the greatness of the blessing. For this very
reason that which brings to such unworthy ones so great a
blessing is a divine testament, by which God desires above all
things to awaken love to Him. So Christ comforted those dejected
ones who thought the blessing too great and said: "Faint-hearted
little flock, fear not; it hath pleased your Father to give you
the eternal Kingdom." [Luke 12:32]

[Sidenote: Abuses of the Mass: 1. The Suppression of the Words]

16. But see now what they have made of the mass! In the first
place, they have hidden these words of the testament, and have
taught that they are not to be spoken to the laity, that they are
secret words to be spoken in the mass only by the priest. Has not
the devil here in a masterly way stolen from us the chief thing
in the mass and put it to silence? For who has ever heard it
preached that one should give heed in the mass to these words of
the testament and insist upon them with a firm faith? And yet
this should have been the chief thing. Thus they have been
afraid, and have taught us to be afraid, where there is no cause
for fear, nay, where all our comfort and safety lie.

How many miserable consciences, which perished from fear and
sorrow, could have been comforted and rescued by these words!
What devil has told them that the words which should be the most
familiar, the most openly spoken among all Christians, priests
and laity, men and women, young and old, are to be hidden in
greatest secrecy? How should it be possible for us to know what
the mass is, or how to use and observe it, if we are not to know
the words in which the very mass consists?[8]

But would to God that we Germans could say mass in German, and
sing these "most secret" words loudest of all! Why should not we
Germans say mass in our own language, when the Latins, Greeks and
many others observe mass in their language? Why should we not
also keep secret the words of baptism: "I baptise thee in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, Amen"?
[Matt. 28:19] If every one may speak in German, and aloud, these
words, which are no less the holy Word and promise of God, why
should not every one also be permitted to hear and speak those
words of the mass aloud and in German?

[Sidenote: Word and Sign in the Sacraments]

17. Let us learn, then, that in every covenant[9] of God there
are two things which one must consider; these are Word and Sign.
In baptism these are the words