to offer to thee that rational and unbloudy sacrifice for our sins and ignorance of the People The Consecration is some what different but by the action and words of our Saviour after which the Bishop prayes in secret Therefore O most holy Lord we also sinners and they unworthy servants who are ordained to minister at thy Altat not for our righteousnesse for we have not done any thing good on earth but for thy mercies and miserations which thou hast abundantly poured on us we confiding draw near to thy holy Altar propounding the things consigurating the holy body and bloud of thy Christ we beseech thee and ask thee O holy of holies that by thy wel-plensing benignitie thy holy spirit may comt upon us and on these guifts which are set before us to bless and sanctifie them and declare this bread to be the honour able body of our Lord God and Suvicur jesu Christ and that which is in the Chalice the very bloud of our Lord God and our Saviout Jesu Christ which is shed for the life of the world Again Make us all partaking of one bread and Chalice to be united together in the Communion of one holy Spirit and receive the holy body and bloud of thy Christ c. Before Communion the Bishop said O Lord Jesu Christ our God behold from thy holy tabernacle and come to sanctifie us who sittest above with the Father and here invisibly art joyned to us vouchsafe with thy pawerful hand to give us thy holy and undesiled body and precious bloud and by us sinners to thy people Prayer for the dead Be mindful of all who sleep in the hope of Resurrection to eternal life and as for Altars Vestments Incense some prayers in secret Kyrie eleison very frequently In like manner Pax vobis the Epistle and Gospel signing the bread and wine and the people with the signe of the Cross turning to the people washing of hands elevation of the bread to shew it to the people dismission of the people with many other things which we now use in the Roman Mass the like I may say of S. Chrysostomes Mass of which in the next Paragraph §. 3. Of S. Chrysostom's Liturgie or Mass NOt long after S. Basil S. John Chrysostome on the same reasons did abbreviate the form of Mass which the Grecians do observe to this day and besides the practise many Expositors as Proclus Bishop of Constantinople within 30. years after S. German Bishop of the same place in his Theorie of holy things wherein he explicates all the ceremonies and substance of the Mass Nicolas Cabasilus Archbishop of Thessalonia in his explication of the liturgie The holy Martyr Maximus in his book de Ecclesiastica Mystagogia of the Ecclesiastical Mysteries and ceremonies Bessarion Bishop of Nice and afterward Cardinal and others all agreeing in the same Mysteries and others all agreeing in the same Mysteries with S. Chrysostome in his Liturgie Add to this that we may find the self same dispersed in his several works as Clandius de sanctis has pithily collected in the end of his book de Liturgils Let us briesly set down what S. Chrysostome has in his We find all the Ceremonies now used in the Lattin Church as all along are noted in the second part of the liturgical Discourse particularly of Altars Vestments signing the bread and wine the book of the Gospel Incense and Peoples Inclinations adorations some prayers in silence prayer for the Pope partition of the host whereof one piece is put into the Chalice Elevation of the holy Sacrament Pax benediction at the end of offering at the Altar Mention is made of the Ineruental host and the Priest prayes We give thee thanks O Lord God of vertues who hast thought us worthy to assist now at thy holy Altar and to prostrate to thy mercies for our sins and ignorance of the people O Lord God receive our supplication and make us worthy in offering prayer and the Incruental host to thee for all thy people And again in another prayer Make me annointed with the grace of Priesthood to assist at this holy table and consecrate thy holy body and precious bloud A little after Grant that these Sacraments may be offered by me a sinner and thy unworthy servant for thou art he that offers and is offered the receiver and distributer Christ our Lord The words of consecration are a little different from those of the former Liturgies After the Priest sayes We offer to thee this rational and Incruental dutie and we pray and supplicate and ask that thou wouldst send thy holy Spirit upon us and on these thy gifts and make this bread indeed the precious body of thy Christ and what is in the Chalice the Preci-bloud of thy Christ The Deacon saying Amen the Priest adds Changing by thy holy spirit And after Look down O Lord Jesu Christ our God from thy holy Tabernacle and from the seat of Glory of thy kingdom and come to sanctify us thou who sittest above with the Father and assists us invisibly here beneath vouchsafe to give us by thy powerful hand thy Immaculate body and precious bloud and by us to all the People Besides in this Liturgie the priest frequently calls upon our Blessed Lady craving her Intercessiion as also of the Angels and Saints and for the living and Dead In sine there is nothing in the now Roman Mass but Order and Decorum that was not in the former Mass in the primitive times so that we may say if the Mass was good in those times the Roman Mass is now good and if this the now Roman Mass be Idolatrous and sacrilegious the Liturgies Mass or publick prayer of the Church of those times were so also so that there never was a true Christian Church CHAP. III. The Sacrifice of the Mass proved out of the testimonie of Popes and Councels in the first 500. years NExt to this of the practise of the Church the authority of the holy Popes who have been within those 500. years ought to have a great weight and credit wherefore I shall begin with S. Leo 440. under whom was celebrated that famous Councel of Chalcedon admitted by the now English Church and for his great acts was surnamed the Great he I say Epist 81. to Dioscorus Ordained that for the necessity of the people a priest might say more then one Mass in solemn feasts and Epist 88. to the Bishops of Germany and France he gives a command that Coriepiscopes or Priests should not reconcile any penitent publickly in Mass 367. Pope Damascus Epist 4. made the same Decree and in his Pontifical speaking of Alexander Pope and Martyr he sayes that he did mingle our Lords Passion in the priests prayers when Masses were celebrated and that Sixtus Pope and Martyr ordained that the priest beginning the action of Mass the people should sing the hymn holy holy holy Lord God of Sabaoth 297. S. Marcelline Pope and Martyr Epist 1. The
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
the body and bloud of God Bread and wine and water are turned into the body and bloud of Christ I cannot omit the holy Abbot Paschasius who lib. de corp sang Dom. cap. 2. says Although the figure or form of bread and wine be here yet no other thing at all then the flesh of Christ and the bloud of Christ are to be believed after the consecration And lib de Instit Sacra Christ did not say that in this mystery there is a certain vertue or sign of my body but plainly says This is my body and therefore this is what he says and not what any one fancies This Authour lived about the year 850. well nigh four hundred years before the Lateran Council Isichius in the year 601. in Levit. cap. 9. The Dispensation of Mystery principally subsists in our Lords word transferring these things which appear into some other thing greater and intelligible 445. Let us now see what the holy Fathers in the first five hundred years did teach of this subject Prosper in lib. sentent In the species of bread and wine which we see we honour invisible things that is flesh and bloud we do not consider these two species as we did before the Consecration sith we faithfully acknowledg that before consecration the bread and wine to be what nature has framed but after the consecration to be the flesh and bloud of Christ which benediction has consecrated 430. S. Cyrill of Alexandria Epist ad Coelest God condescending to our frailty breaths the force of life in the things which are offered concerning them into the verity of his own flesh Eusebius Emissenus about the same time Hom. 5. de Pasch The invisible Priest by his word and sacred Power converts the visible creatures into the substance of his body and bloud 420. S. Augustine ser 28. de verb. Dom. I say unto you that before the words of Christ that which is offered is called bread when the words of Christ are pronounced it is not called bread but corpus a body 398. S. Chrysostome hom 83. in Mat. 11. hom 60. ad populum Antioch Those works which he did in the supper are not from humane power he now also works he performs it we hold the order of Ministers but he sanctifies and transmutates these things S. Ambrose lib. 4. de Sacram. cap. 4. This bread is bread before the Sacramental words when the consecration comes of bread is made the flesh of Christ After The word of Christ makes the Sacrament what word of Christ to wit that in which all things were created c. and infers I answer thee the body of Christ was not before consecration but after the consecration I say to thee that now it is the body of Christ take therefore as the word of Christ is wont to change all creatures and changes the state of nature when he will which he proves by many examples as that Christ was born of a Virgin and the standing of the waters when the Israelites passed the sea water coming out of a rock and such like lib. 4. de fid cap. 5. As often as we take the Sacrament which by the Mystery of holy prayer is transfigured into flesh and bloud we declare the death of our Lord and lib. de iis qui initiantur cap. 9. How many examples do we use that we may prove this not to be what nature hath framed but what benediction has consecrated and the force of benediction to be greater then that of nature for by benediction nature it self is changed 369. S. Cyril of Hierusalem Catech. 1. The bread and wine of the Eucharist before the Invocation of the adorable Trinity was meer bread and wine but the Invocation being done the bread indeed is made the body of Christ and wine the bloud of Christ Catech. 3. The Eucharistical bread after the Invocation of the holy Ghost is no more humane bread but the body of Christ And Catech. 4. He sometimes changed water into wine and shall not he be worthy to be believed that transmutates or changes wine into bloud 250. S. Cyp. Ser. de coena Dom. This bread which our Lord gave to his Disciples changed not in form but nature by the Omnipotency of the word is made flesh 203. Tertullian lib. 4. adversus Marci Christ made the bread receive his body saying This is my body 226. Origen lib. 8. contra Celsum We eat the offered bread now made by prayer a holy and sanctifying body 183. S. Irenaeus lib. 5. cap. 2. When the mixt chalice and the broken bread receive the word of God the Eucharist of the bloud and body of Christ is made And cap. 34. The bread which of earth taking the invocation of God is now not common bread but the Eucharist of Christs body and bloud 150. S. Justine Martyr Apol. 2. ad Antonium We take not common or usual bread and usuall drink but even as by Gods word Jesus Christ our conserver made man had flesh and bloud for our Salvation so for food which by power of the word which we have received he is consecrated wherewith our bloud and flesh by communion are nourished and we taken to be the flesh and bloud of Jesus Christ of him who made man Sure S. Dionise was of that minde when he calls the Eucharist the sacred and most majesticall Mysteries In a book dedicated to the renowned Prince Henry Prince of Wales under the Title of Catholick Tradition made by a french Hugonot I have these Testimonies following The Ethiopian Liturgy hath this prayer We pray thee O Lord that thou wouldest shew thy face on this bread on this Altar bless sanctifie cleanse and transport this bread into thy spottless flesh and this wine into thy pretious bloud and it may be made an ardent and acceptable sacrifice and health of our soul and body And again The Priest prays That God would change the bread and wine of the Sacrament as he changed water into wine in Cana. In another place the same Author says that the Abyssens in their Liturgy which probably is the same with the former frequently make mention of Transmutation and it is to be noted that these Nations do pretend to have the form of Liturgy or Mass from the Apostles I cannot omit the words of the Constaminopolitan Patriark Jeremias in answer to the German Protestants quoted by the same Author Touching those things we that is the Grecian Church see that you in no way agree with us The Catholick Church holds that the bread after the sanctification is changed into the body of Christ and the wine into into bloud by the holy Ghost A little after The bread is converted and changed into the body of our Lord and the wine into his bloud and again he affirms that there are not two things in the Sacrament to wit Bread and Christs Body but one sole to wit Christs body CHAP. XIV Who are the Ministers of this Sacrifice of the Mass IT may
