he adds, "there is this difference between their mode of speaking and mine: according to them, to eat is merely to believe; while I maintain that the flesh of Christ is eaten by believing, that eating is the effect and fruit of faith. This difference is little in words, but not in reality." We fully agree with Calvin on this point. The distinction on which he insists is very important, as indicating a correct use of language. To say that because we eat by faith, therefore faith is eating, is about as logical as to maintain that whatever we do by our hand is our hand. Christ dwells in our hearts by faith; is this dwelling of Christ in us nothing more than our own faith? Doubtless faith itself is always and everywhere essentially the same. But it does many and various things. We have a catalogue of its heroes and a record of its achievements in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. Does every Christian, as often as he believes, do all that was achieved by these ancient worthies? But Calvin's distinction between faith and the results achieved by it is still more important in its special application to the Lord's Supper. The doctrine that 'faith is eating, and eating is faith," is the very essence of the Zwinglian theory. If "this eating takes place as often and whenever a man believes in Christ," then it follows necessarily that the Lord's Supper is simply a sign and remembrancer to assist our faith. A vine, or a door, or a flower of the field, when they remind us of the Saviour, and quicken our faith in Him, are just as refers us to that sermon. The essential point in the sermon which we transfer to the Eucharist is, that in it we are called in a true, though spiritual sense, to eat and drink the body and blood of the Son of God" (Marshall Lang on the Last Supper of our Lord, p. 92). truly the communion of His body and blood as the bread we break and the cup of blessing we bless in the Holy Supper. According to this theory, logically carried out, we have not seven, but seventy times seven sacraments, and the Lord's Supper is no more sacred, and has no more efficacy as a means of grace, than a thousand natural objects around us. We shrink back from such conclusions, and therefore reject the premises on which they rest. We believe there is a peculiar exercise of faith, suitable to the occasion and to the special manifestations of Christ in the Holy Sacrament, by which the believing soul feeds on Him. The teaching of the Zurich and Helvetic Confessions on this subject is peculiar to themselves. It is not found in any other of the Reformed Confessions. The Westminster Standards give no sanction to it. The earlier Scotch Confession and Catechism, which were superseded by those of the Westminster Assembly, are very explicit in repudiating the whole Zwinglian theory, including the point we are now considering. The views of the Westminster divines on all questions relating to the sacraments were thoroughly Calvinistic. John Owen, the prince of all the Puritan theologians, strongly insists that both the manifestation of Christ and our participation of Him in the Lord's Supper "are expressed in such a manner as to demonstrate them to be peculiar, such as are not to be obtained in any other way. There is in it an eating and drinking of the body and blood of Christ, with a spiritual incorporation thence ensuing, which are peculiar to this ordinance. Herein is a peculiar exercise of faith and a peculiar participation of Christ."1 1 Owen's Works, v. 8, 560. LECTURE VII. THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SACRAMENTS. A NY religion adapted to the constitution of human nature must have its external rites and ceremonies. The worship of God in spirit and in truth does not imply the absence of outward forms, but only the subordination of the form to the spirit, even as the body is subject to the soul. "That is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual" (1 Cor. xv. 46). It was so in the creation, when God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and it is so in the new creation. Man's dual nature has been recognized and provided for in all God's redemptive dealings with our fallen race. The Old Testament economy was full of natural symbolism addressed to the soul through the bodily senses. The burning bush, the pillar of fire and cloud, the ark of the covenant, the altar of sacrifice, and the whole ritual system made after the pattern showed to Moses in the holy mount, were the signs of God's presence and power among His people. Besides these outward signs, which have accomplished their temporary purpose, and been abolished by the development of the old dispensation into the new, there were two divinely appointed ceremonies which were not only the signs of God's presence, but the seals of His covenant with His people and the pledges of His immanent power in the Church. Circumcision and the passover were not The Lord's Supper is the feast to define the meaning or to justify the use of this name by an appeal to its etymology. The word sacramentum may be the correct Latin translation of the Greek μvoτýptov, or "mystery," and the oath by which a Roman soldier bound himself to his commander and to his country may illustrate to some extent the allegiance we owe to the Captain of our salvation and to His Church; but all this is very far from determining the meaning or the use of baptism and the Lord's Sup 1 The sacraments of the Old Testament in regard to the spiritual things thereby signified and exhibited were for substance the same with those of the New. - Westminster Confession, chap. xxvii. 5. Whatever therefore is now exhibited to us in the sacraments, the Jews formerly received in theirs; namely, Christ with His spiritual riches. The same efficacy which ours possess they experienced in theirs; namely, that they were seals of the Divine favor towards them in regard to the hope of eternal salvation. — CALVIN: Institutes, book iv. chap. xiv. 23. ... While the former shadowed forth a promised Christ, the latter bears testimony to Him as already come and manifested. There is no doubt that if you compare time with time, the grace of the Spirit is now more abundantly displayed. . . . Both testify that the paternal kindness of God and the grace of the Spirit are offered in Christ, but ours more clearly and splendidly. In both there is an exhibition of Christ, but in ours it is more full and complete. Ibid., 20, 22, 26. per. The generic name of "sacraments," as now used by the whole Christian Church, separated and sanctified from its original uses, includes all that is taught in Scripture and in Christian experience in regard to these holy ordinances. All Protestants hold that there are only two sacraments, not seven, as the Church of Rome teaches. But the contention between us at this point is chiefly one of definition. We believe that marriage and ordination to the ministry are Divine and sacred ordinances. But we do not call these things "sacraments;" for according to our definition, which is based upon the facts recorded in the New Testament, "a sacrament is a holy ordinance instituted by Christ, wherein by sensible signs Christ and the benefits of the new covenant are represented, sealed, and applied to believers." Baptism and the Lord's Supper are the only ordinances instituted by Christ for these specific purposes. They are committed to the visible Church as Divinely appointed instruments for the gathering and perfecting of the saints in this life to the end of the world; and Christ by His own presence and spirit, according to His promise, makes them effectual for these ends. We therefore separate baptism and the Lord's Supper from all other Divine ordinances, and distinguish them by the name of "sacraments.” We are not strenuous for the name, but for the revealed truths, the recorded facts, and the blessed experiences which it represents. While the sacraments are not merely badges of distinction between Christians and the world, and of union among themselves, their office as outward signs is not to be ignored nor undervalued. They are by Christ's appointment the insignia of His Church and kingdom in the world.1 1 The kingdom Christ was founding was to be everywhere 1 |