Edward Hoare

“ It is a very easy thing to make a confident assertion, and such assertions produce a greater effect on many minds than the most careful and best-established proof. Thus it is not at all an uncommon thing to hear it asserted with the utmost confidence that what is termed ‘The Doctrine of the Real Presence,’ is taught by the Church of England; and the result is that a considerable number of persons believe in the assertion, and place reliance on those who make it, as if they, and they only, were the true expositors of the Church’s doctrine. In many cases a blind consent is blindly given. ”

“ Now there cannot be a moment’s doubt that we are taught in that most precious Service to feed on the body and blood of our most blessed Saviour, and to expect that the most sacred food will be given to the soul. If this were not expressed, the bread which we break would not be presented to us as a partaking of the body of Christ. But while we are taught in living faith to partake of His most precious body and blood, the whole service has been so carefully worded that the spiritual grace is never identified with the outward sign. ”

“ But there is no such reserve in the Church of England. She is plain, honest, and outspoken for the truth; and when she struck all trace of adoration from her worship she did so, not from any crafty policy of reserve, but because she believed that the whole thing was a gross superstition, and with a firm, bold, and unsparing hand she cut away the whole fabric, and left no trace of it in the whole system of her worship. There was no reserve in the Reformers, whatever there may be in those who are striving to undo the Reformation. ”

“ The next sentence is: ‘Here we offer and present unto Thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice unto Thee.’ ‘Ourselves, our souls and bodies,’ what are they to make a propitiation for sin? Nothing can be plainer than that the prayer is intended to be the language of the thankful heart surrendering itself as a thank-offering to God. If the language admitted of the smallest doubt, that doubt would be removed by the position assigned to it in the Communion Service of 1552. ”

“ And if any have been led by mistaken ideas of the Church’s teaching to hold opinions at variance with the great principles of the Reformation, I shall thank God more than I can express if they may be led to see what the Church which they love really teaches, that so the love of their Church may confirm them in the love of truth, and help to establish them as steady and consistent Churchmen in the faith once delivered to the saints. ”

“ It is moreover most deeply to be deplored that those who have a real, true, and faithful love for the Church of England should be led into error by the unproved assertion that the Church of England teaches that which she most emphatically denies. ”

“ With equal clearness it is declared that as there is only one mode in which the body of our blessed Saviour is received, and that heavenly and spiritual; so there is only one mean whereby it is received and eaten, and that one mean is faith. The Article does not speak of a means, as if it was one of many but p. 19of ‘the means’ in order to show that it stands quite alone, that it is only spiritual food, and received only by faith. The lips receive the bread, and the believing heart receives the spiritual food of Christ Himself. The body feeds on the material food, the soul on the spiritual. ”

“ That the material food is an emblem of the spiritual; and that the act of eating by the body is an emblem of the act of feeding by the soul; and the manner of the two are so far connected by sacramental appointment, that when we receive the emblem we are warranted to expect the enjoyment of the reality. ”

“ Thus we see, beloved, that resorting to this table, we must pluck up all the roots of infidelity, all distrust in God’s promises, that we make ourselves living members of Christ’s body. For the unbelievers and faithless cannot feed upon that precious body. ”

“ Whereas the faithful have their life, their abiding in Him, their union, and, as it were, their incorporation with Him. Wherefore let us prove, and try ourselves unfeignedly without flattering ourselves, whether we be plants of that fruitful olive, living branches of the true vine, members indeed of Christ’s mystical body, p. 41whether God hath purified our hearts by faith, to the sincere acknowledging of His Gospel, and embracing of His mercies in Christ Jesus, so that at this, His table, we receive, not only the outward Sacrament, but the spiritual thing also ”

“ The whole question whether there is any independent, localized presence of our blessed Redeemer in the elements is involved in the decision whether the wicked in receiving those elements do or do not receive Him. ”

“ The third answer is often boldly appealed to as deciding the question in favour of what is termed the real presence, and as finally settling the p. 26whole controversy. But nothing is easier than to make bold assertions of the kind, to persuade men to receive them without the trouble of investigation. But such a system will not satisfy those who desire to know the truth. ”

“ Some are endeavouring to destroy it, some to corrupt it, and some to uphold it in its integrity. In such a state of things it is not fair that the Church should be held responsible for the assertions even of its friends. Its own voice ought to be heard, and its own clear statement carefully studied. I have no intention, therefore, of endeavouring to confuse the subject by a mass of quotations from collateral writers, but will turn at once to those authoritative documents for which the Church has made herself responsible. These are the Articles, Catechism, p. 11Liturgy, and Homilies ”

“ The very distinction now revived between substance and accident was carefully discussed. And men felt so deeply the wide difference between the teaching of Rome and the teaching of Scripture that they could not yield even to save their lives. The stake was before them as the certain issue of their confession, and liberty and honour was the promised reward if only they would yield. But they had that deep conviction of the deadly error of the doctrine of transubstantiation that p. ”