tongue is made bloody with that wonderful blood."* Again; "Thou seest thy Lord sacrificed, and the crowding multitude round about sprinkled with His blood; He that sits above with the Father is at the same time in our hands.† Thou dost see, and touch, and eat Him.f For I do not shew thee either angels or archangels, but the Lord of them Himself."§ Again; "He incorporates us with Himself, as if we were but the same thing; He makes us His body indeed, and suffers us not only to see, but even to touch, to

θείου σώματος μεταλαμβάνειν νομίζετε, καὶ ὡς τῆς θείας καὶ ἀχράντου πλευρᾶς ἐφαπτόμενοι τοῖς χείλεσιν, οὕτω τοῦ σωτηρίου αἵματος μεταλάβωμεν.]

*Hom. 82. [al. 83. § 4.] in Matt. c. 26. [idoù avтdv ¿pậs, αὐτοῦ ἅπτῃ, αὐτὸν ἐσθίεις—αὐτὸς δὲ ἑαυτόν σοι δίδωσιν, οὐκ ἰδεῖν μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἅψασθαι καὶ φαγεῖν καὶ λαβεῖν ἔνδον.—τίνος οὖν οὐκ ἔδει καθαρώτερον εἶναι τὸν ταύτης ἀπολαύοντα τῆς θυσίας ; ποίας ἡλιακῆς ἀκτῖνος τὴν χεῖρα τὴν ταύτην διατέμνουσαν τὴν σάρκα, τὸ στόμα τὸ πληρούμενον πυρὸς πνευματικοῦ, τὴν γλῶσσαν τὴν φοινισσομένην αἵματι φρικωδεστάτῳ.

+ Lib. de Sacerd. iii. § 4. [ὅταν γὰρ ἴδῃς τὸν κύριον τεθυμένον καὶ κείμενον καὶ τὸν ἱερέα ἐφεστῶτα τῷ θύματι καὶ ἐπευχόμενον, καὶ πάντας ἐκείνῳ τῷ τιμίῳ φοινισσομένους αἵματι.—ὁ μετὰ τοῦ πατρὸς ἄνω καθήμενος, κατὰ τὴν ὥραν ἐκείνην τοῖς ἁπάντων κατέχεται χερσὶ καὶ δίδωσιν αὑτὸν τοῖς βουλομένοις περιπτύξασθαι καὶ περιλαβεῖν.]

† Hom. 51 et 83. in Matt. [οὐ τὸ ἱμάτιον μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ σῶμα, οὐχ ὥστε ἅψασθαι μόνον, ἀλλ ̓ ὥστε καὶ φαγῆναι καὶ ἐμφορηθῆναι.]

§ Hom. 24. 1 Cor. [§ 5. οὐ γὰρ ἀγγέλους οὐδὲ ἀρχαγγέλους · οὐδὲ οὐρανοὺς καὶ οὐρανοὺς οὐρανῶν, ἀλλ ̓ αὐτὸν τὸν τούτων σοι δείκνυμι δεσπότην.]

eat Him, and to put our teeth in His flesh; so that by that food which He gives us, we become His flesh."* Such is that of St. Austin; "Let us give thanks, not only that we are made Christians, but also made Christ."+ Lastly, such is that of B. Leo; "In that mystical distribution it is given us to be made His flesh."‡ Certainly, if any man would wrangle and take advantage of these, he might thereby maintain, as well that we are transubstantiated into Christ, and Christ's flesh into the bread, as that the bread and wine are transubstantiated into his body and blood. But Protestants, who scorn to play the sophisters, interpret these and the like passages of the fathers with candour and ingenuity (as it is most fitting they should). For the expressions of preachers, which often have something of a paradox, must not be taken according to that harsher sound wherewith they at first strike the auditors' ears.

*Hom. 45. in Joh. et 83. in Mat. [àvéμičev kavтdv ĥμîv καὶ ἀνέφυρε τὸ σῶμα αὐτοῦ εἰς ἡμᾶς—καὶ τὸν αὐτοῦ πάθον ἐπιδεικνὺς εἰς ἡμᾶς, οὐκ ἰδεῖν αὐτὸν μόνον παρέσχε τοῖς ἐπιθυμοῦσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἅψασθαι καὶ φαγεῖν καὶ ἐμπῆξαι τοὺς ὀδόντας τῇ σαρκί.]

