Fathers

A Candid Inquiry into the Controversies among Evangelicals · §34

Coena Domini: Brethren's hypotheses for the literal sense

Click or tap any sentence to jump there. The side buttons skip a paragraph.

Our brethren’s hypotheses — enough to list them here; theologians have weighed them at length — include claims such as these: a figurative sense destroys the truth of the words; "is Body" must mean something real and substantial; Christ was bodily present at the first Supper, and therefore also in the bread and wine even while he stood outside the bread, and therefore remains bodily present after the ascension into the heavens; Christ’s Body is eaten in the Supper and so must be present without spatial distance, since a body cannot be present in a spiritual mode; sacramental eating means more than spiritual eating and therefore means oral eating of the true and natural Body; clinging to the literal sense is safer, and the Reformed leave it rashly; what these words institute is a Testament or Covenant and therefore must use proper words alone, as if clarity belonged only to proper speech — as though no sign of the Covenant or Testament were instituted, which is how we read Matthew 26:28 and Luke 22:20.

In that way they beg the question under judgment. They treat the Institution words ("This is my Body") as self-explanatory in a literal, native, proper, and clear sense, yet they paraphrase them as: in or under this — namely the composed complex of bread and Body — my Body is contained, this very Body present to you, yet illocal, and so forth.

Latin

HYPOTHESES Virorum fratrum, quas enarrasse hoc loco suffecerit, prolixe a Theologis expensas, fuere, ex. gr. Sensum figuratum evertere scilicet veritatem verborum: Illud, est Corpus, necessario innuere esse reale, substantiale: Christum in prima Coena fuisse corporaliter praesentem, Ergo & in Pane & Vino, qui tamen Christus erat extra Panem; Ergo corporaliter praesentem post ascens. in Caelos: Corpus Christi manducari in Coena, ergo ut ἀδιαστάτως praesens, nec Corpus posse esse praesens spirituali modo: Manducationem sacramentalem plus dicere quam spiritualem; E. dicere manducat. oralem Corporis veri & naturalis: Tutius esse adhaerere sensui literali, a quo scil. recedant Reformati, & temere quidem: Institutum quoque his verbis Testamentum, vel Pactum, Ergo verbis propriis, quia haec sola clara sint; quasi non institutum signum Foederis vel Testamenti, ut nos ex Matth. XXVI. 28. Luc. XXII. 20. Ita supponunt τὸ κρινόμενον, nempe explicari a se verba Institutionis (Hoc est Corpus meum) in sensu literali, nativo, proprio, perspicuo, dum ita reddunt: In vel sub hoc, scil. composito, complexo (Panis & Corporis) continetur Corpus meum, hoc ipsum Corpus quod vobis adest, sed illocale, &c.

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

This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.