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In all his promises, . . . in addition to the word, God has usually given a sign, for the greater assurance and strengthening of our faith. Thus he gave Noah the sign of the rainbow \[Gen 9:12-17\]. To Abraham he gave circumcision as a sign \[Gen 17:11\]. . . . So we constantly find in the Scriptures many of these signs, given along with the promises. For in this way also worldly testaments are made; not only are the words written down, but seals and the marks of notaries are affixed, so that \[they\] may always be binding and authentic.

This is what Christ has done in this testament. He has affixed to the words a powerful and most precious seal and sign: his own true flesh and blood under the bread and wine. For we poor men, living as we do in our five senses, must always have along with the words at least one outward sign to which we may cling and around which we may gather – in such a way, however, that this sign may be a sacrament, that is, that it may be external and yet contain and signify something spiritual; in order that through the external we may be drawn into the spiritual, comprehending the external with the eyes of the body and the spiritual or inward with the eyes of the heart.

Now we see how many parts there are in this testament, or mass. There is, first, the testator who makes the testament, Christ. Second, the heirs to whom the testament is bequeathed, we Christians. Third, the testament itself, the words of Christ – -- when he says, 'This is my body which is given for you. This is my blood which is poured out for you, a new eternal testament,' etc.

Fourth, the seal or token is the sacrament, the bread and wine, under which are his true body and blood. . . .

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Fifth, there is the bequeathed blessing which the words signify, namely, remission of sins and eternal life. Sixth, the duty, remembrance, or requiem, which we are to do for Christ, that is, that we should preach his love and grace, hear and meditate upon it, and by it be incited and preserved unto love and hope in him. As St. Paul explains it in 1 Corinthians 11\[:26\], 'As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of Christ.' And this is what an earthly testator does, who bequeaths something to his heirs, that he may leave behind him a good name, the good will of men, and a blessed memory, that he should not be forgotten (_LW_, 35: 86 O.

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Even so, we have Tillich's profound analysis of symbols generally, including "the religious symbol", to remind us that "_das Symbolisierte selbst \[kann\] wieder Symbol_ _sein für ein_ _Symbolisiertes_ _höheren Ranges_" \-\- to the point, indeed, that even talk about "_den erlösenden Handeln Gottes \[ist\] selbst symbolischer Ausdruck für eine Erfahrung des Unbedingt-Transzendenten_" (_GW_, 5:196). My thought is that just as the explicit primal source of authority is constitutive relative to the primary (formal) authority and all secondary (merely substantial) authorities, so the prim.al sacrament is constitutive relative to the primary sacrament of the church and all secondary means of salvation, including all "sacramental signs." But insofar as the secondary means are administered and received as re-presentative of the church and, through it, of the explicit primal source through which the church itself is authorized/constituted, that primal source and the church are both really present "under" them, or, alternatively, "in" them, as is the _implicit_ primal source-the transcendental source \-\- that is strictly ultimate reality itself.

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