Christian Classics
‹ Doctrinal Theology
Contents
Preface to Reprint Edition.Introduction§ 2. Meaning of the terms, Natural and Revealed.§ 3. Religion, True and False.§ 4. Revelation, — not Reason, nor Tradition.§ 5 Excursus. Concerning the Use of Reason in Theology.§ 6. Of the terms, Holy Scriptures and Inspiration.§ 7. The Attributes of the Holy Scriptures§ 8. (1.) Authority.§ 9. (2.) Perfection, or Sufficiency.§ 10. (3.) Perspicuity.§ 11. (4.) Efficacy.§ 12. Of the Canon and the Apocryphal Books.§ 13. What are Articles of Faith?Part I. Of God.§ 15. Preliminary Statement.§ 16. (1). The Certainty of the Divine Existence.§ 17. (2). The Essence of God.§ 18. (3.) The Attributes of God.§ 19. The Doctrine is a Mystery. · Part 1§ 19. The Doctrine is a Mystery. · Part 2§ 19. The Doctrine is a Mystery. · Part 3§ 20. Creation a Divine Work.§ 21. The Doctrine taught by both Reason and Revelation.§ 22. When were they created?Part II. Of Man.§ 24. State of Integrity Defined.Chapter II. Of the State of Corruption.§ 25. Of Sin in General§ 26. Man’s First Transgression, and the State thereby produced. viz., Original Sin.§ 27. Of Actual Sins.§ 28. The Freedom of the Will.Part III. Of the Sources of Salvation.§ 30. Benevolence of God.Note 13.§ 31. Statement of the Subject.§ 32. Of the Personal Union.§ 33. Continuation. · Part 1§ 34. The Threefold Office of Christ.§ 36. The Sacerdotal Office. · Part 1§ 36. The Sacerdotal Office. · Part 2§ 36. The Sacerdotal Office. · Part 3§ 37. The Regal Office.§ 38. · Part 1§ 38. · Part 2§ 38. · Part 3§ 39. Preliminary Remarks.§ 40. The Agent, the Means, the Result.§ 41. I. Faith.§ 42. (2) Justification.§ 43. Concomitants and Consequences of Justifying Faith.§ 44. (1.) Vocation.§ 45. (2.) Illumination.§ 46. Regeneration and Conversion.§ 47. (4.) The Mystical Union.§ 48. (5.) Of Renovation.§ 49. Of Good Works.Part IV. Of the Means of Grace.§ 51. The Efficacy of the Word of God.§ 52. The Law and the Gospel.§ 53. Of the Sacraments in General.§ 54. Of Baptism.§ 55. (2.) The Lord’s Supper. · Part 1§ 55. (2.) The Lord’s Supper. · Part 2§ 55. (2.) The Lord’s Supper. · Part 3§ 56. Of the Church [1] in a Wider and a Narrower Sense.§ 57. The Church, Collective and Representative.§ 58. Of the Three Estates in the Church.§ 59. 1. Of the Ecclesiastical Estate, the Ministry.§ 60. 2. Of the Political Estate; [1] The Civil Authority.§ 61. 3. The Domestic Estate.§ 62. Preliminary Statement.§ 63. (1.) Of Death.§ 64. (2.) Of the Resurrection of the Dead.§ 65. (3.) Of the Final Judgment.§ 66. (4.) Of the End of the World.§ 67. (5.) Of Eternal Damnation and Eternal Life.Appendix I. Sketch of the Dogmaticians Cited.

Heinrich Schmid · 65 of 78

§ 55. (2.) The Lord’s Supper. · Part 3

[13] FORM. CONC. (Sol. Dec., VII, 32): (Luther), “I confess, concerning the of the Altar, that the true body and blood of Christ are orally eaten and drank in the bread and wine, even if the ministers who distribute the , or those who receive it, do not believe, or otherwise abuse the Holy Supper. For the is not based upon the faith or unbelief of men, but upon the Word of God and His appointment.”

