and support it 't is too terrible to be looked upon in its self without having a thick mist of Church Authority and Infallibility first cast before a mans eyes and then if there were not a strange and almost fascinating power in such principles one would think it impossible that any man who has both eyes and brains in his head should believe a Wafer were the body of a man or that a crum of bread were a fleshly substance they do not indeed believe them to be both but they believe one to be the other which is the same thing there is nothing can expose such a doctrine for nothing can be more uncouth and extravagant then itsself it not only takes away all evidence of sense upon which all truth of miracles and so of all Revelation does depend but it destroys all manner of certainty and all the principles of truth and knowledge it makes one body be a thousand or at least be at the same time in a thousand places by which means the least atome may fill the whole World Again it makes the parts of a body to penetrate one another by which means all the matter of the whole World may be brought to a single point it makes the whole to be no greater then a part and one part to be as great as the whole thus it destroys the nature of things and makes a body to be a spirit and an accident to be a substance and renders every thing we see or taste to be only phantasm and appearance and though the World seems crouded with solids yet according to that it may be all but species and shadow and superficies So big is this opinion with absurdities and inconsistencies and contradictions and yet these must all go down and pass into an Article of Faith before there can be any foundation for the sacrifice of the Mass and let any one judge that has not lost his judgment by believing Transubstantiation what a strange production that must be which is to be the genuine of-spring of such a doctrine It is not my province nor must it be my present task to discourse at large of that or to confute the little sophistries with which it is thought necessary to make it outface the common reason of mankind There never was any paradox needed more straining to defend it nor any Sceptical principle but would bear as fair a wrangle on its behalf there is a known Treatise has so laid this cause on its back that it can never be able to rise again and though after a long time it endeavours a little to stir and heave and struggle yet if it thereby provokes another blow from the same hand it must expect nothing less then its mortal wound I pass to the next Error and Mistake upon which the sacrifice of the Mass is founded and that is this that our blessed Saviour did at his last Supper when he celebrated the Communion with his Disciples offer up his body and blood to his Father as a true propitiatory sacrifice before he offered it as such upon the Cross This they pretend and are forced to do so to establish their sacrificing in the Mass for they are only to do that in the Sacrament they own which Christ himself did and which he commanded his Apostles to doe and if this sacrifice had not its institution and appointment at that time it never had any at all as they cannot but grant Let us then enquire whether Christ did thus sacrifice himself and offer up his body and blood to God at his last Supper Is there any the least colour or shadow of any such thing in any of the accounts that is given of this in the three Evangelists or in St. Paul The Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread and gave thanks or blessed it and brake it and gave it to his Disciples saying take eat this is my Body which is given for you this do in remembrance of me after the same manner also he took the Cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying drink ye all of this for this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins Is here any mention or any intimation of offering up any thing to God Was not the bread and the cup and what he called his body and his blood given to his Disciples to be eaten and drank by them and was any thing else done with them is there any thing like an offering or a sacrificing of them yes say they Christ there calls it his body which is broken and his blood which is shed in the present tense therefore the one must be then broken and the other shed So indeed it is in the Original Greek though in the Vulgar Latin it is in the future tense and so it is also put in their Missal sanguis qui effundetur this is my Blood which shall be shed and is it not usual to put the present tense instead of the future when that is so near and certain Does not our Saviour do it more than once at other times The Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 26.45 before he was so though Judas was then nigh and coming about it So John 10.17 I lay down my Life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he was ready to do so as he was to have his body broken and his blood shed when he was prepared as a victim to be offered the next day so St. Paul says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I now offer up my self 2 Tim. 4.6 when as we translate it he was ready to be offered That Christ here used the present tense for the future is owned by Cardinal