be fulfilled), the assent of our Right Reverend Fathers[64] in God on the one hand, and of our congregations on the other. So managed, the present might well become a grand and harmonious movement of Bishops, Clergy, and people towards a noble result,--the setting up, namely, in its due place, of the highest ordinance of the Gospel: with variations, indeed, in many respects, as to the mode and fashion of administration; but with one happy feature at any rate,--a nearer approximation, both in Rites and Ritual, to Apostolic Doctrine and Worship. [64] See the Bishop of Oxford's opinion, delivered in Convocation. NOTE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. In revising the above pages for a Fourth Edition, I have corrected the statement made by me in page 40, as to the doctrine maintained by Archdeacon Denison; and I desire to repeat here the expression of regret, which I have already made public through another channel, at having misrepresented his view. A correspondence between us, since published by him (Rivington's), will explain more fully the state of the case. It may suffice to repeat here, that the exact position taken up by him in 1856, as regards the points under discussion, is expressed in the two following propositions: Proposition III.-- "That The Body and Blood of Christ, being present naturally in Heaven, are, supernaturally and invisibly, but Really, Present in the Lord's Supper, through the elements, by virtue of the act of consecration." Proposition VIII.-- "That worship is due to The Body and Blood of Christ, supernaturally and invisibly, but Really Present in the Lord's Supper, 'under the form of Bread and Wine,'[65] by reason of that Godhead with which they are personally united. But that the elements through which 'The Body and Blood of Christ' are given and received may not be worshipped." [65] End of the 1st Book of Homilies. With respect to the presence of non-communicants at the Holy Eucharist, I had of course seen such publications as have appeared in defence of the practice. But they fail altogether in the essential point, which is, to show that antiquity viewed the presence of such in any other light than either--1. As an utter carelessness and irreverence; or 2. as befitting _penitents_, and them only. The mediæval doctrine and practice, now being revived by some, is that it is a good and laudable habit for Christian persons in a state of grace to come to the Holy Communion, and to decline receiving it. I have to acknowledge many communications on various points; of which I have to some extent availed myself in this edition. APPENDIX A. OPINIONS OF THE BISHOP OF EXETER ON CERTAIN POINTS OF DOCTRINE. Having had occasion to receive from the Bishop of Exeter an expression of his views on the subjects discussed in pp. 31-37, I asked and obtained permission to embody it in an Appendix, as his latest and most matured judgment on the matter to which it relates.