The Grounds of Christianity Examined by Comparing The New Testament with the Old

by George Bethune English

Ignatius says, There is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup in the unity of his blood; and of certain heretics he says, they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Justin Martyr, in his Apology, asserts that the consecrated bread is, some how or other, the flesh of Christ.

In the dispute with Latimer about Transubstantiation, it is acknowledged by the most candid writers, that the Roman Catholics had much the advantage. It must have been so, where quotations from the Fathers were allowed as arguments. For what answer can be made to the following extracts?— What a miracle is this! He who sits above with the Father, at the same instant, is handled by the hands of men. [Chrysostom.] Again, from the same, That which is in the cup, is the same which flowed from the side of Christ. Again, Because we abhor the eating of raw flesh; therefore, it appeareth bread, though it be flesh. [Theophylact.] Or to this?—Christ was carried in his own hands, when he said this is my body. [Austin,] Or to this?—We are taught, that when this nourishing food is consecrated, it becomes the body and blood of our Saviour. [Justin Martyr.] Or, lastly, to this? [from Ambrose]— It is bread before consecration, but after that ceremony, it becomes the flesh of Christ.

Another doctrine which Paul derived from the Oriental Philosophy, and Which makes a great figure in his writings, is the notion, that moral corruption originates in the influxes of the body upon the mind.

It was one of the principal tenets of the Oriental Philosophy, that all evil resulted from matter, and its first founder appears to have argued in the following manner:—There are many evils in the world, and men seem impelled of a natural instinct to the practice of those things which reason condemns. But that eternal mind, from which all spirits derive their existence, must be inaccessible to all kinds of evil, and also of a most perfect and beneficent nature; therefore, the origin of these evils with which the world abounds, must be sought somewhere else, than in the Deity. It cannot abide in him who is all perfection, and, therefore, it must be without him. Now, there is nothing without or beyond the Deity but matter; therefore, matter is the centre and source of all evil, of all vice.

One of the consequences they drew from this hypothesis was, that since All evil resulted from matter, the depravity of mankind arose from the pollution derived to the human soul, from its connexion with the material body which it inhabits; and, therefore, the only means by which the mind could purify itself from the defilement, and liberate itself from the bondage imposed upon it by the body, was to emaciate and humble the body by frequent fasting, and to invigorate the mind to overcome and subdue it by retirement and contemplation.

The New Testament, though it does not recognise this principle of the Oriental Philosophy, that evil originates from matter, yet coincides with it in strenuously asserting that the corruption of the human mind is derived from its connexion with the human body.

To prove this proposition, I shall show that Paul calls all crimes the works of the flesh. Now, the works of the flesh are manifest, (says he, Gal. v. 19,) which are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, rivalries, wrath, disputes, divisions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like. He also describes the conflict between the flesh and the spirit, or mind, in these terms:— For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good, for to will is present with me, but to perform that which is good, I find not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man, but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of my sin in my members. O wretched man that I am! who will deliver me from the body of this death? (or this body of death.) And he goes on to observe, That I, the same man, with my mind serve the law of God, but with my flesh the law of sin.—Rom. vii. For the flesh desireth against (or in opposition to) the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

Those that are Christs (says Paul, Gal. v. 24) have crucified the flesh, with its passions and desires. And they are commanded (Rom. vi. 12 and viii. 13) to mortify, or, according to the original, put to death or kill their members; and Paul himself uses language upon this subject exceeding strong. He represents (1 Cor. ix. 27) his mind and body as engaged in combat, and says, I buffet my body, and subject it. The word here translated subject, in the original, means to carry into servitude, and is a term taken from the language of the olympic games where the boxers dragged off the arena, their conquered, disabled, and helpless antagonists like slaves, in which humbled condition the Apostle represents his body to be with respect to his mind.

From this notion of the sinfulness of the flesh, we are enabled to apprehend Pauls reasonings about the sufferings of Jesus in the flesh. Since the children are partakers of flesh and blood, Christ himself also in like manner partook of them—Heb. ii. 14. For (says Paul) what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God hath done, who by having sent his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and on account of sin, hath condemned sin in the flesh.—Rom. viii. 3. But now, through Christ Jesus, ye who formerly were far off, are brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our Peace who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished by his flesh the cause of enmity.—Ephes. ii. 16. You that were formerly aliens, and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet he hath now reconciled by his fleshly body, through his death.—Col. i. 20.