shall so come in like manner," as concerning the truth of Christ's the apostles beheld him retire from body and blood in the Eucharist this dismantled, evil, and sin-stained This monk, by Bellarmine's admis world. The inference must be so; sion, was the first author who wrote and I know not how any one, with seriously and copiously concerning this blessed book in his hand, can it; so that 800 years passed away venture to affirm otherwise,-I know before any author wrote seriously not how the Church of Rome can and copiously about the bodily prepronounce her anathema on me for sence, and yet, during these 800 believing what the Holy Spirit de- years, the fathers and other doctors clares-I repeat, the inference must had written copiously and seriously be, that our Lord is not corporeally on almost every doctrine and duty. present upon the altars of the Roman Again, Duns Scotus, Fellow and Catholic Church, as far as I can find Professor of Divinity at Merton the evidences of that presence, as College, Oxford, in the beginning of these are here distinctly and empha- the fourteenth century, allows that tically proclaimed. The last pas- Transubstantiation was not always sage which I shall quote, is from necessary to be believed, and that Revelations i. 7: "Behold he the necessity of believing it was cometh with clouds, and every eye consequent on the declaration of shall see him, and they also which the Church, made at the sanguinary pierced him; and all kindreds of the fourth Council of Lateran, in 1215, earth shall wail because of him." under Innocent III. Durandus I then ask, if he thus "cometh with Bishop of Meaux, acknowledges his clouds," is there any evidence of it, inclination to believe the contrary of is there any semblance of it in the Transubstantiation, if the Church hall. Roman Catholic Church when the not obliged men to believe it. [Here wafer is turned into the body and the rev. gentleman's hour expired.] blood, the soul and divinity, bones and nerves, of the Son of God?

Mr.FRENCH.-Ladies and gentle I shall not, on the present occa- men, it is to me, I candidly con sion, bring forward other disproofs fess, in rising to address you, a of this most extraordinary dogma, most pleasing and delightful spec i. e. that our Lord is present cor- tacle to behold so many persons, of poreally on the altars of the Church either sex, this evening, assembled of Rome. But I would just men- together, for the noble, the exalte tion one simple fact respecting the purpose of hearing, in solemn s origin of this notion, which, indeed, fence, and with the calm composur I ought to have done before. The of minds open to conviction, the doctrine of the corporeal presence of cause of sacred truth luminously Christ in the Eucharist was first explained, and, with the help of started on the occasion of a dispute Almighty God, which I believe both as to the worship of images, in my reverend friend and myself have opposition to which the Council of with fervour implored before our Constantinople, in 754, contended entrance into this room, not only that Christ had left us no other luminously explained, but vigorously image than the bread-the image as well as copiously defended. Yes, of his body. Rhadbert Paschasius, my friends, truth, sacred truth, wi a monk of the ninth century, accord- this day, by the efforts of the suc ing to Bellarmine, was the first who cessful combatant, be placed before had seriously and copiously written you, in all its native majesty and

charms; whilst on the other hand, error, on whichever side it may be found to be-for I have no right to assume that it is on mine-error will be, by this same energetic power of argument on the part of him that shall prevail, stripped of all its false pretensions, and exposed to every eye, in all its native deformity. In other words, by one of these our conflicting labours, that will come to pass this day, which our blessed Saviour has uttered, "Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up." St. Matt. xv. 13.

"The bread that I will give you is
my flesh," St. John vi. 51; and
that when afterwards at the Last
Supper he said, with clear, solemn,
testamentary emphasis, "This is my
body, this is my blood," St. Matt.
xxvi. 26-28, that he meant it to be
understood, as is expounded by his
own words, "Verily, verily," and not
as expounded by the tongues of Pro-
testants, "Figuratively, figuratively."

The gentleman who is this day opposed to me has, more than once during his address to you, deprecated any introduction, on my part, of the glorious fathers of the Yes, my respected friends, this church. My reverend opponent, I day, I confidently trust, will arouse must also remark, has boasted more many a slumbering soul to deep and than once, in his endeavours to solemn meditation on that most subvert or to disprove the doctrine vital, most important of all subjects of the Catholic Eucharist, which for the mind of a Christian to re- doctrine is, as he has properly devolve, namely, whether it be indeed fined it, though in other words,true, or whether it be but an idle the real presence of our Lord's fiction, a mere empty sound, that glorious and blessed body, under Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of the species of corruptible elements; Man, and drink his blood, ye have he has boasted, I say, that, in acno life in you." St. John vi. 53. complishing this, the sphere of his And here permit me to say, what I argumentation shall principally be most sanguinely anticipate, namely, the Bible, a book upon which he that some persons who have entered defies me to support my principle. this room this evening (though I am Now the Bible, I reply, or the New aware that many have entered it Testament, shall also be my prime without leaving their prejudices bulwark in defending it. Yes, my behind them), will go out of it friends, I will meet him, foot to entirely altered men or women, as to foot, on that hallowed ground: nay the whole texture of their religious more, I will encounter him at the sentiments, firmly and unconquer- very entrance of it, as it were, with ably resolved to obey the operations the four flaming swords of the of Divine grace beaming upon their hearts, so soon as I shall have placed the truth in full blaze before them. Yes, I repeat it, so soon as their understandings shall have been convinced by the force of irresistible and unanswerable arguments, that when the Lord Jesus Christ said, some time before the Last Supper, to his disciples, preparing them for that grand and august sacrament which he was about to institute,

