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Word of Christ to make the Bread and Wine to be what they were not, how much greater is that power which still preserves them to be what they were, and yet makes them to be what they were not? Therefore, that I may answer thee, it was not the Body of Christ before the Consecration, but now after the Consecration, it is the Body of Christ; He said the word and it was done. Thou thyself went before, but wert an old creature; after thou hast been consecrated in Baptism thou art become a new creature." By these words St. Ambrose teacheth how we are to understand that the Bread is the Body of Christ, to wit, by such a change that the Bread and Wine do not cease to be what they were as to their substance, (for then they should not be what they were,) and yet by the blessing become what before they were not. For so they are said to remain, (as indeed they do,) what they were by nature, that yet they are changed by grace; that is, they become assured Sacraments of the Body and Blood of Christ, and by that means certain pledges of our Justification and Redemption. What is there, can refute more expressly the dream of Transubstantiation?
St. Chrysostom (A.D. 390.) doth also clearly discard and reject this carnal Transubstantiation and eating of Christ's Body, without eating the Bread. "Sacraments," saith he, "ought not to be contemplated and considered carnally, but with the eyes of our souls, that is, spiritually; for such is the nature of mysteries;" where observe the opposition betwixt carnally and spiritually, which admits of no plea or reply again. "As in Baptism the spiritual power of Regeneration is given to the material water; so also the immaterial gift of the Body and Blood of Christ is not received by any sensible corporal action, but by the spiritual discernment of our faith, and of our hearts and minds." Which is no more than this, that sensible things are called by the name of those spiritual things which they seal and signify. But he speaks more plainly in his Epistle to Cæsarius; where he teacheth, that in this mystery there is not in the bread a substantial, but a Sacramental change, according to the which, the outward Elements take the name of what they represent, and are changed in such a sort, that they still retain their former natural substance. "The Bread," saith he, "is made worthy to be honoured with the name of the Flesh of Christ, by the consecration of the Priest, yet the Flesh retains the proprieties of its incorruptible nature, as the Bread doth its
