life, which is nourished by the body and blood of the Lord, and is his member? And as a section of the vine laid in the earth, produces fruit in due season, and in like manner the grain of corn is multiplied, by the blessing of God, which afterwards are used for the benefit of man, and receiving on them the word of God, become the Eucharist, which is the body and blood of Christ: so our bodies, nourished by that Eucharist, and then laid in the earth, and dissolved in it, shall, in due time, rise again.” Ibid. L. v. c. 11. p. 293, 294.
CENT. III.
ORIGEN, G. C. Though this great man be very fond of allegorising, that is, of not confining himself to the literal meaning of the Scriptures; yet, on this subject of the Eucharist, he seems sometimes to speak sufficiently plain : thus in his great work against Celsus, he says: “We who study to please the Creator of all things, with prayers and giving of thanks for benefits received, eat of the breads that are offered, which by prayer are made a certain holy body. By this, they who partake of it with a pure spirit, are rendered more holy.” Lib. viii. T. 1. p.766.–Again: “You that have been accustomed to be present at the divine mysteries, know, when you receive the body of the Lord, with what care and veneration you preserve it, lest any particle of it fall to the ground, or be lost: and you think yourselves guilty, and with reason, if it should so happen through your negligence. Hom. xiii. in Exod. T. ii. p. 176.—“In former times baptism was obscurely represented in the cloud and in