Cajetan †In Luc. 22. and other Learned men †Sa. Barrad of the Roman Church and Jansenius * Cancord 131. sayes the pouring out of the blood is rightly understood of the pouring it out upon the Cross Christs body was not broke nor his blood poured out till the next day nor did he offer up himself as a sacrifice to his Father until then Christ did not then command his Apostles to offer him up in the Eucharist when he bad them do this hoc facite does not signifie to sacrifice nor will it be supposed I hope our Saviour did then use the vulgar Latin the phrase in Virgil cum faciam vitula which is always quoted to this purpose shows it only to be so meant when the occasion or subject matter does require it but in our Saviours words it plainly refers to those acts of taking bread and breaking it and taking Wine and Blessing it then giving or distributing of them as he had done just before and as he commanded then to do in remembrance of him and that it does not relate to sacrificing is plain from St. Paul who applyes it particularly to drinking the Cup do this as
willing to allow in which the Scriptures we see do understand them and so do the Fathers as I shall evidently demonstrate Upon what accounts and in what sense the Fathers do call the Eucharist a sacrifice and oblation and apply the phrases of immolating and offering and the like to it I shall now particularly consider And 1. They do this upon the account of those oblations of bread and wine and other things which it was the custom for Christians to bring when they came to the Communion out of which a part was consecrated for the Eucharist and the remainder was for a common Feast of love and a Religious entertainment or for the maintenance of the Clergy and the poor to whom they were afterwards distributed This Custom the Apostle takes notice of the 1 Cor. 11. and the Antient Writers expresly mention it in several places after the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Feasts of Love were for some abuses laid aside Clemens Romanus in his first Epistle the most ancient most unquestioned piece of Antiquity we have speaks expresly of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oblations and joins them with the sacred and Religious Offices †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Climens Ep. 1. ad Corinth p. 85. Edit Oxon. and commends those who make these their oblations orderly and at the appointed times * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ib. p. 86. The Apostolic Canons that go under his name though their credit is not so authentic speak very particularly of these offerings and of their being brought to the altar for a sucrifice (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Canon 3. Ignatius speaks also of offering and of bringing the sacrifice (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sc absque Episcopo Epist ad Smyru Justin Martyr mentions these offerings as accompanied with prayer and thanksgiving and as the way by which Christians worshipt the Creator instead of the bloody sacrifices and libations and incense that were offered by others (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justin Martyr Apolog. 2. and these says he we account the proper way of honouring him not by consuming his gifts in the fire but by thus offering them for the poor and for our selves Irenaeus says The Church offers to God who affords us food the first-fruits of his Gifts and the first-fruits of his Creatures not as if he wanted but that we may be grateful (*) Ecclesis offert Deo ci qui nobis alimenta praestat primitias suorum munerum primitias Deo offerre ex suis creaturis non quasi indigenti sed ut ipsi nec insructuosi nec ingrati sint Iraen advers Haeres l. 4. c. 32. And though Fevardentius in his Notes upon this and the other places of Irenaeus wherein he speaks of this oblation would have it meant of the oblation of Christ himself in the Eucharist yet that is clearly disproved by his so often calling it the offering to God of his own Creatures and the first-fruits of his Creatures (d) Primitias earum quae sunt ejus creaturarum offerentes offerens ei ex gratiarum actione ex creatura ejus Ib. c. 34. which must be no other then of bread and wine and the like and from hence he proves against the Marcionites that Christ was (e) Quomodo autem constabit eum panem inquo gratiae actae sunt si non ipsum fabricatoris mundi filium dicant Ib. the Son of the Creator and Maker of the World because that his creatures were offered in the Eucharist St. Cyprian condemning and blaming some of the rich Women who came to the Sacrament without bringing these oblations thou comest says he into the Lords house without a sacrifice and takest part of that sacrifice which the poor hath offered (f) in Dominicum sine sacrificio vonis quae partem de sacrisicio quod pauper obtuli◠sumis Cypr. de Oper. Eleemos St. Austin insists upon the same thing and bids them offer the oblations which are consecrated upon the Altar a man who is able ought to blush if he eat of anothers oblation * Oblationes quae in altari consecr antur osserte erubescere debet homo idoneus si de alienâ oblatione communicet Aug. Serm. 13. de Temp. without offering himself These