Selected quad for the lemma: saint_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
saint_n	ancient_a	church_n	great_a	1,188	5	2.6407	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56741	A discourse of the sacrifice of the Mass	Payne, William, 1650-1696.	1688 (1688)	Wing P901; ESTC R19214	76,727	100

from the following considerations 1. Then these Oblations were made for departed Souls who were not supposed to be in a state of pain as they now believe Purgatory to be but in a state of ease and happiness as St. Austin believed his Mother to be when he offered for her and when he prayed for her * credo quod jam seceris quod te rogo sed voluntaria or is mei approba Domine August Confess l. 9. c. 12. he did believe that God had already granted her what he prayed for but he beg'd him to accept these free Will offerings of his mouth It was not then a doubt of her state but only the voluntary expressions of his Love and Duty which he designed by his Prayers and Oblations for her and those Olations were made even for Saints and Martyrs and the most holy Christians of whose future happiness there was no manner of question and for all indeed who dyed in the Communion of the Church And therefore 2. They were an honorary Testimony given to them of their good state and of their dying in the Peace and Communion of the Church to have their names recited at the Altar service out of the Diptychs or folded Tables was an honorary memorial and mention of them as members of the Church and 't was a disowning them as such to expunge or blot their names out of those Diptychs and so the making or receiving Oblations for them at the Altar was an acknowledgment of their right to the Altar to the Christian Communion and therefore no oblations were received of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of those who were not Communicants or had not a right to Communion of those who were guilty of scandalous sins or of those who were in a state of Penance for them as may be seen in the Apostolick Constitutions † l. 4. c. 5. l. 3. c. 8. and in one of the most ancient Councils (a) Episcopum placuit ab eo qui non communicat murera accipere non dibere Concil Eliber c. 28. which forbids the Bishop to take oblations from him who does not communicate Petavius has largely made this out in his Notes on Epiphanius (b) Animadvers in Epiphan Exposit fid and produces a Council which provides † Concil Vasense Ib. that the Oblations of those penitents should be received who were surprized by a sudden death in a journy Which was a receiving them into the Churches Communion quasi ex Postliminio 3. By having these Oblations received and offered for them they were made partakers of the prayers that were made for them at the Altar what ever benefit these prayers were believed to be of to departed souls which I am not here to examine that did accrue to them by having these oblations made and received for them for by this means they were particularly mentioned and recommended in the Prayers at the Altar and thus both Tertullian St. Cyprian and St. Austin explain the sacrifices and oblations which they mention as made for the dead (c) Vxor pro animâ defuncti mariti or at offert annuis diebus dormitionis ejus Tertull. de Monogam The Wife prays for her hushands soul and offers on his Anniversary And again (d) Neque enim ad altare meretur nominari in jacerdotum prece qui ab altari jacerdotes ministros suos avocari voluit Cypr. Ep. 1. He deserves not to be named in the prayer of the Priests at the Altar of God who takes off Gods ministers from the Altar in the fore-mentioned case of making a Clergy-man Executor (e) Vbi in precibus sacerdotis quae Domino Deo ad ejus altare funduntur locum suum habet etiam commendatio mortuorum August cura pro mor●uis And in the prayers of the Priest which are poured out to God at his Altar the commendation of the dead has place So that the good they had by these oblations was upon the account of these Prayers and not by any vertue in these oblations as they were a sacrifice distinct from the benefit of the Prayers as they were Alms indeed together with prayers they thought the dead benefitted by them together with the prayers and so St. Austin in the fore-quoted place mentions the sacrifices of the Altar which he explains by prayers and Alms both which he calls sacrifices * sive altaris sive orationum sive eleemosynarum sacrificiis supplicamus ut supra but not in a proper and strict sense as our Adversaries must acknowledge For these sacrifices I hope were not true and proper ones such as the sacrifice of the Mass is held to be nor were they properly propitiatory for their sins nor did the Antients who prayed for the dead at the Altar and made oblations for them think that these oblations were properly propitiatory or satisfactory for their sins as the Church of Rome believes the sacrifice of Mass now to be there is nothing that amounts to this in any of those places where they speak of offerings for the dead nor would St. Cyprian or the Bishops who ordained in Council that no offerings should be made for him who appointed a Clergy-Man Executor to his Will have inflicted so severe a punishment upon so small a fault had they thought this would have deprived his soul of a true and real propitiation for his sins nor would blotting out of the Diptychs have been so commonly put in use had this been consigning the soul to the punishments of another World. There was therefore no such thing meant as our Adversaries would now draw from that ancient custom of Oblations for the Dead and yet that this quickly degenerated into superstition and has been farther improved in aftertimes and is now come to very great perfection in the Roman Church we willingly own that the first beginnings of this were lay'd in this unscriptural