A VERY IMPORTANT DECLARATION!
May everyone read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the language of the following declaration. It is the declaration which, under the “Act of Settlement” and by the law of England, every Sovereign of this country, at his or her coronation, must “make, subscribe, and audibly repeat.” It is the declaration, be it remembered, which was made, subscribed and repeated by Her Gracious Majesty, Queen Victoria.
“I, Victoria, do solemnly and sincerely, in the presence of God, profess, testify, and declare that I do believe that in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper there is not any transubstantiation of the elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, at or after the consecration thereof, by any person whatsoever; and that the invocation or adoration of the Virgin Mary or any other Saint, and the sacrifice of the mass, as they are now used in the Church of Rome, are superstitious, and idolatrous. And I do solemnly, in the presence of God, profess, testify, and declare, that I do make this declaration, and every part thereof, in the plain and ordinary sense of the words read unto me, as they are commonly understood by English Protestants, without any evasion, equivocation or mental reservation, and without any dispensation already granted me for this purpose by the Pope or any other authority or person whatsoever, or without any hope of any such dispensation from any person or authority whatsoever, or without thinking that I am or can be acquitted before God or man, or absolved of this declaration or any part thereof, although the Pope, or any other person or persons or power whatsoever, shall dispense with or annul the same, or declare that it was null and void from the beginning.”
May the day never come when British Sovereigns shall cease to make the above declaration!
