and instructive. We can only notice the fact in its bearing on the subject of the Supper. On an eminence overlooking the city of Marburg stands an ancient castle. Away in the distance sweeps the lovely valley of the Lahn. Further still, the mountain-tops rise one above another till they are lost in the clouds or disappear in the remote horizon. In that old castle was an antique chamber, with vaulted roof and Gothic arches. It was called the Knight’s Hall. here, more than three centuries and a half ago, a con- flict took place, not with carnal weapons, but intellectual and spiritual. Princes, nobles, deputies, and theologians were there. The combatants were the mighty Luther and the mild Melancthon on the one side, with the magnanimous Zwingle and the meek Ccolampadius on the other. It was this very subject that formed the ground of debate. Luther held by the literal sense, dogmatically repeating “This is my body,” while his opponents urged the necessity of taking the words figuratively. And here, in passing, it may be observed that much as both Romanists and Lutherans insist on the literal sense of the words, they are figurative even according to their interpretation. As used by the Romanists they are an instance of the figure synechdoche, as used by Lutherang they area metonymy, while as used by Protestants in general they are admitted to pe metaphorical. 4. Now, in the fourth place, and in opposition to all these, we give in our adhesion to the creed of the great majority of the Reformed Churches on this doctrine. Here it is necessary to bear in mind that, among the Reformed themselves, Zwingle occupied one pole, Calvin held the opposite, while the form of the doctrine ultimately agreed on and acquiesced in by the great body of Reformed communions was intermediate. Zwingle’s view, as already seen, made the sacrament of the Supper symbolical and commemorative, reducing it to a mere sign; Calvin, on the other hand, held that believers receive an emanation or supernatural influence from the glorified body of Christ in heaven. The illustration he employed made his meaning plain: it was to this effect, that the sun is absent and distant from us in the heavens, but his light and heat are present with us and enjoyed by us on earth. The Reformed, how- ever, maintained that believers received the sacrificial virtue of Christ’s atoning death, Eventually the Consensus Ligurinus (1549 a.p.) was drawn up by Calvin. The imme- diate object was to harmonise the Zwinglians and Calvinists; but it accomplished much more than this. It embodies the doctrine of the Supper which is held by all the Reformed Churches. The various Reformed Confessions are in harmony with it. The second Helvetic Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism, which constitute the doctrinal standards of the Reformed Churches of the Continent; the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England; the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms, are in full accord with it. ‘The doctrine of these Churches and Confessions may be expressed in, or rather compressed into, the following brief statement, slightly modified from the Westminster Confession :—“ The body and blood of Christ are as really but spiritually present to the faith of believers in this ordinance as the elements themselves are to their outward senses.” Hence it comes to pass that while we outwardly and visibly partake of the sensible signs, which are bread and wine, we inwardly and faith- fully receive Christ and him crucified with all the benefits of his death. The real presence of Christ is enjoyed by his people in this sacrament; but that presence is not bodily, it is spiritual. His body broken and blood shed are present, not materially, but virtually; by this we mean that the beneficial effects of his sacrificial death upon the cross are conveyed to the faithful recipient. These benefits are received, not by the mouth, but by faith, The whole is made effectual by the Holy Spirit to our spiritual nourishment and growth in grace,
IL. THE DOCTRINES MADE VISIBLE BY THE Supper. Nature of @ sermon. A sermon is intended to explain some doctrine, or enforce some duty, or both. The great object to be attained is the glory of God in Christ and the Christian’s good. The sacra- ment of the Supper has often been compared to a sermon; but it is a sermon to the eye —a visible sermon, if the expression be allowed. It is a sermon, too, that thus visibly sets forth several of the leading doctrines of our holy religion. 1. The first doctrine
visibly exhibited in the Lord’s Supper is the Incarnation. The Incarnation, or Christ’s-
coming in the flesh, was the great event of the ages; for “ when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman.” “The everlasting Son of the Father,” when he took upon him to deliver man, “did not abhor the Virgin’s womb;” and so, in the language of one of the Church’s creeds, he “ was incarnate by the Holy
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Ghost of the Virgin Mary.” Now, the bread symbolizing the body, and the wine the blood, both together set forth the body of flesh with the living fluid that circulates through it; and thus the elements of bread and wine teach the doctrine of the Incarnation, speaking to us the same language as the Evangelist John, when, in the first chapter of his Gospel, he tells us, at the first verse, that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God;” and then adds, at the fourteenth verse, ** And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” The bread and wine, therefore, inculcate the same sacred truth as the inspired writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, when he says, “ Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same.” 2. The second doctrine visibly taught in the Supper is that of the Atonement, or the setting-at-one of persons alienated. The parties in this case are God and men, the latter alienated, and enemies in their minds by wicked works, the carnal mind being enmity against God; while “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.” This setting-at-one is the work of reconciliation, from which, however, atonement only differs as being the more comprehensive term, and including not only the reconciliation itself, but the means by which reconciliation is effected, The atonement, then, or those sufferings of the Saviour by which reconciliation is accomplished, in other words, - the bruising and breaking of Christ’s body and the shedding of his blood, are set forth visibly by breaking the bread and pouring out the wine in the Lord’s Supper.
«“ Bread of the world, in mercy broken, Wine of the soul, in mercy shed, By whom the words of life were spoken, And in whose death our sins are dead: