ordinance as a memorial of Himself. When a man commits him- self to the sufferings and redemption of Christ he is saved. Of this He has left us a certain visible sign of his flesh and blood, both of which He has commanded us to eat and drink in remem- brance of Him." This is said in a document presented to the council of Zurich in 1523.
In his " Expositio Christianae Fidei," written just before his death, and published by Bullinger in 1536, he says: "The natural substantial body of Christ in which He suffered, and in which He is now seated in heaven at the right hand of God, is not in the Lord's Supper eaten corporeally, or as to its essence,
but spiritually only Spiritually to eat Christ's body is
nothing else than with the spirit and mind to rely on the good- ness and mercy of God through Christ Sacramentally to
eat his body, is, the sacrament being added, with the mind and spirit to feed upon Him." 1
The Confessions most nearly conformed to the views of Zwingle are the " Confessio Tetrapolitana," the u First Basil," and the " First Helvetic." These are all apologetic. The last mentioned protests against the representation that the Reformed regard the sacraments as mere badges of profession, and asserts that they are signs and means. The Lord's Supper is called " coena mystica " " in which Christ truly offers his body and blood, and hence Him- self, to his people ; not as though the body and blood of Christ were naturally united with the bread and wine, locally included in them, or sensibly there present, but in so far as the bread and wine are symbols, through which we have communion in his body and blood, not to the nourishment of the body, but of the spiritual or eternal life." a
In " The Sincere Confession of the Ministers of the Church of Zurich," dated 1545, we find the following precise statement of their doctrine : " We teach that the great design and end of the
l " In coena domini naturale ac substantiate istud corpus Christi, quo et hie passus est et nunc in coelis ad dexteram patris sedet, non naturaliter atque per essentiam editur, sed
spiritualiter tantum Spiritualiter edere, corpus Christi, nihil est aliud quam spiritu
ac mente niti misericordia et bonitate Dei per Christum Sacramentaliter edere corpus
Christi, cum proprie volumus loqui, est, adjuncto sacramento, mente ac spiritu corpus Christi edere." Niemeyer, Collectio Confessionum, Leipzig, 1840, pp. 44, 47.
a "Ccenam mysticam, in qua dominus corpus et sanguinem suum, id est, seipsum suis vere ad hoc offerat, ut magis, magisque in illis vivat, et illi in ipso. Non quod pani et vino corpus et sanguis domini vel naturaliter uniantur: vel hie localiter includantur, velulla hue carnali preesentia, statuantur. Sed quod panis et vinum ex institutione domini symbola sint, quibus ab ipso domino per ecclesiae ministerium vera corporis et sanguinis ejus com- municatio, non in periturum ventris cibum, sed in aeternse vitse alimoniam exhibeatur." Art. xxii. ; Niemeyer, pp. 120, 121.
628 PART HI. Ch. XX — THE MEANS OP GRACE.
Lord's Supper, that to which the whole service is directed, is the remembrance of Christ's body devoted, and of his blood shed for the remission of our sins. This remembrance, however, cannot take place without true faith. And although the things of which the service is a memorial, are not visible or present after a visible or corporal manner, nevertheless believing apprehension and the assurance of faith renders them present in one sense to the soul of the believer. He has truly eaten the bread of Christ .... who believes on Christ, very God and very man, crucified for uss on whom to believe is to eat, and to eat is to believe Be- lievers have in the Lord's Supper no other life-giving food than that which they receive elsewhere than in that ordinance. The believer, therefore, receives both in and out of the Lord's Supper, in one and the same way, and by the same means of faith, one and the same food, Christ, except that in the supper the reception is connected with the actions and signs appointed by Christ, and accompanied with a testifying, thanksgiving, and binding service. v . . . Christ's flesh has done its work on earth, having been offered for our salvation ; now it no longer benefits on earth and is no longer here."
Calvin's Doctrine.
While Calvin denied the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the eucharist, in the sense in which that presence was asserted by Romanists and Lutherans, yet he affirmed that they were dynamically present. The sun is in the heavens, but his light and heat are present on earth. So the body of Christ is in heaven, but from that glorified body there radiates an influ- ence, other than the influence of the Spirit (although through his agency), of which believers in the Lord's Supper are the recipients. In this way they receive the body and blood of Christ, or, their substance, or life-giving power. He held, therefore, that there was something not only supernatural, but truly miraculous, in this divine ordinance.
He says : 1 " We conclude that our souls are fed by the flesh and
i Institutio iv. xvii. 10; edit. Berlin, 1834, part ii. p. 407. " Summa sit, non aliter animas nostras came et sanguine Christi pasci, quam panis et vinum corporalem vitam tuentur et sustinent. Neque enim aliter quadraret analogia signi, nisi alimentum suura animse in Christo reperirent : quod fieri non potest, nisi nobiscum Christus vere in unum coalescat nosque reficiat carnis suae esu et sanguinis potu. Etsi autem incredibile videtur, in tanta locorum distantia penetrare ad nos Christi carnem, ut nobis sit in cibum, mera- inerimus, quantum supra sensus omnes nostros emineat arcana Spiritus sancti virtus et quam stultum sit, ejus immensitatem modo nostro velle metiri. Quod ergo mens nostra non comprehendit, concipiat fides, Spiritum vere unire, quae locis disjuncta sunt. Jam sacram illam carnis et sanguinis sui communicationem, qua vitam suam in nos transf undit Christus,