Turretin On Not Mixing Water In Communion Wine

Common “wine” is instituted, of indifferent color, undiluted with water because it is called simply the “fruit of the vine” (Mt. 26:29; Mk. 14:25). Thus the Romanists here without reason urge the mixture of water with the wine, which although according to them is not of the integrity of the sacrament, still is of its congruity, nor can it be omitted without mortal sin (as Bellarmine holds). For although it may seem to be indifferent (which may be equally omitted or retained, provided the order of the church is not disturbed; and it is clear that by the ancients water was mixed with the wine because the use of pure wine is rare among the orientals); still they are deservedly to be censured because (without authority from the word) they invent mortal sins and condemn the liberty of others.

Francis Turretin | Institutes of Elenctic Theology, 19.22.6  ed. James T. Dennison Jr., trans. George Musgrave Giger, vol. 3 (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1992–1997), 431.


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