Part 21 (1/2)
Thus he will take his reward--to buy hi--not for the mass, but for the prayers And let him not be disturbed because all the world holds and practices the contrary You have theon this you may well despise the opinions ofthe mass and not the prayers alone, know that I have faithfully warned you and will be without blament; you will have to bear your sin alone I have said what I was bound to say as brother to brother for his soul's salvation; yours will be the gain if you observe it, yours the loss if you neglect it And if some should even condemn what I have said, I reply in the words of Paul: ”But eviland driving into error” [2 Tim
3:13]
From the above every one will readily understand what there is in that oft quoted saying of Gregory's[80]: ”A mass celebrated by a wicked priest is not to be considered of less effect than one celebrated by any Godly priest, and St Peter's mass would not have been better than Judas the traitor's, if they had offered the sacrifice of thehas served s, and because of it they have invented the distinction between _opus operati_ and _opus operantis_[81], so as to be free to lead wicked lives theory speaks truth; only they misunderstand and pervert his words For it is true beyond a question, that the testah the h the ministration of the most saintly For who has any doubt that the Gospel is preached by the unGodly? Now the mass is part of the Gospel, nay, its suood tidings of the forgiveness of sins? But whatever can be said of the forgiveness of sins and the mercy of God, is all briefly comprehended in the word of this testaht else than expositions of theforth of the divine promise of this testament; that would be to teach faith and truly to edify the Church But in our day the expounders of the ories of human rites and play the fool with the people
Therefore, just as a wicked priest n of the water to a candidate for baptism, so he may also set forth the promise of this sacrament and administer it to those who partake, and even himself partake, like Judas the traitor, at the Lord's Supper It still remains always the same sacrament and testament, which works in the believer its oork, in the unbeliever a ”strange work” [Isa 28:21] But when it co a sacrifice the case is quite different For not the mass but the prayers are offered to God, and therefore it is as plain as day that the offerings of a wicked priest avail nothing, but, as Gregory says again, when an unworthy intercessor is chosen, the heart of the judge is reater displeasure We must, therefore, not confound these two--the mass and the prayers, the sacrament and the work, the testament and the sacrifice; for the one coh the ministration of the priest, and demands our faith, the other proceeds froh the priest, and demands His answer The former descends, the latter ascends Therefore the former does not necessarily require a worthy and Godly minister, but the latter does indeed require such an one, because God heareth not sinners [John 9:31] He kno to send down blessings through evildoers, but He does not accept the work of any evildoer, as He showed in the case of Cain [Gen 4:5], and as it is said in Proverbs xv, ”The victims of the wicked are abominable to the Lord” [Prov
15:8]; and in Romans xiv, ”All that is not of faith is sin” [Rom
14:23]
[Sidenote: Worthy Communicants]
But in order topoint against which an opponent ht arise From all that has been said we conclude that the mass was provided only for such as have a sad, afflicted, disturbed, perplexed and erring conscience, and that they alone commune worthily For, since the word of divine promise in this sacrament sets forth the remission of sins, that man may fearlessly draw near, whoever he be, whose sins distress him, either with re
For this testaainst sins, past, present and future, if you but cling to it with unwavering faith and believe that what the words of the testaranted to you But if you do not believe this, you will never, nowhere, and by no works or efforts of your own, find peace of conscience For faith alone sets the conscience at peace, and unbelief alone keeps the conscience troubled
THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM
Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who according to the riches of His mercy hath preserved in His Church this sacrament at least, untouched and untainted by the ordinances of men, and hath made it free unto all nations and every estate of mankind, nor suffered it to be oppressed by the filthy and Godless reed and superstition For He desired that by it little children, incapable of greed and superstition, ht be initiated and sanctified in the simple faith of His Word; for who But if this sacraiven to such as had arrived at man's estate, methinks it could not possibly have retained its power and its glory against the tyranny of greed and superstition which has everywhere laid waste things divine Doubtless the wisdom of the flesh would here too have devised its preparations and worthinesses, its reservations, restrictions, and I know not what other snares for taking h a price as parchh he could not quench the power of baptis it in all adults, so that there are scarce any who call to lory in it; sothe heaven The source of these false opinions is that dangerous saying of St
