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

ALFORD: "The form of expression is important, not being 'aujto\ß
oJ a‡rtoß,' not the bread, but the thing itself." Dr. SCHAFF quotes these
words of Alford as confirming the view of Lange, and thus endorses the
judgment of these two interpreters. We may, therefore, say that the theory
that "this," the confessed subject in the sacramental proposition, means
grammatically "this bread," is a theory abandoned by the best scholars of
the school which is most interested in maintaining it.
In what sense This bread is the body of Christ.
But even if it were granted that the true resolution of the grammatical
form is into "This bread is My body," the desired inference, that the
meaning is, "This bread is a symbol of My body," is as remote as ever.
For, first, if Christ had said, "This bread is My body," He would have
implied that no other bread is His body: but as a symbol all bread is
equally Christ's body. Second: the reason why this bread is His body must
lie in something which has taken place, since there was simply bread upon
the table at the Lord's Supper. It must be something which has taken
place, since that bread was in the mere natural sphere of all bread. When it
thus lay, it was not true of it that it was Christ's body any more than all
other bread is. Between the lying of that bread on the table, a mere thing of
nature in all its relations, and the affirmation "This is My body," six things
had occurred. 1. He "took" it, the incarnate Almighty, after whose taking
(Matt. xiv. 19) five loaves and two fishes had satisfied the hunger of five
thousand men, besides women and children, and had left twelve baskets
full of fragments. He "took" it, after whose taking (Matt. xv. 36) four
thousand men, besides women and children, were fed, and seven baskets of
fragments remained. 2. He "gave thanks," as He had done in the
stupendous miracle of creation in which He fed the thousands (Matt. xv.
36). 3. He "blessed" the bread, as in the supernatural feeding (Matt. xiv.
19), and in virtue of that word of omnipotent benediction, the border of the
realm of nature was passed, and all that followed was under the powers
and conditions of the infinite supernatural. 4. He "brake it," as He had
broken the mystic loaves and fishes (Matt. xv. 36). 5. He "gave it" to His
disciples, as He had given the loaves and