very fairly to give up the question and surrender the cause for he owns it is not properly propitiatory and gives a very good reason for it because Christ in his immortal state cannot merit or satisfie or be a true propitiation for us the Bishop of Meaux was aware of this and therefore he makes Christs presence upon the Altar to be not a propitiation but a powerful Intercession before God for all mankind according to the saying of the Apostle that Jesus Christ presents himself and appears for us before the face of God Heb. 9.24 So that Christ being present upon the holy Table under this figure of death intercedes for us and represents continually to his Father that death which he has suffered for his Church †Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholick Church But how comes this Intercession of Christ to be upon Earth Is it not to be in heaven and is not Christ there to appear in the presence of God for us Is not Christ entered into the heavens for that purpose as the High Priest went into the Holy of Holies with the blood of the great sacrifice of Atonement after that was offered upon the Altar Does not the Apostle thus represent it in that place in allusion and with relation to that Jewish Oeconomy and could any but Monsieur de Meaux have brought that place to show that Christ intercedes for us by being present upon the Altar when the Apostles discourse is as directly contrary to that as can be and makes him to appear only in Heaven or in the presence of God for us and there present himself and his sacrifice to God as the Jewish High Priest carried the blood of the Anniversary sacrifice of Expiation into the Holy of Holies and there sprinkled it before the Mercy-seat Christ is not entred into the holy place made with hands which are the figures of the true but into Heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us Christ therefore making Intercession for us only in heaven and propitiation only upon the Cross how the sacrifice of the Mass should be either Intercessory which is a new way of de Meaux's or propitiatory as the Council of Trent has determined it I cannot understand Some of them tell us it is propitiatory only relatively and by application as it relates and applyes to us the propitiatory vertue of the sacrifice of the Cross but this it may do as a Sacrament and then it is not propitiatory in it self for sins for punishments and for satisfactions as the Council declares it and as propitiatory sacrifices used to be which were in themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 satisfactory payments and prices for sins and for the punishments due to them Bellarmin having owned it not to be properly propitiatory he says * Cum autem dicitur propitiatorium vel satisfactorium id est intelligendum ratione rei quae impetratur dicitur enim propitiatorium quia impetrat remissionem culpae satisfactorium quia impetrat remissionem poenae Bellarm. de Miss l. 2. c. 4. C. When it is called propitiatory or satisfactory this is to be understood by reason of the thing which is impetrated by it for it is said to be Propitiatory because it impetrates Remission of sin Satisfactory because it impetrates Remission of punishment But thus our Prayers may be said to be propitiatory because by them we beg and obtain Mercy and Pardon at the hands of God but a propitiatory sacrifice is to do this not only by way of petition and impetration but by way of price and payment and satisfaction so that after all this improper sacrifice of the Mass is but very improperly propitiatory and when they come closely to consider it they are forced to confess so and cannot tell how to make out their Councils Doctrine that 't is truly propitiatory for sins and for punishments 5. Let us consider next how it is impetratory if they mean only that it is so upon the account of those Prayers which are there made and which are more efficacious in that solemn office of Religion as the Eucharist has relation to the Cross and the sacrifice of Christ upon it which is the foundation of all our Prayers and by vertue of which we hope to have them heard and answered by God so in that solemn Religious and express memorial of it we may suppose them to have a greater vertue and efficacy if this be all they mean who will deny it and why may not this be without the Eucharist's being a sacrifice 't is only Christs sacrifice and offering upon the Cross that gives vertue and power to our prayers at that time when we are devoutly celebrating the remembrance of it and 't is not any offering of him up then any otherwise then by Faith and the inward devotion of our Mind that makes our prayers the more powerful either for our selves or others We are to make Prayers and Supplications for all men and for theirs and our own wants and necessities in this solemn and publick office of our Religion and so did the first Christians pray then for Kings and all that were in Authority as the Apostle commands and as we find they did at large in St. Cyril * Catech. Mystag 5. and the Apostolick Constitutions †l. 8. c. 12. and it was in the Sacrament they used their Litanies or general Supplications for all men and for all things