uncivilized nations from acts flowing from the light of nature such as he makes the use of Sacrificing to be unlesse withall he will exclude them from the use of reason And surely were the use of Sacrifices grounded upon the light of nature not upon Divine precept I do not see why the Jews should be tyed to offer them onely at Ierusalem nor yet why the Mahometans who farre exceed the Christians in number and in civility are little inferiour to many of them should use no Sacrifice at all Lastly for the Grecians Romans and other nations who used Sacrifices as the principall act of their religion it may well be that they borrowed it from the Church of God by an apish imitation or that they received by tradition from their predecessors who were sometimes of the Church of God which are the conjectures of the Doctor himself either of which might serve without deriving it from the light of nature CHAP. III. Of the institution of the Eucharist whether it imply a Sacrifice and of the Altar mentioned by St Paul Hebrews 13. THe Doctor bears us in hand that our Saviour instituted a Sacrifice perpetually to remain in his Church and a new Priesthood properly so called when he ordained the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and to this purpose he brings the words of Irenaeus Novi Testamenti novam docuit oblatâ—onem But that Irenaeus intended not a Sacrifice properly so called the learned Zanchius in his first Book de cultu Dei externo hath made it as clear as the noon-day and to him I referre both the Doctor and the Reader who desires satisfaction therein From the testimony of Irenaeus the Doctor comes to the words of institution recorded by Saint Paul 1 Cor. 11. And indeed here should in all likelyhood have been the place to lay the foundation for a new Sacrifice and Priesthood if any such properly so called had been intended by our Saviour under the Gospell but neither there nor in the Evangelists do we finde any mention at all of either of these which the Doctor perceiving well enough goes on from the words of institution Vers 23 24 25. and tels us that if they expresse not plain enough the nature of this Sacrifice to be commemorative we may take those that follow by way of commentary Vers 26. For as often as ye cate this bread and drink this cup ye do shew the Lords death till he come Which words are doubtlesse directed to all the faithfull in the Church of Corinth and in them to all Christians so as the Doctor will be forced either to prove his Sacrificing from eating and drinking and withall to admit all Christians to do Sacrifice against both which in the same leaf he solemnly protests or to seek out some other place to prove it But for the Priesthood he pretends to have found that in the words of our Saviour Hoc faite for the Apostles saith he and their Successours in the Priesthood there is an edite and bibite as private men of no orders in the Church but there is an Hoc facite belonging to them onely as they are Priests under and of the Gospell Hoc faecite is for the Priest who hath power to consecrate Hoc edite both for the Priest and people who are admitted to communicate And again within a while after The people being prepared may edere and bibere but they must not facere that belongs onely to the Priests who claim that power from the Apostles on them conferred by their redeemer Thus he as if facere and Sacrificare were all one which indeed some of the Romanists endeavour to prove but so vainly so ridiculously so injuriously to the text as my Lord of Duresme hath learnedly shewed as it appears to be a foundation too sandy to lay such a building upon it But will the Doctor be pleased to hear Bishop Iewells opinion of these words whom he seemeth in some places to reverence That incomparable Bishop then in his defence of his 17â—h Article thus writes thereof Neither did Christ by these words Do ye this in remembrance of me erect any new succession of Sacrificers to offer him up really unto his Father nor ever did any ancient learned Father so expound it Christs meaning is clear by the words that follow for he saith not onely do ye this but he addeth also in my remembrance which doing pertaineth not onely to the Apostles and their Successors as Mr Harding imagineth but to the whole congregation of Corinth As often as ye shall eat this bread and drink this cup ye shew forth the Lords death untill he come Likewise Saint Chrysostome saith he applyeth the same not onely to the Clergy but also to the whole people of his Church at Antioch And truely I think this Doctor is the first of the reformed Churches that ever restrained those words of our Saviour to the Clergy alone or grounded the Priesthood upon them Nay the Romanists themselves finde this ground to be so feeble as by the evidence of truth it self they are beaten from it and even forced to forsake it Iansenius Bishop of Gant in his Commentaries on the Gospels Cap. 131. Sunt qui Sacramentum illud esse Sacrificium ostendere conantur ex verbo Facite quia illud aliquando accipitur pro Sacrificare at hoc argumentum parum est firmum Alanas Cardinalis lib. de Eucharistia c. 10. p. 255. Hoc facite pertinet ad totam actionem Eucharisticam à Christo factam tam a Presbyteris quam à plebe faciendam Hoc probat ex Cyril lib. 12. in Ioh. ca. 58. ex Basilio lib. regularum moralium regul. 