oblations are expresly called a sacrifice in the Apostolic Canons in Ignatius and in St. Cyprian as Alms and Works of Charity are in the Epistle to the Hebrews chap. 13. ver 16. and these in our Churches prayer before the Sacrament we beg God to accept of In the Apostolic Constitutions where we have the largest if not earliest account of the Eucharistic office the oblation is thus described We offer to thee King and God according to thy appointment this bread and this cup and we beseech thee to look graciously upon these gifts set before thee O thou God who wantest nothing and send thy holy Spirit upon this sacrifice (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apostol Constit l. 8. c. 12. i. e. upon these oblations and make them to be the body and blood of Christ i. e. Sacrumentally and Vertually In the Ordo Romanus and in the Canon of the Mass it self (c) Te igitur Clementissime Pater per Jesum Christum Filium tuum Dominum nostrum supplicts rogamus a◠petimus ut accepta habeas benedicas haec dona haec munera haec Sancta Sacrificia illibata in primis quae tibi offerimus Hanc igitur oblationem servitutis nostrae sed cunctae familliae tuae quaesumus Domine ut placatus accipias Quam Oblationem tu Deus in omnibus quaesumus benedictam ascriptam ratam rationabitem acceptabilemque facere digneris ut nobis corpus sanguis fiat dilectissimi filii tui Domini nostri Jesu Christi Ordo Romanus p. 62. Edit Hittorp Canon Missae there is this prayer over the oblations that God would accept and bless these Gifts these Presents these Holy and undefiled sacrifices which we offer to thee c. and another to the same purpose said by their Priest with his hand stretched over the oblata This oblation therefore of our service and of thy whole Family we beseech thee O Lord mercifully to receive c. And again This oblation O Lord we beseech thee to make blessed c signing upon the oblata That it may be to us the body and blood of thy dearest Son our Lord Jesus Christ All these prayers over the oblations whereby they are presented to God are made before Consecration so that the oblations which are here called Holy and pure Sacrifices are thought worthy of that Name before they are become the Body and Blood of Christ and so made a proper facrifice in the present sense of the Church of Rome the Canon of the Mass is Older then their New doctrine of the sacrifice of the Mass and affords plain evidence for applying the name of sacrifice to the Eucharist upon the
in that probably their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ministry consisted or as St. Chrysostom ‖ Homil. 37. in Act. and after him Oecumenius explain it in preaching but that they sacrificed there is not the least evidence The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not signifie to sacrifice but to perform any proper function and therefore it is attributed in the Scripture both to the Angels who are called ministring spirits †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 1.14 and to the Magistrates who are called the Ministers of God ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 13.6 and yet sacrificing I suppose belongs to neither of them nor does their own vulgar Latin so Translate it here The last is out of the 1 Cor. 10. for Bellarmine gives up that out of the Hebrews 13. We have an altar of which they have no right to eat who serve the Tabernacle though 't is as much to his purpose in my mind as any of the rest but some Catholick Writers he says do by altar mean there either the Cross or Christ himself †Quia non desunt ex Catholicis qui eo loco per altare intelligunt crucem aut ipsum Christum non urgeo ipsum locum Bellarm. de Mis c. 14. but if it were meant of the Eucharist that is but an Altar in an improper sense as the sacrifice offered on it is but improper and metaphorical as we shall prove but in the place to the Corinthians the Apostle Commands them not to eat of things offered to Idols for to eat of them was to partake of things sacrificed to Devils and so to have communion with Devils which was very unfit for those who were partakers of the Lords Table and therein truly communicated of the Body and Blood of Christ as those who ate of the Jewish sacrifices were partakers of the Jewish Altar Now what is here of the sacrifice of the Mass or any way serviceable to it Why yes the Apostle compares the Table of the Lord with the Table of Devils and eating of the Lords supper with eating the Jewish and the Heathen sacrifices therefore the Christians ought to have an Altar as well as the Jews and what they fed on ought to be sacrificed as well as the Heathen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the Apostle says nothing of this nor makes any such comparison between them but only shows the unfitness of Christians eating of the Heathen sacrifices who partook of the Lords Table he does not call the Lords Table an Altar nor the Eucharist a sacrifice nor was there any danger that the Christians should go to eat in the Idol Temples but he would not have them eat of their sacrifices brought home and the whole comparison lyes here the eating the Lords Supper did make them true partakers of the Lords body and blood sacrificed upon the Cross as eating