blood of Christ, just as our corporal life is preserved by bread and wine. For the analogy of the signs would not hold, if our souls did not find their aliment in Christ, which, however, cannot be the case, unless Christ truly coalesce into one with us, and support us through the use of his flesh and blood. It may seem incredible indeed that the flesh of Christ should reach us from such an immense local distance, so as to become our food. But we must remember how far the power of the Holy Spirit trans- cends all our senses, and what folly it must be even to think of reducing his immensity to our measure. Let faith then embrace what the understanding cannot grasp, namely, that the spirit truly unites things which are totally separated. Now this sacred communication of his flesh and blood, by which Christ transfuses his life into us, just as if He penetrated our bones and marrow, He testifies and seals in the holy supper ; not by the exhibition of a vain and empty sign, but by putting forth such an energy of his Spirit as fulfils what He promises."
In 1561 Calvin wrote in answer to the Lutheran Hesshuss, and with an irenical purpose, his tract " De participatione carnis et sanguinis Christi in sacra coena." In an appendix to that Tract, he says, " The same body then which the Son of God once offered in sacrifice to the Father, he daily offers to us in the supper, that it may be our spiritual aliment. Only that must be held which was intimated as to the mode, that it is not necessary that the essence of the flesh should descend from heaven in order that we may feed upon it ; but that the power of the Spirit is sufficient to penetrate through all impediments and to surmount all local dis- tance. At the same time we do not deny that the mode here is incomprehensible to human thought; for flesh naturally could neither be the life of the soul, nor exert its power upon us from heaven ; and not without reason is the communication, which makes us flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bones, denominated by Paul a great mystery. In the sacred supper we acknowledge it a miracle, transcending both nature and our understanding, that Christ's life is made common to us with Himself, and his flesh given to us as aliment."1
Again, " These things being disposed of, a doubt still appears with respect to the word ' substance ' ; which is readily allayed if we put away the gross imagination of a manducation of the flesh,
Qon secus acsi in ossa et medullas penetraret, m coena etiam testatur et obsignat; et quidem non objecto inani aut, vacuo signo, sed efficaciam Spiritus sui illic proferens, qua impleat, quod promittit." 1 Works, Amsterdam, 1667 ; vol. viii. p. 744, a, b.
630 PART HI. Ch. XX. — THE MEANS OF GRACE.
as though it were corporal food, that, being taken into the mouth, is received into the stomach. For if this absurdity be removed, there no reason why we should deny that we are fed with Christ's flesh substantially, since we truly coalesce with Him in one body by faith, and are made one with Him. Whence it follows that we are joined with Him in substantial connection, just as sub- stantial vigour flows down from the head into the members. The definition there must stand that we are made to partake of Christ's flesh substantially ; not in the way of carnal mixture, or as if the flesh of Christ drawn down from heaven entered into us, or were swallowed by the mouth ; but because the flesh of Christ, as to its power and efficacy, vivifies our souls, not otherwise than the body is nourished by the substance of bread and wine." 1
The Reformed symbols which most nearly conform to the pecul- iar views of Calvin are the Gallican, the Belgian, and the early Scottish. The first mentioned teaches 2 " Quamvis [Christus] nunc sit in coelis, ibidem etiam mansurus donee veniat mundum judicaturus : credimus tamen, eum arcana et incomprehensibili Spiritus sui virtute per fidem apprehensa, nos nutrire et vivificare sui corporis et sanguinis substantia. Dicimur autem hoc spiritu- aliter fieri, non ut efficaciae et veritatis loco imaginationem aut cogitationem supponamus, sed potius, quoniam hoc mysterium nos- tras cum Christo coalitionis tarn sublime est, ut omnes nostros sen- sus totumque adeo ordinem naturae superet : denique quoniam sit divinum ac coeleste, non nisi fide percipi ac apprehendi potest."
" Credimus, sicut antea dictum est, tarn in coena quam in baptis- mo, Deum nobis reipsa, id est, vere et efficaciter donare quicquid ibi sacramentaliter figurat, ac proinde cum signis conjungimus veram possessionem ac fruitionem ejus rei, quae ita nobis offertur. Itaque affirmamus eos qui ad sacram mensam Domini puram fidem tanquam vas quoddam afferunt, vere recipere quod ibi signa testi-
1 At the meeting of the national Synod of France in 1571, Beza being president, an ap- plication was made by certain deputies to have the clause in Article 37 of the Confession altered, which asserts that we are nourished with "the substance of Christ's body and blood." The Synod refused to make the alteration, and explained the expression by say- ing they did not understand by it, " any confusion, commixture, or conjunction, .... but this only, that by his virtue all that is in Him that is needful to our salvation, is hereby most freely given and communicated to us. Nor do we agree with those who say we com- municate in his merits and gifts and Spirit, without his being made ours; but with the Apostle (Eph. v. 23), admiring this supernatural, and to us, incomprehensible, mystery, we believe we are partakers of his body delivered to death for us, and of his blood shed for us, so that we are flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones, and that we receive Him together with his gifts by faith, wrought in us by the incomprehensible virtue and efficacy of the Holy Spirit." This decision offended the Zurich ministers.
2 Art. xxxvi. xxxvii. ; Niemever, p. 338.