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

The Consecration |
“epempon—they sent,” because Irenaeus is explicit in stating that
“these guests had come to Rome from Asia” Ex. 2, 302).
327 In a similar detailed manner Chemnitz analyzes the various examples
adduced from antiquity (Ex. 2, 302–305), and he finds that “there
is still observed the use or action instituted by Christ.” After the consecration
the elements were distributed and received (Ex. 2, 303). He
does discuss in some detail the example of the consecrated elements
being carried to Serapion, as reported by Eusebius (Ex. 2, 305). There
were cases of reservation for private use, but, says Chemnitz, this type
of reservation was not “universal nor perpetual” (Ex. 2, 305). While
there may once have been some reasons for it (e.g., times of persecution,
protecting the sick from receiving an heretical communion, etc.),
nevertheless such a custom could “spawn many abuses and various superstitions”
(Ex. 2, 306). It is not surprising therefore that in the Early
Church the custom “was changed, abrogated, and severely forbidden”
(Ex. 2, 306). The First Council of Toledo (400 A.D.) decreed that “if
anyone does not eat the Eucharist which he has received from the
priest, let him be cast out as a sacrilegious person.” And a certain Caesar
Augustanus reports that “with respect to the Eucharist, if anyone
is proved not to have consumed it in the church, let him be anathema
forever” (Ex. 2, 306).
328 Chemnitz does not overlook the extenuating circumstances that
permitted the carrying of the consecrated elements to the sick, “We
do not condemn those ancient men who observed this custom, because
they have weighty reasons on account of the nature of the times”
(Ex. 2, 308). But he also adds this judgment, “Let the reader observe
that, when there were no sick persons to be communed, nothing was
reserved or put back” (Ex. 2, 309; emphasis added).
329 In the “true antiquity” Chemnitz really finds only one example of
such a reservation for the sick, namely, that of Serapion. As Eusebius
describes it, “The presbyter, lying sick in his house, gave the Eucharist
to a young man to take to Serapion” (Ex. 2, 307). But as a matter of
fact “there is also another way to satisfy the institution of Christ and
come to the aid of the dying” (Ex. 2, 309). The Lutherans “in the communion
of the sick recite the words of the Supper which are in fact the
consecration in the presence of the sick person” (Ex. 2, 312). Chemnitz
summarizes the reason for this practice as deriving directly from the
Words of Institution,