seem superfluous to speak any more then what has been said already for from thence it is manifest that Christ has assumed unto himself sacred Priesthood according to the order of Melchisedech beginning it in his last supper when he instituted the perpetual sacrifice of the Eucharist wherein he as Prince and chief Minister daily and hourly by his Ministers offers himself to God the Father whence S. Gregory of Nice Orat. 1. in Resur Christ by a secret kinde of sacrifice which could not be seen by men offers himself an host for us and immolates a victim he being both priest and Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world when did he this when he gave to his Disciples assembled his body to be eaten and his bloud to be drunken then he declared openly that the sacrifice of the Lamb was now perfect S. Augustine l. 10. de civitate Dei cap. 20. in the precedent Chapter having declared that visible sacrifices are to be offered only to God in this Chapter infers Whence he is the true Mediator as taking the form of a Servant the Man Christ Jesus is made Mediatour of God and men whereas in the form of God he takes sacrifices with his Father with whom also he is one God yet in the form of a Servant he chose rather to be then to take sacrifice By this he is a Priest be offering and he the Oblation the sacrament of which thing he would have to be the duily sacrifice of the Church in Psal 33. can 2. Christ ordained according to the order of Melchisedech a sacrifice of his body and bloud S. Ambrose lib. 1. offic cap. 48. Now Christ is offered but he is offered as man as receiving his Passion and he as Priest offers himself S. Crysostome hom de Proditione Judae Christ is now present who adorns this table he himself consecrates for it is not man who makes the body and bloud of our Lord by consecration in the table set before us but he who was crucified for us Christ The words are said by the priests mouth and by Gods power and grace are consecrated with these words This is my body the things proposed are consecrated these once said in all the tables so he calls the Altars even to this present day and until his coming give firmnesse to the sacrifice Whence it is that in the consecration the Priest as Christs Minister uses Christs own words as having efficacy and vertue to produce the work intended from the power of Christ thereby acknowledging him to be the chief and soveraign Priest and themselves only his Ministers and Instruments But of this more amply spoken in the Liturgical Discourse par 2. sect 3. cap. 11. to which place I refer my Readers the same is also confirmed by what follows Eusebius l. 1. de Demonst c. 10. After all Christ offered for us a certain wonderful victim and excellent sacrifice working salvation of us all to his Father and ordained that we our selves should offer for a sacrifice to God the memory thereof S. Ambrose in Psal 138. We have seen the high Priest coming unto us and we have heard him offering his bloud let us Priests follow inasmuch as we can that we may offer sacrifice although we are infirm in merits yet by the sacrifice we are honorable for although Christ is not now seen to offer yet he is offered on earth when the body of Christ is offered nay he is manifestly offered for us whose word sanctifies the sacrifice which is offered And lib. 4. de sacram cap. 4. When we come to make the venerable sacrament the Priest now uses not his own words but the words of Christ it is therefore Christs words which makes this Sacrament S. Hierome in cap. 1. Epist ad Titum What shall we think of a Bishop who daily offers unspotted victims to God for his and the peoples sins this he does as priest and not properly as Bishop S. Crysostome in his Liturgy or Mass in one of his prayers has Thou art become man and our high Priest thou as Lord of all hast instituted the rite of sacrifices and delivered unto us the celebration of this solemn and immaculate sacrifice behold me a sinner that I may assist at this thy holy table and consecrate thy holy and Immaculate body and precious bloud for thou art he who offers and art offered both the receiver and giver Christ our God hom 83. in Mat. We hold the place of Ministers it is he that is Christ himself who sanctifies and changes them And a little after Thou O lay-man when thou seest the Priest offering do not think that the Priest is he who does it but the hand of Christ invisibly extended And hom 2. in 2. ad Timoth Truly this oblation which Peter or Paul or any other Priest of what merit soever does offer it is the same which Christ gave to his Disciples and which now also the Priests do consecrate This has no less then that why so because man does not sanctify this but Christ who before did consecrate it for even as the words which Christ spake are the same which the Priest do now also pronounce so that is the same oblation S. Cyprian Epist 63. ad Caecilium Know that we are admonished that Tradition be observed in offering the Chalice for we are to do no other thing then what our Lord has done before us that the Chalice which is offered in his remembrance may be offered with water And again If Jesus Christ our Lord and our God the high Priest of God the Father did first offer himself a sacrifice to the Father and command this to be done in his remembrance verily that Priest truly undergoes the place of Christ who imitates that which Christ did and then offers a true and full sacrifice in his Church if he undertakes to offer that which he has seen Christ himself to have offered Moreover the holy Fathers assign the Priests principall office to be the offering of sacrifice according to that of S. Paul Heb. 5. Every high Priest taken from men in those things that pertain to God that he may offer gifts and sacrifices for sins See the Annotations of the Rhemish Testament as also the Interpreters of this place when they largely declare the office of Priests in order to a Sacrifice whence S. Hierom Epist 1. ad Heliodorum cap. 7. says that Priests seated in the Apostolical dignity do consecrate with their mouths Christs body and Epist 85. ad Evagrium that by their prayers the body and bloud of Christ is made And in cap. 1. Epist ad Titum he tels us that the Bishops according to their office are to offer daily unspotted victims for his and the peoples sins S. Isidore about the year 600. made a Collection in form of Common-places out of the Fathers and Councils of the precedent ages lib. 2. de officiis c. 7. says Priests rule in Christs Churches and are conforts with Bishops
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
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
is signified in the word of Order by no means in Aaron by immolating unreasonable creatures but in offered bread and wine that is the body and bloud of our Lord Jesus Again Aarons priesthood had an end but Melchisedechs that is Christs and the Churches is perpetuall both for the time past and to come To omit other places I will conclude with his words on Mat. 26. After Christ had fullfilled the typicall pasche and eaten the flesh of the Lamb with his Apostles he took bread which comforts man and passing to the true Sacrament of the Pasche that even as it was in the Prefiguration of him in Melchisedech as a Priest of the most high God had done offering bread and wine he also presented the verity of his body and bloud 373. S. Ambrose in his Mass Our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son has instituted the rite of Sacrificing in the New testament to be celebrated when bread and wine which Melchisedech Priest had offered in prefiguration of the future Mystery he transformed into the Sacrament of his body and bloud and lib. 3. de Sacram. cap. 1. we know that the figure of those Sacraments did go before in the times of Abraham when the holy Melchisedech did offer Sacrifice 370. Epiphanius her 55. Then Melchisedech met him that is Abraham and set before him bread and wine prefiguring the enigma's and exemplars of the Mistery when our Lord said I am the living bread and of his bloud which did flow from his side 326. Eusebius l. 5. de Demonst cap. 3. The issue of that Oracle is admirable to him who contemplates in what manner our Saviour Jesus who is annoynted of God according to the rite of Melchisedech doth perform by his Ministers these things which belong to fulfill the priesthood among men for as he who was a priest of the gentiles was never seen exercising any corporal Sacrifices but only bread and wine when he blessed Abraham so truly first our Saviour and Lord himself then those who come from him as priests in all nations do represent in performing their function according to Ecclesiasticall functions the Spirituall office of priesthood in the wine and bread the mysteries of his body and Salutary bloud 290. Lactantius l. 14. Instit Christ must needs have in this Church his external Priesthood according to the order of Melchisedech and before him his Master Arnobius in psal 109. by the mysteries of Bread and Wine he was made a priest for ever 250. S. Cyprian l. 2. Epist 3. ad Caecilium Who is more a priest then our Lord Jesus Christ who offered a sacrifice to the Father and offered the very same that Melchisedech did offer that is bread and wine to wit his body and bloud In fine I challenge all our Adversaries to produce any holy Fathers teaching the contrary Doctrine or that ever questioned any of these Fathers cited and desire that all good Christians will note that the Fathers here cited do speak positively according as they believed and taught and as the Church ever since received §. 2. The Sacrifice of the Mass proved out of the Prophet Malachy The Prophet Malachy cap. 1. said In every place there is sacrificing and there is offered to my name a clean Oblation because my name is great among the Gentils Which place the holy Council of Trent Sess 22. cap. 1. cites for the holy Sacrifice of ths Mass Let us see now what the holy Fathers of those Primitive times said of it 420. Let us begin with S. Augustine who l. 10. de civit Dei cap. 35. Now Malachy prophesying of the Church which we see so happily propagated by our Saviour Christ hath these plain words to the Jews in the person of God I have no pleasure in you neither will I accept an offering at your hand for from the rising of the Sun unto the setting my name it great among the Gentils and in every place shall be Incense offered unto me and a pure offering unto my name for my name is great among the Gentils saith the Lord. This we see offered in every place by Christs priesthood after the order of Melchisedech sith in every place from the rising of the Sun unto its setting we do see it offered unto God These last words are omitted by our English translatours although they be in the Latin text lib. 19. cap. 23. it is his City whose mysterie we celebrate in such oblations as the faithfull do well understand for the ceasing of all the typicall Sacrifices that were exhibited by the Jews and the ordaining of one Sacrifice to be offered through the whole world from East to West as now we see it is was prophecied long before from God by the Mouths of holy Hebrews 326. Eusebius de Demonst lib. 10. cap. ult From the rising of the Sun c. we sacrifice to the most High a sacrifice of praise we sacrifice a full Sacrifice to God yielding sweet odour and holy we sacrifice after a new manner a Clean host according to the new Testament S. Cyrill of Alexandria S. Hierome Theodoret and all other ancient Expositors of this place do expound and apply it to the Sacrifice of the Mass 398. S. Chysostom in Psal 91. citing the words of Malachie sayes See how plainly and clearly he interprets the mysticall table which is the Incruentall host but the pure Incense he calls holy prayers which are offered with the Sacrifice for this Incense is pleasing to God not that which is taken from earthly roots but what proceeds from a pure heart thou seest that in all places that Angelicall Sacrifice is granted to be famous ye see neither Altar nor canticle circumscribed with any bounds In every place Incense is offered to my name therefore the pure host the chief indeed mistical table is the caelestial and above all things honoured Sacrifice A little after reciting many other sacrifices of the New testament he infers we have the first sacrifice that salutary gift 2. of Martyrs 3. of prayers 4. of Jubilation 5. of Righteousness 6. of Alms. 7. of Praise 8. of Compunction 9. of humility 10. of preaching or fructification 108. S. Jrenaeus lib. 4. cap. 32. alledging the words of Malachy infers manifestly signifying by those that indeed the former people have ceased to offer to God and this is a pure one so that the name of God is glorified among the Gentils and chap. 33. In every place incense is offered to my name and a pure sacrifice but the Incense S. John in the Apocalipse sayes to be the prayers of Saints 150. S. Justin Martyr in Dial. Triphon God himself is witnesse who saith Mal. In every place among the Gentils acceptable and pleasing sacrifices are offered but God receives not sacrifices from any one but from Priests Therefore Christ Jesus has left all sacrifices which are to be offered to his Name in the Eucharist of the bread and Cup which is made in all places by Christians God using by anticipation
