Chapter 22

That the doctrine of the _real presence_ of the body and blood of the Saviour in the eucharist, is taught in the symbolical books, is acknowledged by the Plea of the Rev. Mr. Mann, and indeed generally admitted, though variously stated and explained. It would therefore be unnecessary to quote those symbols in proof, were it not that many of our readers have not access to them elsewhere, and that the completeness of our representation, as well as the plan of our work require it. The following passages will suffice to explain this view:--

_Augsburg Confession_, Art. X.

OF THE LORD'S SUPPER.

"Concerning the holy Supper of the Lord, it is taught, that the _true body and blood_ of Christ are truly present, under the form of bread and wine, in the Lord's Supper, and are there administered and received."--_Symb. Books_, p. 112.

_Apology to the Confession_, Art. VII., VIII. (IV.)

"Our adversaries (the Romanists,) do not object to the tenth article (of the Augsburg Confession,) in which we confess that the _body and blood_ of Christ our Lord, are _truly present_ in the holy supper, and administered and received with the visible elements, the bread and wine, as hitherto maintained in the (Romish) church, and as the Greek Canon shows."--_Symb. Books_, p. 227.

_Smalcald_, Article VI.

"Concerning the Sacrament of the Altar, we hold that the bread and wine in the Eucharist, are _the true body and blood_ of Christ, which are administered and received, not only by pious, but also by impious Christians."--_Symb. Books_, p. 384.

_Luther's Smaller Catechism_.

"_What is the Sacrament of the altar?_

"_Ans_.--It is the _true body and blood_ of our Lord Jesus Christ, with bread and wine, instituted by Christ himself, for us Christians to eat and drink."--_Symb. Books_, p. 124.

_Form of Concord_, Pt. I., Art. VII.

"We teach that the _true body and blood_ of our Lord Jesus Christ, are truly and essentially, or substantially, present in the Lord's Supper, administered with the bread and wine, and _received with the lips by all_ those who use this sacrament, be they worthy or unworthy, good or evil, believing or unbelieving; being received by the believing unto consolation and life, but by the unbelieving unto judgment."-_Symb. Books_, p. 570.

"We believe, teach, and confess, that the words of the testament of Christ, are not to be understood otherwise than according to their _literal_ sense, so that the bread does not signify the absent body of Christ, and the wine the absent blood of Christ, but on account of their sacramental union, _that the bread and wine_ ARE _truly the body and blood of Christ_." (Sondern dass es wahrhaftig um sacramentlicher Einigkeit willen der Leib und Blut Christi sei. Sed ut propter sacramentalem unionem panis et vinum _vere sint corpus et sanguis Christi_.)--_Idem_., p. 571.

"We believe, teach, and confess, that not only the truly believing and the worthy, but also the unworthy and the unbelieving, _receive the true body and blood of Christ_."-Page 572.

"In addition to the above clear passages, incontestably teaching the real presence, it deserves to be ever remembered, that only fourteen years after the Form of Concord was published, when Duke Frederick William, during the minority of Christian II., published the VISITATION ARTICLES OF SAXONY, in 1594, in order to suppress the Melancthonian tendencies to reject this and other peculiarities of the symbols, the Article on this subject which was framed by men confessedly adhering to the old symbols, and designing to re-enunciate their true import, and which was enforced upon the whole church in Saxony as symbolic, gives the most objectionable view of this doctrine, viz.: I. 'The pure doctrine of our church is, that the words, '_Take and eat, this is my body: drink, this is my blood_, are to be understood _simply and according to the letter_.' II. That the body (which is received and eaten,) is the _proper_ and _natural body_ (der rechte natuerliche Leib) of Christ, _which hung upon the cross;_ and the blood (which is drunk) is the _proper_ and _natural blood_ (das rechte natuerliche Blut) _which flowed from the side of Christ_.' Mueller's Symb. Books, p. 847. Now we cannot persuade ourselves, that this is the view of a single minister of the General Synod, or of many out of it; and yet these are the views that those are obligated to receive, who avow implicit allegiance to the former symbolical books of our church in Europe. If any adopt the modification received by many of our distinguished divines, such as Reinhard Storr, Knapp, and others, they do not faithfully embrace the symbolical doctrine, and cannot fairly profess to do so."

In regard to the arguments against this view of the _mode_ of the Saviour's presence, we shall merely add an enumeration of the principal, and refer the reader for a more full and detailed discussion of the subject to Discourse IV. contained in our History of the American Lutheran Church, pp. 120 to 154, 5th edition.

The Reformers justly rejected the Romish error, that the bread and wine were transformed and transubstantiated into the body and blood of Christ. But they still adhered to the opinion, that the real body and blood of the Saviour are present at the Eucharist, in some mysterious way, and are received by the month of every communicant, worthy and unworthy. This view of the subject appears inconsistent with the Word of God, for various reasons:-

(_a_) When Christ uttered the words, this (bread) is my body, his body was not yet dead, but living and reclining, at their side at the table. It was therefore certainly not received by them into their mouths. The language must, therefore, have been figurative, such as Jesus was accustomed often to employ. Thus, when he said, "I am the _door_" John