'Is the Lord sensibly present there?': Cosin against Pusey on adoration of the sacrament

Continuing his critique of Pusey in The Teaching of the Anglican Divines in the Time of King James I and King Charles I on the Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist (1858), Henry Charles Groves - a clergyman of the Church of Ireland - addresses the "simple question" raised by Pusey:

But with Dr. Pusey, "the simple question is, 'is our Lord and God present there?'" He must indeed be simple that would allow that. It certainly is the simple question with the Romanists, when defending themselves against the attacks which their Protestant assailants make on them. But the simple question with Anglican divines was, "Is the Lord sensibly present there?" It was thus Cosin argued.

Groves quotes from Cosin's Notes on the Book of Common Prayer, in which - as with Andrewes - a thoroughly Reformed understanding of the Eucharist is evident:

True it is that the Body and Blood of Christ are Sacramentally and really (not feignedly) present, when the blessed Bread and Wine are taken by the faithful communicants ... Yet because that Body and Blood is neither sensibly present, (nor otherwise at all present but only to them that are duly prepared to receive them, and in the very act of receiving them and the consecrated elements together, to which they are sacramentally in that act united,) the adoration is then and there given to Christ Himself, neither is nor ought to be directed to any external sensible object, such as are the blessed elements. But our kneeling, and the outward gesture of humility and reverence, is ordained only to testify and express the inward reverence and devotion of our souls towards our blessed Saviour, who vouchsafed to sacrifice Himself for us upon the Cross, and now presenteth Himself to be united sacramentally to us, that we may enjoy all the benefits of His mystical Passion, and be nourished with the spiritual food of His blessed Body and Blood unto life eternal.

Note how Cosin here affirms three key Reformed convictions. Firstly, the Lord is present "only to them that are duly prepared to receive". Secondly, the sacramental union between bread, cup, and the Body and Blood of the Lord is limited to "the very act of receiving them". And, thirdly and crucially, "that Body and Blood is neither sensibly present", for we partake of Christ - as Article 28 affirms - "only after an heavenly and spiritual manner". This being so, adoration cannot and should not "be directed to ... the blessed elements".

Cosin, in other words, definitively answered Pusey's simplistic question.

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laudable Practice

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