21. cap. 3. Maldonatus l. 7. de Sacram. tom. 1. part 3. de Eucharistia Non quod contendam illud verbum facere illo loco sign ficare idem quod Sacrificare Estius Comment in 2. ad Cor. 11. v. 24. Non quod verbum facere sit idem quod Sacrificare quomodo nonnulli interpretati sunt praeter mentem Scripturae And howsoever Bellarmine where it makes for his purpose come in with his certum est It is certain that upon the word Facite is grounded the Priesthood and power of Sacrificing yet in another place when it made not so much for his purpose he tels us another tale Videtur sententia Iohannis à Lovanio valde probabilis qui docet verba domini apud Lucam ad omnia referri id est ad id quod fecit Christus id quod fecerunt Apostoli ut sensus sit Id quod nunc agimus ego dum consecro porrigo vos dum accipitis comeditis frequentate deinceps usque ad mundi consummationem And within a while after Paulum autem idem Author docet potissimum referre ad actionem discipulorum id quod ex verbis sequentibus colligitur Quotiescunque enim manducabitis panem hunc calicem bibetis mortem domini annuntiabetis Thus farre the words
must be reiterated it cannot be now reiteration it is which makes it a Sacrifice properly so called not a bare commemoration or representation as hath already been shewed And besides the Doctor might have found another Article touching the Supper of the Lord where it is called a Sacrament of our redemption by Christs death but of any Sacrifice not a word though there had been the proper place to have spoken of it had our Church conceived that any such had been properly so termed but on the other side Transubstantiation is there condemned as being repugnant to Scriptures overthrowing the nature of a Sacrament giving occasion to many superstitions yet how a Sacrifice of the body and bloud of Christ properly so termed can be admitted without the admission of Transubstantiation together with it I must confesse for mine own part I am yet to seek and shall be willing to learn from any that can farther instruct me But the Doctor reposing little confidence it should seem in the Articles refers us to the Homilies to them let us go and truely if I be not much mistaken he will finde as little help from these as from the Articles That which he alleageth is taken from the first words of the Homily Sacrament the words are as followeth The great love of our Saviour Christ to mankinde doth not onely appear in that dear bought benefit of our redemption and satisfaction by his death and passion but also that he hath kindly provided that the same most mercifull work might be had in continuall remembrance amongst the which means is the publike celebration of the memory of his pretious death at the Lords Table our Saviour having ordained and established the remembrance of his great mercy expressed in his passion in the institution of his heavenly Supper Here saith the Doctor is a commemoration of that blessed Sacrifice which Christ once offred a publike celebration of the memory thereof and a continuall remembrance of it by himself ordained Yea but that which the Doctor from these words picked here and there in the Homily should have inferred and concluded is a Sacrifice in it self properly so called not a memory a remembrance a commemoration of a Sacrifice And besides he who attentively reads that part of the Homily will easily finde that it there speaks of the commemoration thereof not so much by the Priest as by the People neither doth it so much as once name any Sacrifice at all save onely in disavowing and disallowing it as may be seen in the Page there following part wherof the Doctor taketh for his own purpose as namely That the Lords Supper is in such sort to be done and Ministred as our Lord and Saviour did and commanded it to be done as his holy Apostles used it and the good Fathers in the primitive Church frequented it So that saith he what ever hath been proved to be the purpose of institution the practise of the holy Apostles and usage of the ancient Fathers will fall within the meaning and intention of the Church of England Doubtlesse it will but that a Sacrifice properly so called hath been proved to be either the purpose of the institution or the practise of the Apostles or the usage of the ancient Fathers that I utterly deny And surely it should seem that the Church of England denies it too by the words there following within a few lines We must take heed saith the Homily least of the memory it be made a Sacrifice least of a Communion it be made a private eating least of two parts we have