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

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Is it said that to deny that Christ's sacramental presence is local is to<br />

deny it altogether; that to affirm that His determinate presence is in the<br />

realm of angels <strong>and</strong> of the glorified, is to affirm that He has no presence at<br />

all on earth? Be it said; but then, at least, let the odious libel that our<br />

Church teaches consubstantiation, or a physical presence, or a corporeal or<br />

carnal mode of presence, be forever dropped. Our Church never has<br />

denied that, in the sense <strong>and</strong> in the manner in which our Lord was once on<br />

earth, Ie is no longer here, but she maintains that the illocal is as real as the<br />

local, the supernatural is as true as the natural. "A local absence," as<br />

Andreae said, in his argument with Beza at Montbeillard, "does not<br />

prevent a sacramental presence;" the presence of Christ's humanity on<br />

earth, through the Deity, with which it is one person, is as real as is its<br />

presence through the properties of its own essence in heaven. <strong>The</strong> soundest<br />

theologians do not hesitate to declare in propositions which seem<br />

contradictory, but are not, "God is everywhere," <strong>and</strong> "God is nowhere,"-everywhere<br />

in His fathomless omnipresence--nowhere locally or<br />

determinately; <strong>and</strong> as is the presence of the divine, such is the presence it<br />

imparts to the humanity which is personally united with it. <strong>The</strong> man Christ<br />

Jesus is with us after one manner, <strong>and</strong> He is not with us after another<br />

manner; He is with us through the plenary exercise of His divine majesty,<br />

not with us in the local or determinate restrictions of space. "<strong>The</strong>re is no<br />

contradiction in attributing contrary things to the same subject, provided<br />

they be affirmed in different respects <strong>and</strong> modes." 383<br />

2. A Living Saviour.<br />

<strong>The</strong> current view of un-Lutheran Protestantism practically is, that all<br />

we need for our redemption is a dead Christ. We are to look back to<br />

Calvary to find peace in thinking of what was there done, <strong>and</strong> at the Lord's<br />

Supper we are to look back to the sacrifice once made for our sins. <strong>The</strong><br />

current view excludes the necessity of a living Saviour in our redemption.<br />

According to it, we redeem ourselves, or the Spirit of God redeems us, by<br />

what Christ once did, <strong>and</strong> without any personal work on His part now. To<br />

the<br />

383 Chemnitz, De duab. Naturis, 179.

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