of the Jewish sacrifices did make the Jews partakers of the Jewish Altar and as eating of things offered to Idols was having fellowship with Devils so that they who partook of such holy food as Christians did should not communicate of such execrable and diabolical food as the Heathen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If indeed Christians could not partake of Christs body and blood in the Eucharist unless they first made a proper sacrifice and oblation of them then the Apostles discourse would necessarily suppose and imply them to be thus offered as the Jewish and Heathen sacrifices were before they were eaten but since Christs body and blood being once offered upon the Cross is a sufficient sacrifice and oblation of them and the Eucharist is a religious and Sacramental Feast upon the sacrifice of Christ once offered this is sufficient for the Apostles scope and design in that place where there is no other comparison made between the Table of the Lord and the Table of Devils but that one makes us to be partakers of the body and blood of Christ and the other to have Fellowship with Devils and as to the Jewish Altar the Antithesis does not lye here as Bellarmine would have it between that and the Table of the Lord that both have proper sacrifices offered upon them which are eaten after they are sacrificed but the Cross of Christ rather is the Antithesis to the Jewish Altar on which sacrifices were really and properly slain which are not on the Christian Altar and the feeding and partaking of those sacrifices so offered whereby they were made partakers of the Altar this answers to the sacramental feeding upon Christs body and blood in the Christian Altar whereby we are made partakers of the Cross of Christ and have the vertue and merit of his sacrifice communicated to us Thus I have considered and fully answered whatever our Adversaries can bring out of Scripture for their sacrifice of the Mass I shall now offer some places of Scripture that are directly contrary to it and do perfectly overthrow it and though their cause must necessarily sink if the Scripture be not for it because without a Scriptural Foundation there can be no divine institution of a sacrifice which is necessary by their own confession and so essential a part of worship ought surely to be appointed by no less an Authority then of God himself so that if it be destitute of Scripture-grounds it must like a Castle in the Air fall of it self and can have nothing else to support it Yet I shall show that Scripture is plainly against it and that so strong a battery may be raised and levelled at it from thence that none of their Arts or devices can be able to withstand it it is from those known places of the Epistle to the Hebrews from whence I have already shown how contrary their Doctrine is to our Saviours Melchisedecian priesthood I shall now urge those places out of that Epistle wherein the Divine Authour of it who was probably St. Paul largely and designedly showeth the excellency of Christs sacrifice above those under the Law upon this account that it had so much vertue and efficacy in it that by one offering it obtained full and perfect Remission of sin whereas this was the great imperfection of the others and showed their great weakness and insufficiency that they were so often offered and so frequently repeated every priest of the Jews standeth dayly ministring and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sin chap. 10.11 And it was plain they could not take away sin because they were so often offered over again either every day or every year For the Law can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect chap. 10. verse 1. For then would they not have ceased to be offered because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year verse 2 3. Those sacrifices being but like the acknowledgments
and St. Peter in which there are the distinct parts of the people as well as of the Priest as when the Priest is to say peace be with you all the people are to answer and with thy spirit and the service is so framed as to suppose and require company in Communicating or else it would be nonsensical and ridiculous for the Priest alone to pray to God to breathe upon us his servants that are present to grant that the Sacraments may be to all us that partake of them the Communion of the blessedness of eternal Life and after the Communion is over after all have received for the priest to give the blessing to all and pray God to bless and protect us all who were partakers of the Mysteries The same form of speaking in the plural is in the more Authentick Liturgies of St. Basil and St. Chrysostom where it is very odd for the Priest to exhort others to pray to give thanks and the like and to pray God that they may be worthy partakers of the Sacrament if none were to partake of it but himself The Roman Missal which is much older then these private Masses or then the Doctrine of the Mass as I shall presently show speaks after the same manner and makes the Priest pray for all that are present and that all who have communicated may be filled with all heavenly benediction and Grace These must be all very improper for the Priest to say when he