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communion in early times, namely, under one kind or under both, was considered as a matter of changeable discipline (the point which I originally maintained) with what is, in regard to the Vicar, a domestic instance. The brighest light of Ireland in the sixth century, unquestionably was S. Columban, who, leaving his overstocked monastery of Benchor near Down, passed over to the Continent and founded flourishing convents in France and Italy. He was in correspondence with Popes, Bishops, and Princes, but what most contributed to his renown, was the rule which still goes by his name, and which he imported into the monasteries of the Continent from his native country. In this, among other regulations, are the following regarding the reception of the Sacrament, namely, that the Monk, who, in receiving the Sacrament irreverently," touched the sacred chalice with his teeth, should be punished with six strokes of the whip. But as to the novices and other unlearned persons, the rule says, that they shall not approach to the chalice at all."* Here we see a two-fold mode of communicating, established in the same convent, the Monks received under both kinds, the novices under one kind alone. I have adduced

* "Qui percusserit dentibus calicem sex percussonibus &c. Novi, qui indocti, et quicumque tales fuerint ad calicem non accedant." Reg. Colomb. Menard.

other instances of variation in this variable point of discipline, in the End of Controversy.

When a man's prejudices or passions determine him to adhere to a false doctrine or a wrong practice, there is no pretext too frivolous, nor any inconsistency too glaring for him to adopt in defending it. You have heard, Dear Sir, the Rev. Vicar deny to the Catholic Church, guided as she is, by the spirit of truth, which teaches all truth, and following, as she does, the uninterrupted tradition of the Apostles, a right to determine what is, and what is not essential to the Sacraments; and you have heard him claim for his own Church, or rather for the civil power that founded it, within these three last centuries, a right to use its own discretion in these matters, without referring to any tradition at all. Accordingly, he declares as follows: "With respect to the Eucharist, our Church retains what is essential to that Sacrament, while it has wisely omitted what would be useless, inconvenient, or impossible to be complied with. It performs the Sacramental action in the way commanded by Christ, when he said: DO THIS by blessing bread and eating it, and by blessing wine and drinking it, in rememberance of him. In this consists the essence of the Sacrament of the Eucharist; and to the punctual observance of it the Church of England is scrupulously attentive, while it omits circumstances of themselves in

different. "* Thus we distinctly see what constitutes the essence of the Sacrament, according to the definition of this theologian: it consists in “ blessing bread and eating it, and in blessing wine and drinking it, in remembrance of Christ." Hence of course, whenever all this is done," the sacramental action is performed in the way commanded by Christ." Now, Dear Sir, I believe that all this has been regularly performed in your and most other pious Catholic families, at your ordinary meals; you blessed the bread on your table and you eat it; in like manner you blessed the wine on your table, and you drank it, and this in remembrance of Christ, conformably with the command of his Apostle: Whether you eat or drink, or whatever else you do; do all to the glory of God. 1 Cor. x. 31. Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Coloss. iii. 17. You have therefore performed the Sacramental action in the way commanded by Christ, at every meal you have taken; the other circumstances, according to the Vicar's theology, being of themselves indifferent!! Nor is this the only absurdity and contradiction into which the Rev. Gentleman plunges, in following up his new system. For whereas, hitherto, in excluding the real essence of the Eucharist, which is the real presence of Jesus Christ, the Established Church has required

* Reply, p. 192.

the real presence of the bread and wine, at least as essential to the Sacrament (and indeed, we have, just now, heard the Vicar hiself affirm, that the essence of the Sacrament consists in them); nevertheless, in his concluding note on this subject, he gives up these likewise, as things no way essential to it. His words are these: "Dr. M. says he has heard of British made-wine being used by Church-Ministers for real wine; and of the Missionaries to Otaheite using the bread-fruit for real bread. There is no doubt "but that such bread and wine should be substituted, in the absence of real bread and wine. Those aliments nourish and sustain the body, when the others cannot be procured; why therefore may they not be as efficaciously used, as those others, to convey the spiritual nourishment, which is imparted by the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper?"* Here we find the Vicar making light of the substances ordained by Christ, and extending the essential matter and benefit of the Eucharist to any aliments which nourish and sustain the body. To confine our view therefore to the Rev. Divine's own country: it is well known that in many mountainous and boggy districts of it, no other aliments are to be procured but potatoes to eat, and whiskey to drink, which also approach nearer to the nature of bread and wine, than do the

* P. 237.

fruits of the Indian trees, and the juices and sap of British bushes and shrubs. The consequence is, that according to the Vicar's system of theology, every cabin dinner over which the pious peasant says grace and makes the sign of the cross, in memory of Christ's sufferings, is that very flesh and blood, which he gave for the life of the world, John vi. 52, the eating and drinking of which is, to the unworthy partaker of it, eating and drinking damnation to himself. I Cor. xi. 29!!

I am, yours, &c.

J.M., D.D.

LETTER XV.

ABSOLUTION.

DEAR SIR-When I look back on the subjects I have been treating of, or forward to those which I am about to take in hand, I am lost in wonder at the confidence, with which the protesting sects and individuals respectively maintain that the words of Scripture are clearly in their favour, while experience proves that they agree together in nothing but in opposing the doctrine and authority of that unerring Church, which the Scripture so emphatically orders them to hear and obey. Thus, to cast a glance on the matter which I have been handling, the B. Sacrament,

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