Jeroly interpreted--in which he terms penance ”the second plank” after the shi+pwreck; as if baptisly, when men fall into sin, they despair of ”the first plank,” which is the shi+p, as though it had gone under, and fasten all their faith on the second plank, that is, penance This has produced those endless burdens of vows, religious works, satisfactions, pilgriences, and sects[84], whence has arisen that flood of books, questions, opinions and human traditions, which the world cannot contain; so that this tyranny plays worse havoc with the Church of God than any tyrant ever did with the Jewish people or with any other nation under heaven
It was the duty of the pontiffs to abate this evil, and with all diligence to lead Christians to the true understanding of baptisht knohat manner of men they are and how it becomes Christians to live But instead of this, their work is now to lead the people as far astray as possible from their baptism, to immerse all men in the flood of their oppression, and to cause the people of Christ, as the prophet says, to forget Him days without number [Jer
2:32] O unhappy, all who bear the name of priest to-day! They not only do not know nor do what becoht to know and do They fulfil the saying in Isaiah lvi: ”His watch-norant: the shepherds the; all have declined into their oay, every one after his own gain” [Isa 56:10]
[Sidenote: The First Part of Baptis in baptism to be considered is the divine promise, which says: ”He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved” This prolitter of works, vows, religious orders, and whatever man has added thereto; for on it all our salvation depends [Mark 16:16] But we must so consider it as to exercise our faith therein and in nowise doubt that we are saved e are baptised For unless this faith be present or be conferred in baptis, nay, it becomes a hindrance to us, not only in the moment of its reception, but all the days of our life; for such unbelief accuses God's pro a lie, and this is the blackest of all sins If we set ourselves to this exercise of faith, we shall at once perceive how difficult it is to believe this promise of God For our hu more difficult to believe than that it is saved or will be saved; and yet unless it does believe this, it cannot be saved, because it does not believe the truth of God that proly impressed upon the people and this pro in their ears; their baptisain to their mind, and faith constantly awakened and nourished For, just as the truth of this divine promise, once pronounced over us, continues unto death, so our faith in the sathened until death, by the continual remembrance of this promise made to us in baptism Therefore, e rise from sins, or repent, we do but return to the power and the faith of baptism from whence we fell, and find our way back to the promise then made to us, from which we departed e sinned For the truth of the promise once made remains steadfast, ever ready to receive us back with open ar of the obscure saying, that baptis and foundation of all the sacraments, without which none of the others ain or a penitent to lay hold before all else on the memory of his baptism, confidently to call to mind the promise of God, which he has forsaken, and to plead it with His Lord, rejoicing that he is baptised and therefore is yet within the fortress of salvation, and abhorring his wicked ingratitude in falling away from its faith and truth His soul will find wondrous coed to hope or mercy, when he considers that the divine promise which God made to him and which cannot possibly lie, still stands unbroken and unchanged, yea, unchangeable by any sins; as Paul says in 1I Timothy ii, ”If we believe not He continueth faithful, He cannot deny Himself” [2 Tim 2:13] Ay, this truth of God will sustain him, so that if all else should sink in ruins, this truth, if he believe it, will not ail hiainst all assaults of the enemy, an answer to the sins that disturb his conscience, an antidote for the dread of death and judgment, and a comfort in every temptation,--namely, this one truth,--and he can say, ”God is faithful that pron I have received in ainst me?” [Rom
8:31]
The children of Israel, whenever they repented of their sins, turned their thoughts first of all to the exodus fro this, returned to God Who had brought thee were many times impressed upon them by Moses, and afterward repeated by David How ypt, and, reh the washi+ng of regeneration [titus 3:5], which we are bidden rely in the sacrament of bread and wine Indeed, in olden times these three sacraments--penance, baptism and the bread--were all celebrated at the same service, and one supplemented and assisted the other We read also of a certain holy virgin who in every ti siht-way the adversary led from her, or he knew the power of her baptis to the truth of God's promise[85]
