History of the Holy Eucharist in Great Britain (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1881 Excerpt: ...John vi. 64. Tract 27 in Joan. n. 5. 1 Laws and Institutes of England, vol. ii. p. 356. 2 I may illustrate what has been said by the language of a well-known modern writer. Mr. Keble, in his Christian Year, in his lines on Holy Communion, wrote as follows: --'Fresh from th' atoning sacrifice The world's Creator bleeding lies, That man, His foe, by whom He bled, May take Him for his daily bread.' In a Catholic writer such words would have had but one meaning. They would have been held to express Catholic doctrine. What was Mr. Keble's meaning? This might have seemed doubtful, for in some verses on Gunpowder Treason in the same volume, he wrote: --'If with thy heart the strains accord, That on His altar-throne Highest exalt thy glorious Lord, Yet leave Him most thine own; O come to our Communion Feast: There present in the heart, Not in the hands, th' eternal Priest Will His true self impart.' MLFRIC DEFENDED. 143 As regards Elfric I have admitted that he uses language both unusual and ill-sounding. He keeps insisting that the Body of Christ as received in the Eucharist is not the same body that hung on the cross. Now these words might have a true sense or a false one. According to the Catholic faith it is essentially the same, yet it is not the same according to its mode of existence. Our Lord said of St. John the Baptist that he was Elias, John himself said that he was not. They spoke in different senses. The ancient Fathers who wrote against the Manichees insisted on free will as if to the neglect of grace; those who wrote against the Pelagians insisted on grace as it were to the disparagement of free will. There was no real contradiction, but the opponents or objections required different language. So has it been with regard to the Eucharist. Against those ...