but one least applying it to the dead we loose the fruit that be alive Let us rather in these matters follow the advice of Cyprian in like cases that is cleave fast to the first beginning hold fast the Lords tradition do that in the Lords Commemoration which he himself did he himself commanded and his Apostles confirmed Whereby it should seem they held the purpose of our Saviours institution and the practise of his Apostles to have been not a Sacrifice properly so termed but onely a Commemoration of his death and passion And this to have been indeed their meaning farther appears toward the latter end of the same part of the Homily where speaking of the death of Christ and the efficacy thereof to the worthy Receiver they thus go on Herein thou needst no other mans help no other Sacrifice or oblation no Sacrificing Priest no Masse no means established by mans invention By which it is evident that they held all other Sacrifices beside that of Christ himself on the Crosse and all other Sacrificing Priests beside Christ himself to be established by mans invention and how the Doctor professing that he offers up a Sacrifice properly so called can possibly free himself from the title and office of a Sacrificing Priest I must professe is beyond the compasse of my brain All which considered I think his safer way had been not to have touched upon the Homily specially considering that the Lords Table is there named above or about twenty times but is not so much as once called an Altar But perchance he will finde some better help from the Liturgy which comes now to be examined We will next saith he look into the agenda the publike Liturgy of this Church where first we finde it granted that Christ our Saviour is the very Paschall Lamb that was offred for us and hath taken away the sinnes of the world that suffering death upon the crosse for our redemption he made there of his own oblation of himself once offred a full perfect and sufficient Sacrifice oblation and satisfaction for the sinnes of the whole world and to the end that we should alwayes remember the exceeding great love of our Master and onely Saviour Jesus Christ thus dying for us and the innumerable benefits which by his pretious bloudshedding he hath obtained to us he hath instituted and ordained holy Mysteries as pledges of his love and continuall remembrance of his death to our great and endlesse comfort instituting and in his holy Gospel commanding us to continue a perpetuall memory of that his pretious death till his coming again In which words I do not see what it is that makes for the Doctors purpose but somewhat I see which makes against him as namely The Sacrifice of Christ upon the Crosse is full perfect and sufficient in it self which being so surely there needs no more Sacrifices no more Priests no more Altars properly so called And for the memory or remembrance there mentioned if I be not much mistaken he will never be able thence to inferre such a Sacrifice and surely I think the Church never intended he should In the next place he instanceth in the consecration Then followeth saith he the consecration of the Creatures of Bread and Wine for a remembrance of his death and Passion in the same words and phrases which Christ our Saviour recommended unto his Apostles and his Apostles
unto the Fathers of the Primitive times which now as then is to be done onely by the Priest Then the Priest standing up shall say as followeth to whom it properly belongeth and upon whom his ordination doth conferre a power of ministring the Sâ—crament not given to any other order in the holy Ministry Had the Book said Then shall the Priest stand up and offer Sacrifice it had been to the Doctors purpose but then shall the Priest stand up and say makes little for him unlesse he had been injoyned to say somewhat which had implyed a Sacrifice which I do not yet finde words indeed of consecration I finde and those proper to the Priest but any words of Sacrificing in that act I finde not yet had our Church conceived that to have been a Sacrifice there indeed had been the proper place to have expressed her self That the ordination appointed by our Church conferreth upon the person so ordained a power of ministring the Sacrament not given to any order in the Ministry I shall easily grant but that his ordination giveth him not any power of Sacrificing which is the point in question hath already out of the form it self established by authority been clearly shewed From the words of consecration the Doctor goes on to the prayer after the Communion and here indeed he findes a Sacrifice but such a one as all things considered he hath very little reason to triumph therein The memory or Commemoration of Christs death saith he thus celebrated is called a Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving a Sacrifice representative of that one and onely expiatory Sacrifice which Christ once offred for us all the whole Communicants