I. The arguments deduced from the words, and circumstances connected with the institution of the Lord’s Supper.

1. The human nature of Christ at the first celebration of the Supper sat at the table in its own proper place, and is now in heaven. Hence it was not then, nor is it now corporally at the same time in the bread, or in the place of the bread.

2. Christ did not at the first Supper take into his hand, nor break his body, but the bread. Hence the bread is not properly, and in reality the very body of Christ.

3. The body of Christ was born of the Virgin; bread is made out of meal. It is not therefore really the body of Christ.

4. Christ said of the visible bread, which was broken, This is my body; and of the visible cup, which he gave to the disciples, This cup is the New Testament in my blood. Hence the Papists do not hold fast to the letter, when they thus transpose the words of Christ, My body is contained under the form of bread and wine; nor do the Ubiquitarians when they say, My body is in, with, and under this bread; much less when they both say, My invisible body, which is contained under this form, or under this bread, is my body. For both of them do not only manifestly depart from the letter to a gloss of their own, but they also wickedly pervert the words of Christ in the very first gloss which they make, as if it were written, My body is under this, and in the latter they make Christ utter a foolish tautology, as if he had said, My body is my body.

5. The body of Christ which we eat in the supper was delivered to death, and crucified for us. This, however, cannot be said of the bread. Hence it is not properly, nor in reality the body of Christ.

6. The cup is the New Testament, in the same way in which the bread is the body of Christ. But the cup is the New Testament sacramentally, as we have already shown, and as we may still further prove by this argument: The New Testament is not properly drunk with the mouth, but believed with the heart. But the cup is drunk with the mouth. Therefore, it cannot properly be the New Testament. It is now in the same sense that the bread is the body of Christ, viz: in a sacramental sense.

7. If the bread is properly the body, and the cup the blood of Christ, it must follow that in the first supper the blood was separated from the body of Christ, and then they are both exhibited to us separately, as they are separate signs. But neither was the blood in the first supper without the body, nor is the body of Christ now given to us without the blood; for then at the first supper Christ was not yet dead, nor does he now die any more. The bread is, therefore, the body, and the cup the blood of Christ, not properly, but sacramentally.

8. That which Christ himself ate and drank, was not properly his body and blood, or else he must have eaten and drunk himself. But he ate of that bread, and drank of that cup: “I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine.” (Mark 14:25.) Chrysostom says: “Christ also drank of the wine, lest his disciples when hearing these words should say, What shall we then drink his blood, and eat his flesh? and so be troubled? For when he first made mention of this kind of eating and drinking, many became offended at his words. Hence, in order that this might not now occur, he himself first ate and drank, that he might thus lead them with a calm mind to the communion of these mysteries” Hence, the bread an cup are not properly, but sacramentally the body and blood of Christ.

9. Remembrance is not of things bodily present, but absent. Christ instituted this sacrament to his remembrance. Therefore, he is not corporally present in the bread, or in the sacrament.

10. Christ with his body is either not substantially in the bread, nor under the form of bread; or the supper is no longer to be celebrated. For the Apostle commands us to eat of this bread and to drink of this cup, and to show the Lord’s death till he come. The celebration of this supper is then evidently not to be dispensed with, but must continue to the end of the world. Christ has not therefore, come as yet, neither is he bodily present in the bread, or under the form of bread.

11. Lastly, as the bread was the body of Christ in the first supper, and as the disciples did eat the body of Christ, so in the very same sense, and in no other, is the bread now the body of Christ, and it is in the very same way that we eat the body of Christ; for the supper which we celebrate, is the same which the disciples celebrated. But the bread in the first supper was not essentially the body of Christ, neither did the disciples eat with their mouths the body of Christ in, or under the form of bread; for Christ reclined at the table with his disciples in a corporal and visible manner, and did not undergo any change during the whole transaction. Therefore, the bread is not now the body of Christ, as to its essence, nor do we eat with our mouths the body of Christ in, or under the form of bread.