vivificated be seen to be in the Chalice when wine is wanting to the Chalice wherby Christs bloud is declared which is openly published by the sacrament and testimony of all the scriptures which the Saint proves there at large Again in the same place he says If Jesus Christ our lord and God he the high priest of God the Father first offered Sacrifice to God the Father and commanded this to be done in his commemoration verily the priest executes in the stead of Christ who imitates that which Christ did do and offers a true and full sacrifice in the Church to God the Father if he goes about to offer according to that which he has seen Christ himself to have offered Lastly in Ser. de coena Domini which is commonly attributed to him sith our lord has said Do ye this in my commemoration this is my flesh and this is my bloud as often as it is done with these words and this faith that substantiall bread and chalice consecrated by solemn benediction is profitable to the life and Salvation of the whole man being also a medicine and holocaust to heal our infirmities and purge our iniquities 203. Tertullian l. 5. advers Marcionem after having declared what Christ did in his last supper he concludes fieri semper quod postea Jussit he commanded the same to be done always afterward 180. S. Irenaeus lib. 4. cap. 32. He took bread and gave thinks saying this is my body and in like manner the chalice which he declares to be his bloud and taught the new oblation of the New testament Which the Church receiving from the Apostles Offers to God in the whole world and cap. 34. The oblation of the Church which our Lord has taught to be offered in the world is reputed before God a pure sacrifice and a little after The kind of Oblation is not reproved for Oblations were there and Oblations here Sacrifices in the people sacrifices also in the Church and beneath he makes an argument against the Hereticks of his time How is it manifest to them that bread in which thanks are given to be the body of our Lord and the Chalice his bloud if they say not him to be the Son of the maker of the world that is his World 130. S. Justin Martyr Apol. 2. ad Antonium The Apostles in their Commentaries which are called Gospells have so declared that Christ commanded them taking bread and giving thanks he said do this in memory of me This is my Body and also taking the Cup and giving thanks he said this is my Bloud and gave to them only S. Martial Epist ad Burdigal He that is Christ having a body both immaculate and without sin for he was conceived by the holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary permitted himself to be immolated on the Altar of the Cross but what the Jews through envy did immolate hoping to abolish his name from the Earth we for our Salvations sake do set upon the sanctified Altar knowing that by this only remedy life is to be given us and death avoided for he our Lord commanded us to do this in his commemoration 100. S. Dionise Eccless Hist cap. 3. wherfore the venerable Bishop reverently and according to his pontifical office by holy praises of the divine works excuses himself that he sacrifices the salutarie host which is above him first in a decent manner exclaming to him Thou hast said do this in my commemoration next he asks that he may be made worthy of so great a Ministery ordained in the imitation of God and to become according to his forces like to Christ and that he may devoutly consecrate the Sacraments and purely distribute them 99. S. Clement l. 5. Apostol constit cap. 18. Our Lord being risen from death make ye your sacrifice which by us he has Constituted saying do this in my commemoration and l. 6. cap. 23. for one sacerdotal tribe he hath commanded to choose some of the best of every Nation to the Priesthood not regarding the defects of body but their religion and life for cruental sacrifice a rational and incruental and that mystical sacrifice of the body and bloud of our Lord which is celebrated in symbole of his death for worship determined by circumscription of place he hath commanded to celebrate the same with praises from the East to the West in every place of his Dominion These might suffice to shew the Authority of the Catholick Church in celebrating the holy sacrifice of the Mass and therfore I omit several other places of the holy Scripture and I will therfore make it more clear by the continual Tradition of the Church in those first 500. years CHAP. II. The sacrifice of the Mass proved by Tradition and practise of the Church within the five hundred years after Christ SAint Augustine Epist 118. ad Januarium cap. 5. affirms that whatsoever the Church in all the world uses carries with it full authority insomuch that to dispute whether it might be done is most insolent madness and lib. 1. contra Cresconium c. 33. to do that which the whole Church approves cannot be questioned for as the holy Scripture cannot deceive us so he who fears to be deceived by the obscurity of any question let him consult of it the Church which without any ambiguity the Scripture demonstrates or makes manifest Let us therfore now see what hath been the Doctrine of the Church within these 500. years after Christ wherto as I said before the Doctour appeals This cannot be made more manifest then by the Tradition and practise of the Church in her Liturgies or Masses for what the Grecians call liturgies that the Latin calls Missa and we in English Mass Now these Liturgies do come from S. Peter S. James S. Basil S. Chrysostome S. Ambrose and others of those times and within the times from five hundred years we hardly find any forms of Masses but what are deduced from them I will not say but that there have been some difference in their rites or ceremonies some diminutions and some additions yet none of them differ in the substance or nature of a sacrifice all agree in their forms in as much as concerns the due celebration of the Mass Now because the Doctour alledges the Liturgies of S. James S. Basil and S. Chrysostome I shall take a brief view of these in particular §. 1. of S. James Liturgie SAint Proclus Bishop of Constantinople l. de Traditione divina Liturgiae about the year 430. assures us that amongst the Apostles S. James did set forth a form of liturgie or Mass which Baronius ad an 63. confirms out of S. Cyril Bishop of Hierusalem Catechist 6. an 365. who Catch 5. explicates the most part of S. James Liturgie as of the pax or kisse of peace the sursum corda and Preface the cherubical hymn sanctus sanctus sanctus prayers before the consecration In which says he we pray our most benign God that he would send
his spirit on what is set before us that he indeed would make this bread Christ's body and the wine Christ's bloud for what the holy Ghost teaches is altogether sanctified and transmuted but then when that spiritual sacrifice is made we pray for the living and dead c. all which is found in S. James liturgie S. Dionise and S. Clement have made the description of S. Peters Mass where are many things also like to those of S. James and what now are in use in the Latine Church S. Epiphanius an 370. Haeres 79. calls S. James the Principal leader of the Mysteries and sacrifice For the satifaction of the Reader I shall make a brief observation of what I find in his liturgie as I find it in Claudius de sanctis printed 111. years past The glorious Apostle S. James composed for his people of Hierusalem his liturgie or Mass wherin he frequently calls it a divine and supercelestial mysterie a sacred and dreadful Mysterie made at the holy Altar a dreadful and incruental or unbloudy sacrifice In which commemoration is made of the most holy Immaculate our most glorious lady Mother of God and alwaies Virgin Mary with all the saints and Just in another place he has the same concluding that by their prayers and intercession we may obtaine Mercy In another place the Priest prayes that he would grant that this our Oblation may be grateful acceptable sanctified by the holy Ghost for the propitiation of our sins and for the Rest of our friends who have slept before us Before we ask of our Lord the Angel of peace our faithful guide keeper of our souls and bodies the Catechumens and others are dismissed then the priest uses Incense saying Receive O Lord from our hands who are sinners this Incense as thou didst receive those things which Abel Noe Aaron and Samuel and all thy saints have offered Let all humane and mortal flesh be silent and stand with fear and trembling and contemplate with it self no terrene thing for the King of kings and Lord of lords Christ our God comes forth to be Immolated and given for food to the faithful The consecration is the same with some little difference with that of the Roman Mass and in the prayer following We offer to thee O Lord this venerable and incruental sacrifice and a little after let his descending holy and good and glorious presence sanctifie and make this bread the holy body of thy Christ and this Chalice the precious bloud of thy Christ and when he breaks the bread he puts part into the Chalice saying The union of the most holy body precious bloud of our Lord and God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Before Communion he has this prayer O Lord our God celestial bread life of the Vniverse I have sinned against heaven and before thee and am not worthy to be made partaker of thy immaculate mysteries but thou as a merciful God make me worthy by thy grace that without damnation I may be partaker of thy holy body and precious bloud unto remission of sins and life everlasting and after We give thee thanks O Christ our God for that thou hast vouchsafed us to be made partakers of thy body and blond in remission of sins and to eternal life Moreover he that peruses this Mass of S. James may find most things which are in use in the Roman Church as Incensing the Altar Salutation of the people with Pax vobis or peace be with you at least 7. times the oracles of the Old Testament and doctrine of the new for which now is Epistle and Gospel Domine miserere or kirye eleison at least 15. times the Gloria in excelsis Creed and our Lords prayer Inelination at the prayers often signing the gifts with the sign of the Cross and dismission of the people with benediction I cannot omit that in the Consecration of the Chalice the Apostle particularly declares that the wine should be mingled with water from these we may fee what the Mass was in those Apostolical times § 2. Of the Liturgy of S. Basil SAint Proclus aforesaid says that many more divine Pastors who succeeded the Apostles and Doctours of the Church explicating the reason of the holy Mysteries of that divine Liturgie or Mass have delivered and committed it in writing and then naming S. Clement and S. James but Great S. Basil seeing the slouth and negligence of men and that they thought of nothing but terrene and abject things and that therefore they were weary of long Mass not that he thought it to contain any superfluous thing or over-long but to prescind the dulness and slackness of the Prayers and hearers for that they spent much time therein he gave a shorter to be recited for after that our Saviour was assumpted into heaven the Apostles before they were dispersed through the whole earth assembling with conspiring minds were converted to prayer the whole day and when they found much conso lation to be placed in the Mysticall sacrifice of our Lords body they did sing the liturgie or Mass abundantly and long prayer Since they esteemed these divine sacred things joined together was to be preferred before all other things and they were inflamed with a greater study and desire of divine things and the holy sacrifice and earnestly embraced it which they alwaies had in memory the word of our Lord saying This is my body and do ye this in my commemoration and he who eats my flesh and drinks my bloud abides in me and I in him wherefore also with a contrite heart they did sing many prayers vehemently imploring the divine Majesty c. by these prayers they expected the comming of the holy Ghost that by his divine presence he would make the bread and wine mixt with water ordained for the sacrifice the very body and bloud of our Saviour Jesus Christ which religious rite verily is observed to this very time and shall flourish even to the end of the world I have the more willingly rehersed the words of this holy Bishop highly commended by St. Cyril a Grecian and teaching purposely of the divine liturgie or Mass and explicating it in each particular according to the two liturgies or Mass of S. Basil and S. Chrysostome not much more then 30. years after S. Chrysostome had composed his form of Mass In this Mass of S. Basil we find most of those things mentioned before in that of S. James and frequent memory of our blessed Lady of the most holy our undesiled Lady Mother of God and alwaies Virgin Mary with all the saints And in a prayer before the hymn Sanctify our souls and bodies and give us grace to serve thee in sanctity all our dayes by the intercession of the holy Mother of God and all saints who have glorifyed thee from the beginning of the world The Bishop in secret prays Reeceive us approching to thy holy Altar according to the multitude of thy mercyes that we may be worthy
