rendus est ; " and again, " Quod autem carnis suae esu et sangui- nis potione, quae hie figurantur, Christus animas nostras per fidem Spiritus sancti virtute pascit, id non perinde accipiendum, quasi fiat aliqua substantiae vel commixtio yel transf usio : sed quoniam ex carne semel in sacrificium oblata et sanguine in expiationem effuso vitam hauriamus.,' 1 It is here expressly said that what the believer receives in the Lord's Supper is not any supernatural in- fluence flowing from the glorified body of Christ in heaven ; but the benefits of his death as an expiation for sin. It is to be re- marked that Calvin uses the very words of the twenty-third arti- cle of the Consensus in explanation of what he meant by saying, " ex abscondito Deitatis fonte in Christi carnem mirabiliter infusa est vita, ut inde ad nos flueret." 2 To preserve the consistency of the great Reformer his language must be interpreted so as to har- monize with the two crucial facts for which he so earnestly con- tends ; first, that believers receive elsewhere by faith all they receive at the Lord's table; and secondly, that we Christians receive nothing above or beyond that which was received by the saints under the Old Testament, before the glorified body of Christ had any existence. It is also to be remembered that Calvin avowed his agreement with Zwingle and Oecolampadius on all questions relating to the sacraments.3
The Efficacy of the LoroVs Supper as a Sacrament.
This includes two points, first, The effect produced ; and second, The agency or influence to which the effect is due. In the Lord's Supper we are said to receive Christ and the benefits of his redemp- tion to our spiritual nourishment and growth in grace. As our natural food imparts life and strength to our bodies, so this sacra- ment is one of the divinely appointed means to strengthen the principle of life in the soul of the believer, and to confirm his faith in the promises of the gospel. The Apostle teaches that by par- taking of the bread and wine, the symbols of Christ's body and blood given for us, we are thereby united to him as our head, and with all our fellow believers as joint members of his mystical body. The union between the head and members of the human body and between the vine and its branches, is a continuous union. There is a constant flow of vital influence from the one to the other. In like manner the union between Christ and his peo- ple is continuous. He constantly imparts his life-giving influence to all united to Him by faith and by the indwelling of his Spirit.
1 Art. xxi. xxiii. ; Niemeyer, p. 196. 3 Niemeyer, p. 214. 8 See page 631.
648 PART m. Ch. XX.— THE MEANS OF GRACE.
It has often been stated already that the Bible teaches, (1.) That Christ and his people are one ; that this union is not merely a union of congeniality or feeling, but such as constitutes them one in a real but mysterious sense. (2.) That the bond of union is faith and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who dwelling in Him with- out measure is communicated from Him to all his members. As God is everywhere present and everywhere operative by his Spirit, so Christ dwells in our hearts by faith through or in virtue of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. (3.) He is thus our life. He works in us to will and to do according to his own good pleasure. As God works everywhere throughout nature continually control- ling all natural causes each after its kind, to produce the effects in- tended ; so does Christ work in us according to the laws of our nature in the production of everything that is good ; so that it is from Him that " all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works do proceed." It is not, therefore, we that live, but Christ that liveth in us.
As our Lord in addressing the Apostles and through them all his disciples, said this is my body and blood given for you, He says the same in the most impressive manner in this ordinance to every believing communicant : " This is my body broken for you." " This is my blood shed for you." These words when received by faith fill the heart with joy, confidence, gratitude, love, and de- votion ; so that such a believer rises from the Lord's table re- freshed by the infusion of a new life.
The efficacy of this sacrament, according to the Reformed doc- trine, is not to be referred to any virtue in the ordinance itself, whether in its elements or actions ; much less to any virtue in the administrator ; nor to the mere power of the truths which it sig- nifies ; nor to the inherent, divine power in the word or promise by which it is attended ; nor to the real presence of the material body and blood of Christ (i. e., of the body born of the Virgin), whether by the way of transubstantiation, consubstantiation, or impanation ; * nor to a supernatural life-giving influence emanating
1 One of the numerous theories concerning the eucharist prevalent more or less in the early church, was that which is known in the history of doctrine as impanation. As in man the soul is united to the body imparting to it life and efficiency without itself becom- ing material, or rendering the body spirit; and as the Eternal Logos became flesh by tak- ing to Himself a true body and a reasonable soul, without receiving anything human into his divine nature, or imparting divinity to his humanity ; so the same Logos becomes united with the consecrated bread, without any substantial change in it or in Him. His relation to the bread, however, is analogous to that of the soul to the body in man and of the Logos to humanity in the person of our Lord. As the assumption of our nature by the Son of God is expressed by the word " incarnation," so his assumption and union with the bread in the Lord's Supper is called " impanation." The only distinguished modern theologian (so