duce another passage from Scripture in proof of this sublime truth: having recorded the consecration of bread and wine by our Lord, and also the administration of the sacred mysteries to the Apostles, by the hands of the Saviour, the Apostle adds: " But let a man prove himself, and so eat of that bread and drink of the chalice, for he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord." [1] If, as heresy asserts, the Sacrament presents nothing to our veneration but a memorial and sign of the passion of Christ, why exhort the faithful, in language so energetic to prove themselves? The answer is obvious: by the heavy denunciation contained in the words "judgment," the Apostle marks the enormity of his guilt, who receives unworthily and distinguishes not from common food the body of the Lord, concealed beneath the eucharistic veil. The preceding words of the Apostle develope more fully his meaning: " The chalice of benediction," says he, " which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? and the bread which we break, is it not the participation of the body of the Lord?" [2] words which prove to demonstration the real presence of Jesus Christ in the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist.
These passages of Scripture, are, therefore, to be expounded by the pastor, and he will emphatically press upon the attention of the faithful, that their meaning, in itself obvious, is placed beyond all doubt by the uniform interpretation and authority of the Holy Catholic Church. That such has been at all times the doctrine of the Church, may be ascertained in a two-fold manner; by consulting the Fathers who flourished in the early ages of the Church and in each succeeding century, who are the most unexceptionable witnesses of her doctrine, and all of whom teach in the clearest terms, and with the most entire unanimity, the dogma of the real presence; and also by appealing to the Councils of the Church, convened on this important subject. To adduce the individual testimony of each Father would prove an endless task enough, that we cite, or rather point out a few, whose testimony will afford a sufficient criterion by which to judge of the rest. Let St. Ambrose first declare his faith: in his book on " the Initiated" he says, that the same true body . of our Lord, which was assumed of the Virgin, is received in this Sacrament; a truth which he declares is to be believed with the certainty of faith; and in another place he distinctly tells us, that before consecration it is bread, but after consecration it is the flesh of Christ. [3] St. Chrysostome, another witness of equal fidelity and weight, professes and proclaims this mysterious truth, particularly in his sixtieth homily on those who receive the sacred mysteries unworthily; and also in his forty-fourth and forty-fifth homilies on St. John: "Let us," says he, "obey, not contradict God, although what he says may
