Popery condemned by scripture and the fathers - End Time Deception

SCRIPTURE AND THE FATHERS. 295
" is indeed objected, that there are manuscripts
*'
in which these words are not expressed ; but
'*
who knows whether they have not been omit-
" ted in some, rather than inserted in others.
*'
Therefore, this history ought at least to be es-
'*
teemed a dubious writing, which cannot be ap^
" plied^ as St. Jerome declares^ to prove any doc-
*'
trine of faith *." And what does the R.
himself now think of the testimony of the disciples
of the great St. Andrew " This is a
*'
specimen of that tradition by which Catholics
" evince the truth of their doctrine."
Had the R. taken an impartial view of the
writings of the Fathers, he would have learnt,
that tradition, as well as scripture, opposes the
Popish notion of transubstantiation.
These ancient
writers, it will be granted, have frequently
called the bread and wine the body and blood
of Christ ; and in doing so, they are authorised
by the expressions of scripture. But it is evident
from their writings, that they never supposed
any change in these elements. On the contrary,
they represent the Lord's Supper merely
as a symbolical mode of exhibiting truth to the
mind, which, by divine appointm.ent, is connected
with the presence of Christ in the power of
his Spirit. Ihey accordingly considered baptism
as an ordinance of the same kind, and
equally connected with the presence of Christ
as
* Du Pin Hist. Eccles. Toi-ne i. p. 42.