truth and value of a public charge of this nature- -a charge made, under circumstances of peculiar gravity, by a Bishop of the Church against a Priest of the Church-undetermined by FITTING AND COMPETENT AUTHORITY—and further, RESERVING TO MYSELF THE FULL RIGHT OF APPEAL,-I call upon Bishop Spencer to lay the charge he has publicly made against me before the Bishops of the Church of England, in Sacred Synod assembled, and to request the Synod to pronounce sentence thereupon. The statement of Doctrine, a portion of which Bishop Spencer has impugned as being "not the Doctrine of the Church of England," is identical in substance, and nearly in words, with a statement of THE DOCTRINE OF THE SACRAMENTS published by me in 1851. I subjoin the statements in parallel columns : 1851. newed from time to time, in and by Holy Communion. "III. That a death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness,' is GIVEN to every adult, and every infant, in and by the outward visible sign or form in Baptism, water, in the name of the FATHER, and of the Son, and of the HOLY GHOST.' "IV. That the GIFT may be RECEIVED, in the case of adults, worthily or unworthily, but that it is always RECEIVED. "V. That the Body and Blood of CHRIST are GIVEN to every one who RECEIVES the Sacramental Bread and Wine. "VI. That the GIFT may be RECEIVED Worthily or unworthily, but that it is always RECEIVED. "I say THE DOCTRINE OF THE SACRAMENTS, because that doctrine is one. It is not uncommon, in the vagueness of our theology, to hear it spoken or treated of as two-fold, and even separable. But surely what is true of holy Baptism, and what is true of holy Communion, are but parts of the same doctrine. Man born into the world a member of the old Creation, is born again a member of the new Creation'born of water and of the 1851. Spirit'-in and by holy Baptism and the principle of the : life in CHRIST thus imparted to man in and by holy Baptism, is renewed and carried on unto such perfection as is attainable in this life, in and by holy Communion. There is nothing two-fold, much less separable, here. "Now, if the doctrine be one, it will follow that the acceptance of it must be one,-truth of belief is not divisible., Wherefore, to make it correct to say of any one that he holds THE DOCTRINE OF THE SACRAMENTS, it must appear that he is of sound belief alike in respect of holy Baptism and holy Communion; i. e., that he holds alike REGENERATION in holy Baptism, and THE REAL PRESENCE in holy Communion. And, further, that there is no room for a sound belief in REGENERATION in holy Baptism without a sound belief in THE REAL PRESENCE in holy Communion, and vice versd. "In like manner, any flaw in our belief respecting Regeneration in holy Baptism is fatal to our claim to hold that belief in reality. Now such flaw is the drawing any distinction in respect of the Sacrament, be 1851. tween adult and infant Baptism, as if there could be two Baptisms and not one. I say, ' in respect of the Sacrament,' because the Sacrament, and man's acceptance of the Sacrament, are different things; an infant cannot accept holy Baptism unworthily; an adult may; but what GOD has seen fit to bestow in and by the outward sign, it is impossible for any man to say he has not received when that outward sign has passed upon him; and in like manner of holy Communion; a man, who receives the Sacramental Bread and Wine, receives the Body and Blood of CHRIST; worthily it may be, unworthily it may be ; but it is impossible, under any circumstances, for him to say that he has not received it; and what he receives worthily or unworthily is in all cases the same thing; in all cases 'the inward part or thing signified,' THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST.' If it were not so, then, in the case of one receiving unworthily, there would be no Sacrament. "This, however, is not the place for going in detail into the theological proof of what I have here advanced. If the statement of the DoCTRINE 1853. with the word "Presence" in the above extracts. I quote therefore a passage from the published Correspondence, Letter K. p. 37, which will, I hope, clear me from all reasonable suspicion on the ground of this fact. "I had hoped that I had made it so clear that I hold the Real Presence of the Body and Blood of CHRIST in the Sacramental Bread and Wine to be purely and absolutely a Spiritual Presence, as to have guarded myself definitely and effectually against being supposed to approach, however remotely, the confines of the doctrine of Consubstantiation." 1851. OF THE SACRAMENTS I have here made is controverted, I shall be prepared to argue the case, but at present it is not necessary." 1853. The specific portion of the statement of 1853, impugned by Bishop Spencer as being "not the Doctrine of the Church of England," is this,-" that the BoDy and BLOOD of CHRIST, being REALLY PRESENT in the Sacramental Bread and Wine, are GIVEN, in and by the outward sign, to ALL, and are RECEIVED by ALL." |