On Reserving, Enclosing,
Adoration of the Sacrament.
Is the Lord's Supper also a sacrament apart from its use?
By no means. Therefore is the papal doctrine and usage of the reserving and enclosing of the sacrament entirely false and erroneous for the following reasons:
1. Nowhere in sacred Scripture is it said that the sacraments are sacraments apart from their use. What is not founded in the Word of God cannot be accepted as an article of faith.
2. Christ Jesus says: This do. He does not say: Reserve it, but He says eat and drink. When you eat, you eat my body; when you drink, you drink my blood. And so partaking has become a sacrament and attached to it, which no one can tear away, much less change and transform. Whoever does not eat the blessed bread or drink the blessed cup, but encloses it in a
monstrance and keeps it, does not have the sacrament, does not have the Lord's Supper, which Christ did not enclose, did not keep, but appointed to be eaten and drunk. Let this be well remembered. Hence the old rule: There is nothing outside the use of the Sacrament (Nihil extra usum habet rationem Sacramenti).
3. If the sacrament of the Lord's Supper remains a sacrament apart from its use, why does not Baptism also remain a sacrament apart from its use? There can be no thorough reason for the inequality.
If the Lord's Supper were not a sacrament apart from its use, it would follow that it is not Christ's Word but our use that makes the sacrament.
This does not follow at all, but everything is attributed to the institution and the words of Jesus Christ. He has thus ordained that under the bread he would give his body to be eaten, not to be retained, and under the wine his blood to be drunk, not to be retained. Indeed, if we were to say of ourselves that our use and enjoyment must be involved, it would be wrong. But because Christ Jesus Himself has thus instituted and ordained it, it must remain so and does not prevent us from doing what others have done against and without God's order in this case.
Is it right to worship the Lord's Supper in and out of use?
If the errors described were correct, then this worship would also be correct. But since it has so far been sufficiently proved: 1. that there is not only body and blood, but also bread and wine in the Holy Sacrament, 2. that there is no sacrament at all apart from its use, it is clear and evident that a great error and abominable idolatry is committed by the invocation of the sacrament. For, of course, if the whole sacrament is invoked, the bread and wine must also be invoked, which is idolatrous, even if it is done in use; but even more so outside of use, since there is no body and blood present, or under the hosts, under the wine. And we have no commandment to adore the sacrament in use, much less apart from use. Whom I invoke, in Him I believe, in Him I must believe. But I do not believe in the sacrament, whether I already believe that it is a sacrament. Just as I believe
that there is a communion of saints and yet do not believe in the communion of saints. Therefore I cannot and should not worship the sacrament, not to mention that in all of evangelical history it is not even thought that the apostles or others worshipped the sacrament. We do worship Christ Jesus in the sacrament, but not the sacrament itself; for the sacrament is not Christ alone, but bread and wine also belong to it, as has been shown many times.
Where Christ is, there he is to be worshipped. But he is in the bread, therefore he is there to be worshipped.
This objection is cunning, but can easily be refuted. According to papal opinion, it is not true that where Christ is, he is to be worshipped everywhere. He is in us, dwells in us together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, John 14 [:17]. In the second epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 6 [:16]. Therefore it does not follow that he is to be worshipped in us, therefore he is to be worshipped where he has declared himself to be worshipped and how he has declared himself to be worshipped in the Word.
Then there are two different questions: 1. Whether Christ is to be worshipped in the sacrament? We say: Yes. 2. Whether the sacrament is to be adored? Here we say: No. Christ is invoked in the use of Holy Communion to make us worthy to receive his body and blood fruitfully and to proclaim his death. But the sacrament, which contains not only the body and blood of Christ, but also bread and wine, cannot and should not be worshipped.
But since the body of Christ is united with the bread, why should we not also worship the bread with the body?
Precisely because God, Christ, did not order and command it in this way. If the Holy Spirit was not truly, actually united with the dove, why was it not permitted to worship the dove with the Holy Spirit? The union is to be taken no further than Christ himself has commanded, who meant it for enjoyment and not for worship. That the bread should be sacramentally united with the body of Jesus Christ is not contrary to God's Word or some articles of faith, but that the bread should be worshipped is contrary to God's Word and our faith. We believe in God and not in bread, therefore we call on our God and not on bread.
Can you give another reason to prove that one is not guilty of adoring the sacrament, even though Christ is present there with his body and blood?
Yes, and this is a reason that our adversaries cannot overturn. In the sacrament of Holy Baptism, the whole Holy Trinity is present in the water, for it is not an evil water, but a holy water in use, a divine water. Nevertheless, the sacrament of baptism is not worshipped. God, the Holy Trinity, who is present at baptism, is indeed worshipped, but not baptism itself. So it is the same with this sacrament. Christ Jesus, who is present in the Holy Supper with his body and blood, we worship, but not the Supper itself; for just as in the sacrament of Baptism there is something more than God, namely the Word and water, which are not worshipped, so also in the Holy Supper there is not only the body and blood of Christ, but the words and the earthly elements, as bread and wine, which we are not commanded to worship either in the use of the sacrament or apart from its use. It therefore follows irrefutably that our opponents are truly committing idolatry when they worship the sacrament, for it is eternally certain that not only the body and blood, but also the bread and wine are in the sacrament.
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