as is evident beyond all dispute from those places where they prayed not only for the Church and the Bishops Presbyters and Deacons and all the faithful but for the King or the Emperor where they lived for the City and all its inhabitants for the sick for the Captives and banished for all that Travelled by Sea or by Land and so for all things for the peace of the Church and for the quiet of the Empire and for all temporal mercies as well as spiritual for the fruits of the Earth and for the temperature of the Air and for all things they stood in need of Now they did not think the Eucharist did as a sacrifice impetrate all this or as a real instead of a verbal prayer as Bellarmine represents it to be * Ipsa enim oblatio tacita quaedam sed officacissima est invocatio Bellarm. de Miss l. 2. c. 8. B. but they made particular and express prayers for these in the Eucharist and did not think that was to supply the place of prayer or be a prayer in action or in dumb signs instead of words neither did the primitive Church ever say a Mass for to quench a fire or stay an Earthquake much less to cure the Murrain in Cattle or to recover a Sheep or a Cow or Horse when they were sick as is scandalously and shamefully done by those who ascribe such an impetratory power to it that it shall do the work in all cases 6. To make it a sacrifice truly propitiatory in its
of a Debtor that he owed a great summ which he had no way fully to pay off and discharge but he raised and brought what he could and so owned the Debt and that he had not where withal to take it quite off nor to make that solution and satisfaction which was necessary But such was the value of the sacrifice of Christ that it was a perfect price and payment and made full satisfaction at once so that By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified chap. 10. verse 14. and made such full atonement and expiation by that that there is no more need nor remains no more sacrifice for sins but this man after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever sat down on the right hand of God verse 12. as having fully done the work of a priest upon Earth and having no need to offer any furt her sacrifice nor yet that he should offer himself often as the high priest entreth into the holy place every year with blood of others chap. 9. 25. For then must he often have suffered since the soundation of the world but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself verse 26. and Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many verse 28. And we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all chap. 10. verse 10. So that Christ our high priest needeth not dayly as those high priests to offer up sacrifice first for himself and then for the people For this he did once when he offered up himself chap. 7. ver 27. Nothing can be said plainer against the sacrifice of the Mass wherein Christ is often offered and that as properly and truly they pretend as the Jewish sacrifices were or as he was upon the Cross when it is here so much insisted upon that Christs sacrifice was but once offered whereas those under the Law were often and this made an argument of their weakness and imperfection and of the full vertue and value of the other Must it not appear very strange after this that it should be made the great part of some mens Religion to repeat the same sacrifice of Christ every day and to offer him up again every day upon the Altar as truly as the Jews offered their sacrifices day by day continually and as he once offered up himself upon the Cross and to make this dayly sacrifice of him in the Mass have as true a vertue to propitiate God and expiate sins as the other had and to be every way as true proper a sacrifice as the other I need not labour much to show how contrary this is to this discourse of the Authour to the Hebrews and to the true scope and design of it it appears so evidently to be so that our Adversaries are put to the greatest streights and difficulties imaginable to make themselves think otherwise and to reconcile what the Apostle here says of the sacrifice of Christ with what their Church says of the sacrifice of the Mass and that they are perfectly inconsistent notwithstanding all their pretences and evasions I shall make appear by what follows First then They tell us that their sacrifice of the Mass is but the very same with the sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross and so it does not at all take off from the vertue of that or suppose that to be imperfect since this is no other nor no new sacrifice but only the same both in nature and vertue with that if it were another sacrifice indeed or were supposed to have a distinct vertue and efficacy from that of the Cross it might reflect upon that and be injurious to it but since they declare it to be the same they do not conceive how it is any way so But the Apostles discourse for it is probable an Apostle was Authour of this Epistle in the forementioned places is about repeating the same sacrifices and offering them up year by year continually and from hence he grounds the imperfection of them and that they could not make the comers