Heavenly Altar, on which Christ himself is ever mysteriously presented*,-Himself as Victim offered by Himself as Priest,-be fulfilled with celestial efficacy; may partake of the virtue and glory of that Sacrifice, not only as it was offered at the first, but as It is in Heaven, having received celestial ratification by being carried up into the Holy of Holies. It is, in truth, a further instance of that representation of Christ's own actions, of

10

τα άγια τοις Αγίοις. That this is the real intention of these words is shewn at large Pr. D, S., Part II. ch. ii.

1 No commentator on the Roman ritual has manifested the slightest perception of the real design of this prayer, or of the action of lifting up, which follows it. Pope Innocent III. declared it to be too profound for explanation. Bona refers it to the prayers of the faithful, which are "lifted up ;' as did our Revisers of 1549.

Note B Appendix.

3 Bona recognises this, Rer. Lit., P. ii. in loc. 4"A Lamb, as it had been slain." Rev, v. 6.

which we have before spoken :—not necessary5, that we have any reason for believing, to the validity of the Rite, but full of beautiful propriety and significance, It designs to place the Things consecrated on earth on a par with the glorious and complete Reality in Heaven. It seeks, on behalf of the mystic Sacrificial Gifts, the grace inherent in the original, meritorious, ever-abiding Sacrifice.

And we can now perceive the utmost fitness in the act of humiliation and reverential awe with which Priest and people accompanied this sublimely symbolical action in all Liturgies throughout the world. Whatever it actually effected or did not effect, it brought before them all the awfulness of reception. It exhibited, first of all, the Elements as no otherwise acquiring the fulness of their mysterious efficacy than by some real contact with the Very Sacrifice of Christ in Heaven 6; and next, it spoke plainly of a desire to be themselves by the participation of the Gifts, lifted up, and laid for acceptance, in body, soul, and spirit, as a reasonable and accepted sacrifice, on the "heavenly and spiritual altar," before the Immediate Presence of God Himself."

an

Such is the explanation of this profoundly reverential action, practised to this day throughout the East, and anciently universal; action which has not unnaturally been supposed, on a superficial view, to express adoration of the Elements; though we see that, on examination, there is not the slightest pretext for so understanding it. The utmost that can be said is, that the peculiar sacramental and mystical Presence of Christ Himself, now about to take place in the souls of the faithful, and as it were drawing nigh to them, is as such, and in Its awful approach adored.

It is almost superfluous to observe, that the self-same Liturgies which are thus devoid of any proper worship either of the Elements, or of the Body and Blood of Christ, or of God or Christ as locally enshrined and present,-do nevertheless set the highest example of most

This view clears up the difficulty with which Cabasilas pressed the Latins at the council of Florence, representing that this prayer was incompatible with the idea of consecration being effected by the words of Institution: though, indetd, whatever difficulty there is presses equally on the Greek rite as on the Roman.

6 [In the sense of a Sacrament:- the "inward Spiritual grace" thus mystically connected with the "outward visible sign." Ed.]

7 See Part V1., Sect. 8 of this series. Also Note F Appendix.

profound and intense reverence. The whole action which we have now been investigating is confessedly of this character. And besides this, such reverence finds expression, as is well known, in a variety of ways. More especially when (whether at the first Oblation, as in the West, or after the recital of the Institutien, as in the East,) the consecrating power of the Holy Spirit is invoked or desired, a sense of the reality of His expected operation is expressed by bowing the head, kneeling, prostration, and other tokens. "How terrible is this hour," the Syriac adds, "how fearful this time, beloved, in which the Living and Holy Spirit comes from the high places of Heaven, descends, and broods upon the Eucharist placed in this sanctuary, and hallows it; fear ye and tremble as ye stand and pray."

And

it is surely most significant, that whilst these terms and epithets are most freely used, and abound in every page of every Liturgy, it is difficult, if not impossible, to find in any really ancient Liturgy, or portion of a Liturgy, a single expression which goes beyond the recɔgnition of the Elements as the Body and Blood of Christ any which identifies them with Christ Himself, much less with the Triune God. It would not have been surprising, had the glowing language, which has been now quoted, here and there overflowed in the Liturgies the just bounds of the mystery, as unquestionably is sometimes the case with ancient writers on the Eucharist. But it should seem that the Church's conception of the true nature of that mystery was too fixed and clear to admit any such departure from correct Eucharistic language. Certain it is, that those who have searched most diligently for such expressions, and were every way concerned to produce them, if possible, have failed in the attempt.

