Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 3.djvu/62

10 1. The denial of the cup to the laity. Considering the great importance of the holy eucharist to our salvation, this seems a very serious consideration for those who seek to be saved. Our Lord says, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, ye have no life in you." If it be recriminated, as it sometimes is, that we think it no risk to sprinkle instead of immersing in baptism, it is obvious to answer that we not only do not forbid, we enjoin immersion; we only do not forbid sprinkling in the case of infants, and that the laity are defrauded, if defrauded, by their own fault, or the fault of the age, not the fault of the Church.

2. The necessity of the priest's intention to the validity of the Sacraments. The Church of Rome has determined, that a Sacrament does not confer grace unless the priest means it to do so; so that if he be an unbeliever, nay, if he, from malice or other cause, withholds his intention, it is not a means of salvation. Now, considering what the Romanists themselves will admit, the great practical corruption of the Church at various times,—considering that infidels and profligates have been in the Papal Chair, and in other high stations,—who can answer, on the Church of Rome's own ground, that there is still preserved to it the Apostolical succession as conveyed in its sacrament of Orders? what individual can answer that he himself really receives in the consecrated wafer, even that moiety of the great Christian blessing which alone remains to him in the Roman Communion? We indeed, believe, (and with comfort) that the administration of the Sacrament is effectual in those Churches, in spite of their undermining their own claim to the gift. Still let it be recollected, no one can become a Romanist without believing that the Church he has joined has no truer certainty of possessing it than that communion which, probably on the very account of its uncertainty in this matter, he has deemed it right to abandon.

3. The necessity of confession. By the council of Trent, every member of the Church must confess himself to a priest once a year at least. This confession extends to all mortal sins, that is, to all sins which either are done willingly or are of any magnitude. Without this confession, which must be accompanied by hearty sorrow for the things confessed, no one can be partaker of