At the Supper, too, so he complains, owing to the want of proper discrimination between the converted and unconverted, “a false security of conscience is aroused, whereby people are led away from true repentance; for they teach that it is a source of grace, indulgence, ablution of sin, and salvation, whereas it is plain that no one receives anything of the kind.”[587] In his view it is not right to say that the Supper leads man to reconciliation with God by enlivening his faith, and that even that man “who is full of sin or has a bad conscience gnawed and bitten by his sins” should receive it, as the preachers teach;[588] on the contrary, only those who are reconciled have the right to approach. “Not the man who wants to be holy [the unjustified], but he who has already been hallowed by Christ, is fit for the Supper.”[589] From the standpoint of his own peculiar doctrine he characterises it as a downright error on Luther’s part to have “put Justification even into the Sacrament”—Schwenckfeld himself had thrown all the sacraments overboard.—He also reproaches Luther with teaching, that: “Forgiveness of sins, which is only to be found in Christ as ruler, is to be sought in the Sacrament.”[590] Now, Schwenckfeld was far from advising people to forsake the official Church; he did not recommend that the church service and its ceremonies and sermons should be shunned, he feared lest such advice might play into the hands of the Anabaptists. He recommends as necessary an “external practice of godliness.”[591] Yet, according to him, this was more readily carried out in private conventicles, i.e. in some sort of congregation apart of the true believers such as Luther himself had long dreamt of, and in conversation with Schwenckfeld, in 1525, regretted his inability to establish owing to the fewness of true Christians. (Above, p. 138 f.) Luther in the meantime had become reconciled to the outer, Popular, Church, and, with his preachers’ help, had made of the outward Word a law. The imperious behaviour of Luther and the preachers in the matter of the outward Word was, however, odious to Schwenckfeld. He protested strongly against being tied down to professions of faith liable at any moment to be rendered obsolete by new discoveries in Scripture truth.[592] Interest in things Divine was regarded as a privilege of the pastor’s office and the layman was kept in ignorance on the ground, that “one must believe blindly.”[593] Luther “is setting up a new tyranny, and wishes to tie men to his doctrine.”[594] CHAPTER XXX LUTHER AT THE ZENITH OF HIS LIFE AND SUCCESS, FROM 1540 ONWARDS. APPREHENSIONS AND PRECAUTIONS 1. The Great Victories of 1540-1544.