The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

flowing blood of our crucified Lord. Through this organ an infinite ransom
was accomplished. In the Supper, the organ of the redemption becomes
the organ of its application. With an artlessness which heightens its
grandeur, this redemption, which forever centres in Christ's sacred and
undivided person, veils its supernatural powers under the simplest elements
which sustain and revive our natural life. But faith none the less clearly
sees that the bread which we break is the communion of Christ's body, and
that the cup of blessing which we bless is the communion of His blood.
Chemnitz on the personal presence of Christ.
In illustrating and defending the doctrine of God's Word, we shall
quote with some fulness from Chemnitz as illustrative of the Lutheran
doctrine of the person of Christ, as bearing on His presence in the Lord's
Supper, and with reference to various misapprehensions of it. We desire to
present the views of Chemnitz, the greatest of the dogmatic theologians of
Sixteenth Century, not because of the weight which his name bears, nor
merely because of the exquisite combination of sound judgment, erudition,
profound thought and clear reasoning, with great mildness, and a simple
and scriptural piety which characterized him, but mainly for two reasons.
First, because he bore so distinguished a part in the preparation of the
Formula of Concord, and in the subsequent masterly defence of it; and
secondly, because he was of the school which, in order to narrow the
ground of controversy, had preferred waiving the question of a general
omnipresence of Christ in His human nature, and confining attention
mainly to that presence in which His people are most directly interested,
His presence with His Church--everywhere and at all times, and especially
at His Supper.
I. On the Ascension and Return of Christ. 1. The Ascension strictly
literal.
"The words in the History of the Ascension are rightly taken in their
simple, literal, and natural signification; for, when Christ ascended,
according to the description of the Evangelists, He was, by a visible
motion, lifted up on high, in a circumscribed form and location of the body,
so that, by a visible interval, He departed further and further from the
presence of the Apostles.