Transcribed from the 1877 Hatchards edition ,
AS TAUGHTBY
The Church of England.
BYTHE
REV. E. HOARE,
VICAR OFTRINITY, TUNBRIDGE WELLS, AND HONORARY CANON OF
CANTERBURY.
LONDON:
HATCHARDS, PICCADILLY.
1877.
It is a very easy thing to make aconfident assertion, and such assertions produce a greater effecton many minds than the most careful and best-establishedproof. Thus it is not at all an uncommon thing to hear itasserted with the utmost confidence that what is termed‘The Doctrine of the Real Presence,’ is taught by theChurch of England; and the result is that a considerable numberof persons believe in the assertion, and place reliance on thosewho make it, as if they, and they only, were the true expositorsof the Church’s doctrine. In many cases a blindconsent is blindly given. The Scriptures are notinvestigated because the p. 4point is supposed to have been settledby the Church, and the documents of the Church are not studiedbecause the doctrine is regarded as beyond the reach of doubt;whereas, if the real groundwork of that opinion were examined, itwould be found to consist in nothing more than confidentassertion. But those who are loyal to the Church of Englandought not to be satisfied with any such representation of itsteaching. The issues at stake are far too serious, and, nowthat after three hundred years of faithful service the Church ofEngland is entering on such a sifting time as she has never yetexperienced, it is only fair to her that her own language shouldbe patiently heard, and her own teaching honestly examined. This, then, is the object of this address. I am not aboutto discuss the teaching of Scripture, but of the Church ofEngland; and my desire is to ascertain by the careful and candidexamination of her own documents whether there is, or is not, anyauthority for the assertion that she teaches what is commonlycalled ‘The Doctrine of the Real Presence.’ Indoing this, our first business is to ascertain what is the realpoint at issue, and this is not so easy a task as it may appear,as p. 5amongstthose who maintain that doctrine there are no authoritativedocuments on the subject to which we can refer. But, Ibelieve, I am perfectly safe in arranging the three principalpoints at issue under the three heads of the Real Presence,Adoration, and Sacrifice; and these three I propose toinvestigate in that order.
This lies at the foundation of thewhole controversy, and to this our first and chief attention mustbe directed. Now, there can be no doubt on the minds ofthose who take the Word of God as their true and only guide thatit is the sacred privilege of the Children of God to feed byfaith on the most precious body and blood of our blessedSaviour. I am not now discussing in what way we feed onHim, or whether His words in the 6th chapter of St. John refer,or do not refer, to the Sacrament of the Lord’sSupper. It is my own belief that they do not; but that isnot the present question. My present concern is with the