the words This is my Body by the word Body which they believe in another sense do not consecrate Matrimony with the same words and matter If by the word Wife they both or either of them understand Concubine is no Matrimony When then the Bishop intends not to ordain as a sacrificing priest but intends the the contrary his act is ineffectual for according to the Doctrine of Christs Church the power of consecrating and offering the true Body and Bloud of Christ and the remitting and retaining of sins is so annexed to the order of Priesthood that Priesthood cannot be without it and therefore he that intends to give Priesthood without gives nothing at all To conclude the Church of England has excluded Ordination out of the number of Sacraments and withall rejected the Papall power one may question then what power or authority they have to give Orders but principally from whence they have any authority or power to give them power to execute any offices belonging to Priesthood It cannot be said to be from the words which are not Sacramental and consequently being no Sacrament have no Institution from Christ for that end Moreover it cannot be said to be from the Church for the Church can give no such authority but by the Sacraments and the Reformed Ministers have no authority from the visible Catholick Church or Pope or Metropolitan which they professedly reject and disclaim for Ordination is a spiritual power which tends to spiritual effects Doctor Heylin Eccles Restit in his Preface Queen Elizabeth looked upon her self as the sole sountain of both Jurisdictions and the Act. 1. Eliz. 1. declares the Kings supremacy to use and exercise all such Jurisdictions spiritual and ecclesinstical as by any spiritual and ecclesiastical power or authority hath heretofore been or may lawfully be used over the Ecclesiastical state of this Realm yet as Doctor Bramhall well says pag. 63. The power of the Keys was evidently given by Christ in Scripture to his Apostles and their Successors not to Soveraign Princes Many of our Protestant Divines and learned Doctours did well consider this Difficulty and therefore most of them do admit that Ordination is a Sacrament and consequently they ground their Ordination on the authority of the former Catholick Bishops who in a Sacramental power did ordain them who according to Dr Brevent were all Idolaters and unlawful Ministers of the Sacraments except only Baptism in extreme necessity so that they have no right to any Ordination but by vertue of the Sacrament which cannot take effect unless it be dnely administred by lawful power and in due form From which I inferr that our Reformers in taking away and rejecting the sacrifice of the Mass have also rejected the Priesthood whose principal office is to offer sacrifice and consequently they have no true Ordination In fine no Sacrifice no Priest no Priest no Sacrifice wherefore call the Ministers Priests or what you will if they have not the office and power to consecrate and offer sacrifice they are no Priests properly taking the word priest or according to the common sense and use of the Catholick Church in all ages and times yea among Heathens and Infidels whence it follows that as our Reformers have framed a new Religion so they have invented a new priesthood never heard of before giving no other power then to preach and dispense the Sacraments which may be committed or done by Deacons or Lay-men as all Ecclesiasticall histories do testifie on this ground and other defects in their Ordination the present Catholick Church makes no scriple notwithstanding their pretanded Ordination to ordain or give Orders to those who being converted and reconciled to the said Catholick Church shall humbly defire it I know some will say that this cannot be done without Sacriledge for even in the Doctrine of the Universal Church Re-ordinations as also Re-baptizations are esteemed sacrilegious whence frequently those who were baptized or ordained by heretical priests or Bishops were not rebaptized nor re-ordained In consideration hereof the now Church of England does not re-baptize nor re-ordain priests coming to their communion but permits them to remain in the Order received and approves of them in all their function and power as if they had been ordained by Protestant Bishops This Subject would require a longer Discourse then my brevity will permit I will therefore briefly conclude this Chapter The Catholick Church hath always detested both Rebaptization and Reordination but never made difficulty to Baptize or Ordain some who falsly pretended to have been Baptized or Ordained when really they were not We have a plain Declaration of this in the Councel of Nice Can. 19. where those who were baptized by the Paulianists were absolutely to be Baptized because they were not Baptized in the right Form of Baptism to wit by the Invocation of the holy Trinity The Decree of the Apostles Can. 68. declares that baptized or ordained by Hereticks were neither Baptized nor ordained which as Caranzen notes is to be understood of such Hereticks who did not observe the right Form in ministring the Sacraments The Church whensoever it was manifest that the Ordainers had not lawful power or did corrupt or alter the form of Ordination judged that what they had done was Null and of no force and did simply and plainly ordain them But if upon due examination it were found that the heretical Bishops were formerly ordained by Catholick Bishops who observed the true form of the sacrament those who received orders from them and were otherwise fitting for it were received without any new Ordination only new power was given unto them for the execution of such and such Orers for as the learned Doctour Morinus de sacris Ordinat par 3. Eccercit 5. 