custom as the Worship of Saints was from the Anniversary memory of the Martyrs is not to be denyed But corruptions in Religion like Diseases in the body might proceed at first from very small causes but by neglect and carelessness grow oftentimes very great and dangerous especially when the Physicians that should have cured them thought it for their purpose and interest rather to heighten and increase them 10. The sacrifice of the Mass must either be unnecessary or else must reflect on the sacrifice of the Cross if it be not necessary for obtaining the pardon and remission of any sin or for the relief of any spiritual want and necessity for which there has been no provision made by the sacrifice of the cross then it is wholly useless unprofitable if it be necessary for any such purpose then the sacrifice of the cross is not perfect and sufficient for all those ends but requires this sacrifice of the Mass to make up what is lacking and behind of the sufferings of Christ upon the

cross which is a great diminution to the infinite value of them It is impossible to avoid these inconveniences for if the merit of the cross be so great as to expiate all manner offin and to take away all kinds of punishment that are due to it and to supply all the spiritual wants and necessities whatever of all Christians then what possible need can there be of any other sacrifice And if Christs sacrifice once offered upon the cross can do all this why should there be any new offering or any reiteration of the same sacrifice when by being once offered it hath done the whole business that it can do were it offered never so often but if there be any kinds of sins which because they are dayly committed by us therefore require a dayly sacrifice as they pretend to be offered for them which implyes that the constant and abiding vertue of the cross cannot reach them which is yet as efficacious to all Christians now as the first day it was offered or as it could be if it were offered every day by Christ himself or if there be any such temporal remains of punishment after the eternal guilt of them is pardoned which are not discharged by Christs sacrifice upon the Cross but there is this small hand-Writing still however against us and continues uncancelled notwithstanding the Death of Christ then we are not perfectly redeemed from all punishment and from the whole Curse of the Law by the sacrifice of the cross but there is something more necessary to deliver and save us if not from Hell yet from Purgatory and whatever Christ has done for us yet the Mass sacrifice must still help us not as an instrument of Religion to work upon us and make us better but as a sacrifice to God to prevail with him to free us from punishment or else we are in a miserable condition which is the true contrivance of the sacrifice of the Mass that necessarily renders it very injurious to the most perfect and sufficient sacrifice of the cross I might add many other Errors belonging to this Doctrine of the sacrifice of the Mass such as saying their Masses in an unknown Tongue putting confidence in the meer opus operatum offering up Masses to the honour of the Saints and the like but those do more properly fall under other heads of controversie and are the peculiar subjects of other Treatises that are written on purpose upon those matters for though these all run into this Doctrine of the sacrifice of the Mass which is the great Lake into which most of the Popish Errors empty themselves yet the first head and rise of them is not from hence and so I shall not take them in here The Mass sacrifice contains in it a whole Legion of Errors but 't is only the principal one which I have endeavoured by this Discourse to cast out and that is its being a proper and truly propitiatory sacrifice which I have shown to be founded upon two monstrous Errours to have no true foundation in Scripture nor no just claim to Antiquity but to be plainly contrary to both those and to be in it self very absurd and Vnreasonable which is enough in conscience against any one Doctrine or any Church that maintains it however Infallible they may both of them pretend to be if this be clearly and strongly made out against them as has been Attempted in this Treatise FINIS Books Sold by Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pidgeons over against the Royal Exchinge in Cornhil A Discourse concerning the Adoration of the Host as it is Taught and Practiced in the Church of Rome Wherein an Answer is given to T. G. on that Subject And to Monsieur Boleau 's late Book De Adoratione Eucharist A Discourse of the Communion in One Kind In Answer to a Treatise of the Bishop of Meaux 's of Communion of both Species An Answer to a Book Entituled Reason and Authority Or the Motives of a Late Protestant's Reconciliation to the Catholick Church Together with a brief Account of Augustine the Monk and Conversion of the English A Request to Roman Catholicks To Answer the Queries upon these their following Tenets Sect. 1. Their Divine Service in an Vnknown Tongue 2. Their taking away the Cup from the People 3. Their with-holding the Scriptures from the Laicks 4. The Adoration of Images 5. The Invocation of Saints and Angels 6. The Doctrine of Merit 7. Purgatory 8. Their Seven Sacraments 9. Their Priests Intention in Baptism 10. The Lambo of unbaptized Insants 11. Transubstantiation 12. The Propitiatory Sacrifice of the Mass 13. Private Masses 14. The Sacrament of Penance 15. The Sacrament of Marriage with the Clergies Restraint therefrom 16. Their Sacrament of extream Vnction 17. Tradition 18. That Thred-bare Question Where was your Church before Luther 19. The Infallibility of the Pope with his Councils 20. The Pope's Supremacy 21. The Pope's Deposing Power 22. Their Vncharitableness to all other Christians