Christus cuique occiditur cum evedit occisum August quaest Evang. l. 2. and when we believe in Christ from the very remains of this thought Christ is dayly immolated to us (c) Cum credimus in Christum ex ipsis reliquiis cogitationis Christus nobis quotidie immolatur Id. in Psal 73. as St. Hierom says when we hear the word of our Lord his flesh and blood is as it were poured into our Ears (d) cum audimus Sermonem Domini caro Christi sanguis ejus in auribus nostris funditur Hieron in Psal 147. and so St. Ambrose calls the virgins minds those Altars on which Christ is dayly offered for the Redemption of the Body (e) Vestras mentes confidenter altaria dixerim in quibus quotidiè pro Redemptione corporis Christus offertur Ambr. de Virg. l. 2. The Minister also does not only offer to God the oblations of the faithful at the Altar and their spiritual sacrifices of prayer and praise which it is his proper duty in their names to present unto God but he does offer as it were Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for the people by praying to God for the people as a public Minister in and through the merits of Christs death and passion and by consecrating and administring the blessed Sacrament which is hereby made not only a commemorative sacrifice of Christs body and blood but does with the outward sign really exhibit the thing signified to the people So that 't is no wonder to meet with the words offering and offering Christs body and blood as attributed peculiarly to the Minister as in those known places of Ignatius his Epistles 't is not lawful for the Priest to offer without the leave of the Bishop And in Tertullian when the Priest is wanting thou baptizest and offerest and art a Priest to thy self and in the Council of Nice where Deacons are forbid to offer the body of Christ Can. 14. To offer and to offer Christs body and blood is made the peculiar office of the Priest as he alone is the steward of these Mysteries of God and the proper Minister to consecrate and celebrate this Holy Sacrament and in that to offer up the peoples requests to God in the name of Christ and his meritorious cross and passion and by vertue of that to mediate for the people and present as it were Christs sacrifice on their behalf that is Christs body and blood as an objective sacrifice in heaven and as formerly truly offered upon the cross and now sacramentally and improperly upon the Altar but not as an external visible proper sacrifice subjectively present and placed upon the Altar by the hands of the Priest and by a visible and external action presented to God and offered up as the Jewish sacrifices used to be by any consumption or alteration as they hold the sacrifice of the Mass to be No such can be found in any of the Fathers or ancient Ecclesiastic Writers though they speak often of sacrifices and oblations and sometimes of offering Christ and the body of Christ in the Eucharist yet not at all in the present sense of the Romish Church or according to the doctrine of the Council of Trent or the Writers since that which how contrary it is to Antiquity I shall show by a few general Remarks and Considerations 1. Had they had any such sacrifice they might have given another answer to their Jewish and Heathen Adversaries who charged them with the want of outward Sacrifices and Altars as with a great impiety to which they made only this return in their Apologies that they had indeed no proper Altars nor visible and external sacrifices but instead of those they offered the more spiritual sacrifices of Praise and Thanksgiving and of an honest and good mind and of vertuous and holy actions which were the only sacrifices of Christians and more acceptable to God then any other this is the answer which runs through all their excellent Apologies in return to that accusation of their having no sacrifices which they owned to be true in the sense their Adversaries urged it that is that they had no proper external visible sacrifices such as the Jews and Heathens had such as the Roman Church will needs have the Mass to be but their sacrifices were of another nature such as were so only in an improper and metaphorical sense which the Romanists will by no means allow that of the Eucharist to be We are not Atheists says Justin Martyr as they were chargged to be because they had not the visible Worship of facrifices but we Worship the maker of all things who needs not blood or libations or incense with the Word of Prayer and Thanksgiving giving him Praise as much as we can and counting this the only honour worthy of him (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justin Martyr Apolog. 