communicates by himself and he may with as good reason make a Congregation by himself alone as make a Communion Private Masses then which sprang up from the sacrifice of the Mass and are wholly suited and agreeable to that Doctrine these being so contrary to the best Antiquity show that that Doctrine also on which they are founded and from whence they arose is so too And I have the more largely considered these because they are another great corruption of the Eucharist of the Roman Church tho they are originally derived from the sacrifice of the Mass Fourthly The very Canon of the Mass as 't is at present in the Roman Church has very little in it agreeable to this new Doctrine of the sacrifice of the Mass but though it is somewhat difficult to give a certain account of the time of its composition it being made at first by an unknown Author whom St. Gregory calls Scholasticus who is supposed by some to be Pope Gelasius though had St. Gregory known this he would hardly have given him that name and it having a great many additions given to it by several Popes as is owned by their own Writers upon the Ordo Romanus * Walasrid Strabo de rebus Eccles c. 22. Micrologus de Ecclesiast Observat c. 12. Berno Augiensis c. 1. alii in Collectione Hittorpii yet it is no doubt much ancienter then their present Doctrine of the sacrifice of the Mass which is very near as late as the Council of Trent The first manner of celebrating the Communion was very plain and simple so that St. Gregory tells us The Apostles consecrated the host of oblation only with the Lords Prayer †Mos Apostolorum fuit ut ad ipsam solammodo orationem Dominicam oblationis hostiam consecrarent Gregorii Regist Epistol 64. l. 7. if they did so and used no other form in that sacred Office 't is certain they could not make a sacrifice of the Eucharist nor offer it as such to God because there are no words or expressions in that prayer whereby any such thing should be meant or signified so that this is a most authentick testimony against any such Apostolick practice but the present Canon Missae or Communion Office of the Roman Church does not fully come up to nor perfectly expresse or contain the present Doctrine of the sacrifice of the Mass there is no offering of Christs body and blood under the species of Bread and Wine in any formal words as might be expected in conformity to their Trent Doctrine nor is there any mention of Christs being there in his natural body or offered to God by the Priest as a propitiatory sacrifice for the quick and dead for sins for punishments and for other necessities Neither this nor their great Doctrine of Transubstantiation is contained in their present office so that 't is to me a plain evidence of the novelty of both of them and that they are a great deal later then the Canon of the Mass there are several prayers indeed that make mention of a sacrifice and of an oblation but most of them and the most expresse of them are before consecration so that they plainly belong to those Gifts and Oblations which according to the Primitive custom were brought by the Communicants and which as I have shown were one great reason of the Eucharist's being called a sacrifice God is desired to accept and bless these gifts these presents these holy and pure sacrifices which we offer to thee for thy holy Catholick Church together with thy servant our Pope N. and our Bishop N. and for all the Orthodox and for all those that hold the Catholick and Apostolick Faith. * See Canon Missae and then follows the commemoration Prayer Remember O Lord thy servants and thy handmaids N. and N. and all those who are present whose Faith and Devotion is known to thee for whom we offer to thee or who offer to thee this sacrifice of praise for themselves and for all others for the Redemption of their Souls for the hope of their Salvation and their safety and render their vows to thee the Eternal Living and True God then after the memorial of the Saints We beseech thee O Lord that thou wouldst mercifully receive this Oblation of our service and of all thy Family and dispose our days in peace and command us to be delivered from eternal damnation and to be numbred in the fold of thine Elect through Jesus Christ our Lord then immediately follows this prayer which Oblation thou O God we bescech vouchsafe to make altogether blessed ascribed ratified reasonable and acceptable Ascripta and Rata are words which they are as much puzled to understand as I am to Translate All these prayers are before consecration so that they cannot belong to the sacrifice of Christs Body but only to the oblation of the gifts and the sacrifice of praise as 't is there expresly called and yet these are a great deal more full and large then the prayers after consecration wherein there is no manner of mention of offering Christs Body and Blood but only offering the consecrated Elements as they were offered before when they were unconsecrated We offer unto thy excellent Majesty of thy gifts and presents a pure host an holy host an immaculate host the holy bread of Eternal Life and the cup of Eternal Salvation The first Composers would have used other words then Bread and Cup had they meant thereby Christs very natural Body and