4. The third Helvetic Confession, written at Basle, and promulgated A.D. 1532, at Mulhaiisen, the first place in the Helvetic confederacy which embraced the Reformation (Augusti. l.c. p. 627), was originally composed by Oswald Myconius. He, although living in the midst of the reformed school, and for 20 years chief pastor at Basle, is said to have adhered to the ancient doctrine of the Sacraments, and on account of these tenets to have received no degree from the university of Basle, and at last to have resigned his office (Melchior Adamus, p. 220). His Confession however, does not express the ancient view clearly or unambiguously. He says, indeed, that "in the Lord's Supper, together with the bread and wine of the Lord, the true body and true blood of Christ, are set forth (præfiguratur), and exhibited[1] to us through the minister of the Church;" yet he speculates needlessly in denying that "the natural, true, and substantial (substantiale) body of Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, which suffered for us, and ascended into heaven, is inclosed in the bread and cup of the Lord." In setting forth also our participation of Christ, he leaves it undecided whether this be bestowed through the Sacraments. "We firmly believe that Christ Himself is the food of believing souls to eternal life, and that our souls, through true faith in Christ crucified, receive, as meat and drink, (cibari et potari) the flesh and blood of Christ, so that we, as the members of His body, as our only Head, live in Him, and He in us:" wherein the language, compared with that of the reformed school, would rather lead one to think, that the instrumentality of the Sacraments, as effectual signs, is excluded; at least there is no one word in the whole Confession which implies it; and the turn of expression seems rather contrived to set forth the benefits of true faith in Christ, tacitly dropping the agency of the Sacraments. Further, the language of his friends Œcolampadius and Zuingli appears in his first description of the Sacraments. "In this same Church are employed Sacraments, namely, Baptism in the entrance into the Church; and the Lord's Supper, at its due time in afterlife, to testify faith and brotherly love, as was promised in Baptism." And afterwards—"We confess that the Lord Jesus instituted His Holy Supper to commemorate His Holy Passion with thanksgiving, to show the Lord's death, and to testify Christian charity and unity with true faith." Yet his confession was still thought too little "reformed;" and in the glosses added (A.D. 1581, after the
- ↑ Offertur, in itself an ambiguous expression, is determined by its use in the preceding sentence, wherein he says, that in "Baptism the washing from sins, which however is effected (perficitur) by the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost alone, is set forth (offertur), through the minister of tht Church."
