Chapter XXIX: Worthy receivers, outwardly partaking of the visible elements in this
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. __________________________________________________________________
[915] The Lutheran divines of the seventeenth century describe the real presence as sacramentalis, vera et realis, substantiatis, mystica, supernaturalis, et incomprehensibilis, and distinguish it from the praesentia gloriosa, hypostatica, spiritualis, figurativa, and from apousia (absence), enousia (inexistence), sunousia (co-existence in the sense of coalescence), and metousia (transubstantiation).
[916] The Formula Concordiae (Epitome, Art. VII., Negativa 21) indignantly rejects the notion of dental mastication as a malicious slander of the Sacramentarians. But Luther, in his instruction to Melanchthon, Dec. 17, 1534, gave it as his opinion, from which he would not yield, that "the body of Christ is distributed, eaten, and bitten with the teeth.""Und ist Summa das unsere Meinung, dass wahrhaftig in und mit dem Brod der Leib Christi gessen wird, also dass alles, was das Brod wirket und leidet, der Leib Christi wirke und leide, dass er ausgetheilt, gessen, und mit den Zähnen zubissen [zerbissen]werde." De Wette, IV. 572. Comp. his letter to Jonas, Dec. 16, 1534, vol. IV. 569 sq. Dorner thinks that Luther speaks thus only per synecdochen; but this is excluded by the words, "What the bread does and suffers, that the body of Christ does and suffers." Melanchthon very properly declined to act on this instruction (see his letter to Camerarius, Jan. 10, 1535, in the "Corp. Reform." II. 822), and began about that time to change his view on the real presence. He was confirmed in his change by the renewal of the eucharistic controversy, and his contact with Calvin.
[917] The Lutheran theory is generally designated by the convenient term consubstantiation, but Lutheran divines expressly reject it as a misrepresentation. The Zwinglians, with their conception of corporality, could not conceive of a corporal presence without a local presence; while Luther, with his distinction of three kinds of presence and his view of the ubiquity of Christ's body, could do so. The scholastic term consubstantiatio is not so well defined as transubstantiatio, and may be used in different senses: (1) a mixture of two substances (which nobody ever taught); (2) an inclusion of one substance in another (impanatio); (3) a sacramental co-existence of two substances in their integrity in the same place. In the first two senses the term is not applicable to the Lutheran theory. The "in pane" might favor impanation, but, the sub and cum qualify it. Dr. Steitz, in a learned article on Transubstantiation, in Herzog,1 XVI. 347, and in the second edition, XV. 829, attributes to the Lutheran Church the third view of consubstantiation, but to Luther himself the second; namely, "die sacramentiche Durchdringung der Brotsubstanz von der Substanz des Leibes." To this Luther's illustration of the fire in the iron might lead. But fire and iron remain distinct. At all events, he denied emphatically a local or physical inclusion. Lutheran divines in America are very sensitive when charged with consubstantiation.
[918] The Latin text reads simply: corpus et sanguis Christi; the German text: wahrer Leib und Blut Christi.
[919] Vere adsint et distribuantur. The German text adds: unter der Gestalt des Brots und Weins. The variations between the Latin and German texts of the original edition indicate a certain hesitation in Melanchthon's mind, if not the beginning of a change, which was completed in the altered confession.
[920] German: da.
[921] German addition: und genomnen wird.
[922] Vescentibus. The German text has no equivalent for this verb.
[923] Et improbant secus docentes. In German: Derhalben wird auch die Gegenlehre verworfen, wherefore also the opposite doctrine is rejected. The sacramentarian (Zwinglian) doctrine is meant, but not the Calvinistic, which appeared six years afterward, 1536. The term improbant for the papal damnant, and anathema sit, shows the progress in toleration. The Zwinglian view is not condemned as a heresy, but simply disapproved as an error. The Formula of Concord made a step backwards in this respect, and uses repudiamus and damnamus.
[924] Cum pane et vino vere exhibeantur, instead ofvere adsint et distribuantur. The verb exhibit does not necessarily imply the actual reception by unbelievers, which the verb distribute does. So Dorner also judges of the difference (l.c., p. 324).
[925] The disapproval of those who teach otherwise is significantly omitted, no doubt in deference to Calvin's view, which had been published in the mean time, and to which Melanchthon himself leaned.
