From whatever quarter the duty of such worship was learned by the Romish Priesthood, it assuredly was _not_ learned from the Bible. The written word of God neither enjoins it, nor gives a single instance of its ever having being paid either in the time or with the sanction of the Apostles. 5. EQUALLY SILENT also is the Bible, respecting the alleged circumstance: that _The celebration of the Eucharist is a true propitiatory sacrifice both for the quick and for the dead_. The Church of Rome, indeed, teaches this doctrine: but she did _not_ learn it from Scripture. III. We may now, with advantage, proceed to hear the declarations of the Fathers concerning the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. 1. Clement of Alexandria lived in the second century. (1.) The Scripture has named wine A MYSTIC SYMBOL of the holy blood. {14a} (2.) Know well, that the Lord himself also partook of WINE: for he himself also was a man. And he blessed the wine, saying: _Take_, _drink_; _this is my blood_, _the blood of the vine_. The holy stream of exhilaration ALLEGORICALLY REPRESENTS the Word, who poured himself out on behalf of many, for the remission of sins. {14b} 2. Tertullian flourished at the end of the second and at the beginning of the third century. (1.) We must not call our senses in question, lest we should doubt respecting their fidelity even in the case of Christ himself. For, if we question their fidelity, we might be led to say: that Christ—TASTED A DIFFERENT FLAVOUR OF THE WINE WHICH HE CONSECRATED IN MEMORY OF HIS OWN BLOOD. {15a} (2.) If Christ declares, that _The_ FLESH _profiteth nothing_; the sense must be decided from the matter of the saying. For, because the Jews deemed his discourse hard and intolerable, as if he had truly determined that his FLESH was to be eaten by them: in order that he might dispose the state of salvation TOWARD THE SPIRIT, he promised; _It is the_ SPIRIT _that quickeneth_. And thus he subjoined: _The_ FLESH _profiteth nothing_, namely, to quicken. There follows also, WHAT HE WOULD HAVE US UNDERSTAND BY SPIRIT. _The words_, _which I have spoken unto you_, _are spirit and life_. {15b} (3.) Christ reprobated, neither the water of the Creator with which he washes his people, nor the oil with which he anoints them, nor the fellowship of honey and milk with which he feeds them as infants, nor the BREAD by which he REPRESENTS his own body: for, even in his sacraments, he needs the beggarly elements of the Creator. {15c} 3. Athanasius flourished in the fourth century.