Institutes of the Christian Religion (Vol. 2 of 2)
CHAPTER XVII.01
The Lord’S Supper And Its Advantages - Reading 01
CHAPTER XVII.
THE LORD’S SUPPER AND ITS ADVANTAGES.
After God has once received us into his family, and not
only so as to admit us among his servants, but to number us
with his children,—in order to fulfil the part of a most excellent
father, solicitous for his offspring, he also undertakes to
sustain and nourish us as long as we live; and not content
with this, he has been pleased to give us a pledge, as a further
assurance of this never-ceasing liberality. For this purpose,
therefore, by the hand of his only begotten Son, he has favoured
his Church with another sacrament, a spiritual banquet,
in which Christ testifies himself to be the bread of life,
to feed our souls for a true and blessed immortality. Now, as
the knowledge of so great a mystery is highly necessary, and
on account of its importance, requires an accurate explication;
and, on the other hand, as Satan, in order to deprive the Church
of this inestimable treasure, long ago endeavoured, first by
mists, and afterwards by thicker shades, to obscure its lustre,
and then raised disputes and contentions to alienate the minds
of the simple from a relish for this sacred food, and in our time
also has attempted the same artifice; after having exhibited a
summary of what relates to the subject, adapted to the capacity
of the unlearned, I will disentangle it from those sophistries
with which Satan has been labouring to deceive the
world. In the first place, the signs are bread and wine, which
represent to us the invisible nourishment which we receive
from the body and blood of Christ. For as in baptism God
regenerates us, incorporates us into the society of his Church,
and makes us his children by adoption, so we have said, that
he acts towards us the part of a provident father of a family, in
constantly supplying us with food, to sustain and preserve us
in that life to which he has begotten us by his word. Now,
the only food of our souls is Christ; and to him, therefore, our
heavenly Father invites us, that being refreshed by a participation
of him, we may gain fresh vigour from day to day, till
we arrive at the heavenly immortality. And because this
mystery of the secret union of Christ with believers is incomprehensible
by nature, he exhibits a figure and image of it in
visible signs, peculiarly adapted to our feeble capacity; and, as
it were, by giving tokens and pledges, renders it equally as
certain to us as if we beheld it with our eyes; for the dullest
minds understand this very familiar similitude, that our souls
are nourished by Christ, just as the life of the body is supported
by bread and wine. We see, then, for what end this mystical
benediction is designed; namely, to assure us that the body of
the Lord was once offered as a sacrifice for us, so that we may
now feed upon it, and, feeding on it, may experience within us
the efficacy of that one sacrifice; and that his blood was once
shed for us, so that it is our perpetual drink. And this is the
import of the words of the promise annexed to it: “Take,
eat; this is my body, which is given for you.” The body,
therefore, which was once offered for our salvation, we are
commanded to take and eat; that seeing ourselves made partakers
of it, we may certainly conclude, that the virtue of that
life-giving death will be efficacious within us. Hence, also,
he calls the cup “the new testament,” or rather covenant, in
his blood. [1238]
II. From this sacrament pious souls may derive the benefit of considerable satisfaction and confidence; because it affords us a testimony that we are incorporated into one body with Christ, so that whatever is his, we are at liberty to call ours. The consequence of this is, that we venture to assure ourselves of our interest in eternal life, of which he is the heir, and that the kingdom of heaven, into which he has already entered, can no more be lost by us than by him; and, on the other hand, that we cannot be condemned by our sins, from the guilt of which he absolved us, when he wished them to be imputed to himself, as if they were his own. This is the wonderful exchange which, in his infinite goodness, he has made with us. Submitting to our poverty, he has transferred to us his riches; assuming our weakness, he has strengthened us by his power; accepting our mortality, he has conferred on us his immortality; taking on himself the load of iniquity with which we were oppressed, he has clothed us with his righteousness; descending to the earth, he has prepared a way for our ascending to heaven; becoming with us the Son of man, he has made us, with himself, the sons of God.
III. Of all these things we have such a complete attestation in this sacrament, that we may confidently consider them as truly exhibited to us, as if Christ himself were presented to our eyes, and touched by our hands. For there can be no falsehood or illusion in this word, “Take, eat, drink; this is my body which is given for you; this is my blood which is shed for the remission of sins.” By commanding us to take, he signifies that he is ours; by commanding us to eat and drink, he signifies that he is become one substance with us. In saying that his body is given for us, and his blood shed for us, he shows that both are not so much his as ours, because he assumed and laid down both, not for his own advantage, but for our salvation. And it ought to be carefully observed, that the principal and almost entire energy of the sacrament lies in these words, “which is given for you;” “which is shed for you;” for otherwise it would avail us but little, that the body and blood of the Lord are distributed to us now, if they had not been once delivered for our redemption and salvation. Therefore they are represented to us by bread and wine, to teach us that they are not only ours, but are destined for the support of our spiritual life. This is what we have already suggested—that by the corporeal objects which are presented in the sacrament, we are conducted, by a kind of analogy, to those which are spiritual. So, when bread is given to us as a symbol of the body of Christ, we ought immediately to conceive of this comparison, that, as bread nourishes, sustains, and preserves the life of the body, so the body of Christ is the only food to animate and support the life of the soul. When we see wine presented as a symbol of his blood, we ought to think of the uses of wine to the human body, that we may contemplate the same advantages conferred upon us in a spiritual manner by the blood of Christ; which are these—that it nourishes, refreshes, strengthens, and exhilarates. For if we duly consider the benefits resulting to us from the oblation of his sacred body, and the effusion of his blood, we shall clearly perceive that these properties of bread and wine, according to this analogy, are most justly attributed to those symbols, as administered to us in the Lord’s supper.
IV. The principal object of the sacrament, therefore, is not
to present us the body of Christ, simply, and without any ulterior
consideration, but rather to seal and confirm that promise,
where he declares that his “flesh is meat indeed, and” his
“blood drink indeed,” by which we are nourished to eternal
life; where he affirms that he is “the bread of life,” and that
“he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever;” [1239]