55b. (2.) The Lord’s Supper.

[15] GRH. (X, 364): “The design and benefits of the Holy Supper are very many in number, inestimable as regards their utility, and inconceivable in importance. For, when we receive in the Holy Supper the literal body of the Son of God Himself, crucified for us, and His own literal blood shed on the altar of the cross for our sins, it plainly follows from this that all things which Christ meritoriously procured for us, by delivering His body and shedding His blood, are applied, conferred upon, and sealed to us in the salutary use of this Sacrament . . . . But Christ embraces all and each of these benefits with wonderful brevity in the words of the institution, when He declares that His same body is offered to us to be eaten which was broken for us on the cross, . . . and when He commands us to do this in memory of Him.”

[16] Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are thus distinguished: The former is the Sacrament of initiation, the latter the Sacrament of confirmation. GRH. (X, 2): “By Baptism we are regenerated and renewed; by the Lord’s Supper we are fed and nourished unto eternal life. In Baptism, especially that of infants, faith is kindled by the Holy Spirit; in the use of the Supper it is increased, confirmed, and sealed. By Baptism we are grafted into Christ; by the salutary use of the Lord’s Supper we receive a spiritual increase in this relation. By Baptism we are received into the divine covenant; by the use of the Eucharist we are preserved in it, or, when we fall from it by sins against conscience, we are restored to it by true penitence.”

580Id. (304): “As Baptism regenerates not only the soul, but the whole man, in soul and body; so with the body and blood of Christ not only the soul but also the body, or the whole man in body and soul, is nourished unto life spiritual, celestial, and eternal. When, therefore, the Eucharist is called the food of the soul, this is to be understood in an inclusive, not an exclusive sense. And if, indeed, the body of Christ is especially only the food of the soul, yet it does not hence follow that it is not received with the bodily mouth; because the Word of God is the food of the soul (Heb 5:12), and yet is received with the bodily ears, Rom 10:14. Now, just in the same way the body of Christ is received with the bodily mouth, that the nutrition of the soul may be the more efficacious through the union of the bread and the body.”

CAT. MAJ. (V, 23): “By Baptism we are at first regenerated, but nevertheless the old and vicious covering of flesh and blood adheres to man. Now, there are here many impediments and assaults by which we are so severely tried, on the part of the world and of the devil, that we often grow weary and weak, and sometimes even fall into the filth of sin. Hence this Sacrament is given to us, that by its use our faith may again restore and refresh its strength; that it may not retreat or finally fall in this contest, but become daily stronger and stronger. For the new life is so constituted that it may continually increase and gather strength as it advances.”

[17] HOLL. (1138) combines both under the general name of evangelical grace which is communicated to us through the use of the Holy Supper. “Christ’s design in offering His body to be eaten by us . . . is, that evangelical grace, or the divine grace promised and offered to us in the Gospel, may be applied and sealed to us individually. When we attentively consider this, the act of applying grace becomes very clearly known. God promises through regenerating grace to bestow faith upon all. This regenerating grace, and its effect, viz., faith, God confirms, strengthens and increases through the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Moreover, he who receives the body and blood of the Lord may be most firmly assured that the promise of the Gospel belongs to him individually . . . . Next, through justifying grace God forgives the sins of the regenerate and imputes to them the righteousness of Christ; which justifying grace and forgiveness of sins are sealed in the Holy Supper. For, when we receive in the Holy Supper the very body of Christ which was delivered up to death for us . . . then we are positively assured, as by a seal of the New Testament, that the forgiveness of sins is imparted, bestowed upon, and applied to 581us who believe in Christ. Through indwelling grace, God graciously united Himself with us, which mystical union is rendered more close and firm by the eating of the body and the drinking of the blood of Christ, John 6:57. It is, moreover, a proof of ineffable love, that Christ, not content with being spiritually embraced by us through faith, in addition comes to us in His body and blood through a special appropriation, and thus unites Himself with both our body and our soul. Through renovating grace, spiritual strength is conferred upon us, so that we bring forth the fruits of righteousness. In the Holy Supper we are more intimately united with Christ, as the vine, so that in Him we, the branches, may bring forth more abundant fruit. By preserving grace, we are shielded from sin and refreshed with consolation. (Ambrose). And, just as complete refreshment or nourishment for the body consists in food, which is the dry aliment, and drink which is the moist aliment; so, in the Eucharist Christ is offered to us as both food and drink, lest we might think that we lacked anything needful for our complete alimony or spiritual nutrition (Augustine). Through glorifying grace, blissful immortality is conferred upon us, whose signs or pledges are the body and blood of Christ, received in the Holy Supper.”

[18] HOLL. (1139): “Being united through the Holy Supper with Christ, the Head, they are also united with one another as members of the mystical body, and thus the Eucharist is the basis of love between us and our neighbor, 1Co 10:17. Whence, also, it is a mark of ecclesiastical fellowship and a token of the Church with which we communicate in faith. (GRH. (X. 371): ‘We testify that we approve the doctrine which is taught in the Church in which we, together with others, eat one Eucharistic bread and drink from one common cup’).” The Dogmaticians usually distinguish between the principal designs or fruits, and the less principal or secondary. As the latter, QUEN. (IV. 184) enumerates: “(a) The remembrance and commemoration of the death of Christ and of the benefits thereby acquired, Luk 22:19; 1Co 11:24-25 (αναμνησις signifies both the remembrance of any one in thought, and the commemoration in words). (b) The separation of Christians from Pagans and Jews. (c) The more intimate communion of the members of the Church with one another in Christ.”

It follows from the conception of the Eucharist that (1) as a rule, it should be administered in the public congregation, and not in private, unless in a case of necessity. When, moreover, 582the APOL. says (XII, 6): “We do nothing contrary to the Catholic Church, though we administer only public mass or communion; for no private masses are now administered in the Greek parishes” . . . this is not stated in opposition to the private use of the Lord’s Supper, but in opposition to the solitary masses of the Romish Church, from which the congregation is entirely excluded. (2) That the frequent use of the Eucharist is not only allowable, but should be commended.