institution] connected with them." To this he adds : " Quin etiam illud pro certo constat, Christi corpus et sanguinem nequaquam rem otiosam et infrugiferam esse posse, quae nihil fructus aut utilitatis afferat." a Luther's Catechisms have symbolical au- thority, having been adopted by the whole Lutheran Church. The same authority does not belong to his private writings, in which the idea advanced of the life-giving power of the body and blood of Christ as received in the sacrament is (at least as often understood) more fully expanded. In his work entitled " Das diese Worte Christi, * das ist mein Leib u. s. w.,' noch fest stehen wider die Schwarmgeister," published in 1527,2 he says Christ gives us his own body and blood as food " in order that with such a pledge he may assure and comfort us, that our body shall live forever, because it here on earth enjoys eternal liv- ing food." 3 " The mouth, which corporeally eats Christ's flesh, knows not, it is true, what it eats, but the heart knows : by itself it would gain nothing, for it cannot comprehend the word [of promise] . But the heart knows well what the mouth eats. For it comprehends the word and eats spiritually, what the mouth eats corporeally." But since the mouth is a member of the heart, it must live forever, on account of the heart, which through the word lives forever, because the body corporeally eats the same everlasting food, which the soul with it spiritually eats. Again : * " The heart cannot eat corporeally, and the mouth cannot eat spiritually. God, however, has arranged it, that the mouth eats for the heart corporeally, and the heart eats for the body spirit- ually, so both are satisfied with the same food and are saved. For the body having no understanding, knows not that it eats such food whereby it shall live forever. Because it feels it not, but dies and moulders away, as though it had eaten other food, as an irrational brute. But the soul sees and understands, that the body must live forever, because it is a partaker of an everlasting food ; which will not allow it to decay and waste away in the grave." 5 Still more strongly is this idea expressed in such pas- sages as the following. When a man eats this food 6 " it changes
1 v. 28-30; Hase, Libri Symbolici, p. 557.
2 Das diese Worte, etc., edit. Walch, vol. xx. 8 Ibid, § 186, p. 1045.
4 Ibid, p. 1046.
6 Philippi, Kirchliche Glaubenslehre, vol. v. p. 267. Philippi admits that these passages appear to teach that the seeds of immortality are implanted in the bodies of believers by the corporeal participation of the body of Christ, though he endeavours to explain them as teaching that the Lord's Supper is a pledge of the believer's resurrection. On p. 268, how- ever, he admits that there are other passages which cannot be thus explained.
« Das diese Worte, §§ 207, 208, pp. 1055,1056.
676 PART in. Ch. XX. — the means of grace.
(verdaut) and transmutes his flesh, so that it becomes spiritual, that is, endued with immortal life and blessed, as Paul, 1 Corinthi- ans xv. 44, says : It is raised a spiritual body." Luther gives what he calls a gross illustration. He supposes a wolf to devour a sheep and the flesh of the sheep to have power enough to transmute the wolf into a sheep. " So we, when we eat Christ's flesh corpo- really and spiritually, the food is so strong that it changes us into itself, so that out of carnal, sinful, mortal men, we are made spir- itual, holy, and living men ; such we already are, but hidden in faith and hope, and not yet revealed ; at the last day we shall see it." Again : l " God is in this flesh. It is divine and spiritual (a.weak translation of ein Gottesfleisch, ein Geistfleisch), it is in God, and God is in it, therefore it is living and gives life both as to soul and body to all who eat it." Again : 2 "If we eat Him corporeally, so He is in us corporeally, and we in Him. He is not digested and assimilated, but He continually transmutes us, the soul into righteousness, the body into immortality." After quot- ing these and similar passages, Philippi admits that they teach that " the body of Christ is not only the pledge of our resurrec- tion, but also that it is the life-giving, operative power through which our bodies are prepared for our final resurrection." 3
There were two views of the benefit of the Lord's Supper in the mind of Luther. He commonly represents its special benefit to be the forgiveness of sins, which is received whenever faith in the gospel is exercised. This effect is due, not to what is in the sacrament received by the mouth, but to the Word as received by faith. According to this view, as Dorner 4 says, the Lord's supper is a sign and pledge of the forgiveness of sin. To this view, he adds, the Lutheran Church has adhered. Therefore, the
1 Das diese Worte, p. 125. (?) 2 [bid, p. 132. ( ? )
8 See Philippi, ut supra, p. 269. So also, Gerhard, Loci Theologici, xxn. xi. § 103 ; edit. Tubingen, 1770, vol. x. p. 175, says that the fathers teach that our bodies " suscipi- ant ex contactu carnis Christi vim quandam ad gloriosam resurrectionem et vitam seternam ; " an opinion to which Gerhard accedes. Calvin {Institutio, iv. xvii. 32, edit. Berlin, 1834, part ii. p. 426) uses language of similar import: "De carnis etiam nostrae immortalitate securos nos reddat, siquidem ab immortali ejus came jam vivificatur et quodammodo ejus immortalitate communicat." There is, however, an essential difference, as to this point between Luther and Calvin. Luther held that what is received in the Supper is the true, natural body of Christ; that it is received corporeally, by the mouth, that it is received by unbelievers as well as by the believers ; and that it is to the natural body thus received, that the believer owes the glorious resurrection that awaits him. All these points Calvin denies. It is not the natural body of Christ, which hung upon the cross, that is received. It is not received corporeally by the mouth, but only by the soul through faith. It is re- ceived out of the Lord's Supper as well as in that ordinance. The resurrection of believers, therefore, according to Calvin, is due to our union with Christ, effected by faith ; and not to eating his true, natural body.
< Geschichte der protestantischen Theologie, Munich, 1867, p. 152.