The Fourth Letter Of Jacob The Chandler, Written To His Children; Being Properly A Confession Of His Faith.

Thus the bread is not his body, though Christ so calls it; but it is a memorial of his body, which he has given for us. For Christ said to his disciples: He that receiveth you receiveth me. Matt. 10:40. And he also says: Whosoever shall receive such a child in my name receiveth me. Luke 9:48. These words must not be so understood, that they receive Christ bodily; but they that received such a child or his disciples, did virtually as much as though they had received Christ; for they were his messengers, and they received them in his name. Paul also says that the Israelites drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, which Rock was Christ (1 Cor. 10:4); though Moses with his rod did not smite Christ, but a stone, which signified Christ (Ex. 17:6). For as through the smiting with Moses’ rod water ran out of the stone, so that the Israelites drank; so God the Father by his power caused the water of eternal life to flow, to give drink to the spiritual Israelites; hence he says: which Rock was Christ. They also, he says, did eat the same spiritual meat; though they yet ate only the figurative heavenly bread in the wilderness; but God gave us the true bread from heaven (John 6:50), which is Christ, of which the bread which the Israelites ate was a figure. Therefore Paul writes: They did all eat the same spiritual meat. 1 Cor. 10:3. Christ and his apostles were wont to call the signs and figures as though they were the substance, as in the case of the two wives (Gal. 4:24): Which things are an allegory; for these are the two covenants; though the wives were not the covenants, but they signify the covenants.

So one is also not to understand, that the bread is the body of Christ; else the cup must also be the testament, and the wine his blood, which is not so, but they are only symbols by which his body, and his blood, which was shed on the tree of the cross, are to be remembered. Hence Christ says: This do in remembrance of me.