The apology of the Church of England, and an epistle to one Seignior Scipio…

15. WE say that the Bread and Wine are the Holy and Heavenly Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ, and that in them, Christ himself, the true Bread of eternal Life is so exhibited to us as present, that we do by Faith truly take his Body and Blood, and yet at the same time we speak not this so as if we thought the Nature of the Bread and Wine were totally changed and abolished, as many in the last Ages have dreamt, and as yet, could never agree amongst themselves about this Dream. For neither did Christ ever design that the Wheaten Bread should change its Nature, and assume a new kind of Divinity, but rather that it might change us; and that as^a Theophylact saith, we might be trans-elemented into his Body: For what can be more ⟨p. 31⟩perspicuous than what^b St. Ambrose saith on this occasion, the Bread and Wine are what they were, and yet are changed into another thing? Or what^c Gelasius saith, The Substance of the Bread, and Nature of the Wine do not cease to be. Or then what^d Theodoret, after the Consecration the mystical Symbols, do not cast off their own proper Nature (for they remain in their former Substance and Figure and Species. Or then what St. Augustin saith, that which you see, is Bread, and a Cup, as your Eyes inform you; but that which your Faith desires to be instructed in, is this, the Bread is the Body of Christ, and the Cup is his Blood. Or then that of^e Origen, that Bread which is consecrated by the Word of God, as to the Matter of it, goes into the Belly, and is cast out by the Draught. Or then that of Christ himself, who said, not only after the Consecration, but after the finishing of the Communion: Luke 22. 18. I will drink no more of the Fruit of the Vine; for it is certain the Fruit of the Vine is Wine, and not Blood? And yet when we speak thus, we do not so depress the Esteem of the Supper of the Lord, as to teach that it is a mere cold Ceremony, and that nothing is done in it, which many falsely report of us; for we assert that Christ in his Sacraments doth exhibit himself truly present: In Baptism, that we may put him on: In his Supper, that we may eat him by Faith, and in the Spirit, and that by his Cross and Blood we may have Life Eternal; and this we say is not slightly and coldly, but really and truly done; for although we do not touch Christ with our Teeth and Lips, yet we hold and press him by Faith, Mind, and Spirit.