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
Memento of the Mass in which the Priest prays for all who are present saying for whom we offer to thee or who do offer to thee this sacrifice CHAP. VII Of the Doctours deceitful proceeding in his citations THe Doctour to shew his great Reading in every page almost cites schoolmen Fathers Liturgies and Councils not remembring that all those schoolmen were members and professours of the Roman Church all of them taught the Roman Mass I cannot concieve any reason why he should alledge Bellarmine and other Schoolmen for his foolish conceits unless he had dreamt that no man would take the pains to read their works for if they did they should easily see his legerdemain nay I can scarcely believe that the Doctor himself ever read them in the Authours themselves but perhaps trusted to some others notes verily a man need not go any further to answer all his impertinencies then to read the places he cites for either they were of his opinion or no if they were not as it is certain they were not who can excuse his most perverse malice who with neglect of their grounds for the sacrifice of the Mass and answers to all his objections If they were not strange madness possessed them that they all of them should so amply and so copiously write preach and teach this catholick Doctrine Alcuinus Ordo Romanus Durandus Walfridus Honorius Gabriel Ceremonialt and Pontificale Romanum Vega c. whom the Doctour cites have written whole books believing and proving not only the substance of the Roman Mass but also every particular circumstance manner and rite and ceremony thereof all these Schoolmen were Priests or Bishops ordained in the Roman Church yea many were Cardinals But it is strange that the Doctour should quote such men when he confesses that the Roman Church had almost twelve hundred years been possessed of the Mass and professed as she now doth the most that we may expect from his innumerable citations is that he has scraped and culled some half sentences some slips of words wherein I will not excuse all neither are we bound to defend or believe all they say we much honour them as true Children of the Church and as faithful Expositours of the Mysteries of our faith with submission to their lawful Prelates But I freely accuse the fraudulent dealing of taking words and sentences contrary to their own judgment and minde yea their own words and absolutely contrary to their manifest and known doctrine meerly to deceive the Christian Readers I dare say that if the Doctour himself or any other would stand to their judgments the Doctor would loose his cause for they were constant Champions and defenders of the Roman faith even in this sacrifice of the Mass Now because it is not my task here to defend or reprove what has been said or taught in the Church from the first five hundred years I will let the Doctor alone in his career and enquire what others will say of his great impertinencies But because he has the boldness to quote the Liturgies or Masses of S. James S. Basil and S. Chrysostome which were within those five hundred years I must say that it is an unwonted way to take testimony of Masses against the Mass especially when all he has said in every respect is as much against the Mass of S. James of S. Basil and S. Chrysostome as against the Roman Mass for in substance of a sacrifice of the new law they are all one as I have formerly declared Yet I cannot but note that the Doctor pag 20. produces a prayer used in the Liturgies That according to our Saviours merciful institution God would be pleased to send down on these Sacraments the Holy Ghost and so sanctify them that they may be the pretious body and the pretious bloud of his Son to them who should receive worthily c. In the Liturgy of S. Chrysostome I find these words in Latin Adone offerrimus tibi rationabile ac incruentum hoc obsequium precamur supplicamus deposcimus ut mittas spiritum sanctum tuum super nos super hoc apposita munera the rubrick is Et origeâ—s se torrio consignans sancta munera dicit Et fac panem istum quidem pretiosum Corpus Christi tui quod est in calice isto pretiosum sanguinem Christi tui permutans sancto spiritu tuo These words I have put in English before cap. 2. § 3. of S. Chrysostomes liturgy and here in latin that all may see how little conscience this Doctor shews in citing those Liturgies which are so contrary to his drift in this his book and how little care he has of his words for if we should stand to the words as he sets them down we may gather that the bread and wine are sanctifyed by the Holy Ghost and made the body and bloud of Christ his addition which none of the Liturgies have To them who should receive worthily is only a necessary condition required on our paâ—â—â— but makes nothing to the being of our Saviours body and bloud in the Sacrament and are not found there As for the holy Fathers he frequently quotes them but seldom their words at least any way contradicting the Catholick doctrine of the Mass how much they are for it is manifest from what has been said before the greatest advantage that I conceive he makes of them is that they somtimes call the Eucharist even after the consecration Bread which cannot be denyed for the Roman Church in the Mass does the same imitating our Saviour who affirmed that he was the bread of life the bread which I will give is my flesh and things are named according to the outward form and lest any one should be mistaken the holy Fathers must commonly and an explication thereto so S. Cyprian l. 2. Epist 3. sayes Christ offered the 〈◊〉 which Melchisedech offered to wit bread and wine that is his body and bloud S. Hierome in cap. 1. Malac. We pollute the bread that is Christs body when we come unworthily to the Altar and in cap. 5. ad Hebreos Our mystery is signified in offering bread and wine that is the body and bloud of our Lord Jesus Christ is offered so in the Roman Mass it is bread of life everlasting CHAP. VIII Of two gross Mistakes committed by the Doctor THe Doctor either out of Ignorance or perverse malice in his third chap. as also so in other places attributes to the Roman Church the sacrificing of their God which if he believes he shews his ignorance in a high degree if not what may excuse him for he cannot but know that the sacrifice of the Mass is no other than that of the body bloud of Christ Jesus and that it is offered as well to God the Son as to God the Father and to God the Holy Ghost and by his raillery all alone he seems to understand it but in this he imitated the ancient heathens who upbraided
that one the rest will fall but if he cannot all the rest he says makes nothing for we only believe those miracles because we believe the real presence true it is we should believe nay know that they are possible to God and so more easily believe them to be so because God has said the word This is my body and This is my bloud I am confident that if the Doctor did believe this he would make no difficulty of the others wherefore before I speak of those miracles it seems to me expedient to shew what was the belief of the Church for those first five hundred years 440. I shall begin with S. Leo l. de Jejunio 7. mens ser 6. You ought so to communicate at the holy table as to doubt nothing at all of the verity of the body and bloud of Christ for that is received by the mouth which is believed in the heart 420. S. Augustine in psal 98. Christ took earth from earth for flesh is from the earth and he took flesh from the flesh of Mary and did walk in flesh it self and gave that flesh to be eaten by us for our salvation lib. 12. cont Faust cap. 10. he saith That the faithful do receive with their mouth the bloud wherewith they were redeemed and drink that now which came from the side of Christ And. lib. 2. contra advers leg Prophet cap. 9. We receive with a faithful heart and mouth the Mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus giving to us his flesh to be eaten and bloud to be drunken 398. S. Crysostome hom 83. in Mat. Because our Lord said This is my body let us not be entangled with any doubtfulness but let us believe and see it with the eyes of our understanding 394. S. Ambrose l. 4. de sacram c. 5. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself gives testimony unto us that we take his body and bloud can we any way doubt of his fidelity and testimony and lib. 5. cap 4. Before the consecration that which is offered may be called bread when the words are pronounced now it is not called bread but the body whereas before l. 4. c. 4. he said This bread is bread before the sacramental words yet when the consecration shall be adjoyned of bread it is made the flesh of Christ 390. S. Hierome in Comment Matt. c. 26. After that the Typical pasch was fulfilled and he had eaten the flesh of the Lamb with his Apostles he took bread which strengthens mans heart and so proceeded unto the true sacrament of the Pasch that even as in his prefiguration Melchisedech the priest of the high God had done offering bread and wine he also might represent the truth of his body and flesh And Epist ad Hedib quaest 2. The bread which our Lord brake and gave to his Disciples was the body of our Lord and saviour And beneath Neither did Moses give us the true bread but our Lord Jesus he is the true guest Master and the banquet he eats and is eaten Gaudentius about the same time Tract de Exod. The Creatour himself and Lord of all creatures and natures who produces bread from the earth because he both can and has promised it doth from the bread again make his own body and he that made wine of water has also made his bloud of wine And a little after Believe that which has been taught us that which thou receivest is the body of that heavenly bread and the bloud of that sacred Vine for when he delivered the consecrated bread and wine to his Disciples he said This is my body this is my bloud let us believe him whom we have believed truth cannot lye 380. S. Gregory Nissen Orat. Catechist cap. 36. A little leaven makes a whole lump of dough like unto it self so also that body which is made immortal by God entring into our body transposes and changes it wholly into it self And a little after It is conjoyned with the bodies of the faithful that by this conjunction with that which is immortal man also may be made partaker of Immortality 370. S. Gregory Nazian orat 2. de Pasch Without anxiety and doubt eat the body and drinkche bloud of Christ if indeed thou be desirous of life neither do thou doubt of the truth of these speaches which are uttered concerning the flesh neither be thou offended at the Rassion be constant and firm and stable not doubting of anything whatsoever the advarsaries say good councel against Doctour Brevent About the same time or not long before S. Ephrem lib. de natura Dei minine scrutanda c. 15. gives us as good counsel saying Why doest thou search things unscrutable if thou examine those things curiously thou shalt not then be accounted a man faithful and innocent be partaker of the immaculate body of thy Lord with fulness of faith assuring thy self that thou catest the whole Lamb himself The Misteries of Christ are an immortal fire do not thou rashly search them out least thou be consumed in the search thereof And beneath he says This indeed exceeds all admiration all understanding and all speeches which Christ the only begotten son our Saviour hath done for us he has given us fire and spirit to be eaten and drunk that is as he himself explicates his body and bloud 365. S. Cyril of Hierusalem Catechist 4. Forasmuch as Christ himself thus affirms and speaks concerning the bread This is my body who dares hereafter doubt of it forasmuch also as himself confirms it and sayes This is my bloud who I say can doubt of it and say it is not his bloud And again so shall we be Christopheri that is bearers of Christ when we have received his body and bloud into our members and we shall be made as S. Peter says partakers of the divine nature Thou must not consider it as bare bread and wine for it is the body and bloud of Christ according to our Lords own words And again With all assurance let us receive the body and bloud of Christ for under the form of bread his body is given thee and under the form of wine his bloud is given to thee 355. S. Hilary l. 8. de Tria Whatsoever we say of the natural verity of Christ in us we speak foolishly and impiously unless we learn of him for he says my flesh is true food and my bloud is truly drink he who eats my flesh and drinks my bloud abides in me and I in him there is no place of doubting left of the verity of flesh and bloud for now both by the Profession of our Lord himself and our faith it is truly flesh and truly bloud and these being taken and drunk do work that we are in Christ and Christ in us is not this the truth It seems not to be true to them that deny Christ to be true God 226. Origen hom 5. in diversa loca Evangel When thou receivest the holy food and incorruptible
