Doctrine of the Real Presence. 77 when, after the benediction of the bread and wine, He, in plain and perspicuous words, attested that He gave them His own Body and His own Blood; which words, recorded by the holy Evangelists, and afterwards repeated by S. Paul, in that they bear upon their face that proper and most plain meaning, according to which they were understood by the Fathers, it is a most unworthy misdeed, that they should be twisted by some contentious and perverse men to fictitious and imaginary tropes, whereby the verity of the Body and Blood of Christ is denied, contrary to the universal sense of the Church, which, as "the pillar and ground of the truth,' detested, as Satanic, these inventions devised by ungodly men, ever acknowledging with grateful memory this most excellent benefit of Christ." C. II. Of the mode of the institution of this most holy Sacrament. 61 3 "Our Saviour, then, when about to depart out of this world to the Father, instituted this Sacrament, in which He poured out, as it were, the riches of His Divine love towards men, making a memory of His marvellous works,' and taught us, in the reception thereof, to cherish His memory, and to show forth His death, until He should come Himself to judge the world. But He willed that this Sacrament should be received 3 as the spiritual food of souls, whereby they should be nourished. and strengthened, living by the life of Him Who said, '* he that eateth Me, the same shall also live by Me,' and as an antidote, whereby we may be delivered from daily faults and preserved from deadly sins. He willed, also, that it should be a pledge of our future glory and everlasting felicity, and also a symbol of that one body whereof He Himself is the Head, and to which He willed that we, as members, should be bound by 64 'Matt. xxvi. 26-28. Mark xiv. 22-24. Luke xxii. 19 sq. 1 Tim. iii. 15. 8 1 Cor. xi. 24 sq. 1 Ps. cxi. 4. Matt. xxvi. 26 sq. 1 Cor. xi. 3. Eph. v. 23. 78 Agreement on the Real Presence. the closest connexion of faith, hope, and charity, that we all say the same thing, and that there be no schisms among us "." C. III. Of the excellency of the most holy Eucharist above the other sacraments. "The most holy Eucharist has this in common with the other sacraments, that it is a symbol of a sacred thing, and 'a visible form of invisible grace",' but it hath this excellency, peculiar to itself, that the other sacraments have not the power of sanctifying, until they are used; but in the Eucharist, the Author of sanctity is, before it is used. For the Apostles had not yet received the Eucharist at the hand of the Lord, when yet He truly affirmed, that That which He was giving was His Body; and this has ever been the faith in the Church of God, that, immediately after the consecration, the Very Body of our Lord and His Very Blood are present, together with His Soul and Divinity, under the species of bread and wine; but the Body under the species of bread, the Blood under the species of wine by the force of the words; and the Body under the species of wine, and the Blood under the species of bread, and the Soul under each, by the virtue of that natural connexion and concomitancy, whereby the parts of the Lord Christ, Who has risen from the dead, now to die no more', are united together; and His Divinity, on account of that wonderful hypostatic union with His Soul and Body. Wherefore it is most true, that the same is contained under either species and under both. For Whole and Entire Christ exists under the species of bread, and under every part of the species; Whole He existeth under the species of wine, and under its parts." Without entering now into the Communion under one kind, as prepared for by the last words, 1 Cor. i. 10. 8 Matt. xxvi. 26. Mark xiv. 22. 'De cons. D. ii. c. 32. What is meant by "Substantia"? 79 no words could express more exactly the faith of those who believe in the Real Presence, than these words. I have translated them the rather, because they are words of conciliation. But then this being so, since we, equally with yourselves, thank our God for this His condescending love (and to those who in simple faith believe that He "did not abhor the Virgin's womb," no other act of His lowly lovingkindness can be too startlingly great), one of your eminent Theologians has said to me, that there could be no difficulty between us as to what remains, viz. the explanation of the term chosen to express it. We entirely believe that which is beyond our senses; we only desire that there should be no statement which would involve an illusion of the senses in those things of which the senses are cognizant. It is a question as to the meaning of words, "what is meant by the word 'substantia'?" Now, since the object of the word "transubstantiation" is to secure that our Lord's Words, "This is My Body, This is My Blood," should be taken in their strictest sense, it seems that you are in no way concerned with any thing, except the quidditas rei, the ovoía, the essence of the thing, "that (whatever it is) which it is." When the Council of Trent declares that "through the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a conversion of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the Body of Christ our Lord, and of the whole substance of 80 What is meant by "Substantia Punis." the wine into the substance of His Blood," there is, by the force of the terms, a correlation between the substance which is changed, and that whereinto it is affirmed to be changed. But since our Lord's Body is not present "after the natural mode of the existence of a body," then the word "substance" is used of His Blessed Body, independently of any known conditions of its existence. "Vazquez," Veron reports, "thinks that it is a contradiction, that the Body of Jesus Christ should, according to its dimensions, be present at the same time, in different places." It would be blasphemy to think, with the Capernaites, that we so ate the Body and drank the Blood of Christ, as that they should be transmuted into the corruptible substances of our bodies. "It is not of faith," again says Veron, "that the bread is transubstantiated into the Body of Christ, as the bread which we eat is changed into the substance of our body." Since, then, the Body and Blood of Christ are present in their substance (for otherwise they could not be present at all), but the presence of that "substance" does not involve the presence of any of the ordinary properties of a body, so, neither does the conversion of the substance of the bread and of the wine into the substance of the Body and Blood of Christ, involve the conversion of any of the properties of the bread or wine. We may then (as I said) think that by "substance" is meant the essence," or ovoía of a thing, that which it is "Substance" need not have Aristotelic sense. 81 (whatever it is), its "quidditas ;" and under the "species" which remain, and which are the veil of the unseen Presence, we may understand "the púois or nature, including all those properties of which the senses are cognizant, and with them, or among them, the natural power of supporting and nourishing our bodies." For although the Catechism of the Council of Trent is not authoritative, yet it has, I suppose, more authority than any individual Doctor, or than many Doctors; and it distinctly asserts, that "by this name" [bread] "the Eucharist has been called, because it has the appearance and still retains the quality natural to bread, of supporting and nourishing." Whatever may have been the value of the Aristotelian philosophy to Christian Theology, it has, I think, in this particular instance, introduced needless difficulty into the Divine mystery; difficulty which relates, not to the mystery declared by our Lord, but attaching to the use of the word "substance." For while affirming that the substance of the bread had ceased to be, they, following that philosophy, for the most part, assumed that the power of nourishing ceased also; and that it was restored by miracle, for which miracle there is no authority in our Lord's words which are the foundation of the mystery, nor has the Church ever laid down any thing upon it. But if the species, i. e. that which the Roman Church also believes to remain as the outward veil of our Blessed Lord's Presence, F |