[926] I may mention among commentators (on Matt. 26:26 and parallel passages), De Wette, Meyer, Weiss (in the seventh ed. of Meyer on Matt., p. 504 sq.), Bleek, Ewald, Van Oosterzee, Alford, Morison, etc.; and, among Lutheran and Lutheranizing theologians, Kahnis, Jul. Müller, Martensen, Dorner. The Bible, true to its Oriental origin and character, is full of parables, metaphors, and tropical expressions, from Genesis to Revelation. The substantive verb esti(which was not spoken in the Aramaic original) is simply the logical copula, and may designate a figurative, as well as a real, identity of the subject and the predicate; which of the two, depends on the connection and surroundings. I may say of a likeness of Luther, "This is Luther's," i.e., a figure or representation of Luther. It has a symbolical or allegorical sense in many passages, as Matt. 13:38 sq.; Luke 12:1; John 10:6, 14:6; Gal. 4:24; Heb. 10:20; Rev. 1:20. But what is most conclusive, even in the words of institution, Luther himself had to admit a double metaphor; namely, a synecdoche partis pro toto ("This is my body" for "This is my body, and bread;" to avoid transubstantiation, which denies the substance of bread), and a synecdoche continentis pro contento (" This cup is the new covenant in my blood," instead of " This wine,"etc.). The whole action is symbolical. At that time Christ, living and speaking to the disciples with his body yet unbroken, and his blood not yet shed, could not literally offer his body to them. They would have shuddered at such an idea, and at least expressed their surprise. Kahnis, an orthodox Lutheran, came to the conclusion (1861) that " the literal interpretation of the words of institution is an impossibility, and must be given up."(See the first. ed. of his Luth. Dogmatik, I. 616 sq.) Dorner says (Christl. Glaubenslehre, II. 853), " That estimay be understood figuratively is beyond a doubt, and should never have been denied. It is only necessary to refer to the parables."Martensen, an eminent Danish Lutheran (Christl. Dogmatik, p. 491), admits Zwingli's exegesis, and thinks that his " sober common-sense view has a greater importance than Lutheran divines are generally disposed to accord to it."
[927] The Lutheran divines were divided between the idea of an absolute ubiquity (which would prove too much for the Lutheran doctrine, and run into a sort of Panchristism or Christo-Pantheism), and a relative ubiquity or multivolipraesentia (which depends upon the will). The Formula of Concord inconsistently favors both views. See Dorner's History of Christology, II. 710 sqq. (Germ. ed.), and Schaff, Creeds,
I. 322, 325 sq., and 348.
[928] Zwingli calls the sacrament ein Wiedergedächtniss und Erneuern dessen, was einst geschehen und in Ewigkeit kräftig ist. His views on the Lord's Supper are conveniently put together by Usteri and Vögelin, in Zwingli's Sämmtliche Schriften im Auszuge, vol. II. 70-167.
[929] Dorner (Gesch. der protest. Theol., p. 300): "Das Charakteristische in allen Schriften Zwingli's vor 1524 ist sein Gegensatz gegen das heil. Abendmahl als Opfer und Messe." So also Ebrard.
[930] He expressed at Marburg, and in his two confessions to Charles I. and to Francis I., his full belief in the divinity of Christ in the sense of the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds. Dorner says (l.c., p. 302): "Dass Zwingli Christum gegenwärtig denkt, ist unleugbar; er sei bei diesem Mahle Wirth und Gastmahl (hospes et epulum)."
[931] Christum credimus vere esse in coena, immo non esse Domini coenam nisi Christus adsit ... Adserimus igitur non sic carnaliter et crasse manducari corpus Christi in coena, ut isti perhibent, sed verum Christi corpus credimus in coena sacramentaliter et spiritualiter edi, a religiosa, fideli et sancta mente, quomodo et divus Chrysostomus sentit. Et haec est brevis summa nostrae, immo non nostrae, sed ipsius veritatis, sententia de hac controversia. Niemeyer, Collectio Confess., pp. 71, 72.
[932] Letter to Viret, September, 1542: "De scriptis Zwinglii sic sentire, ut sentis, tibi permitto. Neque enim omnia legi. Et fortassis sub finem vitae, retractavit ac correxit in melius quae temere initio exciderant. Sed in scriptis prioribus memini, quam profana sit de Sacramentis sententia."Opera, XI. 438.
[933] Henri Martin (Histoire de France, Tom. VIII. 188 sq.) says of Calvin's Institutes that they gave a religious code to the Reform in France and in a great part of Europe,"and that it is "une vraie 'Somme' théologique, où se trouve impliqué l'ordre civil même, et qui n'est pas, comme celle de Thomas d'Aquin, le résumé d'un système établi, mais le programne et le code d'un système à établir ... Luther attire: Calvin impose et retient ... Volonté et logique, voilà Calvin" (p. 185). He calls him "le premier écrivain par la durée et l'influence de sa langue, de son style."
[934] Some of the strongest passages on this point occur in his polemic tracts against Westphal. In the Second Defense he says: "Christum corpore absentem doceo nihilominus non tantum divina sua virtute, quae ubique diffusa est, nobis adesse, sed etiam facere ut nobis vivifica sit sua caso" (Opera, IX. 76)."Spiritus sui virtute Christus locorum distantiam superat ad vitam nobis e sua carne inspirandam" (p. 77). And in his last admonition: "Haec nostrae doctrinae summa est, carnem Christi panem esse vivificum, quia dum fide in eam coalescimus, vere animas nostras alit et pascit. Hoc nonnisi spiritualiter fieri docemus, quia hujus sacrae unitatis vinculum arcana est et incomprehensibilis Spiritus Sancti virtus" (p. 162). For a good exposition of the Calvinistic theory which substantially agrees with ours, we may refer to Ebrard (Abendmahl, II. 550-570), Stähelin (Calvin, I. 222 sqq.), and Nevin (Mystical Presence). __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________