blood poured out upon the cross, their consciences are renewed. To conclude, they do feel the quickening power of Christ, which doth confirm them.

:

In this sort is the Supper of the Lord accomplished spiritually: thus are the bread and wine a sacrament unto us, and not bare and naked signs. Hereupon now ariseth a very great rejoicing and thanksgiving for so great benefits; also a praising and confessing of the name of God. Here those works, which the Lord once finished, are renewed and represented but especially the memory of the Lord's death is renewed, which, although it once happened, and now is past, yet unto the faithful it is as yet fresh and present. For the remembrance of the death of Christ, which we make in the Supper, is far more noble and holy than theirs, who, in some profane banquet, are mindful of their companion, when they drink the wine that He gave them. For, among these, He that is absent worketh nothing but in this holy Supper of the faithful the Lord is present, and doth work effectually by the Spirit in their hearts, as He who, according to His promises, is in the midst of them.

By these things it is most evident, that in the holy Supper we do not take away our Lord Christ from His Church, nor deny that His body and blood is there received to be our nourishment unto life eternal. But we, together with our predecessors, and the chief prelates of our religion did, and as yet to this day do, deny that the very body of Christ is eaten carnally, or that it is present everywhere corporally, and after a natural manner. For we do openly confess, according to the Scriptures, and with all the holy Fathers, that Jesus Christ our Lord left this world, and went to His Father and that He now sitteth at the right hand of His Father in heavenly glory, from whence He shall never* descend, or be drawn down into this earthly and transitory world. For the true presence of Christ in the Supper is heavenly, not earthly, not carnal. Also, we deny that the bread is turned into the body

Never, that is, under the present dispensation, or before His return, in glory and judgment, at the last day.-EDITOR.

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of Christ miraculously, so that the bread should become the very body of Christ, naturally and substantially, yet after a spiritual manner. To conclude, we deny that the body of Christ is united with the signs, by any other than a mystical mean, whereof we have spoken sufficiently in the general consideration of a sacrament. Seeing, therefore, we have expressly said and written, with the holy Fathers-Tertullian, Jerome, Ambrose, and Augustine— "that the bread is a figure, token, and sign of the body of Christ," and also, "that by bread and wine the body and blood of the Lord are signified;" this is it which we would make manifest, to wit, that the bread is not the very body of the Lord, but a token, or a sacrament of His body. And yet we do not, therefore, speak these things, as though we did simply deny all kind of presence of Christ in the Supper; for that kind of presence which now we have confessed doth remain true, without any prejudice to this sort of speeches. Moreover, the word this, in the sentence, "This is my body” (Luke xxii., 19), doth not only shew bread unto our corporal eyes, but therewith also it sheweth the very body of Christ unto the eyes of our mind.

Also, we confess that this use of the Supper is so holy and profitable, that whosoever shall worthily-that is, with a true faith-eat of this bread, and drink of this cup of the Lord, he doth receive heavenly gifts from the Lord: but "whosoever shall eat of this bread, and drink of this cup, unworthily "-(that is, without faith, by which alone we are made partakers of the Lord, and of salvation)—" he doth eat and drink judgment unto himself;" as Paul wrote to the Corinthians (1 Cor. xi., 27—29). Wherefore we do often put this diligently into the heads of our people, that they take heed that none of them abuse the Lord's table; but that every one examine himself, and then eat of that bread, and drink of that cup (1 Cor. xi., 28). Also, the Lord's Supper is a badge unto us; for as one loaf, aud one wine, are made of many grains and grapes, so we, being the whole multitude of the faithful, are gathered together to be one bread, and one body (1 Cor. x., 17). By this we testify, in an outward

profession, that we are redeemed by the blood of Christ, and made the members of Christ; to whom we give thanks, in whom we are confederates, and do promise to perform mutual duties one toward another.

III. FROM THE CONFESSION OF BASLE.

Article 6. Of the Supper of the Lord.

The Confession of Basle was first written in the German tongue, about the year 1532, by the ministers of the Church of Basle, and, by common subscription, allowed of the pastors of Strasburg. Then again, in the year 1561, it was both recognised and received by the same ministers of Basle. Afterward, also, it was published in the German tongue, with a preface, by the magistrates of Milan, in their own name, as though it had been that Church's own confession. And at last it was turned into Latin. Which, as more ancient than the rest of the confessions of Helvetia, we have thought good should be set down here also, and do sometimes call it likewise the Confession of Mulhausen.

