Anglican Communion -- Apologetic works; Church of England -- Apologetic works
We affirm that bread and wine are holy and heavenly mysteries of the body
and blood of Christ, and that by them Christ Himself, being the true
bread of eternal life, is so presently given unto us as that by faith we
verily receive his body and his blood. Yet say we not this so, as though
we thought that the nature and substance of the bread and wine is clearly
changed and goeth to nothing: as many have dreamed in these later times,
which yet could never agree among themselves, of this their dream. For
that was not Christ's meaning, that the wheaten bread should lay apart
his own nature, and receive a certain new divinity: but that he might
rather change us, and (to use Theophylact's words) might transform us
into His body. For what can be said more plainly, than that which
Ambrose saith: "Bread and wine remain still the same they were before,
and yet are changed into another thing:" or, that which Gelasius saith:
"The substance of the bread, or the nature of the wine, ceaseth not so to
be:" or, that which Theodoret saith: "After the consecration the mystical
signs do not cast off their own proper nature; for they remain still on
their former substance, form, and kind:" or that which Augustine saith:
"That which ye see is the bread and cup, for so our eyes tell us: but
that which your faith requireth to be taught, is this: the bread is the
body of Christ, and the cup is His blood:" or that which Origen saith:
"The bread which is sanctified by the Word of God, as touching the
material substance thereof, goeth into the belly, and is cast out into
the privy:" or that which Christ Himself said, not only after the
blessing of the cup, but after he had ministered the communion: "I will
drink no more of this fruit of the vine." It is well known that the
fruit of the vine is wine, and not blood.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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