n. For the preaching ought to be
nothing but an explanation of the words of Christ when He
institutes the mass and says: "This is My body. This is My blood,
etc." What is the whole Gospel but an explanation of this
testament? Christ has comprehended the whole Gospel in a short
summary with the words of this testament or sacrament. For the
whole Gospel is nothing but a proclamation of God's grace and of
the forgiveness of all sins, granted us through the sufferings of
Christ, as St. Paul proves in Romans x [Rom. 10:9, 11, 13]; and
Christ in Luke xxiv [Luke 24:46, 47]. This same thing the words
of this testament contain, as we have seen.

34. From this we may see what a pity and perversion it is that so
many masses are said, and yet the Gospel is kept altogether
silent. They stand and preach, and give to poor souls chaff for
wheat, yea, death for life, intending afterward to make up for it
with many masses. What sort of baptism would that be, if the
water were poured upon the child and not a word were said? I fear
that the holy words of the testament are read so secretly, and
kept hidden from the laity, because God in His wrath is
testifying thereby that the whole Gospel is no longer publicly
preached to the people, that even as the summary of the Gospel is
hidden, so also its public explanation has ceased.

[Sidenote: The Withdrawal of the Cup]

Next, they took entirely from us the one element, the wine,
although that does not matter much, for the Word is more
important than the sign. Still, I should like to know who gave
them the power to do such a thing. In the same way they might
take from us the other element and give us the empty monstrance
to kiss as a relic, and at last abolish everything that Christ
has instituted. I fear it is a figure and type that augurs
nothing good in these perilous, perverted latter days. It is said
that the pope has the power to do it; I say that is all fiction,
he does not have a hair's breadth of power to change what Christ
has made; and whatever of these things he changes, that he does
as a tyrant and Antichrist. I should like to hear how they will
prove it.

Not that I wish to cause a turmoil about it, for I regard the
Word as mightier than the sign, but I cannot permit the outrage
when they not only do us wrong, but wish to have a right thereto,
and force us not only to permit such a wrong, but also to praise
it as right and good. Let them do what they will, so long as we
are