30 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
30 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
# Second Helvetic Confession
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## Chapter 21 - Of the Holy Supper of the Lord
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The Supper of the Lord (which is called the Lord’s Table, and the Eucharist, that is, a Thanksgiving) is, therefore, commonly called a supper, because it was instituted by Christ at his last supper, and does as yet represent the same, and because in it the faithful are spiritually fed and nourished. For the author of the Supper of the Lord is not an angel or man, but the very Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who did first of all consecrate it to his Church. And the same blessing and consecration does still remain among all those who celebrate no other but that very Supper, which the Lord did institute, and at that do recite the words of the Supper of the Lord, and in all things look unto the one Christ by a true faith; at whose hands, at it were, they do receive that which they do receive by the ministry of the ministers of the Church.
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The Lord, by this sacred rite, would have that great benefit to be kept in fresh remembrance which he procured for mankind; to wit, that by giving up his body to death and shedding his blood he has forgiven us all our sins, and redeemed us from eternal death and the power of the devil, and now feeds us with his flesh, and gives us his blood to drink: which things, being apprehended spiritually by a true faith, do nourish us up to life everlasting. And this so great a benefit is renewed so oft as the Supper is celebrated. For the Lord said, ‘Do this in remembrance of me’ ([Luke 22:19](/get-passage/Luke+22:19)).
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By this holy Supper also it is sealed unto us, that the very body of Christ was truly given up for us, and his blood shed for the remission of our sins, lest our faith might somewhat waver. And this is outwardly represented unto us by the minister in the sacrament, after a visible manner, and, as it were, laid before our eyes to be seen, which is inwardly in the soul invisibly performed by the Holy Spirit. Outwardly, bread is offered by the minister, and the words of the Lord are heard: ‘Take, eat; this is my body;’ and, ‘Drink ye all of it; this is my blood’ ([Matthew 26:26-28](/get-passage/Matthew+26:26-28); [Luke 22:17-20](/get-passage/Luke+22:17-20)). Therefore the faithful do receive that which is given by the ministers of the Lord, and do eat the bread of the Lord, and do drink of the Lord’s cup. And at the same time inwardly, by the working of Christ through the Holy Spirit, they receive also the flesh and blood of the Lord, and do feed on them unto life eternal. For the flesh and blood of Christ is true meat and drink unto life eternal: yea, Christ himself, in that he was delivered for us, and is our Saviour, is that special thing and substance of the Supper; and therefore we suffer nothing to be put in his place.
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But that it may the better and more plainly be understood how the flesh and blood of Christ are the meat and drink of the faithful, and are received by the faithful unto life eternal, we will add, moreover, these few things:
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Eating is of divers sorts. (1.) There is a corporeal eating, whereby meat is taken into a man’s mouth, chewed with the teeth, swallowed down, and digested. After this manner did the Capernaites in times past think that they should eat the flesh of the Lord; but they are confuted by him ([John 6:30-63](/get-passage/John+6:30-63)). For as the flesh of Christ could not be eaten bodily, without great wickedness and cruelty, so is it not food for the body, as all men do confess. We therefore disallow that canon in the Pope’s decrees, Ego Berengarius (De Consecrat. Dist. 2). For neither did godly antiquity believe, neither yet do we believe, that the body of Christ can be eaten corporeally and essentially, with a bodily mouth.
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(2.) There is also a spiritual eating of Christ’s body; not such a one whereby it may be thought that the very meat is changed into the spirit, but whereby (the Lord’s body and blood remaining in their own essence and property) those things are spiritually communicated unto us, not after a corporeal, but after a spiritual manner, through the Holy Spirit, who does apply and bestow upon us those things (to wit, remission of sins, deliverance, and life eternal) which are prepared for us by the flesh and blood of our Lord, sacrificed for us; so that Christ does now live in us, as we live in him; and does cause us to apprehend him by true faith to this end, that he may become unto us such a spiritual meat and drink, that is to say, our life. For even as corporeal meat and drink do not only refresh and strengthen our bodies, but also do keep them in life; even so the flesh of Christ delivered for us, and his blood shed for us, do not only refresh and strengthen our souls, but also do preserve them alive, not so far as they be corporeally eaten and drunken, but so far as they are communicated unto us spiritually by the Spirit of God, the Lord saying, ‘The bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world’ ([John 6:51](/get-passage/John+6:51)): also it is the spirit that gives life: ‘the flesh’ (to wit, corporeally eaten) ‘profiteth nothing; the words which I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life’ ([John 6:63](/get-passage/John+6:63)). And as we must by eating receive the meat into our bodies, to the end that it may work in us, and show its efficacy in us (because, while it is without us, it profiteth us not at all); even so it is necessary that we receive Christ by faith, that he may be made ours, and that he live in us, and we in him. For he says, ‘I am the bread of life; he that cometh to me shall not hunger, and he that believeth in me shall not thirst any more’ ([John 6:35](/get-passage/John+6:35)); and also, ‘He that eateth me, shall live through me; and he abideth in me, and I in him’ ([John 6:50](/get-passage/John+6:50)).