But the is always to be distributed only by the minister. QUEN. (IV, 177): “The dispenser of this is none other than the minister of the Church, so that its administration is not to be intrusted to any private person, even in a case of necessity . . . (a) Because Christ committed the administration to the apostles. (b) Because He dispensed it, representing the person of the administrant. (c) Because He committed the administration of the , as well as the preaching of the Word, to the apostles, Matt. 28:19. (d) Because ministers are the servants and ambassadors of Christ, 2 Cor. 5:19. (e) Because they are stewards of the mysteries of God, 1 Cor. 4:1. (f) Because the necessity of the Eucharist is not absolute, or such as that of Baptism; it is evident, therefore, that it should rather not be administered, than be improperly distributed. (Comp. 1 Cor. 15, at the end.) When, therefore, regular ministers of the Church are not at hand, the saying of Augustine is applicable: ‘Believe, and though hast eaten.’ It is necessary, also, that the minister be orthodox, or a minister of the true Church; for the Holy Eucharist cannot be lawfully or legitimately asked or received from any other than an orthodox minister.” But COTTA remarks, upon GERHARD’S statement (X, 21): “In a case of such necessity, where death seems immediately impending, if a pastor cannot be procured, and the dying person earnestly desire to enjoy the , many of our theologians maintain that the Holy Eucharist can be administered even by a layman. Let it suffice that I mention, among these, JN. GALLUS and TILEMAN HESSHUSS.”

[14] AUG. CONF. (de Missa, III, 30): “Christ commands us to do this in memory of Him; the was instituted, that faith, in those who partake of the , may call to mind the benefits which it receives through Christ, and may encourage and console the timid conscience. For, to remember and feel the benefits which are truly presented to us, is to remember Christ.” HOLL. (1138): “The commemoration and annunciation of the death of Christ are made in true faith, when we consider and believe that His body was sacrificed as a victim for us on the altar of the cross. But the application of faith, as far as it relates to the body of Christ, is called the spiritual eating of the body of Christ, without which a mere oral manducation does not produce the saving benefit of the Eucharist, because all spiritual benefits are received by faith.”

QUEN. (IV, 237): “The Eucharist is not an external, visible, and properly so-called sacrifice, or a procurer of all kinds of benefits, in which the body and blood of Christ are truly and literally offered to God under the visible form of bread and wine; but it is only a commemoration of the sacrifice once offered by Christ upon the altar of the cross.” HOLL. (1139): “Observe II. The word sacrifice may be used either literally or figuratively. Figuratively, it is used (1) for every act which is done that we may cleave unto God in holy fellowship, and having in view the end that we may become truly happy. (2) For the worship of the New Testament and the preaching of the Gospel, Rom. 15:16; Phil. 2:17. (3) For kindness and the works of towards our neighbor, Phil. 4:8; Heb. 13:16. (4) For prayers and giving of thanks to God, Heb. 13:15; Rev. 5:8 . . . . We do not deny that the mass, or the celebration of the Eucharist, may be figuratively called a sacrifice, because (1) it is a work which is done that we may cleave unto God in holy fellowship. (2) It is not the least part of the worship of the New Testament. (3) Formerly, when the Eucharist was celebrated, gifts were usually offered which fell to the use of the ministers of the Church and of the poor. (4) The administration of the Holy Supper was joined with prayers and giving of thanks. (4) It was instituted in memory of the sacrifice of Christ . . . offered upon the altar of the cross. Observe III. We must distinguish between a sacrifice considered materially and considered formally. If we view it materially, in the Eucharist the sacrifice is the same in number as that which was upon the cross; or, in other words, the object and the substance are just the same, that is, the victim is the same as that offered on the cross. But if we consider the sacrifice formally, or as the act of sacrificing, then, although the victim is one and the same, yet the act or the immolation, which takes place in the Eucharist, is not the same with that which took place upon the cross. For upon the cross the oblation was made through the true suffering and death of an immolated living subject, without which there could not in any way be a sacrifice, properly speaking; in the Eucharist, however, the oblation is made through prayers and through the commemoration of the death, or of the sacrifice that was offered on the cross.”

[15] GRH. (X, 364): “The design and benefits of the Holy Supper are very many in number, inestimable as regards their utility, and inconceivable in importance. For, when we receive in the Holy Supper the literal body of the Son of God Himself, crucified for us, and His own literal blood shed on the altar of the cross for our sins, it plainly follows from this that all things which Christ meritoriously procured for us, by delivering His body and shedding His blood, are applied, conferred upon, and sealed to us in the salutary use of this . . . . But Christ embraces all and each of these benefits with wonderful brevity in the words of the institution, when He declares that His same body is offered to us to be eaten which was broken for us on the cross, . . . and when He commands us to do this in memory of Him.”

[16] Baptism and the are thus distinguished: The former is the of initiation, the latter the of confirmation. GRH. (X, 2): “By Baptism we are and renewed; by the we are fed and nourished unto eternal life. In Baptism, especially that of infants, faith is kindled by the Holy Spirit; in the use of the Supper it is increased, confirmed, and sealed. By Baptism we are grafted into Christ; by the salutary use of the we receive a spiritual increase in this relation. By Baptism we are received into the divine ; by the use of the Eucharist we are preserved in it, or, when we fall from it by sins against conscience, we are restored to it by true .”

