Popery condemned by scripture and the fathers - End Time Deception

SCRIPTURE AND THE FATHERS. 291
requisite in communicating.
Now Papists main-
^
tain, that Christ's boc>y and blood are present in
the eucharist, not by faith as a mean, but by
the consecration of a priest ; so that, in communicating,
persons with or without faith are
on a level. Can the R. then show us the use
of faith for receiving a corporeal object Augustine
assures us, that the corporeal presence
of Christ is utterly incompatible with the exercise
of believing ; " Christ," says he, " is al-
*'
ways with us by his divinity ; but, unless he
" were corporeally absent from us, we should
" always carnally see his body, and should
'*
never spiritually believe *." " Therefore,"
says he in another place, " our Lord absented
" himself from every Church, and ascended
" into heaven, that our feuth may be edified ;
**
for, if thou know nothing but what thou
*'•
seest, where is thy faith t " Should the R.
•
say, that the faith of a communicant is
exercised
in believing the elements no longer bread and
wine, but the body and blood of Christ, he
must believe without either testimony or evidence.
For when these Fathers said, " The
*•
Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of
" the world is placed upon the sacred table,"
they forgot to add, " corporeally." But St,
Ambrose goes farther, he affirms that they must
believe a falsehood ; for, says he, addressing
the
* De Verb. Doai. Ssrm. 60. f
De Tentip. Serm. i.^c^