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From all this it appears manifestly, that by spiritual meat we mean not any imaginary thing, but the very body of our Lord Jesus, given to us; which yet is received by the faithful not corporeally, but spiritually by faith: in which point we do wholly follow the doctrine of our Lord and Saviour Christ in John 6. And this eating of the flesh and drinking of the blood of the Lord is so necessary to salvation that without it no man can be saved. But this spiritual eating and drinking takes place also without the Supper of the Lord, even so often as, and wheresoever, a man does believe in Christ. To which purpose that sentence of St. Augustine does happily belong, ‘Why dost thou prepare thy teeth and belly? Believe, and thou hast eaten.’
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(3.) Besides that former spiritual eating, there is a sacramental eating of the body of the Lord; whereby the believer not only is partaker, spiritually and internally, of the true body and blood of the Lord, but also, by coming to the Table of the Lord, does outwardly receive the visible sacraments of the body and blood of the Lord. True it is, that by faith the believer did before receive the food that gives life, and still receives the same; but yet, when he receives the sacrament, he receives something more. For he goes on in continual communication of the body and blood of the Lord, and his faith is daily more and more kindled, more strengthened and refreshed, by the spiritual nourishment. For while we live, faith has continual increasings; and he that outwardly does receive the sacrament with a true faith, the same does not only receive the sign, but also does enjoy (as we said) the thing itself. Moreover, the same does obey the Lord’s institution and commandment, and with a joyful mind gives thanks for his redemption and that of all mankind, and makes a faithful remembrance of the Lord’s death, and does witness the same before the Church, of which body he is a member. This also is sealed to those who receive the sacrament, that the body of the Lord was given, and his blood shed, not only for men in general, but particularly for every faithful communicant, whose meat and drink he is, to life eternal.
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But as for him that without faith comes to this Holy Table of the Lord, he is made partaker of the outward sacrament only; but the matter of the sacrament, from whence comes life unto salvation, he receives not at all; and such men do unworthily eat of the Lord’s Table. ‘Now they who do unworthily eat of the Lord’s bread and drink of the Lord’s cup, they are guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, and they eat and drink it to their judgment’ ([1 Corinthians 11:26-29](/get-passage/1+Corinthians+11:26-29)). For when they do not approach with true faith, they do despite unto the death of Christ, and therefore eat and drink condemnation to themselves.
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We do not, therefore, so join the body of the Lord and his blood with the bread and wine, as though we thought that the bread is the body of Christ, more than after a sacramental manner; or that the body of Christ does lie hid corporeally under the bread, so that it ought to be worshiped under the form of bread; or yet that whosoever he be who receives the sign, receives also the thing itself. The body of Christ is in the heavens, at the right hand of his Father; and therefore our hearts are to be lifted up on high, and not to be fixed on the bread, neither is the Lord to be worshiped in the bread. Yet the Lord is not absent from his Church when she celebrates the Supper. The sun, being absent from us in the heavens, is yet, notwithstanding, present among us effectually: how much more Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, though in body he be absent from us in the heavens, yet is present among us, not corporeally, but spiritually, by his lively operation, and so as he himself promised, in his Last Supper, to be present among us (John 14, John 15 and John 16). Whereupon it follows that we have not the Supper without Christ, and yet that we may have meanwhile an unbloody and mystical supper, even as all antiquity called it.
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Moreover, we are admonished, in the celebration of the Supper of the Lord, to be mindful of the body whereof we are members; and that, therefore, we should be at concord with our brethren, that we live holily, and not pollute ourselves with wickedness and strange religions; but, persevering in the true faith to the end of our life, give diligence to excel in holiness of life. It is therefore very requisite that, purposing to come to the Supper of the Lord, we do examine ourselves, according to the commandment of the apostle: first, with what faith we are indued, whether we believe that Christ is come to save sinners and to call them to repentance, and whether each man believes that he is in the number of them that are delivered by Christ and saved; and whether he has purposed to change this wicked life, to live holily, and to persevere through God’s assistance, in the true religion, and in concord with his brethren, and to give worthy thanks to God for his delivery.
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We think that rite, manner, or form of the Supper to be the most simple and excellent which comes nearest to the first institution of the Lord and to the apostles’ doctrine: which does consist in declaring the Word of God, in godly prayers, in the action itself that the Lord used, and the repeating of it; in the eating of the Lord’s body and drinking of his blood; in the wholesome remembrance of the Lord’s death, and faithful giving of thanks; and in a holy fellowship in the union of the body of the Church.
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We therefore disallow those who have taken from the faithful one part of the sacrament, to wit, the Lord’s cup. For these do very grievously offend against the institution of the Lord, who says, ‘Drink ye all of this’ ([Matthew 26:27](/get-passage/Matthew+26:27)); which he did not so plainly say of the bread.
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What manner of mass it was that the fathers used, whether it were tolerable or intolerable, we do not now dispute. But this we say freely, that the mass which is now used throughout the Roman Church is quite abolished out of our churches for many and just causes, which, for brevity’s sake, we will not now particularly recite. Truly we could not approve of it, because they have changed a most wholesome action into a vain spectacle; also because the mass is made a meritorious matter, and is said for money; likewise because in it the priest is said to make the very body of the Lord, and to offer the same really, even for the remission of the sins of the quick and the dead. Add this also, that they do it for the honor, worship, and reverence of the saints in heaven (and for the relief of souls in purgatory), etc.
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