A Candid Inquiry into the Controversies among Evangelicals · §24 · Samuel Strimesius

Part I Protheoria: Bossuet's pretenses answered in the 1681 Strictures

The pretense was, first, that the Lutherans defend the so-called real Presence of Christ's Body in the Eucharist, from which would follow the Adoration of the Body present in the Eucharist — which we so greatly flee. Second, that they defend the dogma of Ubiquity, from which would follow altogether the destruction of Christ's Humanity: and yet the Reformed are ready to offer them their communion, because they deny that consequence of a destroyed Humanity — why then not also to Pontiffs who equally refuse the Consequences drawn from Tridentine Doctrine? But we went openly and at length against this vainest Method in our Strictures against the then Bishop of Condom, published in 1681.

There we treat at length: (1) of the reason of tolerance and of the communion offered to the brethren of the Augsburg Confession — with a retort upon Pontiffs who know nothing of tolerance, indeed of humanity, while they still deny that dissent from the Roman Church is Fundamental; (2) of the dogma of Ubiquity, how far it is held to overthrow the foundation or not — compared with the contested dogmas of the Pontiffs and with their practice, which destroy the essence of Christianity by a far other reason; (3) of real Presence in the Lutheran sense, and of the adoration they approve in the Eucharist — narrating in a long series the difference from the dogma of Transubstantiation, from the Mass Sacrifice, and from Latria of the Host shown even outside the use of the Sacrament, besides other idolatrous and intensely superstitious acts in the Pontiffs' Mass rites; (4) finally of the Consequences which the Bishop of Meaux charges the Reformed with eliciting from Tridentine doctrine not without the stain of calumny — treated by us at length in those Strictures.

Latin

Obtentus est, 1. Lutheranos defendere Praesentiam realem (ut vocant) Corporis Christi in Eucharistia; unde sequatur, quam tantopere refugimus, praesentis in Eucharistia Corporis adoratio. 2. Defendere eosdem dogma Ubiquitatis, ex quo sequatur omnino, Humanitatis Christi destructio: Et tamen paratos esse Reformatos illis communionem suam offerre, quia hoc destructae Humanitatis Consectarium negant; quidni & Pontificiis, Consequentias quae ex Doctrina Tridentina inferuntur, pariter refpuentibus? Sed huic vanissimae Methodo fuse, & ex professo, ivimus obviam in Stricturis nostris adversus Condomiensem tum Episcopum; editis A. 1681. Ubi nos pluribus, 1. De ratione tolerantiae & communionis qualis Fratribus Augustanae Confessionis oblata est; retorsione facta in Pontificios, tolerantiae imo humanitatis nescios, dum tamen dissensum a Rom. Ecclesia esse Fundamentalem negant. 2. Ibidem nos de dogmate Ubiquitatis, quatenus censetur convellere, aut non convellere fundamentum; facta collatione cum dogmatibus Pontificiorum controversis, eorumque praxi, longe alia ratione Christianismi essentiam perimentibus. 3. Ibi & nos de Praesentia reali ex mente Lutheranorum, & adoratione qualem probant in Eucharistia; enarrato longa serie discrimine, a dogmate Transubstantiationis, & Sacrificii Missatici, & Latriae Hostiae exhibitae, etiam extra usum Sacramenti; Praeter actus alios Idololatricos, & impense superstitiosos, in Missaticis Pontificiorum Sacris. 4. Tandem de Consequentis, quas causatur Meldensis Episcopus Reformatos non sine calumniae labe elicere ex doctrina Tridentina, pluribus nos in praefatis Stricturis.

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