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

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Lord...sat on the right h<strong>and</strong> of God, <strong>and</strong> they went forth <strong>and</strong> preached<br />

everywhere, the Lord working with them <strong>and</strong> confirming the word with<br />

signs following.' <strong>The</strong>y preached everywhere, the Lord working with them:<br />

therefore the Lord Jesus worked with them everywhere." So, also, in<br />

regard to the words: "<strong>The</strong> Son of man which is in heaven" (John iii. 13).<br />

2. <strong>The</strong> Point of Agreement as to Christ’s Presence. Nature of Divine<br />

Omnipresence.<br />

"That Christ, according to His divine nature, is present with His<br />

Church, <strong>and</strong> with all other creatures, is not questioned. <strong>The</strong> divine essence<br />

is infinite, immeasurable, illimitable, uncompounded: the operation of God<br />

proceeds from His power...Wherefore, it is usual <strong>and</strong> right to say that God<br />

is everywhere, or in all things essentially, or by essence, presence, <strong>and</strong><br />

power, without mingling, circumscription, distraction, or mutation of<br />

Himself. Because the divine nature is incapable of partition, not having part<br />

separate from part, it is total totally, wherever it exists; nor is there part in<br />

part, but it is total in all, total in each, <strong>and</strong> total above all, as Damascenus<br />

says. And the old writers say: <strong>The</strong> divine essence is within all, yet is not<br />

included--it is out of all, yet not excluded." Luther, in a passage so closely<br />

parallel with the one we have just quoted from Chemnitz, that we cannot<br />

forbear placing the two side by side, says: "God is not a Being with<br />

extension, of whom we can say, He is so high, so broad, so thick; but He is<br />

a supernatural, unsearchable Being, who is total <strong>and</strong> entire in every<br />

granule, <strong>and</strong> yet in, <strong>and</strong> over, <strong>and</strong> apart from all creatures...Nothing is so<br />

small that God is not smaller, nothing so great that God is not greater...He<br />

is, in a word, an ineffable Being, over <strong>and</strong> apart from all that we can speak<br />

or think."<br />

3. <strong>The</strong> mooted question as to Christ’s presence.<br />

“Since, however, in the person of Christ, there subsists not only the<br />

divine, but the human nature, the question at present concerns the latter, to<br />

wit, where <strong>and</strong> how the person of Christ, according to both natures, or in<br />

His assumed human nature, is present--or wills, <strong>and</strong> is able to be present?"<br />

After dwelling on Christ's presence at the Supper, Chemnitz says:<br />

“But not alone in that place--not at that time alone when

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