A. No: but as the water, in baptism, is not changed into the blood of Christ, nor becomes
the washing away of sins itself, being only the divine token and assurance thereof; so also, in the
Lord’s Supper, the sacred bread does not become the body of Christ itself, though agreeably to the
nature and usage of sacraments it is called the body of Christ.
Q. 79. Why, then, doth Christ call the bread His body, and the cup His blood, or the New
Testament in His blood; and St. Paul, the communion of the body and blood of Christ?
A. Christ speaks thus not without great cause; namely, not only to teach us thereby, that,
like as bread and wine sustain this temporal life, so also His crucified body and shed blood are the
true meat and drink of our souls unto life eternal; but much more, by this visible sign and pledge
to assure us that we are as really partakers of His true body and blood, through the working of the
Holy Ghost, as we receive by the mouth of the body these holy tokens in remembrance of Him;
and that all His sufferings and obedience are as certainly our own, as if we had ourselves suffered
and done all in our own persons.
westminster confession of faith (1647).
Chapter XXIX., section VII.
Worthy receivers, outwardly partaking of the visible elements in this sacrament, do then
also inwardly by faith, really and indeed, yet not carnally and corporally, but spiritually, receive
and feed upon Christ crucified, and all benefits of his death: the body and blood of Christ being
then not corporally or carnally in, with, or under the bread and wine; yet as really, but spiritually,
present to the faith of believers in that ordinance, as the elements themselves are, to the outward
senses.
westminster larger catechism (1647).
Question 170. How do they that worthily communicate in the Lord’s Supper feed upon the
body and blood of Christ therein?
Answer. As the body and blood of Christ are not corporally or carnally present in, with, or
under the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper; and yet are spiritually present to the faith of the
receiver, no less truly and really than the elements themselves are to their outward senses; so they
that worthily communicate in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, do therein feed upon the body
and blood of Christ, not after a corporal or carnal, but in a spiritual manner; yet truly and really,
while by faith they receive and apply unto themselves Christ crucified, and all the benefits of his
death.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE POLITICAL SITUATION BETWEEN 1526 AND 1529.
§ 112. The First Diet of Speier, and the Beginning of the Territorial System. 1526.
I. The documents in Walch, XVI. 243 sqq. Neue Sammlung der Reichsabschiede, II. 273–75.
Buchholtz: Ferdinand I., Bd. III.
II. Ranke, II. 249 sqq. Janssen, III. 39 sqq. J. Ney (Prot. minister in Speier): Analekten zur Gesch.
des Reichstags zu Speier im J. 1526, in Brieger’s "Zeitschrift für Kirchengesch.," Gotha, 1885,
p. 300 sqq., and 1887, p. 300 sqq. (New Documents from the archives of Karlsruh and
Würzburg). Walter Friedensburg: Der Reichstag zu Speier, 1526, im Zusammenhang der polit.
und Kirchl. Entwicklung Deutschlands im Reformationszeitalter, Berlin, 1887 (xiv. and 602
pages). Previous discussions by Veesemeier and Kluckhohn (in "Hist. Zeitschrift," 1886).