Herm. In the tenth chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians Paul writes: “We being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.” Again in the twelfth chapter: “We are all members of one body. If we then are members of one body, unto which Christ has united us together by his baptism and by his Spirit, no external sign can be fitter, to show or signify the union of one body, than that in the breaking of bread we all become partakers of one bread, in token that we being many are one bread and body. Likewise it is also with the wine; for as many grains are ground together, and made into one bread, so of many grapes one drink is made. Therefore let every one examine himself, whether he be worthy of the communion of the bread and of the cup of the Lord, and whether he love his fellow brother with a pure heart: for if he hates his brother, and does not love him, and would besides make himself a partaker yet of the bread and of the cup of the Lord as though he were a member of Christ, he shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, and shall eat judgment to himself, not discerning, that the body of the Lord is signified by this communion or participation, that we are members of one body, into which Christ has united us.
Fr. Corn. Tush, tush, tush! it seems that you also could preach a little sermon in the Gruthuysbosch. Bah, this people know nothing else to do but to preach; but you would have to preach a long time to me, before I would believe that a man will eat and drink judgment to himself on a bit of common bread, and a little draught of wine, by which you Sacramentarians would only signify the body and blood of Christ. Bah, I would rather believe that God’s name is Henry, that I would.
Herm. What greater importance was there in the sacrifices of the Jews, of sheep and doves, than in the bread and wine, which are all types of the true sacrifice which Christ made on the cross in his own flesh and blood? And if the Jews had nevertheless, according to the command of Christ, to lay down their offering before the altar, and first go and become reconciled to their brother, before they were to offer, then a Christian also ought first to examine himself, before he partakes of the bread and the cup of the Lord.
Fr. Corn. Bah, a thousand devils, God bless us, if the bread and the wine are only types of the true sacrifice of the flesh and blood of Christ on the cross why then does he say in the sixth chapter of John: “The bread that I will give is my flesh;” again: “My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed; therefore he that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, shall live forever,” eh?
Herm. This argument is against yourself, for you would say that the bread is therefore the body of Christ, and the wine his blood, because Paul says, that whosoever eats and drinks it unworthily eats and drinks judgment to himself. And here Christ says: “He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, shall live forever.” If therefore that bread and wine of which Paul writes, were the flesh and blood of Christ, no one could therein eat judgment to himself.
Fr. Corn. Bah, this accursed Sacramentarian would torment and pester us here, I suppose, with all these abominable blasphemies against God’s true body and blood. Bah, the very devil of hell sits in his accursed mouth.
Herm. I have not mentioned one word about the body and blood of God; how then can I have blasphemed there against?
Fr. Corn. O, you accursed Anabaptist and Sacramentarian, are the body and blood of Christ not also the body and blood of God? are God the Father and the Son of God not one God, or would you make two Gods of them. Bah, are you also a Trinitarian, I suppose, eh?
Herm. Yet you said, when you wanted to dispute about the mass, that you priests daily in the mass, offer up to God his Son Jesus Christ; hence you make a distinction between God and the body of his Son, which you now begin to call the flesh and body of God.
Fr. Corn. Bah, the devil and his mother wag your tongue. You would now like to bite into my trap, would you? Ah, you wicked, vile, false, crafty Anabaptist and Sacramentarian, yea, also Trinitarian, because you speak so abominably of the holy Trinity, do you then not believe, that Christ is the second person in the Godhead of the holy Trinity? Bah, it seems not from your speaking.