banquet when thou doest enjoy the bread and cup of life thou doest eat and drink the body and bloud of our Lord then our Lord enters under thy roof thou therefore then humbling thy self imitate the Centurion say Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof 203. Tertullian lib. 4. contra Marcionem The bread which he took in his hand he made his body saying This is my body And lib. de Resurrectione carnis The flesh feeds on the body and bloud of Christ that the soul may be replenished and filled with God 186. S. Jrenaus lib. 4. cap. 35. How shall it be manifest to them that the bread on which thanks are given is the body of the Lord and the Chalice of his bloud if they say be is not the son of the Creatour of the wrrld the saint makes an argument of Christ being the Son of God from the holy Mysteries of the Mass and Eucharist 150. S. Justin Martyr in Apolog. ad Antomin We do not take it as common bread nor this as common drink but as by the word of God our Saviour Jesus Christ was incarnate and took both flesh and bloud for our Salvation so also by the prayers of the word of God we are taught that the Eucharist being made our food by him whereby our bloud and flesh may be nourished by mutation is the flesh and bloud of the same Jesus incarnate 71. S. Ignatius Martyr as Theodoretus Dial. 3. in his epist ad Sawnon They do n t admit Eucharists and Oblations because they do not confesse the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour which suffered for our sins which the Father through his bounty raised again S. Dionise about the same time I. de Eccl. Hierarch par 3. c. 3. O most divine and holy sacrament vouchsafe to open the coverings of those significant signs which overshadow thee and appear plain to us and fill our spiritual eyes with the singular and clear shining of thy Light By these authorities of the holy Fathers the faith of the Church in those first five hundred years is made manifest so that none with reason can doubt of the real presence of Christs body and bloud in the Eucharist unless he will altogether dissent from Christs Church in those primitive times and say that Christ never had a true Church upon earth in which number Doctor Brevent is not to be reckoned for he ingeniously admits a true Church for five hundred years after Christ which admitted the real presence whereto the miracles which he scoffingly rehearses do necessarily follow as I said before to the being of Christ Jesus in the Sacrament To begin therefore with his first miracle which is that the bread is distroyed in a moment pray cannot he who gives it a being take it away when he pleases did not the same God turning Lot's wife into a pillar of salt take away or destroy or bring to nothing her humane form and nature in a moment was not the form of Moses â—â—d nature and substance destroyed in a moment was not the water when Christ turned it into wine wholly destroyed moreover this destruction follows the nature of all conversions either partial or total no new form is introduced but as the former is destroyed no total substance is produced but when the total substance precedent is also destroyed If then the body of Christ be by the power of the omnipotent God introduced or produced in the place of bread as the holy Catholick Church always taught us according to the testimonies now alledged and this shall be more manifested in the Chapter of transubstantiation it necessarily follows that the precedent substance be destroyed or brought to nothing so that this decision or not being of bread and wine proceeds ex necessitate miraculi from the real presence of Christs body and bloud in the Blessed Sacrament and so is no new miracle but the same with the former The second miracle which he jeers at is the being of the accidents of bread and wine without a subject which is not only possible but also is actually in the Eucharist as is sufficiently declared in the Liturgical discourse part 2. sect 3. cap. 9. whereto I may add the Authority of great S. Basil hom 6. Hexam S. Gregory orat in Diem Dominic and Theodoret when they affirm that the quality of light in its Creation was without a subject until the Sun was created and certain it is that accidents by the power of God may be preserved without a subject for he that gives a being in such or such manner can give them another as actually he has done in the Eucharist where quantity alone is preserved without a subject in which all other accidents as qualities c. are immediatly although by the same omnipotent power they also may be conserved without quantity and that it is so in the Eucharist has always been believed in the Catholick Church as in the precedent testimonies plainly appears when the holy Fathers affirm that the body and bloud of Christ is contained in the species of bread and wine whence the Councel of Constance sess 8. condemned that proposition of Wickliff who held that the Accidents of the Bread did not remain without a subject as heretical Moreover this miracle necessarily follows the Mystery of the real presence inasmuch as it is a sacrament for it would not be a sacrament if there were not in a visible form the essence of a sacrament consisting in a visible sign of some invisible thing The Eucharist therefore being a sacrament and containing the invisible body of Christ necessarily requires a visible signe S. Chrysostome hom 60. ad Populum Antioch and Hom. 83. in Mat. says If thou wert incorporeal God would have given thee plain and incorporeal gifts themselves but because the soul is joyned to the body he has given thee intelligible things in sensible things and a little before sith the word said This is my body we do assent and believe and with our intellectual eyes behold him for Christ has given 〈◊〉 nothing sensible but all intelligible things inâ—â—â—â— in sensible things It was therefore most congruous to the divine providence most agreeable to the nature of this mystical sacrament and most proper to our humane nature that Christ instituted this sacrament under the form of bread for as Christ is the true bread of life so he gave us his body and bloud under the form of bread and wine whence S. Cyprean Ser. de Coena Domin The bread which he gave to his Disciples changed not in Essigies or resemblance but in nature is made flesh by the Omnipotency of the word as in the person of Christ the humane nature was seen and the Divinity lay hid so in the visible sacrament the divine essence diffused it self Give me leave good Reader to set down the words of Theophilact Archbishop of Bulgary and no mean interpreter of the sacred Text who in Mark cap. 14. This
of Christ whence he might have omitted his duplicate ralleries and scoffs and have attributed all those miracles to the power of God and not played the buffoon in attributing them to the power of Roman Priests his scoffs and scorns and Jeers will never bear any argument with understanding men much lesse with Catholicks who have learned of S. Augustine Epist 49. ad Deograt quaest 6. If Christian faith did fear the scorns of pagans we should not believe in Christ himself CHAP. XI The Doctours Chief ground of his raillery I Am so weary with the Doctours vain raillery that I am willing to go no further but that I reflected on two main grounds of his rallying and scoffing spirit the one is the insisting so much on humane reason and sense and the great bugbear Transubstantiation Of the first I shall treat in the two following Chapters and after of the second In the first place it is a general Doctrine in Gods Church that faith has for its Object God revealing It s formal object is the divine revelation the material only those things which are revealed so that we know nothing by faith but by revelation not by reason much lesse by sense true it is that humane reason and sense concurr to the receiving of faith but not to the procuring a divine and saving faith nevertheless reason and sense may engender a humane faith by hearing or reading things revealed but never come to the certainty of them but relying only on revelation Whence the holy Fathers do commonly teach that if reason or sense do comprehend any thing it is no more an object of faith S. Augustine tract 27. and 40. in Johanem Faith is to believe what thou seest not whose verity and reward is to see that thou doest believe Again tract 39. This is the praise of faith if that which is believed be not seen for what great thing is it if that be believed which is seen S. Gregory hom 26. in Evangelium Faith has not merit where humane reason gives experience Great S. Basil ser de fid confess tels us that Faith is an assenting approbation without any hesitation without any parswasion of the minde as in the truth of those things which by Gods gift are preached and declared in the Church And in Psal 113. let faith be thy guide in the holy words which are from God and not demonstration Faith I say inviting thy soul yea and perswading above all rational methods for faith relies not on grammatical proofs but insinnuats it self unto our minds by the efficacious operation of the holy Ghost S. Athanasius tract de advent affirms that faith conceived of an evident matter cannot be called Faith But let us hear what the holy Fathers in those primitive times did teach and believe concerning our present subject of the Eucharist I shall begin with S. Cyril of Alexandria lib. 4. in Joan. cap. 17 This thing is hard and is to be received rather by faith then by any other means S. Hilary l. 3. de Trin. We are not to speak of divine things in a humane or worldly sence neither are we to extort or wrest by violent and imprudent report the celestial words to our wit or impious understanding it is perversity let us read what is written and understand what we read then we shall perform the office of faith for what we say of the natural body of Christ in us we speak foolishly and impiously unless we learn of him Great S. Leo ser 6. de Jejunio 7. mens Doubt ye not at all of the verity of Christs body and bloud for that which is taken by the mouth is believed by faith S. Cyril of Hierusalem Since Christ himself so affirms and says of the bread This is my body who henceforward dares to deny it and the same confirming This is my bloud who can doubt and say that it is not his bloud he changed water into wine which is near bloud in Cana Gallilen only by his will and is not he worthy that we should believe him that he transmutates or changes wine into bloud Beneath let us with all certitude take the body and bloud of Christ for under the species of bread the body is given thee and under the species of wine bloud is given thee A little after Do not therefore consider it as bare bread or bare wine for according to the words of our Lord it is the body and bloud of our Lord for although sense suggest it otherwise yet faith confirms thee do not judge the thing from the taste but take it from faith for most certain so that no doubt may take place but that the body and bloud of Christ are given thee And a little after knowing and most certainly holding this bread which is seen by us not to be bread although the taste take it for bread but is the body of Christ and the wine that we see although to the sense or taste it seems to be wine yet it is not wine but the bloud of Christ S. Crysostome hom 60. ad pop Antioch and 83. in Mat. Let us alwais believe in God and not resist him although what he says may seem absurd or against reason to our senses and Imaginations his word exceeds our sense and reason this we ought to do in things and especially in mysteries not only beholding those things which are before us but also holding his words for we cannot be deceived by his words but our senses are most easily deceived those 〈…〉 be false but this is deceived very oftentimes since therefore he said This is my body let us not be detained with any ambiguity but believe and perceive it by the eyes of our understanding S. Cyprian ser de coena Dominica on the word of our Saviour John 6. The flesh profiteth nothing gives the reason because our Master himself expounds these words are spirit and life carnal sense does not penetrate to the understanding of so great profundity unlesse faith be joyned The Doctors great Master Calvin lib. 4. Instit cap. 17. ser 10. will teach him this lesson In his supper he commanded me to take eat and drink under the symbols of bread and wine his body and bloud for although it may seem incredible that in so great a distance of places as heaven and earth the flesh of Christ should penetrate to us that it may be meat for us we must yet remember how much above all our senses the secret power of the holy Ghost can shew it self that which our mindes comprehends our faith conceives the Spirit doth truly joyn together things locally separated whence he says sect 7. Nothing remains but that I should burst forth into admiration in this Mystery to which neither the minde in thinking or tongue in speaking can be equal and apud Hospin in hist Sacram. part 2. he says We therefore acknowledge a Miracle in the holy Supper which exceeds or goes beyond both the grounds of nature and the measure