beseeching God to grant that by the merits and death of his Sonne Jesus Christ and through faith in his bloud they and the whole Church may obtain remission of their sinnes and all other benefits of his Passion Neither stay they there saith he but forthwith offer and present unto the Lord themselves their soules and bodies to be a reasonable holy and lively Sacrifice unto him And howsoever as they most humbly do acknowledge they are unworthy through their manifold sinnes to offer to him any Sacrifice yet they beseech him to accept that their bounden duety and service In which last words that present service which they do to Almighty God according to their bounden duties in celebrating the perpetuall memory of Christs pretious death and the oblation of themselves and with themselves the Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving in due acknowledgement of the benefits and comforts by him received is humbly offred unto God for and as a Sacrifice and publikely avowed for such as from the tenour and coherence of the words doth appear most plainly Hitherto the Doctor as if now he had spoken home and full to the point indeed whereas if we take a review of that which hath been said we shall soon finde it to vanish into smoak That prayer then afâ—er the Communion beginning in this manner O Lord and heavenly Father we thy humble servants entirely desire thy fatherly goodnesse mercifully to accept this our Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving I would demand of the Doctor first of what kind this Sacrifice of thanksgiving is and then by whom it is offred for mine own part I never heard that the Eucharisticall Sacrifice of Christians was other then spirituall improperly termed a Sacrifice and I presume the Doctor himself will not stick to grant as much as he doth that the people joyn with the Priest in this prayer From whence it will infallibly follow That either the people together with the Priest offer unto God a Sâ—crifice properly so called or that the Sacrifice thus offred by them both â—s so called improperly let him take which he please of the two and then tell me what he can make of this Sacrifice Now that which hath been said of this Eucharisticall Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving is likewise to be understood of the obedientiall Sacrifice if I may so call it which follows after consisting in their offring to the Lord their selves their souls and bodies as a reasonable holy and lively Sacrifice unto him And in truth I cannot but wonder that the Doctor should insist upon this considering he requires a materiall Altar for his Sacrifice derives his Priesthood from Melchisedech appropriates it to the Apostles and their Successors makes it stand in commemoration or representation and lastly every where with scorn enough excludes the people from any right thereunto but thus we see how a weak cause is driven by all kinde of means be they never so poor to fortifie it self And yet as if now he had made a full and finall conquest he concludes this argument drawn from the authority of our Church Put all together saith he which hath been here delivered from the Book of Articles the Homilies and publike Liturgy and tell me if you ever found a more excellent concord then this between Eusebius and the Church of England in this present businesse And then goes on to parallell the words of Eusebius with those of our Liturgy which I confesse agree very well but neither the one nor the other speak home to his purpose or mention any Sacrifice properly so called to be offred in the Church of Christ as he hath been sufficiently shewed CHAP. VII Of the Testimony of some Writers of our Church alleaged by the Doctor WIll you be pleased saith he to look upon those worthies of the Church which are best able to expound and unfold her meaning We will begin saith he with Bishop Andrews and tell you what he saith as concerning Sacrifices The Eucharist saith Bishop Andrews ever was and is by us considered both as a Sacrament and as a Sacrifice A Sacrifice is proper and applyable onely to Divine worship The Sacrifice of Christs death did succeed to the Sacrifices of the Old Testament which being prefigured in those Sacrifices before his coming hath since his coming been celebrated per Sacramentum memoria by a Sacrament of memory as Saint Augustine calls it Thus also in his answer to Cardinall Bellarmine Tollite de missa transubstantiationem vestram nec diu nobiscum lis erit de Sacrificio The memory of a Sacrifice we acknowledge willingly and the King grants the name of Sacrifice to have been frequent with the Fathers for Altars next if we agree saith he about the matter of the Sacrifice there will be no difference about the Altar The holy Eucharist being considered as a Sacrifice in the representation of breaking the Bread and powring forth the Cup the same is fitly called an Altar which again is as fitly called a Table the Eucharist being considered as a Sacrament which is nothing else but a distribution and application of the Sacrifice to the severall receivers so that the matter of Altars make no difference in the face of our Church Thus farre the Doctor out of Bishop Andrews For answer whereunto if we
