21. We therefore, hereby entirely deny the gross physical eating of the body of Christ, which the sacramentarians, against the testimony of their own conscience, against all our manifold protestations, maliciously impose on us, and in this way bring our doctrine into odium among their hearers, as if we taught that his flesh is torn in pieces with the teeth, and digested like other food. And on the other hand, we hold and believe, by virtue of the express words of the testament of Christ, a true, yet supernatural eating of the body of Christ, as also a drinking of his blood. But, this eating and drinking, the senses or reason of man cannot comprehend; but our understanding, in this matter, as in all other articles of faith, is taken captive in the obedience of Christ, and this mystery is comprehended not otherwise than by faith alone, and revealed in the word of God.

VIII. OF THE PERSON OF CHRIST.

Out of the controversy concerning the holy sacrament of the Lord's Supper, a dissension has arisen between the sincere theologians of the Augsburg Confession, and the Calvinists, (who have disturbed some other theologians also,) concerning the person of Christ, concerning the two natures in Christ, and their properties.

The chief question in this controversy.

The principal question, however, was:-Whether the divine and human natures, as also their properties, on account of the personal union, have communion with each other realiter, that is, in deed and in truth, in the person of Christ, and how far this communion extends.

The sacramentarians affirmed, that the divine and human natures in Christ are personally united in such a manner that neither the one nor the other has in common with the other realiter, that is, in deed and in truth, what belongs to the other, but the name alone, and nothing more. For, unio, say they plainly, facit communia nomina, that is, the personal union makes common not more than the names, to wit, that God is called man, and man God; yet in such a manner, that realiter, that is, in deed and in truth, God has nothing common with the humanity, and the humanity nothing with the divinity, with its majesty and its properties. But the contrary opinion was maintained against the sacramentarians, by doctor Luther and those who coincided with him.

AFFIRMATIVE.

Pure doctrine of the Christian church, concerning the
person of Christ.

To explain this controversy and to decide it according to the analogy of our Christian faith, our doctrine, faith, and confession, are as follow:

1. That the divine and human natures in Christ are personally united, so that there are not two Christs, one the Son of God, the other the Son of man; but the one and the same Christ is the Son of God and the Son of man, Luke 1, 35; Rom. 9, 5.

2. We believe, teach, and confess, that the divine and the human natures are not commingled in one essence, or the one changed into the other; but each one retains its essential properties, which never become the properties of the other nature.

3. The attributes of the divine nature are these: to be omnipotent, eternal, infinite, according to the property of that nature and its essential character: to be independently omnipresent, and to know all things. All these never are, and never can become the attributes of the human nature.

4. But the attributes of the human nature are these: to be a corporeal creature; to consist of flesh and blood; to be finite and circumscribed; to suffer, to die, to ascend, to descend, to move from place to place; to be pained with hunger, thirst, cold, heat, and all similar evils. These never are, and never can become the attributes of the divine nature.

5. Since indeed the divine and human natures are personally united, that is, constituting a personal union, we believe, teach, and confess, that this personal union is not such a connection or combination that neither nature can personally, that is, according to the personal union, possess any property in common with the other, like the combination which takes place when two boards are glued together, a case in which neither board imparts any property to the other, nor receives any from it. But this is rather that exalted communion which God really maintains in assuming human nature: and from this personal union and the high and indescribable communion necessarily resulting, originates all that is said and believed concerning God as man, and concerning the man Christ as God. This union and communion of natures, the ancient doctors of the church endeavor to explain by the similitude of melted iron, and also by the union of body and soul in man.

6. Hence we believe, teach, and confess, that God is man, and man God; which could not be, if the divine and the human natures had no communion at all with each other.

For how could the man, the Son of Mary, be called, or be God, or the Son of God the most High with truth, if his humanity were not personally united with the Son of God, and thus realiter, that is, in deed and in truth, had nothing, but the name of God alone, common with hin?

7. Hence we believe, teach, and confess, that the Virgin Mary did not conceive and bring forth only a mere man, but the true Son of God; for which reason she is also rightly called and she is truly the mother of God.

8. Wherefore we also believe, teach, and confess, that for us not a mere man suffered, died, was buried, descended into hell, rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Majesty and almighty Power of God; but a man whose human nature has a union and a communion with the Son of God so deep and inexpressible that it is one person with him.

9. Therefore the Son of God has really suffered for us, yet according to the property of his human nature, which he assumed in union with his divine nature and made it his own, so that he could suffer, and yet be our high-priest, for our reconciliation with God, as it is written: They have crucified the Lord of glory, and God hath purchased his church with his own blood," 1 Cor. 2, 8; Acts 20, 28.