Id. (304): “As Baptism regenerates not only the soul, but the whole man, in soul and body; so with the body and blood of Christ not only the soul but also the body, or the whole man in body and soul, is nourished unto life spiritual, celestial, and eternal. When, therefore, the Eucharist is called the food of the soul, this is to be understood in an inclusive, not an exclusive sense. And if, indeed, the body of Christ is especially only the food of the soul, yet it does not hence follow that it is not received with the bodily mouth; because the Word of God is the food of the soul (Heb. 5:12), and yet is received with the bodily ears, Rom. 10:14. Now, just in the same way the body of Christ is received with the bodily mouth, that the nutrition of the soul may be the more efficacious through the union of the bread and the body.”

CAT. MAJ. (V, 23): “By Baptism we are at first , but nevertheless the old and vicious covering of flesh and blood adheres to man. Now, there are here many impediments and assaults by which we are so severely tried, on the part of the world and of the devil, that we often grow weary and weak, and sometimes even fall into the filth of sin. Hence this is given to us, that by its use our faith may again restore and refresh its strength; that it may not retreat or finally fall in this contest, but become daily stronger and stronger. For the new life is so constituted that it may continually increase and gather strength as it advances.”

[17] HOLL. (1138) combines both under the general name of evangelical which is communicated to us through the use of the Holy Supper. “Christ’s design in offering His body to be eaten by us . . . is, that evangelical , or the divine promised and offered to us in the Gospel, may be applied and sealed to us individually. When we attentively consider this, the act of applying becomes very clearly known. God promises through to bestow faith upon all. This , and its effect, viz., faith, God confirms, strengthens and increases through the of the Eucharist. Moreover, he who receives the body and blood of the Lord may be most firmly assured that the promise of the Gospel belongs to him individually . . . . Next, through God forgives the sins of the and to them the of Christ; which and forgiveness of sins are sealed in the Holy Supper. For, when we receive in the Holy Supper the very body of Christ which was delivered up to death for us . . . then we are positively assured, as by a seal of the New Testament, that the forgiveness of sins is imparted, bestowed upon, and applied to us who believe in Christ. Through indwelling , God graciously united Himself with us, which mystical union is rendered more close and firm by the eating of the body and the drinking of the blood of Christ, John 6:57. It is, moreover, a proof of ineffable love, that Christ, not content with being spiritually embraced by us through faith, in addition comes to us in His body and blood through a special appropriation, and thus unites Himself with both our body and our soul. Through renovating , spiritual strength is conferred upon us, so that we bring forth the fruits of . In the Holy Supper we are more intimately united with Christ, as the vine, so that in Him we, the branches, may bring forth more abundant fruit. By preserving , we are shielded from sin and refreshed with consolation. (Ambrose). And, just as complete refreshment or nourishment for the body consists in food, which is the dry aliment, and drink which is the moist aliment; so, in the Eucharist Christ is offered to us as both food and drink, lest we might think that we lacked anything needful for our complete alimony or spiritual nutrition (Augustine). Through glorifying , blissful immortality is conferred upon us, whose signs or pledges are the body and blood of Christ, received in the Holy Supper.”

[18] HOLL. (1139): “Being united through the Holy Supper with Christ, the Head, they are also united with one another as members of the mystical body, and thus the Eucharist is the basis of love between us and our neighbor, 1 Cor. 10:17. , also, it is a mark of ecclesiastical fellowship and a token of the Church with which we communicate in faith. (GRH. (X. 371): ‘We testify that we approve the doctrine which is taught in the Church in which we, together with others, eat one Eucharistic bread and drink from one common cup’).” The Dogmaticians usually distinguish between the principal designs or fruits, and the less principal or secondary. As the latter, QUEN. (IV. 184) enumerates: “(a) The remembrance and commemoration of the death of Christ and of the benefits thereby acquired, Luke 22:19; 1 Cor. 11:24, 25 (αναμνησις signifies both the remembrance of any one in thought, and the commemoration in words). (b) The separation of Christians from Pagans and Jews. (c) The more intimate communion of the members of the Church with one another in Christ.”

It follows from the conception of the Eucharist that (1) as a rule, it should be administered in the public congregation, and not in private, unless in a case of necessity. When, moreover, the APOL. says (XII, 6): “We do nothing contrary to the Catholic Church, though we administer only public mass or communion; for no private masses are now administered in the Greek parishes” . . . this is not stated in opposition to the private use of the , but in opposition to the solitary masses of the Romish Church, from which the congregation is entirely excluded. (2) That the frequent use of the Eucharist is not only allowable, but should be commended.