6. well notes It may be admitted that such do receive a Character even those who are ordained against the Canons but so that the vertue of the Character is dulled or blunted not capable or not fit for action the Ancients did esteem Ordination Canonically given could never be blotted out but that its force or vertue by deposition might be repressed or dulled that it could not produce any other Ordination which may be confirmed by the common Doctrine of the Church which teaches that a Priest notwithstanding his Character received in some causes cannot give either lawfully or validly absolution As for that which is added concerning the use of the now English Church whch re-ordains not priests coming to it all men know that according to their Opinion it would be very Sacrilegious for no true Protestant will deny but that Catholick Ordination is valid and of Real force giving all power and vertue belonging to a Priest which to deny would be destructive to their pretended Hierarchy which has no other Foundation for its succession then that their Priests and Biships were so ordained The true state of the Case is the Catholick Church in such case Ordains those who were never truly
MISSALE ROMANVM VINDICATVM OR The MASS Vindicated from D. Daniel Brevents calumnious and Scandalous Tract S. Augustine lib. 2. contra Julianum Pelagium cap. 10. The Catholick Fathers and Doctors have held what they found in the Church have taught what they learned and delivered to their Sons what they received from their Fathers as yet we did not deal with you before these Judges and our cause is judged by them neither we nor you were known to them yet we recite their sentences or Judgments made against you Printed in the Year 1674 TO THE Right Worshipful Grave and Reverend Doctours of the Famous University of OXFORD Health and Salvation THe whole Vniverse worthily admires the Oxonian Academie for its Antiquity and Learning for the great multitude of famous Doctors which have flourished in its bosome Structures in its Colledges rare Library compleatly stored with books of all sorts but principally Manuscripts which if not diminished by the destiny of Funus Scoti et Scotistarum would have far exceeded most of Christendome and now may contend for equality except only the Vatican It s present glory is in no mean way augmented by that magnificent Theater which the late Archbishop of Canterbury to his eternal Glory has erected wherein all may depredicate his Munificence and other Universities envy Oxfords Glory This indeed is Sheldons Trophy and Triumph Vpon reflection of this unparaleld Theater I cannot but deplore that such an excellent and so magnificent a structure should be abused and defiled by such an unseemly Imp as the late Doctour Daniel Brevent has hatched under its roof I mean his Missale Romanum Printed in that Theatre without any license or approbation wherein there is very little appears which may beseem a Doctour of Oxford He begins indeed very briskly acknowledging the Roman Church to have been a true Church in the first five hundred years after Christ but afterwards to have decayed principally for that from that time the Church allowed and approved the holy sacrifice of the Masse which he chiefly labours to reject by Railleries scoffs and jeerings amongst others he grounds himself on two manifestly false impositions the first is that Roman Priests do sacrifice their God imitating the primitive Infidels who imputed it to the Christians that they did eat their God whereas our faith teaches us that Christs body and bloud is sacrificed to God The second is that the Priests at the Altar do work all the Miracles which are wrought in the Eucharist which Miracles by Catholicks are attributed to Christ himself who instituted the holy Sacrament To make his raillery more compleat he spares not to call all Roman Catholicks Adulterers Adorers of vile creatures Idol-worshipers invaders of sacred offices sacrilegiously reproaching them of untruths impieties fearfull and barbarous cruelty Priesthood a most sacrilegious function which in plain terms he admits for almost twelve hundred years the whole Christian world were no better then Idolaters nay as he says worse then all Pagans and Infidels So that the whole Church all Christian Emperours Kings and Princes all Christian Empires Kingdoms Nations and Provinces were enslaved to Idolatry all Popes Primats Archbishops Bishops and Clergy-men were liable to his censures No Church either universal or particular truly Christian no Conversion of any Nation in particular England to the true faith of Christ for those who were converted in those times were most unhappy for they were alwayes taught believed and exercised the sacrifice of the Masse All the Modern Churches as besides the Latin the Grecian Oriental Affrican and Indians in all places of the world except only some of our pretended Reformers in a little Corner thereof have the same and the schoolmen whom he so frequently cites were all Idolaters for they all held maintained and defended the sacrifice of the Masse against all Infidels and hereticks and for the most part were sacrificing Priests Moreover the Glory of your famous Vniversitie is much impeached by this his Calumnie for your Doctors and Professors your Churches Chappels and Schools your Colledges and Chairs were all infected with this pretended Idolatry for within their walls no other doctrine was taught heard or used until these last times the several Comments made on the Master of the sentences on S. Thomas Scotus and other Schoolmen testifies the same nothing can excuse them but grosse ignorance but what shall we say of those famous Doctours who have so learnedly written against Wickliff even on the same score and what of those Reverend and learned Bishops who in Oxford condemned him as an heretick and who were so careful as is manifest in Provinciali veteri reprinted at Oxford in the year 1669. of the Celebration of Mass The Doctor bespatters them all with Idolatry sacriledge and blindness