An Apology for the True Christian Divinity/THESES THEOLOGICAE/THE THIRTEENTH PROPOSITION
THE THIRTEENTH PROPOSITION.
Concerning the Communion, or Participation of the Body and Blood of Christ.
The communion, of the body and blood of Christ is inward and spiritual, [1] which is the participation of his flesh and blood, by which the inward man [2] is daily nourished in the hearts of those in whom Christ dwells; of which things the breaking of bread by Christ with his disciples was a figure, which they even used in the church for a time, who had received the substance, for the cause of the weak; even as abstaining from things strangled and from blood; the washing one another's feet; and the anointing of the sick with oil; all which are commanded with no less authority and solemnity than the former; yet seeing they are but the shadows of better things, they cease in such as have obtained the substance. [3]