since He is the witness of the truth, who is the Author of the gift; for the invisible Priest does, by his word and secret power, change the visible creatures into the substance of his body and blood, saying thus: Take, and eat, this is my body, &c. And therefore, as, at the command of the Lord, the highest heavens, the deep waves, and the vast earth, suddenly rose out of nothing : so by the like power in the spiritual Sacraments, the virtue of the Word commands, and the effect obeys. Let no one doubt, that these creatures, by the nod of his power, by the presence of his majesty, pass into the substance of the Lord's body. When the creatures to be blessed by the heavenly words are placed on the altar, before they are consecrated by the invocation of the name of the Most High, the substance of bread and wine is there; but after the words of Christ, it is the body and blood of Christ. And what wonder is it, that He who could create these things by his word, should change them when created Nay, it seems matter of less wonder, if that which is acknowledged to have been created of nothing, be now changed into better. Search what is hard for him to do, to whom it was easy to raise things visible and invisible, by the power of his will; to whom it was easy, to clothe man made of the matter of clay, with the image of his own divinity," &c. Hom. v. de Pasch. sub nomine Eusebii. Bibl. PP. T. vi. p. 636, 637.
LITURGY OF JERUSALEM, G. C.-See the passage p. 192.
LITURGY OF ALEXANDRIA, G.C.-See p. 193.