ignorance and blasphemy But he might have considered if malice or Ignorance had not blinded him that under the name of the Roman Church for so many hundred of years he impugns Christs Church within the five hundred years after Christ even as it was established by Christ and his Apostels for the Catholick Church was never without Mass in that time and what Masses or Liturgies were used in succeeding times were delivered from those times as the Roman or Latin Church challenges that of S. Peter as it was declared by S. Clement those of Hierusalem and some other parts that of S. James those of Affirica that of S. Mark or S. Philip The Grecians that of S. Basil who as S. Proclus testifies did not add to any other precedent but contract and abreviate what was formerly used S. Chrysostome did the same to that of S. Basil yet both these liturgies or Masses are in use to this day in all the Grecian Churches if then the Mass be Idolatry and so fond a thing as this Doctor pretends Christ never had a true Church upon earth far as I shall shew in this short Tract the Catholick Church was never without the sacrifice of the Mass if we may believe Tradition practise and custome of all Christian Churches Ecclesiastical or civil histories Councils both General and of several Provinces in the whole world and the unanimous consent of all the holy Fathers and Doctors I dare challenge Doctour Brevent or any of his associates to produce any one Nation that ever roceived the Christian Faith without this sacrifice or publick Divine Service but that which we call Mass or liturgy under the notion of a sacrifice The Grecians as I said before and all those who belong to that Church as Iberians Sclavonians Russians Muscovits and in many parts of Asia and Affrick agree in the sacrifice of the Mass with some difference of Ceremonies The Meridional parts which contain the Nubians the Abissins and greatest parts in Aegypt Arabia and Chaldea under the Patriarkate of Alexandria The Nestorians dispersed in Tartary Persia and the Oriental parts and kingdoms of India the Armenians and Scithians I do not say that all these agree with the Latins
sacrifice which is used by Christians on the holy Altars is not only offered to God the Father but also with common devotion to the Son 239. S. Fabian Pope and Martyr declared that the sacrifice is not to be admitted from the hands of a Priest who cannot perform the prayers or actions or other observances of the Mass according to the rites of the Church 175. S. Soter Pope and martyr determined that when the Priests consecrated the holy Mysteries in the time of the Masses if it happened by any accident of sicknesse that the Mystery began could not be accomplished it should be supplyed by some other Priest Again he ordained that none should presume to celebrate Mass after meat or drink how little soever it were as also that none of the Priests should presume to celebrate the solemnity of Masses without two being present to answer him 273. Foelix Pope and Martyr Epist 2. ad Episcop Galliae declared that in a synod he had commanded them and all Churches that Masses should be celebrated on the memory of Martyrs 145. S. Higgine Pope and Martyr ordained that all Churches should always be consecrated with Mass Evaristus also Pope and Martyr witnesse Ivo and Burchard had ordained the same 142. S. Telesphore Pope and Martyr in his Epistle to all Bishops Cap. 2. ordained three Masses to be said on Chrismass day one at midnight 121. Alexander Pope and Martyr Epist 1. ad omnes orthod sayes Veritie it self has instructed us to offer the Chalice and bread in the Sacrament when he said Jesus took bread and blessed and gave to his Disciples saying take ye and eat for this is my body which is delivered for you In like manner the Chalice c. for by these sacrifices offered to our Lord crimes and sinns are blotted out and therefore his Passion is to be remembred whereby we are redeemed and often recited and these offered to our Lord our Lord is delighted and pleased with such hosts and great sins are demitted for can there be in sacrifices a greater thing then the body and bloud of Christ Neither can there be any Oblation better then this for this excells all which is to be offered to our Lord with a pure conscience and to be taken with a pure minde and to be honoured by all and as it is better then all other so it ought rather to be honoured and worshiped The same Saint sayes In the Oblation of the Sacraments which are offered within the solemnity of Masses the Passion of our Lord is to be added that the Passion of him whose body and bloud is made may be celebrated so that setting aside all superstitious opinions Bread only and wine mixed with water are to be offered in the sacrifice for as we have received from our Fathers and reason it self teaches wine alone or water alone is not to be offered in the Chalice of our Lord but both mixt because we reade that both did flow from his side in his Passion To omit others I shall conclude with S. Clement Pope and Martyr l. 6. constit Apostat 23. for a bloudy sacrifice Christ gave a rational and Incruental and that Mystical sacrifice of the body and bloud of our Lord which is celebrated as a symbole of his death I know some of our adversaries will call in question some of these Decrees but setting aside all other disputes the practise of the Church from thence even to our times and the use of most of them in the liturgies before mentioned will sufficiently convince the truth of them let us now see whether the holy Councells of those times will manifest the same Councels 505. I Shall begin with the Agathen Councel within the fifth hundred year which can 14. ordains that the Altars are to be consecrated not only with the unction of Chrism but also by the sacerdotal benediction Can. 21. allows Masses in private Oratories but commands that in principal feasts all