Images, Candles, Palms, Ashes, Holy Water, and new service of men's inventing; as though man could invent a better way to honour God with, than God Himself hath appointed."

It was said, at the commencement of these Notes, that Ritualism is a question of Doctrine :-the Doctrine of "the Real Presence" of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Sacrament under the form of bread and wine, and the Worship and Adoration of Him so present.*

Mr. Keble in his work on Eucharistical Adoration, the fourth edition of which is just published, maintains, in entire accordance with Ritualistic teaching, that "there is an inseparable connection between the practice of Adoration and that great, comfortable, and necessary truth, known to the Faithful, under the name of the Real Presence." He affirms "that what Christ gives us in the Sacrament, is the Same Body which was Sacrificed on the Cross," and "therefore Adorable." In agreement with this statement, Mr. Orby Shipley, the preacher at St. Alban's, Holborn, during Lent, 1867, says, "Where Christ's Body and Blood are, there is Christ Himself; and where He is, there He ought to be, there by faithful Christians He must be worshipped."

Dr. Pusey, Mr. Liddon, Mr. Liddell, Dr. Littledale, Mr. Carter, Mr. Mackonochie, Archdeacon Denison, and other clergymen, in their recent declaration, "repudiate all adoration of the Sacramental bread and wine," which, they say, "would be idolatry;"† but they also say they believe "that Christ Himself, really and truly, but spiritually and ineffably, present in the Sacrament, is therein to be adored."‡

* Dr. Willett, Prebendary of Ely, A.D. 1595, says, "The idolatrous use of the Lord's Supper, which the Papists have turned into the Idol of the Mass, is one of the most perilous engines whereby Anti-Christ doth impugn the verity and faith of the Gospel."

†The real value of this distinction may be ascertained by comparing it with the declaration of the Roman Catholic Bishop Challoner. He says, "the 'Papist' truly represented believes it abominable to commit any kind of idolatry, or to give divine honour to the elements of bread and wine." He believes that "whole Christ is present in the Eucharist," and "Him he adores and acknowledges his Redeemer, and not any bread and wine."

One of old time said of Idol worshippers, "The words they utter are rich and grand, the things they defend are utterly devoid of truth: they talk of God, they adore an Idol."

Bishop Jewel, on the contrary, says, "We are taught to worship Christ sitting in Heaven, not lying bodily present before our eyes." "Christ's Body is in Heaven: thither therefore must we direct our hearts: there must we feed, there must we refresh ourselves; and there must we worship it."

Mr. Keble complains, in his preface, of those who would separate the "Lex Credendi" from the "Lex Supplicandi." "Is it not," he inquires," indeed something shocking, for a person saying his prayers to be told that he is not to understand them exactly as he speaks ?" "That instead of lifting up his belief and feeling to his prayers, the truth requires him to lower his understanding of the prayers to something else, which ought to be his feeling and belief?"

According to this Rule of Mr. Keble, the Language of Devotion is the Expression of Belief. If the Reader will carefully keep this in mind while perusing the following prayers, he will be able to estimate at their true worth the subtle sophistries of the Sacerdotalists. In the Book, prefaced by Mr. Le Geyt, and already quoted from, (p.p. 133, &c.,) the following form of Adoration is given,

"I adore Thee, my God and my Saviour Jesus Christ, perfect God and perfect Man, present now before my eyes, veiled in the form of Thy creatures, in an ineffable mystery." (See also p. 136.) Mr. Prynne in the Eucharistic Manual, (quoted p.p. 122, &c.,) furnishes several Acts of Adoration for Communicants: their nature may be learned from the following extracts,—

"Hail, most holy and precious Body of Christ! which wast once offered on the Altar of the Cross for the saving of the world, and now in solemn mystery art daily offered upon the Altars of Thy Holy Church throughout all the world. I worship Thee, life-giving and enduring Sacrifice." "I believe that Thou art verily and indeed present, adorable Lord: therefore will I worship Thee: therefore will I supplicate Thee: therefore will I praise and magnify Thee."*

"Hail, Sweetest Jesus! Prostrate in lowliest devotion, I worship and adore Thee." "Most adorable Body, I adore Thee with all the powers of my soul." "Most adorable Blood, that washest away all our

*Avowed Roman Catholics use the following and similar words in their devotional books. "Hail, precious Body of the Son of God!" 'Hail, true Body, Which didst truly suffer and wast offered on the Cross for man!" "I most firmly believe, that in this Holy Sacrament Thou [Christ] art present verily and indeed; that here is Thy Body and Blood, Thy Soul and Divinity.' "I adore Thy inost Holy Soul, O my Jesus, Who art here present." "I adore Thy most pure Body." "I adore Thee, O most precious Blood." "O thrice-sacred Host, [the Wafer-bread,] living and true God, humbly I adore Thee."

