CONSUBSTANTIATION

The term by which Luther expre ed the opinion which he held upon the nature of the elements in the Eucharist, as distinguished from Transubstantiation, the doctrine of the Romanists. The latter a ert, as the word they use implies, that the bread and wine are changed into the body and blood, and lose their former substance, although they retain its appearance miraculously to the senses. The Luther ans deny this change; but affirm that while the bread and wine do still remain in their natural substance, the body and blood are at the same time transfused into ihem, and thus that both are actually partaken of together. Calvin says, " I a ert that the body of Christ is really (as the usual expre ion is), that is, truly given to us in the sacrament, to be the saving food of our souls — the Son of God offers daily to us in the holy sacrament the same body that he once offered in sacrifice to his Father, that it may be our spiritual food. If any one ask me concerning the manner, I will not be ashamed to confe that it is a secret too high for my reason to comprehend, or mv tongue to expre ." A reformer of the English church would have said probably that the Romanist is decidedly in error, for the mystery that he maintains exceeds even the literal interpretation of the scripture language. Upon the truth of the Luther an hypothesis he would decline to expre an opinion, not denying the po ibility of consubstantiation, but neither presuming to define the manner of Christ's presence in the elements; and he would rather recognize in the language of Calvin a right appreciation of the verity of our Saviour's expre ions, and a just perception of the nature of a mystery. [s. 288]