should hear Mass in the Parochial Churches and can 47. commands all seculars to hear Mass on Sundays 482. The first Councel at Tours Can. 2. forbids married or luxurious priests to offer sacrifice to God or to minister to the people 420. The last Councel of Carthage cap. 3. declares that it is not lawful for a priest to reconcile any one in the publick Mass 416. The second Melevitan Councel cap. 12. ordains that none should celebrate prayers or Orisons or Masses or Praefations or commendations or Imposition of hands which were not approved in Councels 398. The fourth Councel of Carthage in the first 6. Canons plainly shews the holy Orders to have reference to the due celebration of Mass Can. 33. Bishops or Priests if on cause of visiting the Church they come to the Church of another Bishop they are to be received according to their degree and invited to preach the Word and consecrate the oblation that is the Mass Can. 79. Penitents who have diligently performed the laws of Penance if accidentally they die in their journey or on the Sea where they could not be assisted let the memory of them be commended both in prayers and oblations Can. 89. it is ordained that the Bishop should prohibite none whether Gentile or Heretick or Jew to enter into the Church or to hear the Word during the Mass of the Catechumens All such were not to stay in the Mass of the faithful 397. The third Councel of Carthage Can. 23. When one is at the Altar the prayer is alwaies to be directed to the Father and Can. 24. Nothing more is to be offered in the Sacraments of the body and bloud but what our Lord himself has delivered that is bread and wine mixt with water nor nothing more offered in the sacrifices than of grapes and wheat 393. The Councel held at Hippon has the same Decrees and ordains that the Sacraments of the Altar should be celebrated by those who are fasting 352. In a Roman Councel Athanasius was accused for having consecrated a Church built by the Emperour without his knowledge and was so bold as to celebrate the synaxis therein S. Athanasius denies the first but grants the second wherein he prayed for the Emperour and was drawn to do it by the Multitude 324. The Gangrane Councel cap. 24. declares Anathema to those who through pride esteeming themselves perfect did condemn the Assemblies made in the places and Churches of the Saints or believed the oblations which are there celebrated to be despised and the memory of the Saints to be contemned 320. The ancient Councel of Laodicen cap. 58. Bishops are not to make the oblations in private houses without Priests But what makes more to our purpose the same is gathered out of three of the first General Councels which the present Church of England admits now in their Articles In the 4. General Councel of Calcedon Act. 3. Blessed Ischirion Martyr accused Dioscorus Bishop of Constantinople 251. that amongst other things he had taken away the wheat that
cap. 1. As often as we celebrate the Eucharist so often we offer Christ in mystery and do immolate or slay him in sacrificing by way of commemoration or representation if this be so I pray let him tell me who doth do this but the Priest for none but such even amongst them have authority or power to do it yet this is not included either in dispensing the word or the Sacraments for to offer Christ in Mystery or immolate him requires other authority and that from his Ordination or not at all In the same book cap. 3. If by an unbloudy manner you mean a mysticall and Sacramentall manner I am not against it because the shedding of Christs bloud on the Cross was reall in the last supper only mysticall and Sacrament all And again cap. 5. The holy supper may be called a sacrifice Eucharisticall or mysticall in which the sacrifice of the Cross is both represented and offered in a mystery that is Sacramentally who does this but a Priest who offers this sacrifice Sacramentally or by whom is the sheding of Christs bloud in a mysticall and Sacramentall manner most of your learned men as is said already attribute to Ordination or the power given to consecrate which is more then M. Mason allows to his Priesthood I know not how M. Mason will reconcile himself lib. 4. cap. 14. where he in the name of the Protestant Church declares We acknowledg no proper external sacrifice of the new Testament besides that which Christ himself in his own person once Immolated on the Cross Insomuch saith he that if a Romish Priest become a Protestant he must renounce the power of sacrificing redeuntes sacerdotes sacrificandi potestatem nostra opinione impiam sacrilegam deponere repudiare debere decernimus We judge or hold that such Priests as return from the Roman to the English Church ought to depose and repudiate the power of sacrificing in our opinion impious and sacrilegious What Sr is it impious or sacrilegious to celebrate the Lords supper to offer or immolate in sacrifice this if you may be believed you often say if the holy supper be a sacrifice sure it is external if Christs bloud be shed in a sacramental way sure it is externally for all sacraments are external signs if all this be impious and sacrilegious all your Ministers are impious and sacrilegious for that they without power do attempt to consecrate and offer and immolate Christ Doctour Sparrow worthily bearing the title of Bishop of Exeter in his Rationale pag. 309. admits this saying According to the usuall acception of the word Priest it signifies him that offers up a Sacrifice and proves it because the Ministers of the Gospel have a sacrifice to offer viz the unbloudy sacrifice as it was anciently called the Commemorative sacrifice of the Death of Christ which does as really and truely shew forth the death of Christ as those sacrifices under the law did foreshew it and in respect of the sacrifice of the Eucharist the Ancients have usually called those that did offer it up Priests