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

ut that "this wine is like the New Testament in Christ's blood, or the
pouring out of this wine like the pouring out of the New Testament--or of
the blood which is its constituting cause." The interpretation, therefore, of
the word “cup," which they grant to be a correct one, if legitimately
accepted,. overthrows their doctrine.
But this still leaves untouched the point of the alleged inconsistency
between the principles on which our Church interprets the "first" and
"second" parts of the formula of the Lord's Supper. But our Church does
not believe, as the alleged inconsistency would involve, that there is a
rhetorical figure in the words, "This is my blood," or, “This cup is the
New Testament in my blood." If, in a case fairly parallel, we acknowledge
in the second part of the formula what we denied in the first, then, and then
only, could we be charged with inconsistency. But in this case there is no
parallel whatever, nor even the semblance of inconsistency. We do not
interpret any word of the "second" part of the formula metaphorically, and
therefore cannot be inconsistent with our denial of a metaphor in the
"first." We do not interpret the word "cup" to mean "sign," "symbol," or
"figure" of cup; but because a literal cup actually contains and conveys its
literal contents, so that you cannot receive the contents without receiving
the cup, nor the cup, without receiving the contents; they are so identified,
that, without dreaming of a departure from the prose of everyday life, all
the cultivated languages of men give the name “cup" both to the thing
containing and the thing contained. There is, however, this difference--that
the thing designed to contain bears the name "cup" even when empty, but
the thing contained bears the name "cup" only in its relations as contained.
A wine-cup may hold no wine; a cup of wine involves both wine as
contained, and a cup as containing. The word "cup" may mean, without
metaphor: First. The vessel meant to contain liquids, whether they be in it
or not. Second. The liquid which is contained in such a vessel, or is
imparted by it. Third. The vessel and liquid together. Before the
sacramental cup was filled, the word "cup" would be applied to it in the
first sense. In the words: "He took the cup," Luke