The Lord's Supper in the Theology of Martin Chemnitz Bjarne - Logia

The Consecration | 0
by an enduring union is and remains in the bread in no other way
than He is present in the true use, and that, over and above and apart
from this use, which has the testimony and commandment of the institution,
it is permissible to handle the eucharist in another way and
for a different use, namely, through sacrifice, reservation, carrying it
about, displaying it, and all that is connected with these things” (Ex.
2, 250; emphasis added).
240 To get the significance of Chemnitz’s indictment of the Roman
Church, one must keep in mind his precise definition of “use” and
“action” in speaking of the Lord’s Supper (see p. 11 f.). It means to consecrate
the elements, distribute them, and eat and drink them (SD
VII, 84–86; see p. 13 f.). Here Trent’s error is to teach that the Roman
consecration effects “an enduring union” (Ex. 2, 249).
241 Further, Chemnitz charges the Roman Church with inventing and
defending the opinion that “blessing with the Words of Christ is not
effective and that it is not a true sacrament even though the Word of
Christ comes to the elements of bread and wine, unless the consecration
takes place in a church or at an altar which has been pontifically
consecrated, Thus the genuineness of the Eucharist is judged to depend
not so much on the Words of Christ as on the place” (Ex. 2, 310 f.).
242 After marshaling the evidence for both positions, the Lutheran
and the Roman, Chemnitz exclaims, “Therefore let a comparison
be made!” (Ex. 2, 680), He has shown that the Papists “establish as
the essence of their priesthood the sacrifice of the body and blood of
Christ in the Mass, which was brought into the church without, yes,
contrary to Scripture” (Ex. 2, 680).
243 The Lutheran position is that the Lord committed the “outward
ministry unto men.” But to make the Lutheran position on the public
ministry clear, Chemnitz continues:
Nevertheless not everyone ought to take and arrogate to himself
the public ministry of Word and Sacrament. . . . Paul prescribes a
legitimate manner of calling which is made through the voice of the
church. . . . There is added also the promise that God will truly work
effectively through the ministry of those who teach the Gospel which
the Son of God wills to preserve in the church through perpetual calling,
as St. Paul says in Ephesians 4:8 ff . . . . Through this ministry there are
offered to us eternal blessings, and indeed . . . God in this way receives
us, rescues us from sin and the power of the devil and from eternal
death, and restores to us righteousness and eternal life, (Ex, 2, 678).