who as he says afterward are to offer that holy Bread and Wine the Body and Bloud of Christ he confirms this by the Prophesies of Esay cap. 66. v. 21. I will take of them to be Priests and Levites saith our Lord that is of the Gentills and Jeremie cap. 33. v. 18. And of Priests and Levites there shall not fail from before my face a man to offer Holocausts where sayes the Doctour they prophesy of the times of the Gospel as will appear by the context and ancient exposition to wit of the Interpreters on those places From what has been said it is manifest from the Texts of the whole Fathers above-alledged that the proper office of a Priest is to offer sacrifice the present Church of England hath put in the name Priest in their form of Ordination and consequently must admit a sacrifice which he is to offer otherwise they should take the word Priest equivocally not properly in its right signification or sense of the Catholick Church and consequently it follows that they have no true Prie thood amongst them for it is manifest that neither he that ordains nor he that is ordained do intend to consecrate or to be consecrated a sacrificing Priest for their Intentions are directly contrary insomuch as Mr Mason as is said before tels us that such priests as return from the Roman to the English Church ought to depose and repudiate the power of sacrificing whereas the Councel of Trent Sess 23. Can. 1. puts an Anathema on any one who should say that in the new Testament there is no visible or extern Priesthood or not some power of consecrating and offering the true Body and bloud of our Lord and of remitting and retaining sins but only an office and bare Ministery of the Gospel or those who do not preach not to be Priests at all And Cap. 1. of the same session sacrifice and Priesthood are so conjoyned by Gods ordination that both have been in every law when therefore the Catholick Church hath received from the first Institution in the new Testament the holy visible sacrifice of the Eucharist we must acknowledge to be in it a new visible and extern priesthood into which the old Priesthood is translated which the sacred letter doth also shew and the Tradition of the Catholick Church hath always taught this to have been instituted by the same Lord our Saviour and to the Apostles and their successors in Priesthood power given to consecrate offer and minister his Body and bloud and also of remitting and retaining fins The same Councel Sess 7. Can. 11. If any shall say that in the Ministers when they make or confer the Sacraments Intention is not required at least of doing what the Church does be he Anathema The Councel of Florence Decreto Eugenij says Sacraments are performed by three things to wit by some thing as matter by words as form and by the person of a Minister conferring the Sacrament with intention of doing what the Church doth if any of these be wanting the Sacrament is not perfect Even natural reason teaching this for as S. Thomas 3. quaest 64. Artic. 8. ad 1. The Minister because he is a living Instrument ought to apply himself by Intention whereby he intends to do what Christ and his Church doth It is also certain that an ill intention vitiates a good work and a perverse Intention alters the nature of humane actions which also is true in Sacramentall actions for example he that pretends to Baptize If his intention be not to baptize or takes the word baptize only as it signifies a lotion or washing from corporal filth does not rightly baptize nor do 〈◊〉 Church doth In like manner he that says the words absolvo te a peccatis If he intends not to absolve him or for sins understands temporal debts absolves not The Protestants who intend not to consecrate Christs Body by
as partly will be more manifest in the next Chapter CHAP. XIII Transubstantiation proved in all the ages of the Church THis terrible word Transubstantiation is much baited at by this learned Doctor even as the word homousion declared and determined by two General Councils was impugned by the Arians because it was new and not found in the Scripture even so this word approved by two general Councils was rayled at by hereticks when they could not disprove what was specified thereby I will not contend for the word but for what is signified thereby the Councils of Trent indeed approves the word sess 13. cap. 4. and explicates it to be the Conversion of the whole substance of the bread and wine into the substance of the body and bloud of Christ so also defines it can 2. In this sence I shall produce Fathers and Doctors of all ages and times since Christ and so confirm what the Doctor jeeringly yet most ignorantly affirms when he says that the Masse began with Transubstantiation as indeed it did for the Mass was never without it when the conversion of bread and wine is the essential part of the Masse as it has been fully declared I let passe his plain contradiction when forgetful of what he had said before admitting the Masse to have been in the Roman Church for near 1200. years past he now says that it began with Transubstantiation which he will have to have been begun from the Lateran Council held in the year 1215. where this matter was declared to be of Faith not as if it was then newly invented but as the common Faith of the Church wherein the whole Christian world agreed for there were present besides the Pope Innocent the 3d 412 Bishops the two Patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem the Legates of Antioch and Alexandria Archbishops Primates and Metropolitans 75. Abbots and Priors 800. Legats and Procurators of Bishops and others without number The Embassadours of both the Emperours Roman and Grecian of the King of France England Hungary Jerusalem Cyprus Aragon and many other Princes who all consented to this declaration in opposition to some heresies of those times Now that such was the doctrine of the Roman Church