thereunto perfect chap. 10. v. 1. These sacrifices indeed were many and of several sorts which they offered but they still offered them up again and again both dayly and yearly and it was their often offering of them as well as their multitude which the Apostle reflects upon their dayly ministring and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices chap. 10. verse 11. whereas Christ by one sacrifice and that once offered chap. 9. verse 28. did fully put away sin so that had the same sacrifice of Christ been often offered as the same sacrifices of the Jews were it had upon that account been liable to the same charge of imperfection for if by one offering it had for ever perfected them that are sanctified and had obtained perfect and plenary Remission of sins and had done the whole work and had the whole effect of all that sacrifices were intended for then what need it be any further offered the offering up the same sacrifice and continuing daily to offer it shows that it was not sufficient nor did do the business at once offering as the frequent using the same medicine shows that it has not fully cured the wound nor yet perfectly done its work Secondly The sacrifice of the Mass they say is only to apply the vertue and merit of the sacrifice of the Cross for though the sacrifice of the Cross like a powerful medicament have sufficient vertue in it yet what does that signifie unless it be applyed to us which it is by the sacrifice of the Mass But is there not another way to apply that to us Is it not applied to us by Faith and by the common means of Christs own institution the Christian Sacraments and especially by the Worthy Receiving of the Lords Supper wherein as the Apostle says The cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ and the bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ 1 Cor. 10.16 We do hereby communicate and are made partakers of Christs Body as it was sacrificed for us that is of all the vertues and benefits of his sacrifice by being as the Apostle adds verse 17. Made partakers of that One bread that is surely by eating it sacramentally and religiously as Christ has appointed for it would sound very hard and be a very odd expression to say we are partakers of that one bread by the sacrificing or offering up of that bread when they will not own that the bread is sacrificed or if it were could we well be thereby partakers of it but 't is the eating of that bread which makes us partakers of it and 't is the eating Christs Body and drinking his Blood in the blessed Sacrament that communicates and applies the vertue of his sacrifice of the Cross to us and not the sacrificing
account of those offerings and oblations that were made there 2. The Eucharist is called a sacrifice by the Ancients upon the account of those religious Acts and Pious Exercises which are there performed by the devout Communicants and which are called sacrifices both in Scripture and in the Fathers thus our Prayers may be as well a morning as an evening sacrifice Ps 141.2 And therefore as Irenaeus says speaking of the Eucharist God would have us continually offer a gift at his Altar to wit our Prayers and Oblations which are directed to the heavenly Altar †Vult nos quoque sine intermissione offerre munus ad altare est ergo altare in coelis illue enim preces oblationes nostrae diriguntur Iren. l. 4. advers Haeres c. 33. though they are made at the Earthly So our Praises and Thanksgivings which are then raised to the highest pitch when we have the greatest instance of the Divine Love offered to our minds are that sacrifice which we are then to offer to God giving thanks to his name Heb. 13.15 Namely for that Miracle of kindness Christ dying for us from which the Eucharist has its name and for which reason it is oalled a sacrifice of Praise in the Ordo Romanus †Memento Domine famulorum famularumque tuarum omnium circumadstantium quorum tibi fides cognita est nota devotio qui tibi offerunt hoc sacrificium laudis pro se suisque omnibus pro Redemptione animarum suaerum pro spo salutis c. tibique reddunt vota sua Ordo Romanus p. 62. viz. for our Redemption and hope of Salvation and also for those vows which we then render unto God when we present our bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God Rom. 12.1 as the Apostle speaks and as St. Austin expresses it the Church is then offered to God and is made one body in Christ when we are made to drink into one Spirit 1 Cor. 12.13 and this is the sacrifice of Christians (b) Hoc est sacrificium Christianorum multi unum corpus sumus in Christo quod etiam sacramento altaris fidelibus noto frequentat Ecclesia uhi ei demonstratur quod in eâ oblatione quam offert ipsa offeratur August Civitate Dei l. 10. c. 6. not only a sacrifice of Praise as 't is called by Eusebius (c) Demonstrat l. 1. c. 10. St. Basil (d) Liturg. St. Austin (e) Ad Pet. Diac. c. 9. and other Fathers whereby we offer up unto God the calves of our lips in the Scripture phrase but wherein we offer and present unto God our selves our souls and bodies to be a reasonable holy and lively sacrifice unto him and though we are unworthy to offer unto him any sacrifice yet