The cry of the idolatrous Priests, "O Baal, hear us;" and the words of the Prophet of the Lord, "How long halt ye between two opinions? if JEHOVAH be God, follow Him; but if Baal be God, follow him :" will doubtless recur to the Reader's mind. I. Kings xviii.

sins, I adore Thee." "O most precious Blood cry for me unto God the Father that He may have mercy on me." "Hail, most precious Blood of my Lord! prostrate in lowliest devotion, I worship, and adore Thee."* Bishop Pearson says, "To worship that as God WHICH IS NOT GOD, thinking that it is God, is idolatry." Bishop Beveridge says, as previously quoted, "I know it is not bare bread our adversaries say they worship, but CHRIST IN THE BREAD, or the bread in the name of Christ. 'But he that worshippeth a creature, though he do it in the name of Christ, is an idolater, giving the name of Christ to an idol,' AND

THEREFORE LET THEM NOT BE ANGRY WITH US FOR CONCLUDING THEM TO BE IDOLATERS, WHILST THEY EAT ONE PIECE of THE BREAD AND

In the 44th chapter of Isaiah a lively description is given of the vanity of idols, and the folly and sin of idol-makers and worshippers. One is described as taking wood, making a god of part of it, and with the other part, making a fire and warming himself. He *In one of the Publications of the Sacerdotalists,

Persons are directed to "worship the Lord Jesus, present in His Sacrament, as they would do, if they could see Him bodily." In another they are told that" at the words, This is My Body, This is My Blood, they must believe that the bread and wine become the Real Body and Blood, with the Soul and Godhead of Jesus Christ: Bow down,"it is said, "your heart and body in deepest adoration when the Priest says these Awful Words, and Worship your Saviour, then verily and indeed present on His Altar; then say-Hail, True Body! born of Mary, &c., &c." In another, the following form is provided for use after Consecration,

"I adore Thee, O Lord Jesu, I adore Thy Body, Thy Soul, and Thy Divinity, Thy Flesh, and Thy Blood, truly present in this Sacrament."

Another writer of this school says, speaking of the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament, "the Priest moves the paten or the chalice from one side of the altar to the other, or carries them along the rail from side to side to communicate the people, and this especial Presence of Jesus-which we call His Sacramental Presence ceases to be where it was, and goes wherever the Priest wills to carry the elements in which it is contained." "When the Priest says over the bread and wine the words of Consecration, Christ becomes really and truly present, in and by those Elements; is carried about where the Priest wills, descends into the hands and into the mouth and heart of the communicants, and tarries there (or on the altar if the priest so wills) so long as the Elements by means of which He is present remain entire and incorrupt."

The reader will contrast the mawkish pretences of doing honour to the Lord, with the awful wickedness of the practice of these Priests. It is only because of the long-suffering of God that the earth does not open and swallow up such daring profaners of His Holy Name.

It seems incredible that a man can dare to publish such blasphemy as that a Priest can carry Christ about where he will: can make God go whithersoever he may choose to move Him. But the doctrine of the "Real Presence" involves this. Not long since, a Priest of the Roman Catholic Church said, "One ought to be a Seraphim to say Mass. I hold our Lord in my hands. I put Him on the right, and He remains on the right! I put Him on the left, and He remains on the left!" Anglican Sacerdotalists and Roman Catholic Priests are, it will be seen, equally impious. More tolerable will it be for the worshippers of Juggernaut in the day of judgment than for these. (Matt. xi. 20, 24.)

maketh a fire, it is said, and saith, I am warm; and then it is added, he falleth down to the other part,-to the graven image he has made, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith "Deliver me; for thou art my god." What can more exactly describe the conduct of these persons (the very hand which holds the pen seems to shrink from tracing the words) who, PROFANING THE ORDINANCE OF THE LORD'S SUPPER, take bread and eating part for the nourishment of their bodies, with another part make an idol before which they bow down; to which they pray; (Le Geyt;) which they adore, seek unto, depend upon; (Keble ;) which gives audience, hears all, and comforts all. (Le Geyt.)*

What possible difference can there be made between the idolatry of the man who bows down to the bit of wood he has fashioned into an image and prays "Deliver me for thou art my god ;" and the idolatry of the men who pretend by the utterance of a few words to cause bread and wine to become the Body and Blood of Christ, and so Christ Himself, and then pray to the idol they have so made, "Body of Christ save me;" (Le Geyt;) who ADORE the idol they have made, "with all possible reverence, with the most entire and singlehearted devotion, † incommunicable to any finite being?" (Keble.)

*The identity of Anglo and Roman Catholic teaching is shewn by the following extracts.