And when we turn in the last place to inquire what the Fathers and ecclesiastical writers have left on record of their mind and practice in this particular point of adoration, what do we find ?

Now, even had numerous passages been forthcoming in which they seemed to recognise proper adoration as due to the Elements or to the Presence of Christ through them, we should still have to measure and check such expressions by the confessed language and tenor of the Liturgies; so incredible is it, as has been before 8.e., mystically in a Sacrament to the faithful receiver. -ED.]

remarked, that, as faithful sons of the Church, they would really desire to outrun and depart from her mind, however strongly they migh express themselves. But the truth is, that there is little need to call in the aid of the Liturgies for this purpose. Out of the whole range of Patristic literature, but four passages, two from Greek, and two from Latin Fathers, are alleged in proof of their holding any such opinion.

It is worthy of remark, that St. Augustine connects the "adoration" of which he speaks with the prospect of reception; and may the rather on that account be understood in accordance with the Liturgies as above explained.

But it is plain that- few and scanty as they are at best, out of the immense mass of Patristic writings-these passages, one and all, must, under the circumstances, be either taken in the lower sense of reverence, however intense, or be classed among those passages of the old writers in which the warm language of devotion outruns the strict limits of truth.

It has been said, indeed, with some plausibility, that they carry weight as seeming to describe, not a passing feeling towards the consecrated Elements, but a habit of actual and proper worship of them. But this, for reasons already set forth, is exactly what they cannot possibly be held to convey. We know with the utmost precision what was prescribed in the matter of worship by the Eucharistic Offices of the Churches to which these writers belonged, and that no such acts of worship of the Elements are in any way recognised by them. We are under the absolute necessity, therefore, of giving up this view of the passages; and is remains, that no feeling or practice beyond that of the deepest reverence can be grounded upon them. To build upon them anything further, is to represent these holy men of old time as teaching what the Church had never taught them, and to set the testimony of these few and equivocal passages against the tradition of the whole Church from the beginning.

And yet it is on the strength of these passages, and of them alone, since no countenance for it can be found from any other source "0-from either Scripture or liturgies, or the general consent of Fathers,-that the attempt is made by

9 See Note D Appendix.

10 A few passages are alleged from English Divines to the same effect: chiefly the well-known one of Andrewes, based

some in the present day to revive the practice, unheard of until the eleventh or twelfth century, of making an intense act of worship consequent on the consecration of the Elements, and directed towards a peculiar Presence of Christ Himself supposed to be produced thereby. Nay, it is represented (as in the middle ages of the West) as one very principal purpose, if not the supreme purpose of the entire Rite, to produce such a Presence as an object for adoration. And Christian men are encouraged to resort to the sanctuary for the sole purpose of offering such worship, without intending to take any further part in the rite by communicating!

With all respect for the zeal and the high Christian character of those who have espoused these views, but with the utmost solemnity, in the name of the Christian Faith, and of the whole undivided Church for the first thousand years of its existence, I would enter a most earnest protest against the re-introduction of novelties at once so groundless and so fatal. That they are groundless has been sufficiently demonstrated. That they are fatal to the purity of Christian faith and practice is no less certain. Not only did they form, as is undeniable, no part of that heritage of faith and practice which the Apostles delivered to the Church, but they amount to no less than an entire subversion of the Apostolic theory of Christian worship; for they transfer the Object of that worship from That Heaven of heavens in Which It was ever deemed, for purposes of worship, to be enthroned. And besides this they properly involve, however latently, a train of terrific consequences; and throw, as has been proved, the entire conception and idea of the Eucharist into hopeless confusion.

