ent. "I can daily enjoy the sacrament in the mass if only I
keep before my eyes the testament, that is, the words and
covenant of Christ, and feed and strengthen my faith thereby"
(sec. 17) [13]. He quotes Augustine: "Only believe, so hast thou
already partaken of the sacrament." In interpreting this passage
we must remember that Luther was writing at a time when he was
daily expecting to hear that the pope had excommunicated him from
the Church. His comfort was that he and his followers could not
be excluded by papal dictum from the communion of true believers
and saints, nor deprived of the spiritual feeding upon the true
spiritual body of Christ.

In this treatise Luther also attacks for the first time the Roman
doctrine of the mass as a bloodless repetition of the sacrifice
once made on Calvary--a theory which forgets that the mass is a
testament and a sacrament, in which God promises and gives
something to us, not we to Him (sec. 19). In much stronger
language, and quoting Scripture more extensively, Luther exposes
and rejects this error, so fundamental to the Roman system, in
his work of 1522, _On the Abuse of the Mass_. In the _Babylonian
Captivity_ he remarks, "When I published my Sermon of the
Supper,[14] I was still caught in the prevailing conception, and
was indifferent whether the pope was right or not." [15] In this
treatise, then, we have the first clear statement of the reformer
on this subject.

It shows, however, the beautifully conservative character of
Luther that even here, where he is compelled to reject the Roman
sacrificial theory, we see him laboring to detect at least an
element of scriptural truth in the refuted doctrine. He says
(secs. 26, 27) that in the Supper we use Christ as our Sacrifice
and Mediator, by bringing our prayer and thanksgiving to the
Father through Him. And this furnishes the basis on which he
builds the evangelical doctrine of the priesthood of all
believers (sec. 28); _alle Christenmanner Pfaffen, alle Weiber
Pfaffinnen, es sei jung oder alt, etc._ This is still more
strongly emphasized in the _Abuse of the Mass_ of 1522.

Two more points need to be mentioned,--the withholding of the cup
from the laity and the number of the sacraments. In the _Sermon_
of 1519 Luther attaches little importance to the communion in
both kinds, though he thinks it would be well for the Church in a
General Council to restore the two elements to all Christians.
But in this treatise of 152