Wesley Corpus

But how does it appear that this was any abuse at all? or, that “Irenaeus declared it to have been taught as well as practised by our Saviour?” (Ibid., The words you quote to prove this, do not prove it at all, they simply relate a matter of fact: “Taking the bread, he confessed it to be his body; and the mixed cup, he affirmed it was his blood.” * You cannot be ignorant of this fact, that the cup used after the paschal supper was always mixed * Accipiens panem, suum corpus esse confitebatur; et temperamentum calicis suum sanguinem confirmavit. with water. But “Cyprian declared this mixture to have been enjoined to himself by a divine revelation.” (Page 58.) If he did, that will not prove it to be an abuse: So that you are wide of the point still. You instance next in their sending the bread to the sick; which (as well as the mixture) is mentioned by Justin Martyr. This fact, likewise, we allow; but you have not proved it to be an abuse. I grant, that, near an hundred years after, some began to have a supersti tious regard for this bread. But that in “Tertullian's days it was carried home and locked up as a divine treasure,” I call upon you to prove; as also that infant communion was an abuse; or the styling it “the sacrifice of the body of Christ.” (Page 59.) I believe the offering it up for the Martyrs was an abuse; and that this, with the superstitious use of the sign of the cross, were, if not the earliest of all, yet as early as any which crept into the Christian Church. 4. It is certain, “praying for the dead was common in the second century.” (Page 60.) You might have said, “And in the first also;” seeing that petition, “Thy kingdom come,” manifestly concerns the saints in paradise, as well as those upon earth. But it is far from certain, that “the purpose of this was to procure relief and refreshment to the departed souls in some intermediate state of expiatory pains;” or that “this was the general opinion of those times.” 5. As to the “consecrated oil,” (page 63) you seem entirely to forget that it was neither St. Jerome, nor St. Chrysostom, but St. James, who said, “Is any sick among you?