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

SIGTHE EUCHARIST, TRANSUBSTANTIATION, THE MASS,deceive us, says the infallible Church. The substance of thebread is gone,—the accidents^ that is, the colour, the smell,the taste of bread, remain. The substance gone and theaccidents remain !This is the one instance in the universewhere accidents exist apart from their subject.In no otherinstance did we ever see whiteness but in a white body ;buthere we see where there is nothing to be seen, we touchwhere there is nothing to be touched, and taste where thereis nothing to be tasted. For this ingenious discovery aFrench physician was so unreasonable as to say, that theholy fathers of Trent ought to be doomed to live all theirdays after on the accidents of bread.In that case, we fear,both subject and accidents would have speedily gone theway of all the earth. The newest theory on the subject, asgiven by Dens, is, that the accidents exist in the air and inour senses, as in their subject.another.But behind this wonder risesWhile in the one case, that of the bread, the accidentsexist apart from the subject^ in the other, that of thebody of our Lord, the subject exists without the accidents.That body is there, but it possesses none of the propertiesof a body. It is not extended ; it cannot be seen ; it cannotbe touched nor tasted. We touch and taste only theaccidents of bread ;for the host, we are taught, is receivedunder the appearance of bread. But it were bootless fartherto pursue a mystery which Romanists candidly tell usfalls not within the scope of reason or sense. Rome is unquestionablyin the right when she assures us that the judgmentof the Church on this head cannot be believed till thejudgment of the understanding has been renounced.One word more as regards the testimony of the senses.Rome knows perfectly that her doctrine cannot stand thistest, and therefore she has straitly forbidden its application.If men will be so wicked as to use their senses in connectionwith this mystery, they will be justly punished by beinglanded in dreadful impiety ; that is, they will learn to deridetransubstantiation as an impious and iniquitous juggle." First of all," says the Catechism of Trent, " inculcate on