The Landgrave's chancellor, John Feige, having reminded them in the prince's name that the object of this colloquy was the re-establishment of union, "I protest," said Luther, "that I differ from my adversaries with regard to the doctrine of the Lord's Supper, and that I shall always differ from them. Christ has said, _This is my body_. Let them show me that a body is not a body. I reject reason, common sense, carnal arguments, and mathematical proofs. God is above mathematics.[225] We have the Word of God; we must adore it and perform it!" [225] Deum esse supra mathematicam.--(Zw. Opp. iv. p. 175.) [Sidenote: THE DISCUSSION--FIGURES.] "It cannot be denied," said Œcolampadius, "that there are figures of speech in the Word of God; as _John is Elias, the rock was Christ, I am the vine_. The expression _This is my body_, is a figure of the same kind." Luther granted that there were figures in the Bible, but he denied that this last expression was figurative. All the various parties, however, of which the Christian Church is composed see a figure in these words. In fact, the Romanists declare that _This is my body_ signifies not only "my body," but also "my blood," "my soul," and even "my Divinity," and "Christ wholly.[226]" These words, therefore, according to Rome, are a synecdoche, a figure by which a part is taken for the whole. And, as regards the Lutherans, the figure is still more evident.[227] Whether it be synecdoche, metaphor, or metonymy, there is still a figure. In order to prove it, Œcolampadius employed this syllogism:-- [226] If any one denies that the body and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ, with his soul and his divinity, and consequently the whole Jesus Christ (totum Christum), is contained in the sacrament of the Eucharist, let him be anathema.--(Council of Trent, Sess. 13.) [227] Tota Christi persona.--(Form. concord. viii.) "What Christ rejected in the sixth chapter of St. John, he could not admit in the words of the Eucharist. "Now Christ, who said to the people of Capernaum, _The flesh profiteth nothing_, rejected by those very words the oral manducation of his body. "Therefore he did not establish it at the institution of his Supper." LUTHER.--"I deny the minor (the second of these propositions); Christ has not rejected all oral manducation, but only a material manducation, like that of the flesh of oxen or of swine."[228] [228] Qualis est carnis bovillæ aut suillæ.--(Scult. p. 217.) ŒCOLAMPADIUS.--"There is danger in attributing too much to mere matter." [Sidenote: SCRIPTURE EXPLAINED BY SCRIPTURE.] LUTHER.--"Every thing that God commands becomes spirit and life. If it is by the Lord's order that we lift up a straw, in that very action we perform a spiritual work. We must pay attention to him who speaks, and not to what he says. God speaks: Men, worms, listen!--God commands: let the world obey! and let us all together fall down and humbly kiss the Word."[229]