Is it too much to ask, in a matter of such importance, that those who have hitherto unreflectingly acquiesced in the view and practice of which I have been speaking, will reconsider their grounds for adopting them, and the position in which by persisting in them they will be placed? It has been here shewn that the Presence upon the words of St. Augustine and St. Ambrose. He adds "Christ Himself, the inward part (res) of the Sacrament, is to be adored in and out of the Sacrament, or wherever He is." "The King (James) laid down that Christ was truly present in the Sacrament, truly also to be adored." But such expressions of opinion must stand or fall with the authorities to which they appeal. Andrewes' Eucharistic Devotions are markedly devoid of any practical carrying out of the view ascribed to him on the strength of these words; which indeed are so general, as to prove very little.

of Christ is not, and cannot be, the result of the consecration of the Elements, and is therefore not to be worshipped; it has been shewn that the Church throughout the world for the first thousand years did not, nor does more than one branch of it at the present day, either acknowledge or worship such a Presence. Are they prepared to persevere in the promulgation of doctrines, as the ground of ritual actions (for the question is not so much of actions as of the

doctrines involved,) of which they cannot possibly give any coherent account; which, however reverently intended, cannot consistently stop short of the highest irreverence, that of worshipping the Elements themselves,-confessedly an idolatrous action; and by which they impugn or jeopardy great articles of the Christian Faith, overthrow the confessed and proper constitution of the Eucharist, and run counter to the practice of the Catholic Church?

Note A., (1st Part.)—Page 239. (See also p. 251, col. 2, last line, and p. 256, col. 1, line 37, and col. 2, line 3).

What is the sense in which the Church has used and understood the words, when the consecrated Bread and Wine are said "TO BE" the Body and Blood of Christ?

[In answer to the above, the following extracts from Bishop Jeremy Taylor's Works will be found valuable, as bearing directly on the point in question. Speaking of the caution observed by the Fathers in reference to the mystery of Christ's spiritual presence in His Sacrament,-that it is beyond our comprehension, and therefore "not fit to be enquired after," he observes]::

We do in no sense prevaricate their so pious and prudent counsel by saying, THE PRESENCE OF CHRIST IS REAL AND SPIRITUAL; because this account does still leave the article in his deepest mystery; not only because spiritual formalities and perfections are undiscernible and incommensurable by natural proportions and the measures of our usual notices of things, but also because the word “spiritual” is so general a term, and operations are so various and many by which the Spirit of God brings His purposes to pass and does His work upon the soul, that we are in this specific term very far from limiting the article to a minute and special manner. Our word of Spiritual Presence is particular in nothing but that it excludes the corporal and natural manner; we say it is not this, but it is to be understood figuratively, that is, not naturally, but to the purposes and in the manner of the Spirit and spiritual things which how they operate or are effected, we know no more than we know how a cherubim sings or thinks, or by what private conveyances a lost notion returns suddenly into our memory and stands placed in the eye of reason. Christ is present spiritually, that is, by EFFECT and

ERRATA." Note 3," in page 251, only refers to the end of Sect. 3, and the figure is repeated in error in the last line. It should refer to the Appendix as above.

BLESSING; which in true speaking is rather the con sequent of His presence than the formality. For though we are taught and feel that, yet this we profess we cannot understand, and therefore curiously enquire not. "It is," said Justin Martyr, "a manifest argument of infidelity to enquire concerning the things of God, how, or after what manner."

[Referring to the " Article" to be believed,-Tho Real Spiritual Presence of Christ to His faithful members in His own Ordinance-he continues]:—

"The doctrine of the Church of England, and generally of the Protestants in this article, is, that after the minister of the holy mysteries hath ritely prayed, and blessed or consecrated the bread and the wine, the symbols become changed into the body and blood of Christ, after a sacramental, that is, in a spiritual, real manner; so that all that worthily communicate do by faith receive Christ really, effectually, to all the purposes of His passion: the wicked receive not Christ, but the bare symbols only; but yet to their hurt, because the offer of Christ is rejected, and they pollute the blood of the covenant by using it as an unholy thing. The result of which doctrine is this:-it is bread, and it is Christ's body: it is bread in substance, Christ in the sacrament; and [Christ's body and blood are] as really given to all that are truly disposed, as the symbols are; each as they can, Christ, as Christ can be given; the bread and wine as they can, and to the same real purposes to which they are designed; and Christ does as really nourish and sanctify the soul as the elements do the body. It is here as in the other sacrament; for as there natural water becomes the laver of regeneration so here bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ; but there and here too the first substance is changed by grace, but remains the same in nature. That this is the doctrine of the Church of England is apparent in the Church Catechism, affirming the inward part or thing signified' by the consecrated bread and wine to be 'the body and blood of Christ,