2. and we are perswaded he needeth no material oblation from men (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ib. And in another place he says Prayers and Praises made by good men are the only perfect and acceptable sacrifices to God (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dialog cum Tryph. We are charged by some with Atheism says Athenagoras who measure Religion only by the way of sacrifices and what do ye tell me of sacrifices which God wanteth not though we ought to bring him an unbloody sacrifice and to offer him a rational Worship (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanag Legat. pro Christ where the rational worship explains the meaning of the unbloody sacrifice Tertullian in his Apologetic answering that charge That Christians did not sacrifice for the Emperours it follows says he by the same reason we do not sacrifice for others because neither do we do it for our selves (e) Pro Imperatoribus sacrisicia non pendltis sequitur ut eadem ratione pro aliis non sacrificemus quia nec pro nobis ipsis Tertull. Apologet. adversus gentes c. 10. but in answer to this he declares how Christians prayed for the Emperour c. 30. and in another place he says they sacrificed for the Emperors health that is with a pure prayer as God has commanded (f) Sacrificamus pro salute Imperatoris i. e. purâ price sicut Dius praecepit Idem ad Scapul and I offer to God says he in the same Apologetic speaking against other sacrifices a rich and a greater sacrifice then le commanded the Jews Prayer from a chast body from an innocent soul proceeding from the Holy Spirit (g) Ei offero opimam majorem hostiam quam ipse mandavit orationem de carne pudicâ de animâ innocenti de Spiritu sancto profectam Ib. Apol. c. 30. This is the Host to be offered says Minutius Felix a good mind a pure soul a sincere conscience these are our sacrifices these are the sacred things of God in answer to their not having Altars and Shrines (h) Cum sit litabilis hostia bonus
account of those offerings and oblations that were made there 2. The Eucharist is called a sacrifice by the Ancients upon the account of those religious Acts and Pious Exercises which are there performed by the devout Communicants and which are called sacrifices both in Scripture and in the Fathers thus our Prayers may be as well a morning as an evening sacrifice Ps 141.2 And therefore as Irenaeus says speaking of the Eucharist God would have us continually offer a gift at his Altar to wit our Prayers and Oblations which are directed to the heavenly Altar †Vult nos quoque sine intermissione offerre munus ad altare est ergo altare in coelis illue enim preces oblationes nostrae diriguntur Iren. l. 4. advers Haeres c. 33. though they are made at the Earthly So our Praises and Thanksgivings which are then raised to the highest pitch when we have the greatest instance of the Divine Love offered to our minds are that sacrifice which we are then to offer to God giving thanks to his name Heb. 13.15 Namely for that Miracle of kindness Christ dying for us from which the Eucharist has its name and for which reason it is oalled a sacrifice of Praise in the Ordo Romanus †Memento Domine famulorum famularumque tuarum omnium circumadstantium quorum tibi fides cognita est nota devotio qui tibi offerunt hoc sacrificium laudis pro se suisque omnibus pro Redemptione animarum suaerum pro spo salutis c. tibique reddunt vota sua Ordo Romanus p. 62. viz. for our Redemption and hope of Salvation and also for those vows which we then render unto God when we present our bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God Rom. 12.1 as the Apostle speaks and as St. Austin expresses it the Church is then offered to God and is made one body in Christ when we are made to drink into one Spirit 1 Cor. 12.13 and this is the sacrifice of Christians (b) Hoc est sacrificium Christianorum multi unum corpus sumus in Christo quod etiam sacramento altaris fidelibus noto frequentat Ecclesia uhi ei demonstratur quod in eâ oblatione quam offert ipsa offeratur August Civitate Dei l. 10. c. 6. not only a sacrifice of Praise as 't is called by Eusebius (c) Demonstrat l. 1. c. 10. St. Basil (d) Liturg. St. Austin (e) Ad Pet. Diac. c. 9. and other Fathers whereby we offer up unto God the calves of our lips in the Scripture phrase but wherein we offer and present unto God our selves our souls and bodies to be a reasonable holy and lively sacrifice unto him and though we are unworthy to offer unto him any sacrifice yet beseech him to accept this our bounden duty and service according to the Prayer of our Church in its excellent office of the Communion Melchior Canus in his Defence of the sacrifice of the Mass has unawares confest this Truth That Christ did only offer up at his last Supper a sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving For to give thanks says he after the Jewish manner and take the Cup into his hands and lift it up is truly to offer a sacrifice of Thanksgiving When Christ therefore said Do this he plainly commanded his Apostles that what they saw him do they should do also by offering up a sacrifice of