Lo, how rich therefore is a Christian, or one who is baptised! Even if he would, he cannot lose his salvation, however much he sin, unless he will not believe For no sin can condemn him save unbelief alone All other sins,--if faith in God's promise made in baptism return or remain,--all other sins, I say, are ih that sah the truth of God, because He cannot deny Hi to Him that promises But as for contrition, confession of sins, and satisfaction[86],--with all those carefully thought-out exercises of lect this truth of God, they will suddenly fail you and leave you more wretched than before For whatever is done without faith in the truth of God, is vanity of vanities and vexation of spirit [Eccl 1:2, 14]
Again, how perilous, nay, how false it is to suppose that penance is the second plank after the shi+pwreck! How harmful an error it is to believe that the power of baptism is broken, and the shi+p has foundered, because we have sinned! Nay; that one, solid and unsinkable shi+p re tiht to the harbor of salvation; it is the truth of God giving us its promise in the sacraments Many, indeed, rashly leap overboard and perish in the waves; these are they who depart froe into sin But the shi+p herself remains intact and holds her steady course; and if one be able somehow to return to the shi+p, it is not on any plank but in the good shi+p herself that he is borne to life Such an one is he who through faith returns to the sure promise of God that abideth forever Therefore Peter, in his second epistle, rebukes theed from their old sins [2 Peter 1:9]; in which words he doubtless chides their ingratitude or the baptism they had received and their wicked unbelief
What is the good, then, ofthis faith in the promise? All the sacra faith, but these Godless men so completely pass over this faith that they even assert a iveness of sins, that is, of the grace of the sacras they delude the world, and not only take captive but altogether destroy the sacralory of our conscience consists Meanwhile they ainst the miserable souls of men with their contritions, anxious confessions, circumstances[87], satisfactions, works and endless other absurdities Read, therefore, with great caution the Master of the Sentences[88] in his fourth book, or, better yet, despise hiether with all his commentators, who at their best write only of the material and form[87] of the sacra letter of the sacraments, but pass over in utter silence the spirit, life and use, that is, the truth of the divine promise and our faith
Beware, therefore, lest the external pomp of works and the deceits of hu the divine truth and your faith If you would be saved, you in with the faith of the sacraments, without any works whatever; but on faith the works will follow: only do not think lightly of faith, which is a work, and of all works the h it alone you will be saved, even if you should be compelled to do without any other works For it is a work of God, not of man, as Paul teaches [Eph 2:8] The other works He works through us and with our help, but this one He works in us and without our help
From this we can clearly see the difference, in baptism, between man the minister and God the Doer For man baptises and does not baptise: he baptises, for he perfor the person to be baptised; he does not baptise, for in that act he officiates not by his own authority, but in the stead of God Hence, we ought to receive baptism at the hands of a man just as if Christ Hi us with His own hands For it is not man's baptism, but Christ's and God's baptism, which we receive by the hand of athat we make use of by the hand of another, is God's alone Therefore beware of dividing baptism in such a way as to ascribe the outward part to man and the inward part to God Ascribe both to God alone, and look upon the person ad it as the instru in heaven thrusts you under the water with His own hands, and speaking by the mouth of His iveness of your sins
This the words themselves indicate, when the priest says: ”I baptise thee in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost
Ah he said: ”What I do, I do not by my own authority, but in the naard it just as if our Lord Himself had done it in a visible manner The Doer and the minister are different persons, but the work of both is the sah my ministry” For I hold that ”in the name of” refers to the person of the Doer, so that the name of the Lord is not only to be uttered and invoked while the work is being done, but the work itself is to be done not as one's oork, but in the name and stead of another In this sense Christ says, ”Many shall come in my name,” [Matt 24:5] and in Rorace and apostleshi+p for obedience to the faith, in all nations, for His name” [Rom 1:5]
This view I heartily endorse; for there is e that one has been baptised not bya us in His name This will dispose of that fruitless quarrel about the ”form”[90]
of baptism, as these words are called The Greeks say: ”May the servant of Christ be baptised,” while the Latins say: ”I baptise”