of our senses From what hath been said we plainly gather that in matters of faith we stand not to humane reason much lesse to our senses we may adde No sense or humane reason could tell us that Christ on earth was God The wise men who came from the East according to their senses imagination yea or humane understanding could conceive nothing but a little Child yet inspired by the holy Ghost in Faith only they adored the little Childe not as such but as being God and man which no sense or humane reason could dictate to them The Disciples Mat. 24. did not adore Christ by the rule of their senses or humane reason but when by faith they believed him to be the Son of God even after the Resurrection they did see Christ some believed others did not many who lived conversed and were in his company both simple and wise could never be convinced by their sense or reason that he was the Son of God and those who were of the simple sort sooner believed and were we not assured by divine revelation and testimony we could not believe either this or any other mystery of our Faith Where even according to reason it follows that we have a more sure ground to believe Gods word then our senses who perceive not the substance of the bread which is not perceptible by any of our senses whose objects are only accidents or sensible qualities which they have as well in the consecrated host or unconsecrated without any reflexion on the substance as being out of the sphere of their objects so that they discern not any thing of the substance or whether they be without any substance it is only the understanding which gathers by such or such accidents such or such a substance or subject and by natures ordinary course judgeth it to be bread but enlightned by faith and believing that nothing is impossible to God and that God in most express terms declared his body and bloud to be in the Eucharist the words are so clear that without wresting the terms none so simple but they may understand them as clearly as Peter is a man and those who contradict it on the ground of their senses are as the Apostle says 1 Cor. 2. sensual men not perceiving those things of the spirit of God it is foolishness to them and they cannot or rather will not understand for they are sensual measuring these heavenly mysteries by natural reason humane prudence and external senses which destroy Faith I know some object that of S. John 1. Epist cap. 1. where he attributes much to hearing seeing and touching matters of faith but they do not consider that the Apostles did hear and see many things which we believe from their testimonies but if we had only what they saw by their senses or humane wisdome our faith had been vain and of no importance for no visible thing or sensible as such can be the object of our faith what therefore they saw heard or touched was not believed as by faith but by experience see Scotus in 3. quaest 23. the Prophets and Apostles had a science which was not faith Faith taught them that the word was incarnate and that Christ who died rose again and ascended into heaven was the true Son of God now to us who have not seen them they are objects of faith as being only revealed unto us whereof we have testimony from Scripture and Tradition S. Thomas indeed believed because he had seen Christ after his resurrection Joan. 20. but as S. Augustine says tract 121. in Joan. He did see and touch man and confessed God whom he did not see nor touch but by this which he did see and touch that he believed now all doubt being removed and therefore he cryed out My Lord and my God and Jesus said unto him because thou hast seen me by sight and touch and certain knowledg that I am risen and believed that I am true God but blessed are those that have not touched me and have beleived Moreover S. John in this place opposes two diverse heresies to wit those who denied Christs divinity and those who denied his humanity and therefore begins his Epistle That which was from the beginning which he had declared in the beginning of his Gospel and for the other which we have heard by a voice from heaven which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled we testifie unto you weereby he manifestly testifies that Christ in humane nature had true flesh and bloud God and man now because he was inspired by the holy Ghost one of Christs Apostles according to the testimony of the Scriptures we believe what he saw and heard to be true and receive it as a matter of faith CHAP. XII An addition to the former Chapter of the same Subject out of S. Augustine OUr adversaries who stand so much in matters of faith on their senses and private judgments should do well to consider that they imitate the heathens and Infidells who had no stronger arguments against the true Catholick doctrine then their senses and humane reason as we finde in all the holy Fathers who have laboured to convince them and in particular this is to be seen in blessed S. Augustine especially in his books de civitate Dei from whence I shall make choice of two articles of our Faith which are holy repugnant to humane sense and reason to wit the everlasting torments of Hell fire and the Resurrection of the flesh Of the first he treats in the first 8. Chapters of his 21. Book and thus he begins the second Chapter What then shall I say unto the unbeleevers to prove that a body Carnal and living may endure undissolved both against death and the force of eternal fire they will not allow us to ascribe this unto the power of God but urge us to prove it to them by some example saying There is no body that can suffer eternally but he must perish at length no flesh can suffer always and never die The Saint replys Cap. 3. What is this but to ground an assertion upon meer sense and apparence which he esteems absurd in matters of Faith for saith he These men know no flesh but mortal and what they have not known and seen they hold impossible A little after Through our flesh as now be such that it can not suffer all pain without dying yet then shall it become of another nature Whence in Cap. 4. he says That God who endowed nature with so many several and admirable qualities shall as then give the flesh a quality whereby it shall endure pains and burning for ever Cap. 5. But the infidells hearing of Miracles and such things as we cannot make apparent to their senses do ask the reason of them which because it surpasses our humane powers to give they deride them as false and ridiculous but let them give us reason for all the wondrous things 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
only adore with Latria the flesh and bloud of Christ Jesus for whatsoever our late Advarsaries have foolishly enough invented Catholicks do not so adore the Elements of Bread or wine or species of them presence or circumstances but only and soly Christ Jesus believing firmly and without the least hesitation that he is really there present from which belief as a necessary sequel follows all true Adoration Our pretended Reformers will not stick at this for the first and chief beginner of this Reformation Luther not only approved it but also left it in practise to all his followers for generally all Lutherans do use it in their dayly practise the Tiguran Calvinists do affirm That if the true and natural body of Christ be in the Eucharist why should not our Lord be adored there if we should teach that the Natural body of Christ were truly there with the Papists we should also truly and faithfully adore It is certain the same errours do follow from Consubstantiation as from Transubstantiation to wit Adoration circumgestation inclusion and oblation Osâ—ander in Cont. 16. par 12. alledges the Divines of Wittenberg saying If Bread in the Lords supper be the substantial body of Christ the sacrifice of the Mass and Adoration of the sacrament may be defended The Divines of Geneva say to the Lutherans that Consubstantiation or Transubstantiation being admitted Adoration necessarily follows Eusebius Alckercherus affirms That from this foundation of the corporal and real presence and eating we must necessarily grant that aswell Adoration as oblation do follow in the sacrifice of Christs body and bloud Chemnitius in his Examin Con. Trident. par 12. plainly says If we believe Christ God and man to be present in a peculiar manner of presence and grace in the action of the supper so that he doth there exhibite to them who cat truly and substantially his body and bloud c. It cannot or ought not to be done but that faith should worship and adore Christ present in that action so Jacob Gen. 28. Moyses Exod. 23. Elias 3. Reg. 19. Truly had no command that they should adore in those places but because they had a general command that they should adore God every where and God was truly present under those extern and visible symbols c. Truly they adore that God whom they believed to be there present c. but they did not adore God as far from them in the Imperial heaven as remote and absent from them c. rightly therefore S. Augustine in Psal 98. S. Ambrose Nazianzene in the Epitaph of his sister from the sentence of Eusebius Emissenus and Luther cont Lovanienses ar 6. call the Eucharist a venerable Sacrament whence he makes this Adoration out of all Controversies between him and the Tridentine Councel From these learned men of the pretended Reformation we may note that although they opposed the Catholick Doctrine of the Church yet they were far from condemning this Adoration or making it Idolatry that they plainly confess that those who believe the Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist do constantly affirm that it is our duty to do it since the real and only object of such adoration is the body and bloud of Christ Jesus whence I make this Syllogism 1. They who give the honour due to God to any creatures are Idolaters But Catholicks give no honour due to God to any creatures Ergo Catholicks in this are not Idolaters 2. To adore or worship Christ Jesus in the Eucharist is not Idolatry But Catholicks only adore Christ Jesus in the Eucharist Ergo Catholicks in this are not Idolaters 3. He that believes Christ Jesus in the Eucharist may lawfully there adore him But Catholicks believe that Christ Jesus is in the Eucharist Ergo they may lawfully adore him there The sequel of Adoration to our belief is no way to be reprehended and is admitted by most of our Reformers and only those who deny the Real Presence can with any reason deny it Those who admit Consubstantiation whereof many were of our first pretended Reformers cannot nor do any way exclude it and I see not how those who believe the Real presence in what manner they please can any more for if Christ be there sure he is an Object adorable Our present Church of England plainly admits the Real presence as is manifested in its Catechisme before Confirmation where it is declared that The outward part or signe is bread and wine the inward part is the body and bloud of Christ which are verily and truly taken and received by the faithful in the Lords Supper the benefits are the strengthening and refreshing of our souls by the body and bloud of Christ and so all ancient protestants in England did believe and accordingly did with kneeling and adoration devoutly receive it The additional note at the end of the form of Communion expounds it That the kneeling is but a signification of our humble and grateful acknowledgment of the benefits of Christ given to all worthy receivers pray what is this but adoration when the Minister kneels at the Lords table sure he adores not the table but the Eucharist which is to be offered and taken thereon Nay the peculiar form ordained peculiarly for the Communion argues some special honour to the Eucharist and in words can signify no less for therein it is called the sacrament of Christs body and bloud The spiritual food and sustenance of our Lord the Communion of the body and bloud of our saviour Grant us gratious Lord so to eat the flesh of thy son and to drink his bloud that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body and washed through his most pretious bloud Again make us partakers of his body and bloud In the Communion The body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life and the bloud of our Lord Jesus Christ which was shed for thee preserve thy body and soul unto life everlasting and after it is called The spiritual food of the most pretious body and bloud of thy son our Saviour Jesus Christ These words and many such like according to vulgar understanding import a Real Presence and signify no less and moves the hearers to a devout expression of the honour they bear to the holy Sacrament yea to adore it which I speak not to condemn them in it no more then I would condemn Jacob Gen. 28. who seeing nothing of God but by the effects which he felt in himself he gathered that God in a speciall manner had been in that place he adored and worshipped God The Israelites Exod. 35. beholding the pillar of the cloud which was but a sign of Gods presence adored God and 2. Par. 6. the people seeing fire descending and the glory of our Lord on the temple falling flat on the earth upon the pavement paved with stone they adored and praised our Lord they adored not what they saw nor any
