TRACTS FOR THE TIMES.
extensive a subject to do justice to, even had I the learning for it; but I may draw your attention to one or two obvious proofs of the fact.
L. You must mean from Calvin, for Luther is, in some points, reckoned nearer the Romish Church than ourselves.
C. I mean Calvin, about whose extreme distance from Rome there can be no doubt. What is the popular opinion now concerning the necessity of an Episcopal Regimen?
L. A late incident has shown what it is; that it is uncharitable to define the Catholic Church, as the body of Christians in every country as governed by Bishops, Priests, and Deacons; such a definition excluding pious Dissenters and others.
C. But what thought Calvin? "Calvin held those men worthy of anathema who would not submit themselves to truly Christian Bishops, if such could be had[1]." What would he have said then to the Wesleyan Methodists, and that portion of the (so called) Orthodox Dissenters, which co-operates, at present, with the Church? These allow us, or numbers among us, to be truly Christian, yet make no attempts to obtain Bishops from us. Thus the age is more Protestant now than Calvin himself.
L. Certainly in this respect; unless Calvin spoke rhetorically under circumstances.
C. Now for a second instance. The following is his statement concerning the Lord's Supper. "I understand what is to be understood by the words of Christ; that He doth not only offer us the benefits of His death and Resurrection, but His very body, wherein He died and rose again. I assert that the body of Christ is really, (as the usual expression is,) that it is truly given to us in the Sacrament, to be the saving food of our souls." …… "The Son of God offers daily to us in the Holy Sacrament, the same body which He once offered in sacrifice to His Father, that it may be our spiritual food." …… "If any one ask me concerning the manner, I will not be ashamed to confess that it is a secret too high for my reason to comprehend, or my tongue to express[2]." Now, if I were of myself to use these words, (in spite of the qualification at the end, concerning the
- ↑ Vide the Churchman's Manual, p. 13.
- ↑ Vide Tracts for the Times, No. 27.