† Tract. xxi. in Johan. [§ 8. Ergo gratulemur et agamus gratias, non solum nos Christianos factos esse, sed Christum.]

Epist. 23. [In illa mystica distributione spiritalis alimoniæ hoc impartitur, hoc sumitur, ut accipientes virtutem cœlestis cibi, in carnem ipsius qui caro nostra factus est transeamus.]

The fathers spake not of any transubstantiated bread, but of the mystical and consecrated, when they used those sorts of expressions; and that for these reasons: 1st, That they might extol and amplify the dignity of this mystery, which all true Christians acknowledge to be very great and peerless. 2d, That communicants might not rest in the outward elements, but seriously consider the thing represented, whereof they are most certainly made partakers, if they be worthy receivers. 3d and lastly, That they might approach so great a mystery with the more zeal, reverence, and devotion. And that those hyperbolic expressions are thus to be understood, the fathers themselves teach clearly enough, when they come to interpret them.

9. Lastly, being the same holy fathers, who (as the manner is to discourse of sacraments) speak sometimes of the bread and wine in the Lord's supper as if they were the very body and blood of Christ, do also very often call them types, elements, signs, the figure of the body and blood of Christ; from hence it appears most manifestly, that they were of the Protestants', and not of the Papists' opinion. For we can, without prejudice to what we believe of the sacrament, use those former expressions which the Papists believe do most favour them, if they be understood, as they ought to be, sacramentally. But

the latter none can use, but he must thereby overthrow the groundless doctrine of transubstantiation; these two, the bread is transubstantiated into the body, and the bread also is the type, the sign, the figure of the body of Christ, being wholly inconsistent. For it is impossible that a thing that loseth its being should yet be the sign and representation of another; neither can any thing be the type and the sign of itself.

10. But if, without admitting of a sacramental sense, the words be used too rigorously, nothing but this will follow, that the bread and wine are really and properly the very body and blood of Christ, which they themselves disown that hold transubstantiation. Therefore in this change it is not a newness of substance, but of use and virtue, that is produced; which yet the fathers acknowledged, with us, to be wonderful, supernatural, and proper only to God's omnipotency : for that earthly and corruptible meat cannot become to us a spiritual and heavenly, the communion of the body and blood of Christ, without God's especial power and operation. And whereas it is far above philosophy and human reason, that Christ from heaven (where alone He is locally) should reach down to us the divine virtue of His flesh, so that we are made one body with Him; therefore it is as necessary as it is reasonable that the fathers should tell us, that we ought with

singleness of heart to believe the Son of God, when He saith, "This is My body;" and that we ought not to measure this high and holy mystery by our narrow conceptions, or by the course of nature. For it is more acceptable to God with an humble simplicity of faith to reverence and embrace the words of Christ, than to wrest them violently to a strange and improper sense, and with curiosity and presumption to determine what exceeds the capacity of men and angels. Thus much in general may suffice to answer those places of the fathers which are usually brought in the behalf of transubstantiation. He that would have a larger refutation of those objections fetched from antiquity, may read Hospinianus his History of the Sacrament,* and Antonius de Dominis in his fifth book of the Christian Commonwealth, chap. vi.,† and in his detection of the errors of Saurez, chap. ii.

Answer to single testimony of Fathers.

11. That place of Ignatius cited by Theodoret ‡ out of the epistle to the Smyrnenses (where now it is not to be found), and objected by some of the * Lib. ii. et iv. † A sect. 1. usque ad 13.

Dial. 3. ex Epist. v. [ad Smyrn. eixapɩorías кal πрoσφορὰς οὐκ ἀποδέχονται, διὰ τὸ μὴ ὁμολογεῖν τὴν εὐχαριστίαν σάρκα εἶναι τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, τὴν ὑπὲρ ἁμαρτιῶν ἡμῶν παθοῦσαν, ἣν χρηστότητι ὁ πατὴρ ἤγειρεν. Opera, iv. 154. ed. 1642.]