Eucharist that is of giving of Thanks (f) Ritu quippe Judaico gratias agere calicem in manibus accipiendo levando vere est hostiam gratiarum actionis offerre Quùm itaque dixit Dominus hoc facite planè jussit Apostolis ut quod ipsum facere cernebant id quoque illi facerent Eucharistiae hoc est gratiarum actionis hostiam exhlbendo Canus in locis Theolog. l. 12. p. 806. and he expresly speaks against Christs offering up a Mass-sacrifice for sin then when the day of the bloody sacrifice was now near and the very hour approaching and when their general sacrifice was nigh by which it pleased the Father to forgive all sins (g) Christum in caenâ sacrificium non pro peccato quidem sed gratiacum tamen actionis obtulisse quod cum sacrificii cruenti dies instaret jam planè aut certè jam appropinquaret hora non oportibat hostiam in caenâ pro peccato Mysticam exhibere cum impenderet generalis hostia illa in quâ Patri complacuit omnia peccata resolvi Ib. p. 834. which is to make the Eucharist what we are willing to own it a sacrifice of Thanksgiving and is in a few words to cut the very throat of their Cause as to this Controversie 3. The Eucharist is called a sacrifice as it is both a Commemoration and a Representation of Christs sacrifice upon the Cross so 't is a commemorative and representative sacrifice as we call that a bloody Tragedy which only represents a Murder and we give the name of the thing to that which is but the resemblance and likeness of it The Jews called that the Passover which was but a memorial of it and the Apostle says we are buryed with Christ in Baptism and rise with him Col. 2.12 when those are but remotely signified thus Christ is immolated and sacrificed in the Eucharist as St. Austin speaks when according to the Glosse upon his words his immolation is represented and there is made a memorial of his passion (a) Christus Immolatur i. e. Christi immolatio repraesentatur sit memoria Passionis de Consec Dist 2. Christ says he was but once offered and yet in the Sacrament he is dayly immolated neither does he lye who says Christ is immolated for if Sacruments had not the likeness of those things whereof they are sacraments they would be no sacraments at all but from this likeness they received the names of the things themselves (b) Nonne Christus semel oblatus est tamen in Sacramento quotidie populis immolatur nec mentitur qui dicit Christum immolari si enim sacramenta non haberent similitudinem earum rerum quarum sunt sacramenta nullo modo essent sacramenta sed ex similitudine saepe nomina earum accipiunt August Ep. 120. ad Honorat Thus as he there gives several instances wherein that which is the memorial of a thing does for its similitude to that thing of which it is a memorial receive its name When Easter approcheth we say to morrow or next day is the passion of Christ and on the Lords day we say this day Christ arose when Christs passion was but once and that several years ago and that day is said to be Christs Resurrection which yet it is not (c) Illud quod alicujus memoriale est propter similitudinem saepe ejus rei cujus memoriale est nomen accipiat ut appropinquante Paschate dicimus cras aut perendie est passio Christi cumsemel tantum ante multos annos
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
Blood and it is plain they were not those by what follows Vpon which vouchsafe to look with a propitious and kind countenance and to accept of them as thou didst accept the gifts of thy righteous child Abel and the sacrifice of our Patriarch Abraham and that which Melchisedec thy High Priest offered to thee an Holy Sacrifice an immaculate Host. Now to compare Christs very Body and Blood with the sacrifices of Abel Abraham and Melchisedec and to desire God to look upon his own Son in whom he was always well pleased with a propitious and kind Countenance is very strange and uncouth to say no worse of it and to desire according to what follows that God would command these to be carried by the hands of his holy Angel into thy sublime Altar in the presence of thy Divine Majesty These cannot be meant or understood of Christs natural Body and Blood which is already in heaven and is there to appear in the presence of God for us as Menardus expresly owns in his notes upon this prayer in Gregories Sacramentary †Jube haec perferri non Christi carpus sed memoriam passionis sidem preces veta sideliam Menardi notae observat in lib. Sacrament Gregorn Papae p. 19. and if so as we have the confession of the most Learned Ritualist of their own Church then there is nothing at all in the Canon of the Mass that does truly belong to these or that does any way express or come up to the new Tridentine Doctrine of the sacrifice of the Mass so that we need go no further then their own office to show the Novelty of this and as in other things namely in their prayers to Saints they are forced to use very gentle