We confess that the Lord Jesus did institute His holy Supper, that His holy passion might be remembered with thanksgiving, His death declared, and Christian charity and unity, with true faith, testified. And as in baptism (wherein the washing away of our sins is offered by the minister of the Church, and yet is wrought only by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost), true water remaineth, so, also, in the Supper of the Lord (wherein, together with the bread and wine of the Lord, the true body and the true blood of Christ is offered by the minister of the Church), bread and wine remaineth. Moreover, we do firmly believe, that Christ Himself is the meat of faithful souls unto life eternal, and that our souls, by faith in Christ crucified, are fed and moistened with the flesh and blood of Christ (John vi., 53); so that we, being members of His body, as of our only head (Eph. i., 22; iv., 15; v., 23; and Col. i., 18); do live in Him, and He in us; wherein, at the last day, through Him, and in Him, we shall rise. again to eternal joy and blessedness (John xi., 25).

And, in the Marginal Note, upon the words, Our Souls:

For it is a spiritual meat, and therefore it is received of a faith

ful soul; that is, the souls are made full, valiant, mighty, peaceable, quiet, merry, and lively to all things, as the body is by the corporal meat.

Also, upon the words, The Members of the Head:

And so man is made a spiritual member of the spiritual body of Christ.

And, in the Margin, upon the words, To be present :

To wit, sacramentally, and by a remembrance of faith, which lifteth up a man's mind to heaven, and doth not pull down Christ, according to His humanity, from the right hand of God.

Now, we do not include into the bread and drink of the Lord, the natural, pure, and substantial body of Christ, which was born of the true Virgin Mary, suffered for us, and ascended into heaven. Therefore, neither do we worship Christ in the signs of bread and wine, which we do commonly call the sacraments of the body and blood of Christ, but in heaven, at the right hand of God the Father (Col. iii., 1; Heb. i., 3, and x., 12), from whence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead (Acts iii., 21; 2 Tim. iv., 1).

IV. FROM THE CONFESSION OF BOHEMIA.

Chapter 13. Of the Holy Supper of the Lord.

The Confession of Bohemia, being the last, composed of four former, which were far more ancient (which for the largeness thereof we thought good not to be inserted into this Harmony), being recited in the same order of chapters and arguments, and somewhat more plainly expressed, and in the year 1573 published in divers places, was also approved by common testimony of the university of Wirtemburg; even as Masters Luther and Melancthon had approved the former, published in the year 1532, being altogether the same in doctrine with this, as Luther his preface witnesseth. And we have called it elsewhere the Confession of the Waldenses, following the common title assigned unto these churches; which we would have to be spoken without any prejudice to those brethren.

In the thirteenth place we teach, touching the Supper of the Lord which is in the New Testament, that we must believe with the heart, and profess with the mouth, that it is a sacrament instituted of Christ our Lord, in His last Supper, and that in

express form of words: that is, that, concerning bread and wine, he hath pronounced, that they be His body and His blood; and that they were delivered to his apostles (Matt. xxvi., 26—28; Mark xiv., 22-24; Luke xxii., 19, 20); and so, in like sort, to the whole universal Church, for a monument of His death, and that all men should lawfully use the participation thereof, even to the end of the world. Of this sacrament the evangelists do write, and especially St. Paul, whose words, even to this day, are thus read in the Church: "I have received of the Lord, that which I also have delivered unto you; to wit, that the Lord Jesus, in that night, wherein he was betrayed, took bread," &c. (1 Cor. xi. 23). And a little after: "When ye come together (to wit, to the Supper of the Lord), let one tarry for another" (ver. 33). Therefore, according to these things, we believe with the heart, and confess with the mouth, that this bread of the Lord's Supper is the body of the Lord Jesus Christ delivered for us; and that this cup, or the wine in the cup, is likewise His blood shed for us, for the remission of sins. And this we affirm according to the express words of Christ, wherein He saith, "This is my body, this is my blood" (Matt. xxvi., 26-28). Which words may not be taken or understood of any other thing, nor be otherwise referred than only to the bread and cup of the Lord: and the body and blood of the Lord cannot be understood of any other, than of the only true and proper body of Christ, which He made meat by His torments, and of His blood, which, being largely poured out of His body, He appointed to be drink for His Church. For He had not a natural body, and other blood. Therefore our ministers do teach, that to these certain words pronounced by Christ our Lord (wherein He doth peculiarly pronounce, witness, and institute bread to be His body, and wine to be His blood), I say, that to these words no man may add anything, no man may detract anything from them; but that every man, in these words, is to believe that which of themselves they signify,* and that no man ought to turn from them, either to the right hand or to the left.

That is to say, of the true bread and wine, and also of the very body that was given for us, and of the very blood that was shed for us. As for that attribution