Schaff - History of the Christian Church Vol. 8 - Media Sabda Org

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the reader consider how fiercely he sneers and tears at his master,
Philip Melanchthon, whose memory he ought sacredly to revere ....
Such is the pious gratitude of the scholar, not only towards the
teacher to whom he owes whatever little learning he may possess,
but towards a man who has deserved so highly of the whole Church
....
“Though there is some show about him, he does nothing more by
his magniloquence than vend the old follies and frivolities of
Westphal and his fellows. He harangues loftily on the omnipotence
of God, on putting implicit faith in his word, and subduing human
reason, in terms he may have learned from other sources, of which I
believe myself also to be one. I have no doubt, from his childish
stolidity of glorying, that he imagines himself to combine the
qualities of Melanchthon and Luther. From the one he ineptly
borrows flowers, and having no better way of rivalling the
vehemence of the other, he substitutes bombast and sound ....
“Westphal boldly affirms that the body of Christ is chewed by the
teeth, and confirms it by quoting with approbation the recantation
of Berengar, as given by Gratian. This does not please Heshusius,
who insists that it is eaten by the mouth but not touched by the
teeth, and greatly disproves those gross modes of eating ....
“Heshusius argues that if the body of Christ is in heaven, it is not in
the Supper, and that instead of him we have only a symbol. As if,
forsooth, the Supper were not, to the true worshippers of God, a
heavenly action, or, as it were, a vehicle which carries them above
the world. But what is this to Heshusius, who not only halts on the
earth, but drives his nose as far as he can into the mud? Paul
teaches that in baptism we put on Christ (Gal. 3:27). How acutely
will Heshusius argue that this cannot be if Christ remain in heaven?
When Paul spoke thus it never occurred to him that Christ must be
brought down from heaven, because he knew that he is united to us
in a different manner, and that his blood is not less present to
cleanse our souls than water to cleanse our bodies .... Of a similar
nature is his objection that the body is not received truly if it is
received symbolically; as if by a true symbol we excluded the
exhibition of the reality.