752 THE IIEFOKMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
condemn the Ismaelites or the Ninevites or other barbarians. Christ gives his blessing to unbaptized children. How could the most merciful Lord, who bore the sins of a guilty world, condemn those who have not committed an impiety ? ^
Serve tus agreed with Zwingli, the Anabaptists, and the Second Scotch Confession, in rejecting the 'cruel Roman dogma, which excludes all unbaptized infants, even of Christian parents, from the kingdom of heaven.
((?) In the doctrine of the Lord's Supper, Servetus differs from the Roman Catholic, the Lutheran, and the Zwinglian theories, and approaches, strange to say, the doctrine of his great antagonist, Calvin.^ Baptism and the Lord's Supper represent the birth and the nourishment of the new man. By the former we receive the spirit of Christ ; by the latter we receive the body of Christ, but in a spiritual and mystical manner. Baptism kindles and strengthens faith ; the eucharist strengthens love and unites us more and more to Christ. By neglecting this ordinance the spiritual man famishes and dies away. The heavenly man needs heavenly food, which nourishes him to life eternal (John 6 : 53).-^
1 " Parvulis, non baptizatis, data est a Christo benedictio. Clementissimus ille et misericors dominus, qui impioriim peccata gratis sustulit, quomodo eos, qui impietatem non commiserunt , tarn rigide damiiai-et ? " P. 357. A noble and truly Christian sentiment, which puts to shame his orthodox opponents. Calvin, however, did not make water baptism a necessary condition of salvation, and left the way open for the doctrine of universal infant salvation by sovereign election.
'^ De Coena Domini, Rest. 502 sqq. ToUin (III. 136): "In keiner Lekre Servet's zeigt sick so sehr als in der Abendmahlslehre sein vermittelnder Standpunkt. Tritt er dock wieder als Schiedsrichter auf zwischen dein magisch-materialistischen Katholicismus und dem qudkerischen Spiritismus, zwischen Realismus und Idealismus, zwischen lutherischer Mystik und zwingli' scher Rationalistik.'" He thinks that Servetus anticipated the eucharistic doctrine of Bucer and Calvin; but Bucer laid it down in the Tetrapolitan Confession in 1530, before he knew Servetus, and Calvin in his tract De Coena in 1540.
^ " Baptismus et ccena Domini sunt vita et /omentum ipsius Jidei : sunt vita, /omentum, et nutrimentum interni hominis, per fidem ex Deo geniti. Per prcedicationem evangelii plantatur fides, quod nee sine operatione spiritus fieri potest. . . . Per coenam Domini, quce baptismum consequitur, nutritur, adolescit et incrementa
§ 147. THE THEOLOGICAL SYSTEM OF SERVETUS. 753
Servetus distinguishes three false theories on the Lord's Supper, and calls their advocates transuhstantiatores (Romanists), impanatores (Lutherans), and tropistce (Zwinglians).i
Against the first two theories, which agree in teaching a carnal presence and manducation of Christ's body and blood by all communicants, he urges that spiritual food cannot be received by the mouth and stomach, but only by the spiritual organs of faith and love. He refers, like Zwingli, to the passage in John 6 : 63, as the key for understanding the words of institution and the mysterious discourse on eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ.
He is most severe against the papal doctrine of transubstantiation or transelementation, because it turns bread into no-bread, and would make us believe that the body of Christ is eaten even by wild beasts, dogs, and mice. He calls this dogma a Satanic monstrosity and an invention of demons.^
To the Tropists he concedes that bread and wine are symbols, but he objects to the idea of the absence of Christ in heaven. They are symbols of a really present, not of an absent Christ.'^ He is the living head and vitally connected with all his members. A head cut off from the body would be a monster. To deny the real presence of Christ is to destroy his reign.* He came to us to abide with us forever.
vitCB suscipit, ille in bapiismo genitus noviis homo. Magis et magis tunc in dies in nobis Christus formatur, et nos magis et magis in unum Christi corpus cum aliis membris adijicamur per charitatem, . . . Charitatis stjmbolum est coena. . . . Ita se habet coena ad charitatem, sicut baptismus ad Jidem. Ccena igitur et ckaritate neglectis, recedit a nobis Christus, arescit Jides, evanescit spiritus, fame contabescit et moritur homo Christianus." Rest. 501 sq.
1 Transubstantiationists, Consubstantiationists, and Tropists. Tollin invents three corresponding German terms : Umsubstanzler, Einbroter, Figiirler.
- He says in this connection (p. 510) : " Papistica omnia dogmata esse doctrinas dcemoniorum et meras illusiones, 2 Thess. 2 et 1 Tim. 4."
8 " Non enim absentis rei sunt hcec symhola, ut in umbris legis, sed est visibile signum rei invisibilis, et externum symbolum rei internee." Best. 507 sq.
* "An non monstrum erit, Christum vocari caput, si suis membris non jungitur ? Hes mortua est corpus totum, si ab eo caput separes. Pernitiosus admodum est error, et ipsissima regni Christi destructio, negare prccsentiam ejus in nobis." Rest. 508.