beseech him to accept this our bounden duty and service according to the Prayer of our Church in its excellent office of the Communion Melchior Canus in his Defence of the sacrifice of the Mass has unawares confest this Truth That Christ did only offer up at his last Supper a sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving For to give thanks says he after the Jewish manner and take the Cup into his hands and lift it up is truly to offer a sacrifice of Thanksgiving When Christ therefore said Do this he plainly commanded his Apostles that what they saw him do they should do also by offering up a sacrifice of Eucharist that is of giving of Thanks (f) Ritu quippe Judaico gratias agere calicem in manibus accipiendo levando vere est hostiam gratiarum actionis offerre Quùm itaque dixit Dominus hoc facite planè jussit Apostolis ut quod ipsum facere cernebant id quoque illi facerent Eucharistiae hoc est gratiarum actionis hostiam exhlbendo Canus in locis Theolog. l. 12. p. 806. and he expresly speaks against Christs offering up a Mass-sacrifice for sin then when the day of the bloody sacrifice was now near and the very hour approaching and when their general sacrifice was nigh by which it pleased the Father to forgive all sins (g) Christum in caenâ sacrificium non pro peccato quidem sed gratiacum tamen actionis obtulisse quod cum sacrificii cruenti dies instaret jam planè aut certè jam appropinquaret hora non oportibat hostiam in caenâ pro peccato Mysticam exhibere cum impenderet generalis hostia illa in quâ Patri complacuit omnia peccata resolvi Ib. p. 834. which is to make the Eucharist what we are willing to own it a sacrifice of Thanksgiving and is in a few words to cut the very throat of their Cause as to this Controversie 3. The Eucharist is called a sacrifice as it is both a Commemoration and a Representation of Christs sacrifice upon the Cross so 't is a commemorative and representative sacrifice as we call that a bloody Tragedy which only represents a Murder and we give the name of the thing to that which is but the resemblance and likeness of it The Jews called that the Passover which was but a memorial of it and the Apostle says we are buryed with Christ in Baptism and rise with him Col. 2.12 when those are but remotely signified thus Christ is immolated and sacrificed in the Eucharist as St. Austin speaks when according to the Glosse upon his words his immolation is represented and there is made a memorial of his passion (a) Christus Immolatur i. e. Christi immolatio repraesentatur sit memoria Passionis de Consec Dist 2. Christ says he was but once offered and yet in the Sacrament he is dayly immolated neither does he lye who says Christ is immolated for if Sacruments had not the likeness of those things whereof they are sacraments they would be no sacraments at all but from this likeness they received the names of the things themselves (b) Nonne Christus semel oblatus est tamen in Sacramento quotidie populis immolatur nec mentitur qui dicit Christum immolari si enim sacramenta non haberent similitudinem earum rerum quarum sunt sacramenta nullo modo essent sacramenta sed ex similitudine saepe nomina earum accipiunt August Ep. 120. ad Honorat Thus as he there gives several instances wherein that which is the memorial of a thing does for its similitude to that thing of which it is a memorial receive its name When Easter approcheth we say to morrow or next day is the passion of Christ and on the Lords day we say this day Christ arose when Christs passion was but once and that several years ago and that day is said to be Christs Resurrection which yet it is not (c) Illud quod alicujus memoriale est propter similitudinem saepe ejus rei cujus memoriale est nomen accipiat ut appropinquante Paschate dicimus cras aut perendie est passio Christi cumsemel tantum ante multos annos
Blood and it is plain they were not those by what follows Vpon which vouchsafe to look with a propitious and kind countenance and to accept of them as thou didst accept the gifts of thy righteous child Abel and the sacrifice of our Patriarch Abraham and that which Melchisedec thy High Priest offered to thee an Holy Sacrifice an immaculate Host. Now to compare Christs very Body and Blood with the sacrifices of Abel Abraham and Melchisedec and to desire God to look upon his own Son in whom he was always well pleased with a propitious and kind Countenance is very strange and uncouth to say no worse of it and to desire according to what follows that God would command these to be carried by the hands of his holy Angel into thy sublime Altar in the presence of thy Divine Majesty These cannot be meant or understood of Christs natural Body and Blood which is already in heaven and is there to appear in the presence of God for us as Menardus expresly owns in his notes upon this prayer in Gregories Sacramentary †Jube haec perferri non Christi carpus sed memoriam passionis sidem preces veta sideliam Menardi notae observat in lib. Sacrament Gregorn Papae p. 19. and if so as we have the confession of the most Learned Ritualist of their own Church then there is nothing at all in the Canon of the Mass that does truly