10. Hence we believe, teach, and confess, that the Son of man is realiter, that is, in deed and in truth, exalted according to the human nature to the right hand of the omnipotent Majesty and Power of God, since he is taken up in God, as he was conceived in the womb by the Holy Ghost, and his human nature is personally united with the Son of the Most High.

11. Which majesty he has always had according to the personal union; and yet he divested himself of it in the state of his humiliation, Phil. 2, 7; and for this reason he really increased in all wisdom and favor with God and man, Luke 2, 52; and therefore he did not always manifest this majesty, but only when it pleased him to do so, until he wholly and entirely resigned the form of a servant but not the nature, after his resurrection, and was placed in the plenary use, revelation, and manifestation of the divine majesty, and thus had entered in his glory; so that now, not only as God, but also as man, he knows all things, is able to do all things, is present to all creatures, and has under his feet and in his hands, John 13, 3, all that is in beaven and on earth, and under the earth, as he himself testifies: "All

power is given unto me in heaven and in earth," Matt. 28, 18. And St. Paul, Eph. 4, 10, says: "He ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things;" which power of his he can exercise, being omnipresent, and all things are possible with him and known to him.

12. Hence he is also able, and it is altogether easy for him, in the holy sacrament of the Lord's Supper, to impart his true body and blood, in a present manner; not according to the mode or property of the human nature, but according to the mode and property of the divine prerogative, as doctor Luther says in our Christian Catechism; which presence is not earthly nor physical, yet real and essential, as the words of his testament declare, Matt. 26, 26: This is my body, &c.

By this doctrine, faith, and confession of ours, the person of Christ is not divided, as Nestorius maintained, who denied the communicationem idiomatam, that is, the real communion of the properties of both natures in Christ, and thus divided the person,,as referred to by Luther in his book concerning the Councils; nor are the natures together with their properties, mingled with each other in one essence, as Eutyches erroneously asserted; nor is the human nature in the person of Christ denied or abolished; nor is the one nature changed into the other but Christ is and remains to all eternity God and man in one undivided person. And this, next to the holy Trinity, is the highest mystery, as the Apostle testifies, 1 Tim. 3, 16, in which our only consolation, life, and salvation consist.

NEGATIVE.

Contrary and false doctrine concerning the person of Christ.

Accordingly we reject and condemn as repugnant to the word of God and to our sincere Christian faith, all the following erroneous articles, in which it is asserted:

1. That God and man in Christ are not one person, but that the Son of God, is one person, and the Son of man another, as Nestorius foolishly maintained.

2. That the divine and the human natures are commingled in one essence, and that the human nature is changed into the divine, as Eutyches asserted.

3. That Christ is not true, natural, eternal God, as Arius maintained.

4. That Christ has not a real human nature consisting of body and soul, as Marcion imagined.

5. That the personal union unites only the titles and names. 6. To say, that God is man, or that man is God, is a mere phrase or mode of speaking; for the divinity has realiter, that is, in deed, nothing in common with the humanity, nor has the humanity any thing in common with the divinity.

7. That it is a mere verbal expression to say, the Son of God died for the sins of the world, the Son of man is become Almighty.

S. That the human nature in Christ has become an infinite essence equal to the divinity, and through this essential, communicated power and property effused into the human nature and sep arate from God, it is everywhere present, like the divine nature.

9. That the human nature has become equal with the divine nature in its substance and essence, or in its essential properties.

10. That the human nature of Christ is locally expanded in all places in heaven and on earth,-a thing which is not to be attributed even to the divine nature.

11. That it is impossible for Christ, on account of the properties of the human nature, to be especially at more than one place with his body, much less everywhere.

12. That the mere humanity alone suffered for us, and redeemed us, and that the Son of God indeed had no communion with it in suffering, as if it concerned him nothing.

13. That Christ is present with us on earth, in the word, in the sacraments, and in all our distresses, according to his divinity alone, and that this presence does not at all concern the human nature;according to which, since he has redeemed us through his sufferings and death, he has nothing more to do with us upon earth.

14. That the Son of God, who assumed the human nature, does not, since he has laid down the form of a servant, perform all the works of his omnipotence, in, through, and with his human nature, but only a few, and in such place alone where the human nature is local.

15. That according to the human nature he is by no means susceptible of the omnipotence and other properties of the divine nature, which is against the express declaration of Christ, Matt. 28, 18: "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." And St. Paul, Col. 2, 9, says: "In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily."

16. That there is given to him greater power in heaven and on earth, namely, greater and more than to all angels and other crea tures; but that he has no communion with the omnipotence of God,