n fares like those who make
several persons rich by their testament, and these persons never
think of them, nor praise or thank them. So our masses at present
are merely celebrated, without our knowing why or wherefore, and
consequently we neither give thanks nor love nor praise, remain
parched and hard, and have enough with our little prayer. Of this
more another time.

[Sidenote: The Sermon]

III. The sermon ought to be nothing else than the proclamation of
this testament. But who can hear it if no one preaches it? [Rom.
10:14] Now, they who ought to preach it, themselves do not know
it. This is why the sermons ramble off into other unprofitable
stories,[26] and thus Christ is forgotten, while we fare like the
man in II. Kings vii: we see our riches but do not enjoy them. [2
Kings 7:19] Of which the Preacher also says, "This is a great
evil, when God giveth a man riches, and giveth him not power to
enjoy them." [Eccles. 6:2] So we look on at unnumbered masses and
do not know whether the mass be a testament, or what it be, just
as if it were any other common good work by itself. O God, how
exceeding blind we are! But where this is rightly preached, it is
necessary that it be diligently heard, grasped, retained, often
thought of, and that the faith be thus strengthened against all
the temptation of sin, whether past, or present, or to come.

Lo! this is the only ceremony or practice which Christ has
instituted, in which His Christians shall assemble, exercise
themselves and keep it with one accord; and this He did not make
to be a mere work like other ceremonies, but placed into it a
rich, exceeding great treasure, to be offered and bestowed upon
all who believe on it.

This preaching should induce sinners to grieve over their sins,
and should kindle in them a longing for the treasure. It must,
therefore, be a grievous sin not to hear the Gospel, and to
despise such a treasure and so rich a feast to which we are
bidden; but a much greater sin to preach the Gospel, and to let
so many people who would gladly hear it perish, since Christ has
so strictly commanded that the Gospel and this testament be
preached, that He does not wish even the mass to be celebrated,
unless the Gospel be preached, as He says: "As oft as ye do this,
remember me"; that is, as St. Paul says, "Ye shall preach of His
death." [1 Cor. 11:26] For this reason it is dreadful and
horrible in our times to be a bishop, pastor and preacher; for no
o