Wesley Corpus

Therefore, upon consecration there is a conversion of the whole substance of the bread into the whole substance of Christ's body, and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood; and this we term transubstantiation. “Yet we must not suppose that Christ is broken, when the host, or, consecrated bread, is broken; because there is whole and entire Christ, under the species of every particle of bread, and under the species of every drop of wine.” We answer: No such change of the bread into the body of Christ can be inferred from his words, “This is my body.” For it is not said, “This is changed into my body,” but, “This is my body;” which, if it were to be taken literally, would rather prove the substance of the bread to be his body. But that they are not to be taken literally is manifest from the words of St. Paul, who calls it bread, not only before, but likewise after, the consecration. (1 Cor. x. 17; xi. 2628.) Here we see, that what was called his body, was bread at the same time. And accordingly these elements are called by the Fathers, “the images, the symbols, the figure, of Christ's body and blood.” Scripture and antiquity, then, are flatly against transub stantiation. And so are our very senses. Now, our Lord himself appealed to the senses of his disciples: “Handle me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” (Luke xxiv. 39.) Take away the testimony of our senses, and there is no discerning a body from a spirit. But if we believe transubstantiation, we take away the testimony of all our senses. And we give up our reason too: For if every particle of the host is as much the whole body of Christ as the whole host is before it is divided, then a whole may be divided, not into parts, but into wholes. For divide and subdivide it over and over, and it is whole still ! It is whole before the division, whole in the division, whole after the division | Such nonsense, absurdity, and self-contradiction all over is the doctrine of transubstantiation 6. An evil practice attending this evil doctrine is, the depriving the laity of the cup in the Lord’s supper.