before that Council is manifest by the opposition that was made against Berengarius who for the contrary opinion was condemned in three several provincial Councils several learned men of those times did write against him as Lanfransus Archbishop of Canterbury I. de sacram Eucharist The Church spread in the whole world acknowledges bread and wine set on the Altar to be consecrated and in the consecration to be changed incomprehensibly and ineffably into the substance of the flesh and bloud of Christ In like manner Algerus Guitmans and Petrus Cluniacen who lib. 1. Epist 2. Let them see what foolish incredulity what blinde doubting it is either not to see or doubt that bread is changed into the flesh of Christ and wine into his bloud by divine power when by the same many things are changed into another even in the nature of things which he proves by many examples and concludes It is far more as the holy Fathers of the Church say to create things that have no being than to form other and other things of those things which have a being all these above a 100. years before that Council But nothing more clearly convinces it then the Recantation which Berengarius made in a Roman synod held anno 1079. above a 130. years before the same Council in this form I Berengarius do from my heart believe and by mouth professe the bread and wine placed on the Altar by the Mystery of prayers and words of our Redeemer to be substantially converted into the true and proper and life-giving flesh and bloud of Jesus Christ our Lord and to be the true Body which was born of the Virgin which offered for the worlds salvation did hang on the Crosse which sits at the right hand of the Father and Christs true bloud which did flow from his side not only by signe and vertue of the sacrament but in propriety of Nature and verity of substance In this faith and belief he died A little before this time lived Theophilact Archbishop of Bulgary a Grecian in Joan. 6. Bread by the sacred words and Mystical benediction with the comming of the holy Ghost is transformed into our Lords flesh He has the same in Marc. 14. adding Our merciful God condescending to our infirmity did keep the species of bread and wine but trans-elementated it into the vertue of flesh and bloud And in cap. 26. Mat. He said not This is a figure but This is my body for it is by an ineffable operation transformed as bread in appearance but in very deed flesh Of the Latins about the year 730. Venerable Bede in 6. Joan. Christ dayly washes us from our sins in his bloud when the memory of his Passion is represented on the Altar when the Creatures of bread and wine are by the sanctification of the ineffable spirit transformed into the sacred Meat of his flesh and bloud and about the same time the famous Grecian Father S. John Damascene l. 4. de fide Orthod c. 24. As the holy Ghost working all things whatsoever were made so what then shall hinder but that of bread he may make his body and of wine and water his bloud and even as whatsoever God did make that he did by the work of the holy Ghost in the same manner now also the operation of the holy Ghost does that which exceeds nature and which tannot be taken or understood unless it be by faith only And a little after Verily the body is truly united to the divinity that body which came from the holy Virgin not that the body assumed descends from heaven but because the bread and wine it self is changed into Christs body and bloud If thou ask how is this done it is enough for thee to hear that it is done by the holy Ghost even as from the holy Mother of God our Lord by the holy Ghost did make to himself and in himself flesh there is nothing more manifest or perceptible to us then that the word of God is truly efficacious and omnipotent for the manner of it is such that it cannot be searched or found out by any reason A little after Bread and wine are not figures of Christs body far be it but the very body of our Lord joyned to the Divinity for sith our Lord himself said this is not a signe of body but body nor the sign of bloud but bloud And again If some have called the bread and wine the figure of our Lords body and bloud they did not say it after the Consecration but usurped this word before the oblation was consecrated to be brief In that place the Saint uses these phrases Christ made his body of bread and wine he made these things his body and bloud the bread and wine are changed into
in the divine operation of Christs bedy and bloud And c. 8. putting a distinction between Priest and Deacon he says The one consecrates and the other disposes or distributes the one sanctifies the things offered the other distributes the things sanctified S. Cyprian Epist 54. ad Cornel. says Priests do daily celebrate sacrifices to God And Epist 66. ad Furnesses Each one honoured with divine Priest-hood and constituted in Clerical Ministery ought only to serve the Altar and sacrifices and attend to prayers S. Hierome Dialogo cum Lucifer c. 8. Hilarius a Deacon only could not make the Eucharist not having Bishops nor Preists for it is not a Church which has no Priests This is more manifest in the Priests ordination as it is expresly declared in the Florentine Councel the form whereof is Receive the Power of offering sacrifice to God for the living and dead whence we may note this is no new constitution but a declaration to the Armenians of the Roman use and manner of Ordination for which the Roman Pontifical is alledged which was long before this Councel and was in use in all the Western parts and Ordo Romanus made by Pope Gelasius in the year 496. which as Alcuinus notes in 2. par de divinis officiis has the same form which also S. Ambrose insinuates in 1 Epist ad Tim. c. 4. where he speaks of himself saying when I was ordained Priest whereby I was designed for the work and received Authority that I durst in our Lords stead to offer