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The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

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to take <strong>and</strong> eat that body which was once offered for our salvation: that<br />

while we see ourselves participants of this, we may trust that the virtue of<br />

His life-giving death is strong within us.” 296 "<strong>The</strong>re are those who say that<br />

to eat Christ's flesh <strong>and</strong> drink His blood is nothing else than believing in<br />

Christ Himself. But to me it seems that Christ meant to teach something<br />

clearer <strong>and</strong> sublimer than this...He meant to teach us that we have life given<br />

us by true participation of Himself...By true communication of Himself His<br />

life passes over into us <strong>and</strong> becomes ours,...if so great a mystery can be<br />

embraced in words--a mystery which I cannot even grasp in thought...I<br />

confess this lest any should mete its sublimity with the measure of my<br />

infancy....Though the mind can reach what the tongue cannot express, yet<br />

here the mind itself is overcome <strong>and</strong> overwhelmed with the greatness of the<br />

thing...<strong>The</strong> mystery of the Holy Supper consists of two things: the bodily<br />

signs...<strong>and</strong> the spiritual verity, which, through those symbols, is at the<br />

Game time figured <strong>and</strong> imparted (exhibetur)...I say, therefore, that in the<br />

mystery of the Supper, through (per) the symbols of bread <strong>and</strong> wine, Christ<br />

is truly imparted (exhiberi) to us, even His body <strong>and</strong> blood, in which he<br />

fulfilled all obedience to obtain our justification: by which, to wit, we first<br />

are united into one body with Him, then being made partakers of His<br />

substance, we experience a virtue in the communication of all good<br />

things...Those absurdities" (of inclusion, circumscription, <strong>and</strong> immensity,)<br />

"being set aside, I willingly receive whatever it is possible to frame (facere<br />

potest) to express a true <strong>and</strong> substantial communication of the body <strong>and</strong><br />

blood of Christ, which, under the sacred symbols of the Supper, is<br />

imparted (exhibetur) to believers...If any one ask me in regard to the mode,<br />

I am not ashamed to confess that the secret is too high to be grasped by<br />

my mind, or to be set forth in words...I experience rather than underst<strong>and</strong><br />

it...In His Holy Supper He comm<strong>and</strong>s me, under (sub) the symbols of<br />

bread <strong>and</strong> wine, to take, eat <strong>and</strong> drink His body <strong>and</strong> blood.<br />

296 Institut. Lib. IV. ch. xviii. ~ 1. Ed. 1543. seq. Corp. Reformat. xxix. 199. Ed. Amstel. ix. 364.

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