being only the sign and confirmation thereof appointed of God (1 Pet. 3;21); so the bread of the Lord’s supper is not changed into the very body of Christ, though, agreeably to the nature and properties of sacraments, it is called the body of Christ Jesus (1 Cor. 10;16).
1 Pet. 3;21.—The like figure whereunto, even baptism doth also now save us, (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.—Acts 8;36.—Acts 10;47.—Matt. 26;26.
1 Cor. 10;16.—The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ.—1 Cor. 11;23, 26.—Gen. 17;10.—Ex. 12;11.—Acts 7;8.—Acts 22;16.
79. Why then doth Christ call the bread his body, and the cup his blood, or the new covenant in his blood, and Paul, the “communion of the body and blood of Christ?”
Christ speaks thus not without great reason, namely, not only thereby to teach us, that as bread and wine support this temporal life, so his crucified body and shed blood are the true meat and drink whereby our souls are fed to eternal life (John 6;55, 49, 51): but more especially by these visible signs and pledges to assure us, that we are as really partakers of his true body and blood (by the operation of the Holy Ghost) as we receive by the mouths of our bodies these holy signs in remembrance of him (1 Cor. 11;24, 25): and that all his sufferings
