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A Candid Inquiry into the Controversies among Evangelicals · §121

§.VIII: Omitting "improbant secus docentes" is tautology-avoidance; German prototype sub specie; like omissions already in Invariata witnesses

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As for the other change — or rather the omission in the Variata of And they reject those who teach otherwise — we admit those exact words are not read there.

Yet in every article of any confession the same sense, or something like it, must be understood: whoever positively confesses a point always denies and rejects what stands against it.

So the omission is only an avoidance of tautology; it can introduce no substantial mutation.

I pass over this further note on the prior change: in the prototype exemplar of the Invariata as the German plainly shows, and Dorsche does not deny it page 183, the article was expressed thus — Concerning the Lord's Supper they confess that the body and blood of Christ are truly present under the species of bread and wine — which at that time could easily smell of pontifical transubstantiation by itself.

Hence the historiographers of the Augsburg Confession report that the pontificals simply admitted this article in those words.

And as for the later omission, it is no secret that a similar — indeed much longer — rejection is missing in the Invariata exemplars of Chytraeus and Caelestinus when Article XIII and XVIII are compared; yet that omission never kept Invariata theologians from treating either exemplar as genuine then or now.

In many articles besides — 3, 4, 6, 7, 11, 14, 18, 19, 20, 21 — no rejection of contrary teaching was added even at the Confession's first framing, and yet it was still to be heard as implied.

Latin

Ad mutationem verò alteram quod attinet, seu potius omissionem Verborum horum in Variata: Et improbant secus docentes, etsi verba sic expressa inibi haud legi fateamur, in Confessionis tamen cujuscunque Articulis singulis subintelligi vel eadem, vel similia, videri necessariò debent: Qui enim positivè aliquid in Confessione fatetur, ille id semper, quod secus se habet, diffitetur ac improbat; Ut proinde omissio verborum istorum, Tautologiae duntaxat evitatio habenda sit, certè Substantialem mutationem nullam inducere queat. Taceo, quod ad priorem mutationem attinet, in prototypo Exemplari Invariatae Confessionis (prout id Germanica disertè ostendit) Articulum ita fuisse expressum, (non diffitente Dorscheo, cit. pag. 183.) De Coena Domini &c. fatentur, Corpus & Sanguinem Christi, sub specie panis & Vini, verè adesse; id quod Transubstantiationem Pontificiam per se, istô praesertim tempore, redoluisse, nulli facilè dubium esse potest. Unde etiam à Pontificiis Articulus hic, dictis verbis constans, simpliciter admissus fertur ab Historiographis Augustanae Confessionis omnibus. Quod ad posteriorem verò mutationem attinet, ignotum esse haud potest, & similem, imò prolixiorem multò improbationem omissam deprehendi in Augustanae Confessionis invariatae Exemplaribus Chytraei & Caelestini, inter se collatis, quoad Articulum XIII. & XVIII. (Quae tamen Omissio nihil prohibuit, quò minus ab Invariatae Confessionis Theologis utrumque Exemplar pro genuino habitum semper sit, hodièque habeatur.) & in plurimis Articulis e.g. in 3. 4. 6. 7. 11. 14. 18. 19. 20. 21. ne a prima quidem Aug. Confessionis adornatione improbationem contrariorum adjectam, nihilominus subaudiendam fuisse.

About this text

Samuel Strimesius — Prefatio through Controversiae Post Lutherum Controv. III-XIII + XV Tolerantia, Hexades Annotationum Prooemium and Annotatio I through Decem Theses / Francus plus Annotatio II §.I-§.VI and Annotatio III §.I–§.VII (through Cassellanum 1661) from Ingenua in Controversias Evangelicorum (Frankfurt an der Oder, 1708). Honest partial; Prefatio silence reasons, Annotatio III §.VIII+ fruits / §.IX+, Hexades theses body, deeper Controversiae / Part II remain.

English follows the locked 1708 Francofurti ad Viadrum Latin of Prefatio §I–II, Crimina defenses through III, Part I Protheoria through Controversiae Obices/Historia/Varii gradus, Formula Discord/Disparitas, Ulterius confirmatur / Classes / Formula protest / triplex differentia, Coena Domini Controversiae Priores through Precariae Hypotheses (Controv. print pp. 34–40), Controversiae Post Lutherum Natae Controv. III–XV tip (providence through De Tolerantia mutua; Controv. print pp. 40–78), Hexades Annotationum Prooemium H.I–§.III (Hexades print pp. 1–4 / PDF ~182–185), and Annotatio I De Augustana Confessione §.I–§.VIII tip (Hexades print pp. 5–24+ / PDF ~186–205+), reconstructed from Google Books PDF page images (ONB copy, id 3epYAAAAcAAJ) with pdftotext as check. No modern English was copied. Sister Halle digitization of Ingenua in Arminianismum (DOI 10.25673/65287) remains Anubis-blocked — skipped; Controversias only. Prefatio silence reasons, Annotatio I §.IX+, Hexades theses body beyond §.VIII, and remainder of Controversiae / folio remain.

Witnesses

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