The World's Great Sermons, Volume 01: Basil to Calvin
Religion
The World's Great Sermons, Volume 01: Basil to Calvin
Sermons
Furthermore, if they say that Christ made His body of bread, I ask, With
what words made He it? Not with these words, _Hoc est corpus meum_;
that is to say in English, "This is my body," for they are the words of
giving, and not of making, which He said after that He brake the bread;
then parting it among His disciples and apostles. Therefore if Christ
had made of that bread His body, [He] had made it in His blessing, or
else in giving of thanks, and not in the words of giving; for if Christ
had spoken of the material bread that He had in His hands when He said,
_Hoc est corpus meum_, "This is my body," it was made before, or else
the word had been a lie. For if I say, This is my hand, and if it be not
a hand, then am I a liar; therefore seek carefully if ye can find two
words of blessing, or of giving of thanks, wherewith Christ made his
body and blood of the bread and wine. And that all the clerks of the
earth know not, for if ye might find or know those words, then should ye
wax great masters above Christ, and then ye might be givers of His
substance, and as fathers and makers of Him, and that He should worship
you, as it is written, Thou shalt worship thy father and mother. Of such
as desire such worship against God's law, speaketh St. Paul of the man
of sin, that enhanceth himself as if he were God. And he is worshiped
over all things as God, and showeth himself as he were God. Where our
clergy are guilty in this, judge ye or they that know most, for they say
that when ye have said, _Hoc est corpus meum_, that is to say, "This is
my body;" which ye call the words of consecration, or else of making;
and when they are said over the bread, ye say that there is left no
bread, but it is the body of the Lord. So that in the bread there
remaineth nothing but a heap of accidents, as witness ruggedness,
roundness, savor, touching, and tasting, and such other accidents. Then,
if thou sayest that the flesh and blood of Christ, that is to say, his
manhood, is made more, or increased by so much as the ministration of
bread and wine is, the which ye minister--if ye say it is so--then thou
must needs consent that the thing which is not God today shall be God
tomorrow; yea, and that the thing which is without spirit of life, but
groweth in the field by kind, shall be God at another time. And we all
ought to believe that He was without beginning, and without ending; and
not made, for if the manhood of Christ were increased every day by so
much as the bread and wine draweth to that ye minister, He should
increase more in one day by cart-loads than He did in thirty-two years
when He was here in earth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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