Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 2.djvu/444

234 and blood, as Paul says," Eph. v. 27. Here, again, the declarations of Scripture are simply received, without any of the glosses of the school of Zuingli; as, also, the Baptism of infants is founded upon Matt, xxviii. 19, whereas, all the "reformed" school found it on a deduction from Gen. xvii. 10. Again, the Bohemians take literally the Apostle's saying, that "whoever were baptized, had been buried thereby with into His death, that he may walk henceforth in newness of life." "But if," (they add) "from the preaching of the Gospel, they neither obtain a full confidence in, nor love towards all those, who, by the washing of regeneration, are engraffed into , nor walk worthy of their calling, watching diligently to please , nor place their hope of eternal life in Him only; they show that they have received in vain, the grace of Baptism, and the name of the Holy Trinity, which was invoked over them. Which Scripture threatens that will one day terribly avenge." In place of this salutary terror, the Reformed school would have denied that such an one had ever received that grace.

The Three Confessions of the Reformed Church in Brandenburg and Prussia, the Confessio Marchica, Colloquium Lipsiacum, and the Declaratio Thoruniensis, speak less explicitly and simply, and they all labour under the disadvantage of having been written to express, not merely the views of their authors, but—the first, to justify them out of the writings of Luther; the second, to approximate, as much as may be, to Luther's views; and the third is yet further embarrassed by an attempt to conciliate the Roman Catholics, which necessarily gives them a constrained and artificial appearance. They seem, however, to express a belief in an actual communication of the Body and Blood of in the  Supper, and so also of regeneration in Baptism, and thus to be opposed to the Zuingli-Calvinist doctrines of mere attestation or sealing.

12. The Confessio Marchica interprets Tit. iii. 5, and Joh. iii. 5, in their plain and obvious sense; and of the Supper it is said, that "therein, the outward signs, bread and wine, and the true Body of, which was given to death for us, and His Holy Blood, which was shed for us at the foot of the Holy Cross, are both present together, on account of the Sacramental union, in this holy action, and are together given (ausgespendet) and taken;" "as (they add, however,) the spiritual manna or heavenly food of the word is spiritually received, and in  kingdom (which is not of this world) all is spiritual. Thus, also, we believe, that the Holy Supper is also a spiritual food of souls, whereby they are refreshed, strengthened, and, (together with the body, whereunto they are joined,) are fed and preserved to immortality. We abide, therefore, (without adding aught,) by the holy words of consecration, that the