witnesses to be acceptable to him those which are done by you and by your priests he reproves Again Malachy did then speak of our sacrifices which are offered in every place that is of the bread of the Eucharist in like manner of the Eucharistical Cup. Many of our adversaries turn this pure or clean Oblation as if it were nothing but a Sacrifice of praise but first that cannot be said properly a sacrifice of the New testament sith it was as proper to the law of Nature and the written law 2. the Prophet distinguishes between a sacrifice acceptable and unacceptable now it is certain that a sacrifice of praise was and is always acceptable 3. he opposes a new sacrifice to the sacrifice of the Jews as they were external 4. The holy Fathers very frequently do either clearly distinguish between them or make the holy Eucharist to be a sacrifice of praise finally they plainly say that the pure sacrifice was of bread and wine and so called Eucharistical §. 3. The Sacrifice of the Mass Ordained and Instituted by Christ THe Roman Church as is expressed in the Councel of Trent sess 22. cap. 1. Derives her Authority of celebrating Mass from the Command of Christ Jesus in his last supper when he said Do this in my Commemoration as the Catholick Church has always understood and taught and such I think is the opinion of the Church of England in as much as concerns the Ministery of the Eucharist for a man might ask by what Authority the Ministers alone do celebrate the Communion with exclusion of the lay-people from that office but leaving this let us see what the holy Fathers of those primitive times did teach in this point 420. I shall begin with S. Augustine in his Manual chap. 11. where he makes this prayer Give me I beseech thee O Christ Jesu Contrition of heart c. whilst I unworthy do stand at thy Altar desiring to offer up to thee that admirable and heavenly sacrifice becoming all reverence and devotion which thou my Lord God Immaculate didst institute and command to be offered for a commemoration or remembrance of thy charity that is of thy death and passion for our Salvation and for the daily repairing of our infirmity Again Ser. 14. de Innocent what more reverent what more honourable can be said then to rest under that Altar in which sacrifice is celebrated to God in which hosts are offered in which our Lord is the priest as it is written Thou art a Priest for ever according to the Order of Melchisedech with good reason the Souls of the just do rest under the Altar because the body of our Lord is offered upon the Altar the bloud of the just does not undeservedly there ask for revenge where also the bloud of Christ is shed for sinners Conveniently therfore and as it were for a certain society the Sepulcher of Martyrs is there ordained where the death of our Lord is daily celebrated as he himself said As often as ye shall do these things ye shall shew my death untill I come to wit that those who dyed for his death should rest under the Mystery of his Sacrament 398. S. Chrysostome him 83. in Math. For this cause with desire I have desired saith our Lord to eat this pasche with you that is to deliver to you new things and pasche wherby I may make you spiritual he also drank of it lest hearing these words they should say what do we drink bloud and eat flesh and so should be troubled for when formerly he had made some words of those things many only for the words were scandilized lest then also that should happen he first did this that he might enduce them with a quiet mind to the communication of the Mysteries you will say what then must we make the old Pasche by no means for therefore he said do this that he might withdraw them from the other besides if this do work remission of sins as certainly it doth that is altogether needlesse But as in the old so in the same manner he left for a benefit and gathered together a memory of mysteries even thence bridling the mouths of Hereticks for when they say whence does it appear that Christ was Immolated besides many other things producing also these Mysteries we shut their mouths for if Jesus be not dead whose symbole or sign is this sacrifice thou seest how great care he had that we should keep in memory that he died for us for because Marcion Valentine Manicheus and their followers were went to deny this dispensation by this Mystery he always so reduces us into the memory of his passion Again Hom. 17. in Epist ad Hebraeos He is our Bishop who offered an host cleansing us the same we offer also now what was then offered indeed cannot be consumed but that which we do is done only in commemoration of that which was done for says he Do this in my commemoration Not another Sacrifice but as the Bishop we always do the same but we rather work the remembrance of the Sacrifice 380. S. Gregory of Nice Orat. 1. de Resurrect He who disposes all things by his power doth not expect the violence of the Jews as robbers nor the wicked sentence of Pilate that their malice might be the beginning and cause of the common Salvation of men but he prevented by his counsell and by a secret kind of sacrifice which could not be seen by men he offers himself an host for us and being together priest and lamb of God immolats a victim he that takes away the sin of the World when did he do this when he gave to his Disciples assembled his body to be eaten and his bloud to be drunk then he openly declared the sacrifice of the Lamb to be now perfect wherefore when he exhibited to his Disciples his body to be eaten and his bloud to be drunk now by a secret and invisible Mystery his body was Immolated as it pleased the power of him who performed the Mystery 326. Eusebius l. 1. de Demonst cap. 10. After all things working the salvation of us all he offered a certain wonderfull victim and a most excellent Sacrifice to his Father and ordained that in memory thereof we should offer the same to God for a sacrifice After when we have received the memory of this Sacrifice to be celebrated by certain signs in the table and also of his body and salutarie bloud as an institute of the New testament 230. S. Cyprian Epist 6. ad Cacilium Know that we are admonished that in offering the Chalice the dominicall Tradition is to be observed neither are we to do any thing but what our Lord has first done that the Chalice which is offered in commmemoration of him may be offered mixt with wine and water for when Christ said I am the true vine the vine verily is not the bloud of Christ but the wine neither can his bloud by which we are redeemed and
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
house entreated one of our Priests to go thither and expell them by prayer one went and offered there the Sacrifice of Christs body and by Gods mercy the divells did leave the place lib. 9. confess cap. 12. the Saint tells us that he was present when the Sacrifice was offered for his Mothers Soul 398. S. Chrysostome in 2. ad Tit. 1. hom 2. That holy oblation which Peter or Paul or a Priest of whatsoever merit he be who doth offer is the same which Christ gave to his Disciples which now also Priests do make this has no less then that hom 24. in 1. Cor. 10. God hath prepared here a much more admirable and more magnificent Sacrifice and when he had changed the Saccrifice for the slaughter of bruit beasts he commanded himself to be offered hom 69. ad Populum Antioch It was not unadvisedly ordained by the Apostles that commemoration of the dead should be made in the dreadfull mysteries for they know that from thence much gain and profit comes to them for when the whole people with hands stretched forth the sacerdotall plenitude and the dreadfull Mystery is propounded how praying for them shall we not be heard of God To these we may admit what the same Saint hath left to posterity in his liturgie of which we have spoken already cap. 1. § 3. and remit the Reader to Claud. de Sanctis at the end of his book of the Liturgy who hath made a Collection out of S. Chrysostoms works not only in general but also in every particular of the Masse 390. S. Jerome Epist ad Theophilum applauding his book sayes In thy work we have beheld the verity of the Churches that those who are ignorant may learn and be taught by the testimony of the Scriptures with what veneration they ought to receive holy things and serve in the Ministery of Christs Altar and to have the holy Chalice and holy veils and other things which belong to the worship of our Lords passion from the participation of our Lords body and bloud Again in cap. 1. ad Tit. If lay-men be commanded to abstain from their wives for prayer what shall we think of a Bishop who must dayly offer immaculate sacrifices unto God for his own sins and for the sins of the people 380. S. Gregory of Nice orat de Resurrect Our Lord preventing the violence of the Jews offered himself a sacrifice being himself both priest and Lamb but thou wilt say to me when was this done even then when he gave to his familiar friends his body to eat and his bloud to drink and what he himself did the same he commanded his Ministers to do 374. S. Ambrose in his prayer before Mass which the Church to this day uses exclaims O with how great confusion of heart and fountain of tears with how great reverence and trembling with how great chastity of body and purity of mind is that divine and celestial sacrifice to be celebrated where thy flesh in verity is taken where thy bloud in verity is drunken where lowest things are joyned to highest things earthly things to Divine where is the presence of the holy Angels where thou art wonderfully and ineffably Sacrifice and Priest Again I O Lord mindful of thy venerable Passion do come to thy Altar although a sinner that I may offer to thee the sacrifice which thou hast instituted and commanded to be offered in remembrance of thee for our Salvation And in his Mass he has this prayer How can we despair of thy mercy who receive so great a gift that we should deserve to offer such an host to thee to wit the body and bloud of our Lord Jesus Christ who delivered himself for the redemption of the world to that pious and venerable passion who instituting the form of everlasting sacrifice of Salvations first offered himself a sacrifice and first taught it to be offered And again Our Lord Jesus Christ thy son hath ordained the Rite of sacrificing in the New testament when he transformed bread and wine which Melchisedech Priest had offered in prefiguration of the mystery to come into the sacrament of his body and bloud and l. de officits cap. 48. Now Christ is offered as man as receiving his passion and he offers himself as Priest that he may forgive our sins And in Psal 38. We have seen the high Priest coming unto us we have seen and heard him offering his bloud for us let us Priests follow him as much as we can that we though weak in merit yet honorable by the Sacrifice may offer sacrifice for the people for although Christ is not now seen to offer yet he is offered on earth when the body of Christ is offered yea he is manifestly offered in us his word sanctifies the sacrifice which is offered 370. S. Gregory Nariazene orat 4. makes mention of Altars having their name from the most pure and incruental sacrifice 340. S. Athanasius Ser. de Defunct The Oblation of the unbloudy sacrifice is our propitiation 328. Eusebius l. 1. de demonst cap. 10. After all things Christ working our salvation offered to his Father a certain wonderful victim and excellent sacrifice for the salvation of us all and ordained in memory thereof that we our selves should offer it to God for a sacrifice 318. S. Cyrill of Hierusalem Catech. 5. explicates the most parts of the Mass I will only note his words on the Consecration We pray sayes he the most benign God that he would send his holy spirit on the things set before us that he may indeed make the bread the body of Christ and the wine the bloud of Christ for that on which the holy spirit comes upon is altogether sanctified and transmutated or changed from one thing to another 350. S. Cyprian Epist 63. ad Clerum The Bishops our predecessours religiously considering and wholsomely providing that no brother departing this life shall name a Clergy-man to be tutour or guardian over pupils If he doth no offering is to be made for him nor sacrifice celebrated for his rest because he deserves not to be named at the Altar in the prayer of the Priests who would withdraw Priests and Ministers from the Altar for which he alledges the authority of Pope Victor and Sermone de coena Domini This sacrifice is a perpetual and alwaies a permanent holocaust no multitude consumes this bread it becomes not old by antiquity 180. S. Irenaeus l. 4. cap. 34. the Churches oblation which our Lord taught to be offered in the whole world is reputed before God a sacrifice pure and acceptable to him And again The kinde of Oblation is not reproved for oblations were there and also oblations are here sacrifice in the people and sacrifices in the Church And after he makes an argument against the hereticks of those times Now will it be manifest that the Bread whereon thanksgivings are made is the body of our Lord and Chalice his bloud if they say Christ is not the
