I turn now to another form of eucharistic error which has obtained some footing among us. In what has been said above, the mind and practice of the first ages have been appealed to as the absolute standard of eucharistic duty. And on this point we cannot, surely, be too solicitous, or too firm in resisting any departure from it. Such is, at any rate, the mind of the English Church. "Before all things we must be sure that this Sacrament be ministered in such wise as our Saviour did, and the good fathers in the primitive Church frequented it." The position amounts to this,—that whatever was then held to be true, and was acted upon, must be true, and ought to be acted upon still. And the converse position is no less important,—that whatever was demonstrably not held nor was acted upon then, cannot be true at all, and ought not to be acted upon now.
But this position has now, for some few years past, been, in practice, abandoned by some who have interested themselves in the eucharistic condition of the English Church. Doctrines have been maintained, and practices founded upon them, about which, whatever defence may be set up for them, thus much at least is certain, and can be proved to demonstration, that they find no recognition in the ritual of the primitive ages.
I speak more especially of the tenet, that one purpose, and a very principal one to say the least, of the Holy Eucharist, is to provide the Church with an object of Divine Worship, actually enshrined in the Elements—namely, our Lord Jesus Christ; and that the Church ought accordingly to pay towards that supposed personal Presence of Christ on the altar, and towards the Elements as containing Him, that worship, which at other times she directs to Him as seated at the Right Hand of God. Such is the position laid down and acted upon.
Now, it might be shewn that there are infinite objections to this tenet, and that it involves vast difficulties and perplexities. But the one answer which is instar omnium, and must be held to be absolutely decisive against it, is that it was evidently unknown to the mind, because unrecognised by the Ritual, of the first ages. The altar, we are told, is, for the time being, the Majestic Throne of Christ; His Presence there (I cite the language of the upholders of this view) is of such a nature as to demand at our hands the same worship as we commonly pay to the Holy Trinity in Heaven. Now, if this be really so, it necessitates, as a matter of course, acts of Service, of Worship, of Prayer, of Invocation, addressed to Christ so present and so enthroned. Let, then, the upholders of it produce a single instance from the Ancient Communion Offices of a prayer, or even an invocation, so addressed. It cannot be done. Or if there be found such an one lurking in some remote corner of a Liturgy, its manifest departure from the whole tone and bearing of the rest of the Office stamps it at once as late and unauthoritative.
And this is the leading consideration,—that the entire drift and structure of the Eucharistic Service is against such a view. Its keynote is "Sursum corda." This we are now called upon to give up, and to turn our worship, and the direction of our hearts, to an object enshrined on earth.—But besides this, the Liturgies throughout speak of that which is consecrated, and lies upon the altar, as Things, and not as a person. But if it be indeed Christ Himself that lies there, is it reverent to speak of Him as "Things," "Offerings," or even as "Mysteries"? Yet what is the language of the ancient Liturgies, after the consecration? "Bestow on us benefit from these Offerings" (Lit. S. Chrys.). "That we may become worthy partakers of Thy holy Mysteries" (Syr. Lit. S. James). "Holy Things for holy persons:" or (as it is otherwise rendered) "The Holy Things to the Holy Places;" or in the Western uses, "Desire these Things (hæc) to be carried up by the hands of Thy Holy Angel unto thy sublime altar, into the Presence of Thy Majesty." It is intelligible, that for the divine and mysterious Things, the Body and Blood of Christ, we should desire contact with the mysterious heavenly altar, on which "the Lamb that was slain" personally presents Himself; but that we should desire this for Christ Himself would be incomprehensible, if not irreverent.
And let these words of S. Chrysostom's Liturgy be especially pondered: "Hear us, O Lord Jesus Christ, out of Thy Holy Dwelling-place, and from the Throne of the glory of Thy kingdom; Thou that sittest above with the Father, and here art invisibly present with us: and by thy mighty Hand give us to partake of Thy spotless Body and Thy precious Blood." Is it not perfectly certain from hence, that, in the conception of antiquity, Our Blessed Lord was not lying personally upon the altar? that, personally, He was, as regards His Majestic Presence, on His Throne in Heaven? and as regards His Mysterious Presence on earth, it was to be sought, not in or under the Elements, but (according to the proper law of it) in and among the faithful, the Church of God there present? For He is invited to come, by an especial efflux or measure of that Presence, and to give the mysterious Things, His Body and Blood.
The same conclusion follows from the language of the Fathers, taken in its full range. Let any one examine Dr. Pusey's exhaustive catena of passages from the Fathers, concerning the "Real Presence," and he will find that, for one instance in which That which is on the Altar is spoken of as if it were Christ Himself, it is called a hundred times by the title, "His Body and Blood." The latter is manifestly the exact truth; the former the warm and affectionate metonymy, which gives to the mysterious Parts, the Body and Blood, the titles due only properly to the Divine and Personal Whole.
Vain then, and necessarily erroneous, because utterly devoid of countenance from the ancient Apostolic Rites, are the inferences by which this belief is supported. Though, indeed, the fallacy of the inferences themselves is sufficiently apparent. It is said that Christ's Body, wherever it is, and under whatsoever conditions existing, must demand and draw Divine Worship towards it. Is it so indeed? Then why, I would ask, do we not pay Divine Worship to the Church? for the Church certainly is "His Body, His Flesh, and His Bones." Nay, why do we not worship the individual communicant? for he, certainly, has received not only Christ's Body, but Christ's very Self, to dwell within him. The truth is, that inferences, in matters of this mysterious nature, are perfectly untrustworthy, unless supported and countersigned by apostolic practice.