The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

—;SIOTHE EUCHARIST, TRANSUBSTANTIATION, THE MASS.right hand of God,"*—that body which did all the miracles,uttered all the words, and endured all the agonies, which theevangelists record,—that very body it is which the priestreproduces, places upon the altar, and puts into the handsand into the mouths of the worshippers. Do the annals ofthe world contain another such wonder ? Nay, with a particularitythat sinks into the most offensive grossness, theauthorized books of Rome are careful to explain that" thebones and sinews" of the body of Christ are contained in thehost.-f- There is nothing to indicate to the senses the stupendouschange which the creating fiat of the priest has accomplished.To the eye it still appears as bread and wine;it smells as bread, it tastes as bread, and it can be eaten asbread; yet it is not bread: it is flesh; it is blood; it is thevery body that eighteen centuries ago sojourned on earth, andthat now sits enthroned in heaven. Christ has again returnedto earth, not in glory, as he promised, and attendedby his mighty angels; but summoned thither by the terriblepower, or spell, or whatever it be, which the priest possesses,and for the purpose of undergoing a deeper humiliation thanat first. Then he appeared as a man, but now he is compelledto assume the form of an inanimate thing ; and underthat form he is again broken, and again offered in sacrificeand so his humiliation is not yet over,—his days of sufferingand sacrifice are still prolonged : so eager has Rome beento identify herself with that Church predoomed in the Apocalypse,and marked with this brand, " where also our Lordwas crucified. "JIt is scarce possible to state the many revolting consequencesinvolved in the popish doctrine of transubstantiation,without an appearance of profanity. But the dread of* Catechismus Rom. pars ii. cap. iv. q. xxii." Quicquid ad veram corporis ratio-+ Ibid, pars ii. cap. iv. q. xxvii.nem pertinet, reluti ossa et nervos"X Rev. xi. 8.