and softning interpretations to make the words signifie otherwise then what they do in their proper and literal meaning so here they must put a more strong and hard sense upon them then they will really bear or was at first intended to make them speak the new meaning of the Mass-sacrifice so that they must here contrive a way to raise the sense of the Church as they do in other cases to let it down or else their Prayers and their Doctrines will never be brought to suit well together The commemoration for the dead has nothing in it but a meer Remembrance and a Prayer that God would give to them a place of refreshment light and peace through Jesus Christ our Lord not through the merit or vertue of that sacrifice which is then offered there is not the least mention or intimation of any such thing nor any expression that looks that way The Priest indeed a little before he communicates prays Christ to deliver him from all his sins and from all evils by this his most sacred Body and Blood which he may do without its being a sacrifice and I know no Protestant would scruple the joining in such a petition There is a prayer indeed deed at the last by the Priest to the Holy Trinity that the sacrifice which he has unworthily offered to the eyes of the Divine Majesty may be acceptable to it and through its mercy be propitiable for himself and for those for which he has offered it and this seems the fullest and the most to the purpose of the Mass-sacrifice and yet it may very fairly be understood in a sound sense without any such thing as 't is a sacrifice of prayer and as God is thereby rendred merciful and propitious both to our selves and others but it is to be observed that this prayer is not in the old Ordo Romanus where the others are nor in the Gelasian or Gregorian Missal nor in any other ancient one put out by Thomasius Menardus Pamelius Cardinal Bona or Mabillon but was I suppose added of later days to those old Forms Fifthly The new Addition to the form of Ordination in the Roman Church whereby * Accipe potestatem offerre sacrificium Deo Missasque celebrare tam pro vivis quam pro mortuis power is given to the Priest to offer sacrifice to God and to celebrate Masses both for the dead and living this discovers the novelty of their Doctrine of the sacrifice of the Mass for there was no such form of Ordination in the primitive Church nor is there any such thing mentioned in any Latin or Greek Ordinale for near a thousand years after Christ The most antient account of the manner of Ordaining is in the fourth Council of Carthage where there is nothing else but †Presbyter cum Ordinatur Epâ—scapo cum benedicente manum super caput ejus tenente etiam â—â—nes Presoyteri qui praesentes sunt manus suas juxta manum Episcopi super caput illius tenent Canon 3. Concil Carthag the Episcopal Benediction and Imposition of hands by the Bishop and all the Priests In the Apostolic Constitutions there is a pretty long prayer of the Bishops over the Priest who is to be Ordained †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Constirut Apostol de Ordinat Presbyt l. 8. c. 16. that God would look upon his servant chosen into the Presbytery by the vote and judgment of all the Clergy and fill him with the spirit of Grace and Wisdom to help and govern the people with a pure heart that he may be silled with healing operations and instructive discourse and may teach the people with all meekness and may serve God sincerely with a pure understanding and a willing Soul and may perform the sacred and pure Offices for the people through Jesus Christ And this with laying on of hands is all the Form of Ordination which is so anciently prescribed St. Denis who is falsly called the Areopagite but was a Writer probably of the fifth Century before the Council of Calcedon he has acquainted us with much the like manner of Ordination in that time * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dionys Hierarch Eccles c. 5. The Priest kneeling before the Altar with the Holy Bible and the Bishops hand over his head was consecrated with holy Prayers Only there was then added the sign of the cross and the kiss of peace but no such thing as the receiving of power to offer sacrifice and to celebrate Masses for the living and the dead This was a thing unheard of in the ancient Church either Greek or Latin neither was it brought into the Latin till about the year 1000 as is confest by Morinus * de sacris Ordinat pars 3. c. 6. nor is it to this day used in the Greek In that age of Ignorance and Superstition when Transubstantiation and a great many other Errors and Corruptions crept into the Latin Church this new Form of Ordination was set up and the Priests had a new power given them and a new work put upon them which was to sacrifice and say Masses for the quick and dead which had it been agreeable to the Doctrine of the Primitive Church and had