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* explication of the manner thereof.
: Vol. VIL——No. 24.
hiladelphia, Thursday, June 13, 1829, : ,
Whole Number 336
'THE CATHOLIC HERALD
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Doctry.
DYING FROM HOME.
May’st thou die among thy kindred.”—Eastern Savinc.
* Why have ye brought me so far away,
From my mountain home where the wild winds play;
Ye tell me there’s health in the mountain air,
And I know the skies are lovely and fair.
But on my young heart isa withering hand,
And I Jong to die in my native land.”
« Rest, wearied one, rest, the flowers are sweet,
Bending in fragrance beneath thy feet;
‘Thy native land is barren and cold—
Too bleak for one of so gentle mould—
And faint and few are the shadows that fall,
From the fir-tree tops, on thy father's hall.”
.
‘
“© My Father's Hall! Oh—would I were there!
Breathing the health of its mountain air;
Thear the low song of the murmuring bee;
But dearer the sound of thy waters to me,
And the huntsman’s wild horn as he startles the deer,
Would be music once more in thy forests to hear.”
“ Loveliest! look from thy shady bower
In the calmness and bliss of this pensive hour,
‘The sun has gone downin the dark blue sky—
‘The reaper has laid his sickle by— ~
‘The baby sleeps ‘on its mother’s knee,
ALL are at rest and in peace but thes /”
“« My Mother sits sad and lonely now;
Sickness and sorrow have shaded her brow,—
My little sisters have left their play,
To talk of one that is far away:
Ob! would I were of that cherished band,—
Tlave I left thee forever, my native land?”
“Content thee, dearest, still gladly to dwell
With the friends of thy youth, who love thee so well;
See, Ifave brought of the freshest bloom,
‘To cheer thy heart with its rich perfume ; ;
And here are diamonds of beauty rare,
To twine with the wreaths of thy raven hair.”
«Ye are kind, my friends, ye are kind ucto me,
But my stricken heart still pants to flee—
(Like a stricken dove to her woodland nest)— .
"To the bosom of her who loves me best, .
‘Ob! for a fold in that meek embrace,—
Oh! for a glance of that sainted face!
“ Gifts have no spell roand the heart to cling,
But the name of Home is a holy thing ;
Friends cannot read with a mother’s eye,
Wishes that pass like shadows by;
‘This is a fair and a lovely spot,
- But my heart in its gladness abideth not.
“ Blossoms are sweet, but they wither and fade,
(Thus have my hopes in their bud decayed ;)
Oh! that my own cherished flowers might wave,
With their balmy breath o’er my early grave,
Its rest by the mountain beezes fann’d,
Let me die—l!et me die—in my native land!”
ESSAY ON CATHOLIC COMMUNION. ©
Of Transubstantiation.
Hitherto we have-proceeded with consent, about the
But the great point
is still to-be examined. And here ,First, it isto be
considered, whether Transubstantiation be the mode,
or the thing itself, and what stress is to be laid upon
the word. For which let us consult Dr. Parker, late
bishop of Oxford, in his reasons for abrogating the’
test: 1 know (saith he) it is commonly said, that the
council of Trent hath presumed to define the modus ;
and learned men (I know not by what fatal oversight)
take it upon trust one from another; and the definition
is generally given in these terms: ‘That transubstan-
tiation is wrought by the annihilation of the substance
of the bread and wine, the accidents remaining: ‘To
the which annihilation succeeds the body and blood of
Christ, under the accidents of bread and wine. So the
bishops of Durham and Finchester represent it; so
Mr, Aliz andthe writers of his church. But I cannot
but wonder how so many learned men should with so
much assurance fancy to themselves such a definition
inthe Trent Council, of the A/odus of transubstan-
tiation, by the annihilation of the substance, and the
permanency of the accidents, when the fathers of that
council were so farfrom any such design, that they
designed nothing more carefully than to avoid all
scholastic definitions. ‘2. 23. 24. And a little after :
This is the definition of the council of Zrent, of the
real presence, that there is a conversion of the sub-
stances under the species and appearances of bread and
wine, which the church hath thought convenient to
express by the word transubstantiation, And yet
though the council approve the word, yet itdoes not
impose it, only declares it to be convenient, [fit and
proper] but no where says itisnecessary. Page 27.
And Again: Though perhaps all. the fathers of the
council believed the reality of the new substantial pre-
rsence under the old accidents, yet they had more tem-
perand discretion than to authorise it by conciliar de-
termination, and therefore use only the word species
(and no other word is used by Nicholas Il. Gregory
VII. and Innocent IL. that are thought the three great
innovators in the argument of the real presence) that
properly signilies appearance, but nothing of physical
or natural reality, so that though the presence, under
the species be real, yet as the council hath defined it,
itis not natural but sacramental, which sacramental
real presence they express by the word ¢transubstan-
tiation, and recommend the propriety of the word to
the acceptance of christendom. Yage 27, 28.
Next, then, Ishalltake the thing itself, as I find
it delivered by the church of Rome, and then shall see,
how near we can come to it. - .
By the thing understood by transubstantiation is
meantin the church of Rome, a change of the sub-
stances of the bread and wine, into the substanze of
the body and blood of Christ. And this as the council
of Zrent says, has been always the doctrine of that
church, though first solemnly declared in the council
of Lateran. Sess, 13. c. 4.