Cap. 74. Sed nec omnino vâ—â—um propriè dictum Sacrificium in Missa ullum est Doctor Whitaker publike professor of Divinity in Cambridge in his answer to Mr Rainolds cap. 4. p. 76. You cannot pull in sunder these two offices but it you will needs be Priests and that properly according to the order of Melchisedech then seeing that order of Priesthood hath a Kingdome inseperably annexed to it it must necessarily follow that you are also Kings and that properly which were a very proper thing indeed and greatly to be accounted of Doctor Fulke in his answer to the Rhemists on Heb. 7. vers 12. Neither doth any ancient Father speak of a Sacrifice in the form of bread and wine although many do call the Sacrament which is celebrated in bread and wine a Sacrifice unproperly because it is a remembrance of the one onely Sacrifice of Christs death and because the spirituall Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving is offered therein not by the Minister onely but by the whole Church that is partaker thereof Again the same Author in Hebr. 13. vers. 10. The Apostle meaneth Christ to be this Altar who is our Priest Sacrifice and Altar and not the Table whereon the Lords Supper is ministred which is called an Altar but improperly as the Sacrament is called a Sacrifice Doctor Willet in his Synopsis Controv. 13. Quaest 2. If there remain still in the Church a read externall Sacrifice then there must be also a reall and externall Priesthood and so a multitude of sacrificing Priests but this iâ— contrary to the Scripture that maketh this difference between the Law and the Gospel that then there were many Priests because they were not suffered to endure by reason of death but now Christ hath an everlasting Priesthood Heb. 7. 23 24. 50. so that he is the onely Priest of the Gospel ergo there being no more sacrificing Priests there is no such Sacrifice for it were a derogation to the everlasting Priesthood of Christ to ordain other Priests beside Master Perkins in his Reformed Catholique 11. point of the Sacrifice of the Lords Supper Heb. 7. 24 25. The holy Ghost makes a difference betwixt Christ the High Priest of the new Testament and all Leviticall Priests in this That they were many one succeeding another but he is the onely one having an eternall Priesthood which cannot passe from him to another Now if this difference be good then Christ alone in his own very person must be the Priest of the new Testament and no other with or under him otherwise in the new Testament there should be more Priests in number than in the old Alexander Nowell Dean of Pauls in his Catechism ordained for publique use and so allowed in our Church M. An fuit instituta a Christo coena ut Deo Patri hostia pro peccatis expiandis immolaretur A. Minimè nam Christus mortem in cruce occumbens unicum illud sempiternum Sacrificium semel in perpetuum pro nostra salute obtulit nobis vero unum hoc tantum reliquum esse voluit ut maximum utilitatis fructum quem sempiternum illud Sacrificium nobis praebet grati ac memores percipiamus quod quidem in caenae dominica praecipuè praestared bemus Thus have we seen that neither by the light of nature nor by the definition of a Sacrifice nor by the Institution of our Saviour nor by the practice of his Apostles nor by the suffrage of the Primitive Fathers nor by the authority of our Church nor by the testimony of the most eminent Writers therein it yet appears either that our Ministers are properly called Priests or our Sacrament of the Eucharist properly a Sacrifice or our Communion-Table properly an Altar but rather the contrary that they are all improperly so called Which being so whether the proper situation thereof should in congruity be either Table-wise for the administring of a Sacrament or Altar-wise for the offering of a Sacrifice I leave that to the prudent Governours of our Church and better judgements than mine own to consider and determine of FINIS Cap. 5. p. 26. cap 6. pag. 44. 67. Pag. 207. Lib. 1. de Missa cap. 27. Ioh. 8 56. â—om 14. 23. 〈◊〉 11 6 22. Qu. 85. aâ— 3. Heb 11. 4. Lib. 1. de Mâ—ss cap 2. Lib. â— ca. 32. Cap. 16. Of the Sacrament lib. 6. ca. 1. De Sacâ—am Eucharist lib. 4. cap. 25. in sinc Lib. 1. de Missi cap. 14. Com. in locum De Missâ— Sacrificio Lib. 4. cap. 34. De demonst. Evingel liâ— 1. Fr. Mason of the consecration of Bishops in the Church of England 〈◊〉 5. p 6. Heb â— Heb. 7. Lib 5 cap. 78. Art 28. Part. 1 Pag. 198. Answ to Pâ—rron c. 6. Reâ—p ad Card Beâ—l cap. 8. Answ to Perron cap. 7. L De civitate Dei lib. 17. cap. 20. M Eâ—ist ad Card. Perron Defence of his fisth Book against Gardiner Cap. 29. Pag. 365. Pag. 424. Pag. 427. Pag. 204. Pag. 280. Pag 281. Reas. 4.