ought not without great cause to go from the simplicity of the word. But when as the absurdity, not of reason, but of piety, and the repugnancy of the scriptures, and contrariety to the articles of our faith, do enforce us; then we say, affirm, and contend, that it is godly, yea, necessary, to depart from the letter and from the simplicity of the words. And that these places?!, which we alleged even now, do constrain us to depart from the letter in these words of the Lord, “This is my body, This is my blood,” we will prove by most sound arguments taken out of the scriptures, when I have first briefly declared the true and ancient sense and meaning of those usual and solemn words.
The Lord, sitting at the self-same table with his disciples, of reached the bread unto them with his own hand. And he, having only one true, human, and natural body, with the very same body of his delivered bread unto his disciples, and not a body either of any other man’s, or that of his own. Neither doth that trouble us, which St Augustine reciteth of David, in expounding the xxxiii. Psalm, “And he was borne in his own hands;” whereunto he addeth immediately: “Who is borne in his own hands? A man may be borne in the hands of other men, but none can be borne in his own. This is therefore meant of David, not of Christ. For Christ was borne in his own hands, when as, commending his very body unto them, he said, This is my body: for that body was borne in his own hands?” For by these words St Augustine doth not feign, that Christ hath two human bodies; but he meaneth, that the human body bare in his hands the sacramental body, that is to say, the bread which is the sacrament of the true body; for he speaketh plainly, saying: “He, commending his body, bare that body in his own hands.” For in the second sermon, almost in the same words being but a little changed, he saith: “How was he borne in his own hands? For when he had commended his body [1 illa ipsa, Lat.: those considerations. ]:
(2 Et ferebatur in manibus suis… Quis enim portatur in manibus suis ἢ Manibus aliorum potest portari homo; manibus suis nemo portatur. Quomodo intelligatur in ipso David secundum literam non invenimus, in Christo autem invenimus. Ferebatur enim Christus in
[manibus suis, quando commendans ipsum corpus suum ait, Hoc est ig]
[corpus meum. Ferebat enim illud corpus in manibus suis.—Aug. i]
[Enarrat. in Psal. xxxiii. Opp. Tom. vir fol. 49. col. 1. Par. 1531.]]
and blood, he took that in his hands which the faithful know; and after a sort he bare himself, when he said, This is my bodys” By which words he manifestly declared, that he meant not that Christ in his natural body delivered his natural body to his disciples; but that which the faithful do know, to wit, the sacrament or mystery. For it followeth: “And he bare himself after a sort (I pray you, mark this saying, after a sort), when he said, This is my body.” Wherefore those solemn words, “This is my body, which is broken for you;” and likewise, “This is my blood, which is shed for you;”’ cat have none other sense than this: This is a commemoration, memorial, or remembrance, sign or sacrament, of my body which is given for you; This cup, or rather the wine in the cup, signifieth or representeth unto you my blood which was once shed for you. For there followeth in the Lord’s solemn words that which notably confirmeth this meaning: “Do this in the remembrance of me.” As if he should say: Now am 1 present with you, before your eyes; I shall die and ascend up into heaven, and then shall this holy bread and wine be a memorial or token of my body and blood given and shed? for you. Then break the bread and eat it, distribute the cup and drink it; and do this in the remembrance of me, praising my benefits bestowed on you in redeeming you and giving you life.
Although this interpretation be most slanderously reviled and become abominable in the sight of many, yet is it manifest to be the true, proper, and most ancient interpretation of all other. Tertullian, Lib. 1v. contra Mart., saith: Christ, taking the bread, and distributing it to his disciples, made it his body, in saying, This is my body,” that is to say, the figure of my body.” Hierome upon St Matthew’s gospel saith: “That, like as in the prefiguring of Christ Melchisedech the priest of Almighty God had done, in bringing forth bread and
[83 Quomodo ferebatur in manibus suis? Quia cum commendaret]
[ipsum corpus suum et sanguinem suum, accepit in manus suas quod]
[norunt fideles; et ipse se portabat quodammodo cum diceret, Hoc est]
[corpus meum.—Id. ibid. fol. 49. col. 2.] [+ Rather, of my body given, and of my blood shed.] [> Acceptum panem et distributum discipulis corpus suum illum]
[fecit (Christus), Hoc est corpus meum dicendo; id est, figura cor-]
[poris mei.—Tertull. adv. Marcion. Lib. 1v. cap. 40. Opp. Tom. 1. p. 305.]
[Hal. Mag. 1827. ed. Semler. ]]