ife, may be hindered or recalled, and hence are not called
testaments. Therefore, wherever in Scripture God's testament is
referred to by the prophets, in that very word the prophets are
taught that God would become man and die and rise again, to the
end that His Word, in which He promised such a testament, might
be fulfilled and confirmed. For if He is to make a testament as
He promised, then He must die; if He is to die, He must be a
man. And so that little word "testament" is a short summary of
all God's wonders and grace, fulfilled in Christ.

[Sidenote: Difference between Old and New Testaments]

9. He also distinguishes this testament from others and says, "It
is a new and everlasting testament, in His own blood, for the
forgiveness of sins"; whereby He disannuls the old testament. For
the little word "new" makes the testament of Moses old and
ineffective, one that avails no more. The old testament was a
promise made through Moses to the people of Israel, to whom was
promised the land of Canaan. For this testament God did not die,
but the paschal lamb had to die instead of Christ and as a type
of Christ; and so it was a temporal testament in the blood of the
paschal lamb, which was shed for the obtaining and possessing of
that land of Canaan. And as the paschal lamb, which died in the
old testament for the land of Canaan, was a temporal and
transitory thing, so too the old testament, together with that
possession or land of Canaan allotted and promised therein, was
temporal and transitory.

But Christ, the true Paschal Lamb, is an eternal divine Person,
Who dies to establish the new testament; therefore the testament
and the possessions therein bequeathed are eternal and abiding.
And that is what He means when He contrasts this testament with
that other, and says: A new testament--so that the other may
become old and of none effect. An eternal testament, [Heb. 8:13]
He says, not temporal like that other; not to dispose of temporal
lands or possessions, but of eternal. In My blood, He says, not
in the blood of a lamb. All this is to the end that the old
should be altogether annulled and give place to the new alone.

[Sidenote: What is Promised in the Mass]

10. What then is this testament, and what is bequeathed us
therein by Christ? Forsooth, a great, eternal and unspeakable
treasure, namely, the forgiveness of all sins, as the words
plainly state, "This is the cup of a new eternal testament in My
blood, t