Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 1.djvu/277

 ; it was not bread, but merely the accidents of bread, which seemed to be bread. 2. The Body of is proved to be true by the figure of it, which is said to be bread, for the bread is fit to represent that Divine Body, because of its nourishing virtue, which in the bread is earthly, but in the Body is heavenly. Lastly, the reality of the Body is proved by that of its figure; and so if you deny the substance of the Bread, (as the Papists do,) you thereby destroy the truth and reality of the Body of in the Sacrament.

Origen also, about the same time with Tertullian, speaks much after the same manner. "If ," saith he, "as these men (the Marcionites) falsely hold, had neither Flesh nor Blood, of what manner of Flesh, of what Body, of what Blood did He give the signs and images when He gave the Bread and Wine?" If they be the signs and representations of the Body and Blood of, though they prove the truth of His Body and Blood, yet they being signs, cannot be what they signify; and they not being what they represent, the groundless contrivance of Transubstantiation is overthrown. Also upon Leviticus he doth expressly oppose it thus: "Acknowledge ye that they are figures, and therefore spiritual, not carnal; examine and understand what is said, otherwise if you receive as things carnal, they will hurt, but not nourish you. For in the Gospel there is the Letter, which kills him that understands not spiritually what is said; for if you understand this saying according to the Letter, 'Except you eat My Flesh and drink My Blood,' the Letter will kill you." Therefore as much as these words belong to the eating and drinking of Body and Blood, they are to be understood mystically and spiritually.

St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, a glorious Martyr of, (A.D. 250.) wrote a famous Epistle to Coecilius concerning the sacred Chalice in the Supper, whereof this is the sum; "Let that cup which is offered to the people in commemoration of  be mixt with wine," (against the opinion of the Aquarii, who were for water only,) "for it cannot represent the Blood of  when there is no wine in the cup, because the Blood of  is exprest by the Wine, as the faithful are understood by the Water." But the patrons of Transubstantiation have neither Wine nor Water in the Chalice they offer; and yet without them (especially