Protestantism in Switzerland - James Aitken Wylie

secret virtue or potency was attributed to it, by
which, apart from the faith of the recipient, it
operated mysteriously upon the soul. It was no
longer an ordinance, it was now a spell, a charm.
The spirit of ancient paganism had crept back into
it, and ejecting the Holy Spirit, which acts through
it in the case of all who believe, it had filled it with
a magical influence. The Lord's Supper was the
institution nearest the cross, and the spirit of
reviving error in seizing upon it was actuated
doubtless by the consideration that the perversion
of this institution was the readiest and most
effectual way to shut up or poison the fountain of
the world's salvation. The corruption went on till it
issued, in 1215, in the dogma of transubstantiation.
The bread and wine which were set upon the
Communion tables of the first century became, by
the fiat of Innocent III., flesh and blood on the
altars of the thirteenth.
Despite that the dogma of transubstantiation is
opposed to Scripture, contradicts reason, and
outrages all our senses, there is about it, we are
compelled to conclude, some extraordinary power
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