other errors. " Hoc modo non tantum refutatur Papistarum commentum de transubstantione, sed crassa omnia figmenta atque futiles argutiae, quaB vel coelesti ejus gloriae detrahunt vel veritati humanae naturae minus sunt consentaneae. Neque enim minus absurdum judicamus, Christus sub pane locare vel cum pane copulare, quam panem transubstantiare in corpus ejus.,,
Article twenty-fifth teaches that Christ's body is locally in heaven. "Ac ne qua ambiguitas restet, quum in coelo quaeren- dum Christum dicimus, haec locutio locorum distantiam nobis sonat et exprimit. Tametsi enim philosophice loquendo supra coelos locus non est ; quia tamen corpus Christi, ut fert humani corporis natura et modus, finitum est et coelo, ut loco, continetur, necesse est a nobis tanto locorum intervallo distare, quanto coelum abest a terra."
Article twenty-sixth, the last of the series, is directed against the adoration of the host, or consecrated wafer.1
The Heidelberg Catechism was prepared at the command of Frederick III., Elector of the Palatinate, by Caspar Olevian, a disciple of Calvin, and by Ursinus, a friend of Melancthon, and adopted by a General Synod held at Heidelberg in 1563. This Catechism, having symbolical authority both in the German and in the Dutch Reformed Churches, is entitled to special respect as a witness to the faith of the Reformed Church.
The sacraments are declared to be " Sacred, visible signs, and seals, instituted by God, that through them He may more clearly present and seal the promise of the gospel, namely, that He, for the sake of the one offering of Christ accomplished on the cross, grants not to all only but even to separate believers the forgive- ness of sin and eternal life."
" How art thou reminded and assured, in the Holy Supper, that thou art a partaker of the one offering of Christ on the cross, and of all his benefits?"
" Thus, that Christ has commanded me and all believers, to eat this broken bread, and to drink this cup in remembrance of Him ; adding these promises : that his body was offered and broken on the cross for me, and his blood shed for me, as cer- tainly as I see with my eyes the bread of the Lord broken for me, and the cup communicated to me: and further, that He feeds and nourishes my soul to everlasting life, with his crucified body and shed blood, as assuredly as I receive from the hands of the minister, and take with my mouth, the bread and cup, as certain signs of the body and blood of Christ."
1 Niemeyer, CoUectio Confessionum, Leipzig, 1840, p. 196.
636 PART m. Ch. XX. — THE MEANS OF GRACE.
The twenty-first chapter is devoted to the Lord's Supper. It contains the following passages :"Ut autem rectius et perspicacius intelligatur, quomodo caro et sanguis Christi sint cibus et potus fidelium, percipianturque a fidelibus ad vitam aeternam, paucula haec adjiciemus. Manducatio non est unius generis. Est enim manducatio corporalis, qua cibus in os percipitur ab homine, den-
tibus atteritur, et in ventrem deglutitur Est et spiritu-
ahs manducatio corporis Christi, non ea quidem, qua existimemus cibum ipsum mutari in spiritum, sed qua, manente in .sua essen- tia et proprietate corpore et sanguine Domini, ea nobis communi- cantur spiritualiter, utique non corporali modo, sed spirituali, per Spiritum Sanctum, qui videlicet ea, quae per carnem et sanguinem Domini pro nobis in mortem tradita, parata sunt, ipsam inquam remissionem peccatorum, liberationem, et vitam aeternam, appli- cat et confert nobis, ita ut Christus in nobis vivat, et nos in ipso vivamus, efficitque ut ipsum, quo talis sit cibus et potus spiritu-
alis noster, id est, vita nostra, vera fide percipiamus Et
sicut oportet cibum in nosmetipsos edendo recipere, ut operetur in nobis, suamque in nobis efficaciam exerat, cum extra nos posi- tus, nihil nobis prosit : ita necesse est nos fide Christum recipere,
ut noster fiat, vivatque in nobis, et nos in ipso Ex quibus
omnibus claret nos, per spiritualem cibum, minime intelligere im- aginarium, nescio quern, cibum, sed ipsum Domini corpus pro nobis traditum, quod tamen percipiatur a fidelibus, non corporal-
iter, sed spiritualiter per fidem Fit autem hie esus et
potus spiritualis, etiam extra Domini coenam, quoties, aut ubicun- que homo in Christum crediderit. Quo fortassis illud Augustini pertinet, Quid paras dentem et ventrem ? crede, et manducasti."
" Praeter superiorem manducationem spiritualem, est et sacra- mentalis manducatio corporis Domini, qua fidelis non tantum spir- itualiter et interne participat vero corpore et sanguine Domini, sed, foris etiam accedendo ad mensam Domini, accipit visibile cor- poris et sanguinis Domini sacramentum.." 1
It is a remarkable fact that the confessions of the Church of England conform more nearly to the Zwinglian than to the Cal- vinistic ideas and phraseology in respect to the Lord's Supper. This may be accounted for by the fact that it was less important for the English uhan for the German churches to conciliate the Lutherans. In the articles adopted by the Synod of London in 1552, and approved by Edward VI., the first clause of the state- ment of the doctrine of the Lord's. Supper is in the language of
1 See Niemeyer, Collectio Confessionum, Leipzig, 1840, pp. 512-521.