belong to these or that does any way express or come up to the new Tridentine Doctrine of the sacrifice of the Mass so that we need go no further then their own office to show the Novelty of this and as in other things namely in their prayers to Saints they are forced to use very gentle and softning interpretations to make the words signifie otherwise then what they do in their proper and literal meaning so here they must put a more strong and hard sense upon them then they will really bear or was at first intended to make them speak the new meaning of the Mass-sacrifice so that they must here contrive a way to raise the sense of the Church as they do in other cases to let it down or else their Prayers and their Doctrines will never be brought to suit well together The commemoration for the dead has nothing in it but a meer Remembrance and a Prayer that God would give to them a place of refreshment light and peace through Jesus Christ our Lord not through the merit or vertue of that sacrifice which is then offered there is not the least mention or intimation of any such thing nor any expression that looks that way The Priest indeed a little before he communicates prays Christ to deliver him from all his sins and from all evils by this his most sacred Body and Blood which he may do without its being a sacrifice and I know no Protestant would scruple the joining in such a petition There is a prayer indeed deed at the last by the Priest to the Holy Trinity that the sacrifice which he has unworthily offered to the eyes of the Divine Majesty may be acceptable to it and through its mercy be propitiable for himself and for those for which he has offered it and this seems the fullest and the most to the purpose of the Mass-sacrifice and yet it may very fairly be understood in a sound sense without any such thing as 't is a sacrifice of prayer and as God is thereby rendred merciful and propitious both to our selves and others but it is to be observed that this prayer is not in the old Ordo Romanus where the others are nor in the Gelasian or Gregorian Missal nor in any other ancient one put out by Thomasius Menardus Pamelius Cardinal Bona or Mabillon but was I suppose added of later days to those old Forms Fifthly The new Addition to the form of Ordination in the Roman Church whereby * Accipe potestatem offerre sacrificium Deo Missasque celebrare tam pro vivis quam pro mortuis power is given to the Priest to offer sacrifice to God and to celebrate Masses both for the dead and living this discovers the novelty of their Doctrine of the sacrifice of the Mass for there was no such form of Ordination in the primitive Church nor is there any such thing mentioned in any Latin or Greek Ordinale for near a thousand years after Christ The most antient account of the manner of Ordaining is in the fourth Council of Carthage where there is nothing else but †Presbyter cum Ordinatur Epâ—scapo cum benedicente manum super caput ejus tenente etiam â—â—nes Presoyteri qui praesentes sunt manus suas juxta manum Episcopi super caput illius tenent Canon 3. Concil Carthag the Episcopal Benediction and Imposition of hands by the Bishop and all the Priests In the Apostolic Constitutions there is a pretty long prayer of the Bishops over the Priest who is to be Ordained †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Constirut Apostol de Ordinat Presbyt l. 8. c. 16. that God would look upon his servant chosen into the Presbytery by the vote and judgment of all the Clergy and fill him with the spirit of Grace and Wisdom to help and govern the people with a pure heart that he may be silled with healing operations and instructive discourse and may teach the people with all meekness and may serve God sincerely with a pure understanding and a willing Soul and may perform the sacred and pure Offices for the people through Jesus Christ And this with laying on of hands is all the Form of Ordination which is so anciently prescribed St. Denis who is falsly called the Areopagite but was a Writer probably of the fifth Century before the Council of Calcedon he has acquainted us with much the like manner of Ordination in that time * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dionys Hierarch Eccles c. 5. The Priest kneeling before the Altar with the Holy Bible and the Bishops hand over his head was consecrated with holy Prayers Only there was then added the sign of the cross and the kiss of peace but no such thing as the receiving of power to offer sacrifice and to celebrate Masses for the living and the dead This was a thing unheard of in the ancient Church either Greek or Latin neither was it brought into the Latin till about the year 1000 as is confest by Morinus * de sacris Ordinat pars 3. c. 6. nor is it to this day used in the Greek In that age of Ignorance and Superstition when Transubstantiation and a great many other Errors and Corruptions crept into the Latin Church this new Form of Ordination was set up and the Priests had a new power given them and a new work put upon them which was to sacrifice and say Masses for the quick and dead which had it been agreeable to the Doctrine of the Primitive Church and had