Transubstantiation is, therefore, to use the words of a distinguished writer, "Impossible, because such supposed miracle is contrary, to the evidence of our senses, to the immutable laws of nature, and to Christ's own instructions *."

See a pamphlet, published by Hatchard, entitled, "The Grounds on which the Church of England separated from the Church of Rome reconsidered, in a View of the Romish Doctrine of the Eucharist, &c. By Shute, Bishop of Durham."

In this learned pamphlet the question is stated in a manner adequate to its importance.

If I might presume to add to what has been so effectually done, I should say, that the mere reading of the sixth chapter of St. John in its simple and natural sense might decide all conscientious doubts upon the subject. The Jews, who had seen the miracle of the loaves and fishes, had come to the place where it was performed, and not finding our Lord there, had followed him to Capernaum. There, he told them that their coming was not on account of spiritual homage to the power of God, but for the mere indulgence of their earthly appetites; not because of "the miracle, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled." (v. 26.) Our Lord, in the usual style of his discourses, then adopts the immediate subject, and turns it into doctrine. "Labour not for the meat that perisheth, (the actual food, for which you now solicit ;) but, for that meat which endureth to everlasting life," (a sustenance not earthly, but altogether spiritual.)

The people then ask him of what nature is that labour? "What shall we do that we may work the work of God?"

The Eighteenth Article declares, "that under one kind only, whole and entire, Christ is taken and received."

He tells them that the whole is spiritual. "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him, whom he hath sent."

The people then, as was their custom, desire "a sign," and say that Moses proved his right to belief, by giving actual food from Heaven. Our Lord meets this again, by saying, that he too will give food, but of an altogether purer nature than the food given by Moses, which was mere mortal sustenance. "Not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead. He that eateth of this bread shall live for ever." v. 58.

Having declared that this bread is but another name for "belief on him," and therefore nothing earthly or eatable after the manner of man; he declares that this "bread" is his "flesh," which is therefore "belief on him," and not to be taken in any human sense of body and blood.

At the mention of "eating his flesh," the Jews, who evidently had taken the expression as the Romish Church does, in its literal sense, "strove among themselves, How can this man give us his flesh to eat." v. 52. Our Lord vouchsafed them no explanation, but repeated his declaration in a still more distinct style. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life." v. 58, 54.

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This discourse he held in the synagogue, in the presence of the general Jewish congregation.

Subsequently, when he was with his disciples, he "knew in

Undoubtedly, if he is bodily in the wafer, the cup is unnecessary; yet our Lord desired that the disciples should all drink of the cup.

himself" that this language of eating his flesh had perplexed them as much as the Jews in the synagogue; the eating of human flesh being, of course, abhorrent to human nature. He then gives the disciples that explanation which it was his custom to give to them, and to withhold from the wilful and stubborn prejudices of the Jews. As in St. Luke viii. 10. "Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to others in parables. That seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand." He asks them, with obvious reproof, "Doth this offend you?" v. 61. Are you to be staggered by so slight and verbal a difficulty, when it is your very office to see and bear witness of the most stupendous wonders, things really startling to the human understanding? "What! and if ye shall see me borne up to heaven, "the Son of man ascend to where he was before!" v. 62. Look to my spiritual meaning, and not the mere expression; it is "the spirit" of the words that has any efficacy, "that quickeneth." "The flesh," the mere human material, is not in my meaning, for it can be of no use to immortality, it "profiteth nothing." "The words that I speak to you," my doctrine and my belief, not the eating of my body; "they are spirit and they are life." v. 63. He closes this explanation by the corroborating remark, "But there are some of you that believe not:" that have not the conviction, that I am the Lord!

In this passage, "the flesh profiteth nothing," it is obvious that we are not to take the word-flesh, in the meaning afterwards used in the Epistles, as expressing the carnal and evil nature of man in contradistinction to the spiritual

The sacrament was given in both kinds for above a thousand years.

The Nineteenth Article declares," that there is a purgatory, and that the souls kept there are relieved by the suffrage of the faithful."

By this article, the Church of Rome declares, that "being forgiven our sins," is not being forgiven, but being reserved for a punishment of perhaps millions of years;-that "having peace through the Lord Jesus Christ," is not having peace, but being put in torture; and that there is a third place where the soul is burned, racked, scourged, or agonized in some way or other, for a time suited to its offences here! The Church of Rome assumes to have the power to remit this punishment, or any fragment of it; and this power is used-according to the money paid for her mass or her Indulgence! This doctrine Rome will never abandon; for she never abandons revenue.

and converted one. Our Saviour here talks of the "flesh" as a source of holiness and of eternal life.

The result is this-the words "bread," "flesh," and "belief," are throughout used indifferently for each other.Therefore the Popish acceptation of the word, flesh, as implying the actual body and blood of our Lord, has no foundation in Scripture.

The twentieth Article declares-that Saints are to be invoked, and that their relics are to be had in veneration!

Scripture commands that we shall pray to God alone; Popery, that we pray also to dead men. Scripture says, that there is but "one Mediator" between God and man; Popery says that there is a multitude of mediators. It commands us to worship with prayer and praise beings who may not be able to hear us; who, if they did hear, might not be able to help; and who, if they can do either, would not accept the worship due alone to the God alike of the quick and the dead! It commands us to do homage to bones and remnants, some of which are notorious impostures, and none of which can be proved to have belonged to Saints, or, if they did, to have been entitled to worship. But this monstrous doctrine, arising in the deepest night of the Church, has been a prolific source of revenue.

The twenty-first Article commands-that the images of Christ, of the blessed Virgin, the Mother of God! and those of the other Saints shall be retained, and that due honour and

veneration shall be paid to them!