Book Four
Chapter XVII: 32. Involved solutions of the mystery rejected, pg. 1403 - 1404:
Now, if anyone should ask me how this takes place, I shall not be ashamed to confess that it is a secret too lofty for either my mind to comprehend or my words to declare. And, to speak more plainly, I rather experience than understand it. Therefore, I here embrace without controversy the truth of God in which I may safely rest. He declares his flesh the food of my soul, his blood its drink [John 6:53 ff.]. I offer my soul to him to be fed
with such food. In his Sacred Supper he bids me take, eat, and drink his body and blood under the symbols of bread and wine. I do not doubt that he himself truly presents them, and that I receive them.
Book Four
Chapter XVII: 42. Faith and love requisite, but not perfection*, pg. 1419:
Now, it is easy to judge the nature of that doctrine which reigns in the papacy, and from what author it sprang. For by its immoderate harshness it deprives and despoils sinners, miserable and afflicted with trembling and grief, of the consolation of this Sacrament; yet in it, all the delights of the gospel were set before them. Surely the devil could find no speedier means of destroying men than by so maddening them that they could not taste and savor this food with which their most gracious Heavenly Father had willed to feed them. In order, therefore, not to rush headlong to such ruin, let us remember that this sacred feast is medicine for the sick, solace for sinners, alms to the poor; but would bring no benefit to the healthy, righteous, and rich-if such could be found.
For since in it Christ is given to us as food, we understand that without him we would pine away, starve, and faint-as famine destroys the vigor of the body. Then, since he is given us unto life, we understand that without him in us we would plainly be dead. Therefore, this is the worthiness-the best and only kind we can bring to God-to offer our vileness and (so to speak) our unworthiness to him so that his mercy may make us worthy of him; to despair in ourselves so that we may be comforted in him; to abase ourselves so that we may be lifted up by him; to accuse ourselves so that we may be justified by him; moreover, to aspire that unity which he commends to us in his Supper; and, as he makes all of us one in himself, to desire one soul, one heart, one tongue for us all.
Book Four
Chapter XVIII: 3. The Mass as suppression of Christ’s Passion, pg. 1431 - 1432:
Another power of the Mass was set forth: that it suppresses and buries the cross and Passion of Christ. This is indeed very certain: that the cross of Christ is overthrown as soon as the altar is set up; for if he offered himself as a sacrifice on the cross in order to sanctity us forever, and to acquire eternal redemption for us [Heb. 9:12], no doubt the force and effectiveness of this sacrifice continue without end. Otherwise, we would feel no more reverent about Christ than about the oxen and calves which used to be sacrificed under the law, the sacrifices of which are proved ineffective and weak by the fact that they were frequently repester. Therefore, we shall have to confess either that Christ's sacrifice, which he fulfilled upon the cross, lacked the power to cleanse eternally, or that Christ had carried out one sacrifice, once for all, unto all ages. This is what the apostle says: that this High Priest, Christ, "has appeared, once for all, at the consummation of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” [Heb. 9:26 p.].
