Fathers

A Candid Inquiry into the Controversies among Evangelicals · §33

Coena Domini: Whence the schism began — institution words literal or sacramental?

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THE LORD’S SUPPER — Where the schism took its start.

1. Should the words of Eucharistic institution — "This is my Body," and so on; "This is my Blood" — because they are serious, entirely true, and the words of Christ’s Testament, be taken properly and literally, plainly according to the letter? Or should they rather be taken in a metonymic and sacramental sense — the sense Holy Scripture already uses in sacramental speech and even outside the Sacraments (Genesis 17:10; 41:26; Exodus 12:11; 31:13, 16) — so that the names of the things signified (Body and Blood) are given to the signs and seals themselves (bread and wine)?

Or does the sense run this way instead: what I give you is truly and substantially my Body, that natural Body delivered for you; or else, in, with, and under this bread my Body is present without spatial distance, essentially or bodily there — so that bread is called Christ’s Body neither by Transsubstantiation nor by signification or sealing alone, but by a kind of Consubstantiation, a real and hidden inclusion?

Lutherans say yes; the Reformed say no.

Latin

COENA DOMINI, Unde initium Schismatis. 1. An verba institutionis Eucharisticae, Hoc est Corpus meum, &c. Hoc est Sanguis meus, uti seria sunt, & verissima, & verba Testamenti Christi, ita sint proprie & literaliter intelligenda, plane κατὰ τὸ ῥητόν? Non vero in sensu metonymico & sacramentali, eodemque in Scriptura S. & in locutionibus Sacramentalibus, imo & extra Sacramenta, familiari, Gen. XVII. 10, XLI. 26. Ex. XII. 11. XXXI. 13. 16. quo scilicet rerum signatarum nomina, puta Corpus & Sanguis, signis ipsis ac sigillis tribuuntur, Pani & Vino? An adeo sensus verborum sit iste: Hoc quod vobis do, est vere ac substantialiter Corpus meum, naturale illud quod pro vobis traditur; Vel, in, cum, sub hoc Pane est Corpus meum, ἀδιαστάτως secundum indistantiam loci, atque essentialiter seu corporaliter ibi praesens; Ut adeo Panis dicatur esse Corpus Christi, non quidem Transsubstantiatione, non etiam sola Significatione vel Obsignatione; sed Consubstantiatione, quadam, seu reali & occulta inclusione? Affirm. Luth. Negant Reform.

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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