sacrifice to God S. Clement lib. constit Apost cap. 24. Look down upon thy servant elected and fill him with the holy Ghost that he may perform the immaculate sacrifice for thy people but what is more our Saviour himself in his last Supper ordained his Disciples in the same form Do this in my remembrance whereby our Saviour gave power to his Disciples to do that is to make or offer the same sacrifice as he had done as I have declared in the first chapter § 3. Our Reformers have mainly endeavoured to take away the true and proper sacrifice of the Masse and consequently to take away the Evangelicall Priesthood which by continuall succession even from the Apostles times yea from Christ himself hath always continued in the Catholick Church and to this end the Parliament of England in the nonage of King Edward the 6. invented a new form or ordination and commanded that none should give any Orders but in the form prescribed which was repealed by Queen Mary and again renewed by Queen Elizabeth in the 8. yeare of her Reign To speak only of Priesthood which principally makes to our present purpose our Catholick Doctors and Controvertists did oppose against their Ordination of Priesthood by several reasons and first that they had no lawful Ministers of their order that is no proper and true Bishops and consequently no true ordination which is clearly proved by Erastus senior in his Scholasticall Demonstration printed in the year 1662. which I wave and go to the second Reason Which is that the form of Ordination newly invented is no true form nor ever used in the Church nor no essentiall part necessarily required in the act of giving or ministring holy orders to make this more clear we may note that in the Sacrament of Orders there is required a sensible sign which Divines call the materiall part and the application of this sensible sign to the signification of what is signed which is the formal part To our purpose the Imposition of hands by the Bishop may well be said to be the materiall part of the Sacrament for of it self it is indifferent to Episcopacy Priesthood or Deacon-ship nay to other spiritual effects as of Confirmation yea of remission and absolution and is necessarily determined and appropriated to this or that effect by certain words expressing the power and nature of this or that Order In this all Catholicks do agree and some of your Learned Protestants acknowledge M. Mason one who hath written purposely of this Subject lib. 2. cap. 16. Impositionem manuum ut signum ordinis sensibile amplectimur forma sensibilis sita est in verbis quae preferuntur dum signum sensibile exhibetur We embrace Imposition of hands as the sensible signe of order The essential form consists in words which are spoken whilst the sensible signe is used in which also those who reformed the Roman Ordination did agree when retaining the imposition of hands they invented a new form never used before in Gods Church nor yet coming home to the purpose for no words can be said to be the true form of any Sacrament which does not determine the sensible signe to its proper effect or office In the Ordination of Priesthood it must signifie the grace and power which is given to him that receives the Order of Priesthood so the foresaid Mr Mason Istius modo verba quatenus de notant datam potestatem sunt illius forma essentialis The learned Bishop of Derry in Ireland in his book of the Consecration and succession of Protestant Bishops page 226. comes more home saying The form or words whereby men are made Priests must express power to consecrate or make present Christs body and bloud c. for we have no difference with the Romanists in this particular They who are ordained priests ought to have power to consecrate the Sacraments of Christs body and bloud that is to make it present Doctour Sparrow is of the same opinion as is noted in the said Liturgicall Discourse part 1. cap. 26. and Doctour Thorndike in his book of Just weights and measures cap. 21. All Ordination tends to the celebration and communion of the Eucharist as well that of Bishops to the end that they may ordain the other Orders and that of Deacons that they may wait upon the celebration of it As that of Priests that receiving the power of the keyes to warrant the effect of it they may therefore have power to celebrate it Surely the present English Church must be of the same judgment when only those who are ordained Priests have authority to consecrate the Eucharist which is their peculiar proper and principall office belonging to none other the Power and authority to them in this cannot be from any humane authority but divine which comes unto us by the work of the Holy Ghost in the Sacrament Now in the Form of Ordination invented by order of Parliament in the time of King Edward the 6. and used since in Queen Elizabeths time no such power is expressed for all the words savour more of jurisdiction or execution of what follows the nature of the order of Priesthood without which the rest is of no Force for without the power ex vi ordinis no actions ex vi officii are authentical or valuable for as Mr Mason well says l. 2. c. 16. Non verba quaelibet huic instituto inserviunt sed quae ad ordinis conferendi potestatem
