Fathers

A Candid Inquiry into the Controversies among Evangelicals · §37

Coena Domini: Oral eating of the true body — Lutheran yes, Reformed no

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II. Next: in the use of the Sacrament, when Christ so commands in the Institution of the Holy Supper, is the true and substantial Body of Christ taken together with the Bread, and the Blood together with the Wine, truly received and eaten by the bodily mouth of every communicant — the faithful and the unfaithful alike — because they are joined physically, without spatial distance, and by co-presence, and therefore must be taken by that same instrument of the mouth?

Or is it rather this way: the Symbols themselves, called Christ's Body and Blood by metonymy and figure (as the cup is called the New Testament in Luke 22:20), are eaten orally and in the proper sense; yet the reality those Symbols signify — the true Body and Blood of Christ — is eaten only spiritually and in an improper sense, namely by the mouth of faith awakened through the Sacrament and Memorial, and is perceived and laid hold of by the truly faithful alone?

Still, in those who eat rightly, the two eatings must go together: the sacramental eating of the Sacrament itself (of the symbols of Christ's Body), and the Spiritual eating of the true Body laid hold of by faith. So while they eat with the mouth the Bread of the Lord — something Unbelievers also do — they at the same moment, by a true act of faith and with the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit (John 6:63), eat the Bread who is the Lord, or become spiritual sharers (κοινωνοί) in Christ's Body crucified for us and in every Benefit that flows from it (1 Corinthians 10:16). Lutherans affirm the first alternative; the Reformed affirm the second.

Latin

II. An verum & substantiale Corpus Christi, una cum Pane, & Sanguis una cum Vino in usu Sacramenti, jubente ita Christo in Institutione S. Coenae: ore corporis ab unoquoque, tam fideli quam infideli, revera accipiatur & manducetur; utpote quae unita sint physice, ἀδιαστάτως, & per συνουσίαν, adeoque eodem oris instrumento percipienda? An vero quemadmodum Symbola ipsa, quae dicuntur Corpus & Sanguis Christi metonymice, & figurative (ut calix dicitur Novum Testamentum Luc. XXII. 20.) sane oraliter ac proprie manducantur; ita res iis Symbolis significata, scil. verum Corpus & Sanguis Christi, manducentur nonnisi spiritualiter & improprie, nempe ore fidei (per Sacramentum & Memoriale excitatae) a vere fidelibus percepta & apprehensa? Ut tamen utraque manducatio, tum sacramentalis, ipsius Sacramenti, ipsorum symbolorum Corporis Christi, tum Spiritualis veri Corporis fide apprehensi, sint necessario conjuncta in fidelibus, debito modo manducantibus: Qui dum ore manducant Panem Domini, quod commune est Infidelibus, simul actu verae fidei, accedente virtute vivifica Spiritus S. Joh. VI. 63. manducant Panem Dominum, seu fiunt spiritualiter κοινωνοὶ participes Corporis Christi pro nobis Crucifixi, omniumque quae inde fluunt Beneficiorum, 1. Cor. X. 16? Prius Affirm. Luth. Post. 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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