cherubim to guard the stand I take :
I mean, my friends, the express
texts of the four Evangelists, and,
added to them, that powerful body
of auxiliaries, the texts of Saint
Paul to the Corinthians. But, my
friends, whilst I also glory in claim-
ing the Bible as my chief prop, I
cannot consent to deprive myself,
in corroborating my deductions
from that inspired volume, of the
bencfit to be derived to me from de-

auctions precisely similar to my own, made in every age, since the foundation of Christianity, by the renowned and glorious fathers of the Church. I cannot-I will not consent, in accommodation to modern dictators in theology, to break asunder that sacred link of tradition which hands down to me, in one regular, harmonious, beautiful line of unbroken succession, from age to age, and from father to father, the dogma of the Catholic Eucharist: namely, that in this sacrament Christ gave unto us his blessed body; yes, his very flesh to eat, and his very blood to drink.

therefore place before you, in the very front of this discussion, a : quotation from one of those glorious fathers, in order to render the course which I am about to pursue more simple and easy. I shall lay before you one ever-memorable, ever-dazzling extract and I shall content myself, probably, with this, or at most one or two more, during the course of the limited time now prescribed to me. It is a quotation from St. Ignatius Martyr, who was a disciple, as Archbishop Wake, a Protestant archbishop, tells us, of St. John the Evangelist, and who was appointed, as the same archNo, my friends, I do not wonder at bishop tells us, to the see of Antioch, this his earnest deprecation against by the apostle St. Peter. He, there my introducing the fathers of the fore, (St. Ignatius,) as I humbly Church, on the part of my learned conceive, ought to have known opponent. Were I in his situation, something, at least, of genuine I should have made a similar appeal Christianity, having had the benefit to my antagonist. But no, gentle of such tuition, under such tran men, I must have recourse to them; scendently holy and incontrovertibly such an overwhelming argument inspired masters. He laid his very cannot be passed by, by the Catholic life down in the cause of his blessed who is solicitous to do full justice Redeemer, facing with undaunted to the glorious cause he has under- fortitude the fierce and hungry lion taken to defend. It is an argument, in the amphitheatre at Rome, and my friends, that of itself, without dying with joy and gladness, in order the necessity of any close, scruti- to drink full streams of joy and nizing inspection into the inspired pages, will for ever enable the Catholic, I will not say to frown, but to smile defiance on his Protestant antagonist; who vainly endeavours, by his feeble outcry, to silence the loud voice that issues forth from the depth of ages-a voice, my friends, which has never ceased to re-echo, uninterruptedly, for now nearly nineteen centuries, from clime to clime, and from one end of Christendom to the other-of him, in an argumentative, not the doctrine of Transubstantiation.

I shall, therefore, gentlemen, in my view of things (for I will never permit any one to prescribe to me he line which I think proper to adopt in my disputation)-I sha'.

gladness for ever in the presence of the immaculate Lamb. Such a person, surely, will not be spoken of slightly by my eloquent and my pious friend. He, surely, can never undervalue Ignatius, the disciple of St. John the Evangelist; and if, in the warmth of discussion, he should call him "oriental, metaphorical," or "figurative,"-which, I believe, were the epithets he ascribes to the language of the fathers, I shall beg

orientalizing manner, when he arises to answer me, to do away, if he can, or to invalidate the strength of this infrangible passage in our favour and to show me wherein the orient alism and figurativeness of the