was sent by the Emperour to the Church of Libia for to make the Eucharist that by that occasion the Incruent al sacrifice of the Mass was not for long time offered he adds moreover that those goods which Perisopia a most noble woman had bequeathed by Testament to Monasteries and to the poor to the end that the sacrifice might be offered for the health of her soul he had given to prophane persons sure these actions were then esteemed great Crimes or else he durst not to have presumed to propound them in the face of so great a Councel 431. In the great Councel of Ephesus the Epist of Cyrill Patriarck of Alexandria and synod of that place to Nestorius was read cap. 3. and highly approved and commended as agreeable to the Councel of Nice or containing nothing ambiguous nothing dissentaneous but agreeing to our setled faith without any noveltie Now this Epistle was a profession of the Catholick faith and to our purpose in these terms Announcing the death of the only born Son of God that of Jesus Christ according to the flesh and his Resurrection and in like manner confessing his ascension into the heavens we celebrate in the Churches the incruental verity of sacrifice so also we come to the Mystical Benedictions and are sanctified and made partakers of the holy body and precious bloud of Christ redeemer of all of us not receiving as common flesh farr be it nor as of a sanctified man and as of one joined to the word according to the unity of dignity or of one possessing the divine habitation but as truely life-giving and made proper to the word it self being life naturally as God for he is united to proper flesh and has declared that to be life-giving and therefore as he said to us Amen Amen I say to you unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his bloud yet we ought not to think that to be as a man one of us for how can the flesh of man according to his nature be life-giving but truly made proper to him who for us both is and is called the son of man I cannot conceive but that this was then the common belief of the whole Church when from this Mystery of the Mass they proved the Godhead of Christ 325. I shall conclude with the 18. Canon of the first General Councel held at Nice where it is said That there was brought to the holy great Council that in some places and Citties the Deacons did give the Grace of holy Communion to Priests which neither Rule nor custome hath delivered that those who offer Christs body should receive from them who have no power to offer also it was declared that some Deacons did touch the holy thing offered that is the Eucharist before the bishops These might suffice to any rational man for a clear attestation of the holy sacrifice of the Mass even in those primitive times nevertheless I shall by way of addition produce the testimony and judgment of the holy Fathers and Doctours of those times CHAP. IV. The testimony and judgment of the holy Fathers and Doctours for the Sacrifice of the Mass and that within five hundred years after Christ 430. I Shall begin with the foresaid S. Cyril even in the first Councel of Ephesus in his Declaration of the 11. Anathematicisme We celebrate in the Church the life-giving and incruental sacrifice beleiving that which is set before us to be the body and in like manner precious bloud not of some man-like and common but rather we receive it as the proper body and bloud of the life-giving Word for common flesh cannot vivificate and our Saviour testified this saying the flesh profiteth nothing it is the spirit that quickeneth but because it is made proper to the word therefore it is understood as is life-giving as our Saviour said As the living father sent me and I live by the Father and he who eats me the same also shall live by me 430. Theodoret about the same time cap. 20. of the History of the holy Fathers In the life of holy Maris says When divine Maris had a long time desired to sea the spirituall and mystical sacrifice to be offered he asked that the oblation of the divine gift might be made I willingly yielded to him and commanded the holy vessells to be brought when the village was not far distant and for an Altar used the Deacons hands and offered the mystical divine and salutarie sacrifice 420. S. Augustine Epist 23. ad Benifacium Was not Christ once immolated in himself and yet in the sacrifice not only through all the Paschall solemnities but every day for the people l. 20. oont Faustum c. 21. Who of the Bishops assisting at the Altar in the place of the holy bodies at any time said I offer to thee Peter or Paul or Cyprian but what is offered is offered to God who crowned the Martyrs Afterward We most frequently sacrifice to God in the Memory of Martyrs only with that Rite with which in the manifestation of the New testament he hath commanded to be sacrificed to him which pertains to that worship which is called Latria and is due only to God And a little after The flesh and bloud of this sacrifice before the comming of Christ was promised by victims of similitudes In the Passion was given by truth it self and after Christs Ascension is celebrated by a Sacrament of memory Ser. 91. de temp he makes mention of some lessons which were read in the Masse Ser. 32. cap. 1. It is not to be doubted but that the dead receive help by the prayers of the Church and by the Salutarie Sacrifice and almes which are given for their souls that God may deal more mercifully with them then their sins have deserved for this is delivered to us by our Fathers The whole Church observes when she prayes for those who are dead in the communion of Christs body and bloud when in their place they are remembred at the Sacrifice Ser. 251. On Sonday let none absent themselves from the celebration of Masses where he also complains that some do force the Priest to abreviate their Masses lib. 10. di civitate Dei cap. 20. The man Christ Jesus was made Mediatour between God and man when in form of God he takes sacrifice with the Father with whom also he is true God yet in form of a servant he had rather be then take Sacrifice by this he is both a Priest himself the Offerer and he himself the Oblation the Sacrament of which he would have to be the dayly sacrifice of the Church which being the body of that head learns to offer her self by him The ancient sacrifices of the Saints were manifold and various signs of this true sacrifice when this one was figured by many and to this high and true sacrifice all counterfeit Sacrifices did give place and lib. 22. cap. 8. A house being haunted by evill spirits the man of the