They confess, thatthe word is not any where-in
scripture. But they say, the sense and full meaning
of it, by necessary consequence at least, is delivered
in the gospel, and therefore certainly’ and necessarily
true. And thus they explain themselves’: Christ
said it was his body, which he gave under the species
of bread. If it was really, and indeed his body, then
say they, it cannot be bread: . Because that which is
bread, cannot be: really, and indeed the true real body
of Christ. Therefore that which was really bread, is
not now bread, after the consecration, but is by the
divine power, (which canchange one thing into ano-
tlrer) become the true body of Christ. And this is
not made in the outward accidents or appearance (which
are still the same) but only in the substance, which is
invisible, thereforethey have framed a new word to
express it, viz. trausubstantiation, They clear, this
by an example. . yee
As atthe marriage-feastof Cana, that, which. was
truly water, is by the power of Christ, made true and
real wine: And it being»now absolutely true, that
This is wine, itis no longer true, » This is water ; but
that which was truly water, is ‘now not water, but
wine. So they understand in this mystery, as to the
substance : ‘That, which was truly: bread, is now
trulyand really the body of our Lord. ‘Therefore if
it be owned absolutely true, after consecration (as has
been already shewn) that, This is my body, it is not
now truly bread , bul thai, which was bread, is now
2
made to be truly and really the body of Christ. As;
therefore, at Cana, he made the water wine, as itis
said, John 4, 46. so athis last supper, he made bread
his body. So that, according to their sentiments, they
believe nothing more, than what the express words of
Christ oblige them to. And this the great Zateran
council declared when this question was first debated,
six hundred years ago, and asserted, that in this sense
it had been delivered to them from the primitive:
church ; and accordingly quote many testimonies of
the ancient fathers, seeming to concur in this very doc-
trine: ‘Thus they.
Nowas to our side of the church of England. 1
find somein the first place, owning the possibility of
transubstantiation. As bishop Forbes, who thus de--
livers himself upon this subject. De ~Eucharistia, 1.
1. ec, 2. Many Protestants, (says he)too boldly and
dangerously deny that Ge: has power: to transubstan-
tiate the bread into the body of Christ. Itis true, all .
own, that whatimplies a contradiction; cannot be done.
But because, in particular, no body certainly knows
what isthe essence of every thing, and consequently
what implies a contradiction, and what not; it is
without question, a rashness. in any, to put limits to
God’s power. I approve the opinion of the divines of
Wittemberg, who assert the power of God to be so
great, thathe can change ahe substance of the bread.
and wine, into the body and blood of Christ. =
Mr. Thorndike ownsa change in fact.” £pil, 1. 3.
c. 5, where he says,‘ The elements are really
changed from ordinary bread and wine, ‘into the body
and blood of Christ, mystically present, as in a sa-~_
crament,; and that in virtue ofthe consecration, not by
the faith of him that receives.” , '
Bishop Afontague Appeal. c. 31. asserts in the
contents, that the consecration of the elements causeth
achange, Andin the body of the chapter, cites se-
veral of the primitive fathers, owning:.the same: As
St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catech. 5. Precamur Deum
hominum amantem, ut eniiltat sanctum suum spiri-
tum in res propositas, ut fuciat panem Corpus Christi,
et vinum Sanguinem Christie-. We beseech God,
the lover of men,.to send forth his holy spirit upon
the things proposed, that he would make the bread the
body of Christ, and the wine the blood of Christ.” For
whatever the Holy Ghost touches, that thing is saneti-
fied and changed, (as St. Basil remarks). St. Cyprian,
Aste panis, quem disipulis suis porrigebat, non effigie, .
sed natura mutatus, omnipotentia verbi factus est caro.
Et sicut in persona Christi, humanitas videbatur, la-
tebut divinitas: ita sacramento visibili, invisibiliter di-,
vina se infundit substantia, ‘That bread which our Lord
gave to his disciples, not changed in .outward fornt,
but in nature, by the almighty power ofthe Word, was
made flesh, And as in the person of Christ, bis hu-
manity was seen, and his divinity was hid ; so in the
visible sacrament, the. divine substance invisibly in-
fuses itself. St. Ambrose > Before consecration it
was bread, common bread, but after consecration, itbe-
cometh the flesh of Christ, because then the sacrament
is consu:nmate. And the same father; Forte dices,
meus panis est usitatus ; sed panis iste, ante verba »
Sacramentorum, panis est; ubi accesserit consecratio
de pane fit Caro Christi, Perhaps you will say, my
bread is common bread ; but this bread before the sac-
ramental words, is bread, but when it is consecrated,
of bread it is made the flesh of Christ. >
The bishop of Oxford before mentioned, should here
whatis called a-conversion, or change: And being| also be heard, in what he says to this point, in his
reasons against the fest: _ It is evident (saith he) to
alkhmen that are but ordinarily conversant in ecclesias-
tical learning, that the ancient fathers, from age to age,
asserted the real.and substdntial presence,-in very
high and expressive terms. ‘The Greeks styled it,
by words which the Latins, agreeable with the Greeks,
termed conversion, transmutation, transformation,
transfiguration, transclementation, and at length tran-
substantiation ;' By.all which, they expressed nothing ©
‘more nor less, than the real and substantial presence in
the eucharist, page, 13. And afterwards: Inthe Greek
form (saith he)of consecration, this prayer was used =
Make this bread the precious body of thy Christ : end
that whichis inthis cup, the precio ts blood of thy - \
Christ : changing them by thy Holy Spirit: Which”
words are taken out of the liturgies of St. Chrysostom
oJ
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