Preface

This treatise is an attempt to popularize certain portions of the science of theology, in the same way as handbooks and manuals have popularized astronomy, geology, and other physical sciences. It seemed as if in these times devotion might be the better for a more than common infusion of theology —

"Alterifls sio Altera poscit opem, res et conjurat amicei."

It has not been an easy task; for those -who have been accustomed to the many definitions and abundant author ities of the treatises on the Incarnation and Grace, find the treatise of the Holy Eucharist a region of another sort, •where authority does less for them, and consequently they are left to do more for themselves. The reason is obvious. In the matter of the Holy Eucharist heresy has for the most part limited itself to simple negations rather than abounded in false teachings: while the latter was the case with Grace and the Incarnation. As my object is not controversy, but piety, I have not argued out the conclusions to which I have come, nor loaded my pages with erudite references to books. I have made my choice among the various opinions of the schools, and I have put none forward, that I know of, which are not supported by approved writers; and at the same time I must not be understood by preferring one to another, to have qualified with any note of censure what the Church has left untouched and free.

If any should censure me for writing another book on a

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Yl PREFACE.

subject on which so many have been already written, 1 would say in self-defence that I have not written with a view either of superseding the works of others or of teaching any thing new: but I plead as my excuse the words of St. Austin,¹ Utile est plures a pluribus fieri libros, diverso etylo, non diversa fide, etiam de qusestionibus eisdem, ut ad plurimos res ipsa perveniat, ad alios sic, ad alios autem sic. I submit my work with all diffidence to the public, and with entire submission to my superiors. My desire has been to lay it at the feet of the Blessed Sacrament as a little thank-offering for the gift of faith in that transcending mystery, a gift given to me out of season and with a mysterious stretch of pardoning love, and which is to me the dear light of life, for whose abounding joy and unclouded surety no loss can be other than a priceless gain.

F. W. FABER,

PRIEST OP THE ORATORY. The Oratory, London, Feast of St. Thomas of Canterbury,

M.D.CCC.LIV.

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But let no one be ever under the apprehension, that we mortals may not investigate the things which relate to the Divinity. On the contrary, it should be borne in mind that God is not, nor ever was, without understanding, neither is He ignorant of man's nature, but He knows that men will follow Him in His teaching, and will learn what they are being taught.

Footnotes

1. De Trinitate, i. 3. ↩