es," because they partook of one loaf, which was the body
of Christ. The Papists are in the right, and have been much
slandered by the Protestants, for the doctrine of Transubstantiation,
or at least the Real Presence, is as plainly taught in the New
Testament, as the doctrine of the Atonement. You have seen what
Paul believed upon this subject, and I shall corroborate the sense I
put upon his words, by the words of Jesus, his master, and by
quotations from the earliest Fathers.
Jesus says, John vi.--"I am the living bread which came down
from Heaven; if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever,
and the bread which I will give is my flesh, which I will give for
the life of the world." The Jews, therefore, contended among
themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
Jesus, therefore, said unto them, "Verily, verily, I say unto you,
unless ye eat the flesh of the son of man, and drink his blood, ye
have not life in you. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my
blood, hath everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
For my flesh is verily food, and my blood is verily drink. He that
eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in
him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father,
(here is an oath) so he likewise that eateth me shall live by me."
This strange doctrine was the faith of the Primitive Christians, as is
well known to the learned Protestants, though they do not like to
say so to their "weaker brethren."
Ignatius says, "There is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
one cup in the unity of his blood;" and of certain heretics he says,
"they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus
Christ."
Justin Martyr, in his Apology, asserts that the consecrated bread
"is, some how or other, the flesh of Christ."
In the dispute with Latimer about Transubstantiation, it is
acknowledged by the most candid writers, that the Roman
Catholics had much the advantage. It must have been so, where
quotations from the Fathers were allowed as arguments. For what
answer can be made to the following extracts?--" What a miracle
is this! He who sits above with the Father, at the same instant, is
handled by the hands of men." [Chrysostom.] Again, from the
same, "That which is in the cup, is the same which flowed from
the side of Christ." Again, "Because we abhor the eating of raw
flesh; therefore, it appeareth bread, though it be flesh.
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