THE PROVENANCE OF JOHN CALVIN'S EMPHASIS ON THE ...

to the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Already in his earliest works he makes this
move, as he did at the Lausanne Disputation:
We affirm that it is a spiritual communication, by which in virtue and in power
he makes us participant of all that we are able to receive of grace in his body and
blood; or again, to declare better the dignity of this mystery, it is a spiritual
communication by which he makes us truly participant of his body and his
blood, but wholly spiritually, that is by the bond of his Spirit. 786
The final words of the Petit traicté are equally demonstrative of this explicit
qualification:
We all then confess with one mouth, that on receiving the sacrament in faith,
according to the ordinance of the Lord, we are truly made partakers of the
proper substance of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. How that is done some
may deduce better than others, and explain more clearly than others. Be this as it
may, on the one hand, in order to exclude all carnal fancies, we must raise our
hearts upwards to heaven, not thinking that our Lord Jesus is so debased as to be
enclosed under some corruptible elements; and, on the other hand, not to impair
the efficacy of this holy ordinance, we must hold that it is made effectual by the
secret and miraculous power of God, and that the Spirit of God is the bond of
participation, this being the reason why it is called spiritual. 787
In Zwingli's discussions of the Lord's Supper, this explicit and emphatic
clarifying qualification simply does not occur, such that, again, his use of the term
"spiritual" may often just as well be taken to mean "non-corporeal," "not carnally," "not
786 Calvin: Theological Treatises, 44. "Mais que c'est une communication spirituelle par laquelle
in vertu et in efficace il nous faict particpans de tout ce que pouvons recepvoir de grace en son corps et
son sang, ou encore, pour mieux declairer la dignite de ce mystere, par laquelle il nous faict vrayement
participans de son corps et son sang, mais le tout spirituellement cest a dire par le lien de son esprit" (CO
9:844).
787 Tracts and Treatises 2:197-198. "Nous confessons doncq tous d'une bouche, que en recevant
en Foy le Sacrement, selon l'ordonnance du Seigneur, nous sommes vrayment faictz participans de la
proper substance du corps et du sang de Iesus Christ. Comment cela se faict, les uns le peuvent mieux
desduire et plus clairement exposer que les autres. Tant y a que d'une part il nous fault, pour, exclurre
toutes phantasies charnelles, eslever les cueurs en hault au ciel, ne pensant pas que le Seigneur Iesus soit
abaissé iusque là, de estre enclos soubz quelques elemens corruptibles. D'aultre part, pour ne point
amoindrir l'efficace de ce sainct mystere, il nous fault penser que cela se faict par la vertu secrete et
miraculeuse de Dieu, et que l'Esprit de Dieu est le lien de ceste participation, pour laquelle cause elle est
appellée spirituelle" (CO 5:460).
242