# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Februar 1858_S59
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Excerpts as Contributions to Pastoral Casuistry. 59

...that same one ye shall not eat with." From this, a minori ad majus (by an inference from the less important to the more important), it is concluded: if one is not to eat with public sinners even in general company, how much less may one presume to be found with them and beside them at the holy table of the Lord.

II. On account of the example. In Numbers 9:6 we read that the unclean could not slaughter and eat the Passover with the other Jews, but had to purify themselves first and hold the feast only in the following month. Now Christ has ordained the holy Sacrament in place of the paschal meal; it therefore does not befit that those who are spiritually unclean and living in sin should be allowed to come to it.

III. On account of the danger, both to him who administers the Sacrament and to him who receives it. The pastor makes himself a partaker of another's sins, against which he ought rightly to guard himself; and the communicant eats and drinks judgment to himself, 1 Corinthians 11:29. Pastors, however, are set by God as judges in such a way that they are to warn the ungodly in God's stead. If they do not do this, but admit the wicked to the holy Sacrament just as they would the godly, then the ungodly one indeed dies for his own sin, but his blood will be required at the pastor's hand, Ezekiel 3:16. So that a pastor may save his own soul, he should take good care in this exalted work and not admit such persons, or else follow the counsel of Chrysostom, who writes thus in Homily 83 on Matthew: "But if you yourself do not dare to turn him away, tell me, and I will not allow this to happen. I would rather give up my life than that the body of the Lord be given unworthily to anyone, and I would rather let my blood be shed than that I permit that most holy blood to an unworthy person."*)

As for the other group, who are accused of erroneous doctrine, such as Calvinism, or of evil deeds — strong indications also stand against them, but they have not yet confessed to it, and it has not yet been proven against them. Such people cannot simply be turned away; rather, one should diligently remind them what great danger awaits them if they should unworthily eat of the Lord's bread, and admonish them to abstain from it for so long, until they have duly purified themselves and cleared themselves of suspicion. But should such admonition prove of no avail, and they nevertheless mingle themselves in among the other communicants — since it is said, "The church does not judge concerning hidden things, much less concerning things unknown"**) — then, so far as certain knowledge is concerned, a pastor may give them the holy Sacrament without violating his conscience, even though at some future time something else might be proven against them.

For since they are baptized Christians and present themselves as penitent sinners, they have a right to the blessed table, and the pastors — since they are not knowers of hearts — cannot deny them this. For public exclusion from the altar requires an open and public offense, which we shall treat more fully in the following section.

*) Chrys. Hom. 83. in Matth.: „Quod si ipse pellere non audes, mihi dicas, non permittam ista fieri. Animam potius tradam meam, quam Dominicum corpus alicui dari indigne, et sanguinem meum potius effundi patiar, quam sanctissimum illum sanguinem indigne concedam.“

**) „De occultis non judicat ecclesia, multo minus de incognitis.“