(_e_) It contradicts the observation of all nations and all ages, that
every body or material substance must occupy a definite portion of
space, and cannot be at more than one place at the same time.
For these and other reasons the great mass of our ministers and
churches, connected with the General Synod, reject this doctrine, as
inconsistent with the word of God. The disposition to reject this error,
or at least to leave the mode of the Saviour's presence undecided, was
manifested by Melancthon himself, as is evident from his having stricken
out the words which teach it from the Augsburg Confession, and from his
having inserted others in their stead of a general nature, leaving room
for different opinions on this question. The same disposition prevailed
extensively in Germany in the latter third of the sixteenth century.
But during the first quarter of the present century, the conviction that
the Reformers did not purge away the whole of the Romish error from this
doctrine, gained ground universally until the great mass of the whole
Lutheran Church, before the year 1817, had rejected the doctrine of the
real presence. During the last twenty years the doctrines and writings
of the Reformation in general have been the subject of extensive study
by the reviving church in Germany, and as is natural, a small portion
of the churches have embraced the symbolic view of this doctrine in
full, and have become known as Old Lutherans, whilst others, both there
and in this country, have embraced various modifications of it.
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