TRANSUBSTANTIATION.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1789, 14 March 1888, Page 2

TRANSUBSTANTIATION.

10 THE KDITOB

Sir, — In your issue of last evening ft Is reported that Bishop Grimes said that all who ooald not believe as he did aa to Transubstantiat I m ware to be pitied, and he quoted John VI. Aa the matter has been made public, may I ask that, with your usual fairness, tho other side he heard.

1, How ona John VI, refer to the Saoranaent when It had not yet been instituted ?

2. Christ* words refer to the conditions of oar having spiritual life, these are intimate union with Himself spiritually. 3. "If those who want away misunderstood him, how easy to have set them sight ?" Christ does set them right, verse 63, " It la the Spirit that quickeneth, the vjords that I have spoken unto you are spirit and life."

4 Protestants believe ia a real presence, bat they do not believe It la broaght about In a corporal and carnal manner, but by faith th*y partake.

5. The Bishop refers to the last sapper aa proof that Christ coald not mean • commemoration, bat that Hia body was to ba literally eaten. Christ, with His real body, was reclidng at the table ; could Ha then be holding Hia own body In Hia hand 1 For that ia what mast follow, if the words, "This is my body," signify that the Bubatanoe of bread was Christ's body.

6- Bat thg Buhop will hold that by the wordß, " This Ib my body," the substance of bread is changed into the <{ body and b!o:>d, along with the boul and divinity of Je3O3 Christ." This (a a greater depart* are from the litjra! meaning than to understand the words to mean, "This represents my body." 7 To understand them so 1b consistent wit'n Scripture, Luke XXII., 19, " This do m remembrance, commemoration, of ma ." Again, Obrlat said that the " Oup wa3 His blood," and that the " Cap was the New Testament." Obrlat, elsewhere, oaen similar language, eg when He Bald, "I am the door, I am the vine." The Apostle speaka of the sapper as " the breaking of bread ; he speaks of the elements as ( bread ' imd < wine ' after consecration,"

8. There la an Important destination to be observed between believing what is above reason, and believing what is con* trory to reason, A thing chat is contrary to reaaon cannot be proved. It is contrary to reason to suppose that Christ's body is In heaveD, and also m a thousand other places at the same time. It Is contrary to the testimony of our senses to believe that the bread and wine, after oonseora • tion, are substantially different from what thoy were before.

Apologising for taking ap bo muoh o! your space. — I am, etc, A Constant Rbadeb. Maroh 13th.