Thus also when he says, "I am the _true vine_" John xv.

1; or "The field is the world," "The seed is the word," &c., he evidently is speaking figuratively and communicating important moral truth, by images drawn from physical nature, as is naturally done by nearly all writers and speakers of all ages and in all languages.
(_b_) The blessed Saviour himself exhorts us, "Do this in remembrance of me;" but we can remember only that which is past and absent.

Hence when he admonishes us to do this in remembrance of him, he teaches us, that he is not personally or bodily present at the eucharistic celebration.
(_c_) Paul also represents the design of this ordinance to be, "To show or publish the _Lord's death_," until he comes.

But the Lord's death upon the cross occurred about eighteen hundred and twenty years ago.
Therefore, according to Paul, the object of the holy supper is to commemorate a _past event_, and not a present person.
(_d_) The doctrine of the real presence of the true body and blood of Christ, contradicts the clear and indisputable testimony of our senses, for as the body and blood are to be received by the mouth of the communicant, they must be circumscribed by space, and the reception must be a local and material one, which if it did occur at sacramental occasions, could be observed by the senses.
(_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.