expression consists. I shall hand it | quainted with the subject, imagines over to him, in order that he may the Catholic to take; namely, a bit see that I quote it fairly, and ex- of flesh, or so many drops of blood; plain it to you with the utmost but he says, "which flesh the accuracy and the utmost precision. Father, in his goodness, resusHand it over, if you please, Mr. citated," or raised up, that is to Weld, to Mr. Finch, the Chairman on say, the flesh of Christ, animated the other side.] Bear in mind, my with his immortal soul, with his friends, that this Ignatius, who eternal Spirit; in other words, lived in the earliest ages of Chris-" "Christ," as the Council of Trent tianity, as I told you, ought most has it, and as my learned friend, unquestionably to know what was with the utmost accuracy has expure and unadulterated Christianity pressed it, "Christ truly God, ana As these words are most important, truly man, whole and entire." I shall quote them in Greek, as I Such, gentlemen, is the Catholic have not the book now in hand; doctrine. Whether accurate or not, do not alarm yourselves, however, we shall examine when we come to for I shall translate them immedi- notice my learned friend's observaately into English. He is talking tions. But you have here, already, of certain persons whom he calls my friends, the demonstration of a heretics, and he says of these here- fact, which, in my own humble tics," They abstain from the Eu- opinion, supersedes the necessity of charist and prayer, because they any further inspection into the fado not believe the Eucharist to be thers of the Church at all; not that the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, I shall limit myself to this one which flesh suffered for our sins, and solitary quotation, but I say it is so which flesh, in his goodness, the Father powerful a quotation as to admit of resuscitated.”—Ed. Pears. et Smith, no dispute as to its force and invinOxon. 1709. [Mr. French having cibility. It will be in vain for my parted with the book, repeated and learned friend to say he is not a true construed the Greek from memory.] father of the Church, because he is Now, you see, my friends, in not an inspired apostle. What! a the first place, that there were man educated by St. John the Evancertain heretics that absented them-gelist,-a man appointed Bishop of selves from the Eucharist in those Antioch, by St. Peter, not a father! days. And why, let me ask, did aye, and a grandfather, too, if I may they thus absent themselves from use an illustrative expression of the a participation of that heavenly learned gentleman. [Applause and food? Why, Ignatius tells you, hisses from different parts of the that they absented themselves be- room, and cries of "Order!"] cause they would not believe that it was "the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ;" and, mark the accuracy of the expression!-meaning to show what flesh, and that you might not imagine it to be an oriental expression, he says, "which flesh," not which bread "suffered for our sins." it goes on; the passage goes on to show, that it is not mere inanimate flesh, which the Protestant, unac

Thus you see, my friends, that even in the days of the apostles the loud, bold voice of Protestantism was already heard resounding. There were men, even in those brightdawning days, as St. Ignatius tells us,-there were men who absented themselves from the holy Eucharist, because they could not make up their minds to believe in that doctrine which the Catholic so firmly

believes in. [Here the learned gen- themselves; "their ears,” to use the tleman was interrupted, and the language of the apostle, “could not meeting was called to "Order."] endure sound doctrine;" they conSilence being obtained, the learned tinued wandering in their vain gentleman continued: I must re-imaginations, through all the interquest my Catholic friends not to set minable mazes of infidelity and scepso bad an example. It is disgrace- ticism, instead of acquiescing with ful in the extreme. It does not lowly and implicit confidence in the animate me; it rather depresses unerring words of Him who is "the me, to hear such bursts of acclama- way, the truth, and the life;" "in tion. It confuses me- -destroys the whose lips was no guile," in whose thread of my disputation, and does words was no possibility of decepno good to yourselves. Yes, there tion; instead of crying out with were men (says St. Ignatius) who Peter-the rock upon which Christ lived and died aliens and strangers built his church-in reply to his to those heavenly rays which illu- Divine Master, "Lord, to whom minated the eyes of the believing shall we go? thou hast the words and the adoring Catholic. of eternal life," St. John vi. 68; thou hast said unto me, and said unto all thy followers, that "unless we eat thy flesh and drink thy blood, we have no life within us."

But, my friends, why should this excite our wonder and astonishment, when we reflect, that scarcely had the sacred lips of a Man-God (when here upon earth) announced the I must here observe, that I shall grand sacrament which he was be very willing, in imitation of the about to institute, when murmur- example set by my learned friend, to ings arose and spread around him refer immediately to the pages of the from mouth to mouth, questioning Bible and of the New Testament, its possibility, even in his blessed chiefly in order to prove the doctrine presence. "How can this man give of Transubstantiation; but, at the us his flesh to eat?" exclaimed the same time, I hope that you will not first Protestants of whom history deem it a departure from the system makes mention. "How can this pointed out, to which I shall, in man give us his flesh to eat?" St. some respects, be very willing to John vi. 52. Here, my friends, it adhere,-I say, I hope you will not occurs to me, that I may, perchance, deem it a deviation from that syshave given some assistance to my tem, if, whilst I refer to particular learned friend and opponent, in parts of Scripture, I likewise refer tracing the existence of his Church to the fathers of the Church, who, up to the apostolical days. How inthe respective ages of that Church, ever, gentlemen, I am generous explained these passages and these enough to give him all the advan- texts precisely in the same manner tage he can possibly reap from this as we Catholics do at the present concession on my part; suffice it for day. My reverend opponent has me to call his attention, and your told you, that he is prepared, this attention, to this one undeniable evening, to adduce St. Augustine, fact:-that "from that time for- and St. Jerome, with other fathers, ward," it is said, "they (the first as evidence against the doctrine of Protestants) walked no more with Transubstantiation.

him." St. John vi. 66. No, they Rev. Dr. CUMMING.-No; not left the teaching of our blessed St. Jerome: St. Augustine and Saviour, in order to dogmatize for others.