"
THE WOODEN CROSS.
Some have thought the altar to mean the cross on which the body of
Christ was crucified when he gave himself an offering for sin; but
they are greatly deceived, for he also himself was the altar through
which he offered himself; and this is one of the treasures of wisdom
which are hid in him, and of which the world and antichrist are
utterly ignorant.
The altar is always greater than the gift, and since the gift was
the body and soul of Christ--for so saith the scripture, "He gave
himself for our sins"--the altar must be something else than a sorry
bit of wood, or than the accursed tree.
Wherefore I will say to such, as one wiser than Solomon said to the
Jews when they superstitiously magnified the gift, in counting it
more honorable than the altar, "Ye fools and blind; for whether is
greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?"
If the altar be greater than the gift, and yet the gift so great a
thing as the very humanity of Christ, can it--I will now direct my
speech to the greatest fool--can that greater thing be the cross?
Was the cross, the wooden cross, the cursed tree that some worship,
greater than the gift, to wit, the sacrifice which Christ offered,
when he gave himself for our sins? O idolatry! O blasphemy!
But what then was the altar?
The divine nature of Christ, that eternal Spirit, by and in the
assistance of which "he offered himself without spot, to God.
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