Mr. Le Geyt, in the preface already referred to, says, that in the Book itself, "Attention has been particularly directed to, and provision made for, the largely increasing number of those who habitually worship their Lord's Presence at the Altar."

He expresses an earnest hope that the Book may "serve to guide and assist the faithful in their nearest and most intimate approach to their Divine Lord and Master upon Earth in the most Holy Sacrament, in which is permitted to all that which but few in the world enjoy, for it is not given to all persons and all ranks to stand or to speak in the presence of kings; but WITH JESUS CHRIST, the KING OF HEAVEN, both nobles and peasants, rich and poor, can coMMUNICATE at their will IN THIS HOLY SACRAMENT, and employ themselves as they will IN SETTING BEFORE HIM THEIR WANTS, AND SEEKING HIS REFRESHING PEACE; and THERE JESUS GIVES AUDIENCE TO ALL, HEARS ALL, AND COMFORTS ALL."

A Roman Catholic Priest lately said, "Our Lord is hidden in the Sacrament, waiting for us to come and visit Him, and make our requests to Him." "He is there in the Sacrament of His Love," "He is there to console us; and therefore we ought often to visit Him." "He is there present on the Altar, and is looking at us."

+Mr. Keble says," Worship is a personal thing," "the true object of worship must of course be some personal Being, and that Being the Most High God." "THE PERSON therefore of Jesus Christ our Lord, WHEREVER IT IS, is to be adored-to be honoured, acknowledged, sought unto, depended on, with all possible reverence, with the most entire and single-hearted devotion, incommunicable to any finite being—by all creatures whom He has brought to know Him." "CHRIST'S PERSON IS IN THE HOLY EUCHARIST by the presence of His Body and Blood therein:" "From which it follows, that the Person of Christ is to be adored in the Sacrament." He plainly

There is one difference it is true, but it is in the degree, not in the kind of guilt. The men who live now are more guilty because they live in the days of the gospel dispensation.

Those persons, be they whom they may, whether Bishops, or Doctors, or Priests, who bow down to the Sacramental bread and wine, under the pretence that it is Christ in the Sacrament Whom they worship, are guilty of idolatry.

The Martyrs knew this. Life was as precious to them as it is to men now. They felt, as Hooper, that worthy and true Bishop of Christ's Church, said, shortly before his martyrdom, "that death was bitter, and life sweet, but they also considered that the death to come was more bitter, and the life to come more sweet;" and, therefore, "for the desire and love they had for the one, and the terror and fear they had of the other, they resolved patiently to pass through the torments of the fire, rather than to deny the truth of God's Word."*

declares, that "As our Lord newly incarnate, and nailed to His Cross, was to be specially adored and worshipped, so also in this Sacrament."

Archbishop Cranmer says in his Book on the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, "Now it is requisite to speak something of the manner and form of worshipping of Christ by them that receive this Sacrament, lest that instead of Christ Himself be worshipped the Sacrament. For as His Humanity, joined to His Divinity, and exalted to the right hand of His Father, is to be worshipped of all: * * even so if in the stead thereof we worship the Signs and Sacraments, we commit as great idolatry as ever was, or shall be to the world's end."

"And yet have the very Anti-Christs (the subtlest enemies that Christ hath) by their fine inventions and crafty scholastical divinity deluded many simple souls, and brought them to this horrible idolatry, to worship things visible, and made with their own hands, persuading them that creatures were their Creator, their God, and their Maker."

"Our Saviour Christ # * hath given us warning * that we should not give credit to such teachers as would persuade us to worship a piece of bread, to kneel to it, * * * to light candles to it, * having always this pretence or excuse for our idolatry, Behold here is Christ.'" "Pope Honorius the III., commanded 'the Priests' to diligently teach the people from time to time, that when they lifted up the bread, called the Host, the people should then reverently bow down; and that they should do likewise when the Priest carrieth the Host unto sick folks. These be the Statutes and Ordinances of Rome, under pretence of holiness, to lead the people unto all error and idolatry: not bringing them by bread unto Christ, but from Christ unto bread."

* That in the opinion of some of the Ritualists, the Romanists in Mary's days were justified in putting the Martyrs to death, the following extract from one of their Journals clearly shews. The Writer, who must be a Papist in heart, says,"For what were the 'Martyrs' put to death? It was simply and solely for a 'Heresy was then regarded as a crime,

*

*

breach of the law." and the penalty attached to those who were convicted of it was death. We may not approve of this, and may vastly prefer that each man's religion should be left to his own conscience and God, but still it must be acknowledged that the rigour of olden time, in judging of man's misbelief was more in harmony with the teaching of Holy Scripture than the laxity which now prevails."-See pages 53-4 and notes.