exprimendam sunt accommodata dum per Apostolum Tit. 1. mandavit Christus ut crearentur Ministri mandavit implicite ut inter ordinandum verba adhiberentur Idonea quae dati tam ordinis potestatem complecterentur istius modi autem verba quatenus Datam potestatem denotant sunt illius ordinis forma essentialis If there be no form expressing or determining the power the most essential part is wanting and consequently no true Ordination Doctour Bramhal well considered this defect in all the following words of their form in Ordination and therefore he attributes the giving of this power to the words Accipite spiritum sanctum receive ye the holy Ghost In which is contained the power to consecrate but first these words receive ye the holy Ghost are as indeterminate as the imposition of hands And Act. 8. in order to Confirmation and no wayes to Ordination v. 17. It is said they imposed their hands upon them and they received the holy Ghost Secondly the Apostles were made priests in the last supper without these words and when our Saviour did use these words he specifies and determines the power which was given thereby whose sins ye forgive shall be forgiven c. But Doctour Bramhal will still insist that in saying Receive ye the holy Ghost is understood Receive the grace of the holy Ghost to exercise the office of Priesthood to which thou hast been now presented If this had been expressed the difficulty would soon cease but this is a meer invention of this learned Doctour who tells rather what it ought to be then what it is for during well nigh a hundred years the English Bishops never made such expression Some perhaps will say the Bishops always by those words did intend and so understand those words It is very probable that Bishop of Bramhal did so understand it but neither the meaning nor Intention of the Ordainer can add any force or vertue to the sacrament or be sufficient to produce sacramental effects without words determining and specifying the Ordination which is the most essential part or form of the sacrament No wonder then that we make difficulty in their Form of Ordination when in the late Act of Vniformity The Clergy of the Kingdom as supposing the precedent form of Ordination insufficient and not satisfactory have determined that the true form of Ordaining Priests is Receive the holy Ghost in the office of a Priest which in a manner is the same with what the Grecian Church useth which is The divine grace which always cures the infirm and supplys what is wanting promote N. this venerable Deacon to be a Priest whose office even according to the whole Grecian Church is to offer sacrifice which also in the following prayers they expresly mention Symon Bishop of Thessalonia in Tract de Ordinat affirms that the Priests and Deacons are ordained before the Altar where the Chalice is present whence in the Latin Church their Ordination is admitted because although they use not the same words yet they have words which in a general way express the determination of the material fignifying also the quality and nature and office of the order of Priesthood and distinction from other Orders Now admitting this Form after so long time made choice of not to condemn it for a not-sufficient form or reproving it but only that it is different from the use of the Western Church which always had other words in their Ordination of Priests from whence those who were under the Patriark of the West ought not to differ according to the Decree of the second Milevitan Councel cap. 12. that no ordination should be used but what was approved by the Councel but omitting this I have two things to say the first that from the first Ordination made in the time of King Edward 6. there was no true ordination of Priesthood untill this late Ordinance in the Act of Vniformity by reason that their was no essential form used and by consequence there was not true Priesthood from whence also it follows there were no true Bishops For as Mr Mason well infers in his Preface Cum Episcopum esse nequeatqui non fuerit Presbyter si nos presbiteros non esse probatum dederint De Ministerio Anglico actum est The second thing is that the now Church of England doth plainly reject and renounce the Function or Office of Priesthood insomuch that they have rejected the very name of Priest even in the holy Scripture translating Elder for Presbyter a name signifying antiquity of years and appropriated as well to secular as Ecclesiastical persons in their several callings never used by the Church in the Dignity of Priesthood others retain the name but not the Office whence Mr Mason l. 5. cap. 1. sticks not to say If by the name of Priest you had meant nothing else but a Minister of the Gospel to whom is committed the dispensing of the Word and Sacraments we would profess our selves Priests whence they more commonly are called Ministers Catholicks deny not the name Ministers in regard of the exercise of those functions for Bishops Priests Deacons and other inferiour Orders may be called Ministers so S. Paul Act. 4. calls the office of Apparitor which were sent to visit the Prisons Ministers and Rom. 15. Christ himself is called Minister of Circumcision And again v. 16. S. Paul stiles himself Minister of Christ Jesus in the Gentiles which rather signifies a particular office and vocation for the conversion of the Gentiles whence he is called Doctor Gentium then Priesthood which by office is indifferent to Jew or Gentile 1 Cor. 3. S. Paul calls himself and Apollo Ministers that is instruments of Christ Jesus and therefore in the next Chapter he sayes so let a man esteem us as the Ministers of Christ and the Dispensers of the Mysteries of God that is in the exercise or use of our function or office which we have received by our vocation or ordination whereby we receive power and authority to exercise our Ministery and dispensation in which principally consists the nature and reason of Ordination by which as the same Apostle says they are made meer Ministers of the New Testament so that all Priests are Ministers but all Ministers are not Priests and the word Priest plainly signifies him that hath power to ministrate and may be called Minister in the time of his Ministration The Prophet Jeremy cap. 32. v. 21. calls Gods Priests and Levites his Ministers Phil. 2.25 S. Paul calls Epaphroditus his brother and coadjutor and fellow-soldier and the Apostle and Minister of his necessities M. Mason must give me leave to ask of him a question whether he believes that Priests have no other power then what he specifies to wit a Minister of the Gospel to whom is committed the dispensing of the word and Sacraments if he does not his words are vain if he does how will this stand with what he saith in other places as lib. 5.
word of the Father see him cap. 32. above cited 220. S. Hyppolitus Bishop and Martyr Orat de cansummatione Mundi brings in Christ speaking thus Come ye Bishops and Priests who have dayly offered my precious body and bloud and speaking of the time of antichrist he sayes The holy houses of the Churches shall be like Cottages and the precious body and bloud of Christ shall not be extant in those dayes the liturgie or Mass shall be abolished the singing of psalms shall not be heard that is publickly With him agrees S. Chrisostome hom 49. operis imperfecti according to that of Dan. cap. 9. 12. 203. Tertulliam lib. de Oratione cap. 14. speaking of the stations very many do think that they are not to be present at the prayers of the sacrifices because the station is to end by taking the body of our Lord therefore the Eucharist doth finish the devout service to God were not thy station more solemn if thou did also stand at Gods Altar the Body of our Lord being taken and reserved both are safe both participation of the sacrifice and execution of Offices And l. ad scapulum We sacrifice for the health of the Emperour but to our God and his but by pure prayer as God has commanded S. Martialis Epist ad Burdegal cap. 3. Sacrifice is offered to God the Creatour on the Altar not to men nor to Angels not only on a sanctified Altar but every where a clean ablation is offered to God as he has testified whose body and bloud we offer unto life everlasting saying Joan. 4. God is a spirit and they that adore him must adore in veritie for he having been both immaculate aend without sin because he was conceived of the holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary permitted himself to be immolated on the Altar of the Cross but what the Jews through malice did immolate thinking themselves to abolish his name from the earth we propound in a sanctified Altar for the cause of our salvation knowing by this only remedy life to be given us and death avoided for our Lord himself hath commanded us to do it in Commemoration of him 171. S. Ignatius Martyr Epist ad Smirnenses It is not lawfull to baptize nor offer nor immolate sacrifice or celebrate Masses without the Bishop And Epist ad Ephesios he condemns those who separate themselves and come not to the the Congregation of sacrifices Thus we see that the Roman Masse used for almost twelve hundred years did not there take its beginning but was alwaies observed in Christs Church even from the beginning from Christ himself and his Apostles CHAP. V. Sacrifice necessary to the being of a Church THere can be no visible Church without visible Religion nor no visible Religion without a visible Sacrifice for as the Church is nothing but a visible congregation of all the faithful so it is necessary that in this Assembly or Congregation there be something that may manifest the ir murual desire and concord to worship God Now it is certain that there never could be any agreement to any internal action neither could there be any publick act of Communion in the worship of God unless they assembled did agree or follow some external sign voice or action such as Sacraments and sacrifices are S. Chrysostome well notes hom 60. ad Pop. Antioch If we had been incorporeal God would have given us plain and incorporeal gifts but because the soul is conjoyned to the body he has given us intelligible things in sensible and this conformable to humane nature which depends of the senses in her operations even in the worship of God whereto the vertue of Religion conduces us Now Religion includes four Acts The first is a consideration of Gods infinite Majesty on whom all things depend 2. A reflexion on our nothing for of our selves we are nothing have nothing and can do nothing but whatsoever we have or can do comes all from God These two acts are not elicited by the vertue of Religion but as supposed grounds or motives to the worship of God the other two proper acts of Religion are interiour or exteriour the first as pure is proper only to the Angells and Blessed souls now separated from their bodies or elevated by some supernatural grace but as it is found in Men of this world has dependence on the senses but may be purified in its operation and is a profound submission of heart or internal Inclination of the mind to serve and worship God The external act of Religion is an external profession of that interiour will made by voice gesture or external sign such are publick prayer adorations and such like but none like to the sacrifice which carries with it that true worship which S. Augustin l 10. de civitate Dci cap. 1 calls Latria or honour due to God A little after Religion signifies nothing so distinctly as the worship of God by which cap. 4. we owe sacrifioe to God and thence inferrs There is none dare say a sacrifice is due but to God alone and who ever sacrificed but to him whom he knew or imagined or feigned to be God whence I infer That since from the first creation of Man God had a Church wherein there was true Religion it necessarily follows that according to our humane constitution in the same Church there was and is an external sacrifice wherein God was and is worshipped with Latria which is the perfect act of Religion and worship of God Moreover sacrifices seem to follow the instinct of Nature for as Plutark adversus Colos sayes A man may find Cities without walls houses Kings Laws Coynes schools and Theatres but a Town without Temples and Gods to whom sacrifices are offered you shall never finde Plato before him de leg Dial. We can never finde any Nation so barbarous any people at all so rude and savage who with vows victins and outward sacrifices have not acknowledged the Soveraeignty of some God or other All Hysteries do testify that from the beginning of the world sacrifices were in use amongst all Nations and Religion whence S. Augustine Epist 49. ad Deograt 9.34 That it is not to be blamed in the rites of Pagans that they builded Temples ordained Priests offered sacrifices for he supposed these to be according to the law of nature but that these were exhibited to Idols and devills that was to be condemned for that they gave which was only due to God to false Gods But what makes more to our purpose is the continual practise of Gods Church even from the beginning of using sacrifices which S. Augustine lib. 10. de civit Dei cap. 4. How ancient apart of Gods worship a sacrifice is Cain and Abel do shew full proof and all along in the law of Nature the Examples of Noe Abraham Melchisedech and Jacob now the written Law had sacrifices ordained by God himself which continued to our Saviour to say then that the law of Grace should have no