Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

and Luke', he will there find clearly expressed a distinct mention of the most sacred and noble victim ever presented to the Deity. The sacred body of Christ is there said to be given for us; his blood is shed for the remission of sins; and St. Paul, who surely must be presumed to have the spirit, and to understand the meaning of Christ, expressly declares, that in these holy mysteries, the body of Christ is broken for us 2. Again, the same great apostle3, speaking on the same subject, declares the holy mysteries under consideration, to be a participation of the body. of Christ, and the communion of the blood of Christ; and in terms not to be misunderstood, he institutes a clear comparison between the sacrifice offered to the living God, and the impious sacrifices immolated to devils. Now how can the body of Christ be said to be given for us; how can his sacred blood be shed for us, unless we understand this most sacred and solemn action, as a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice? With what consistency either of thought or of language, can St. Paul introduce a comparison, in the passages referred to, between the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils, and the table of the Lord and the table of devils; that is, between the sacrifices offered to one and to the

1 Matt. xxvi. 28; Mark xiv. 24; Luke xxii. 19.

1 Cor. xi. 24, 25.

3 Ibid. x. 16, et 20, 21.

other, unless these divine mysteries were designedly to be considered as a true, real, and proper sacrifice? Again, let me request the attention of the catechist to this most important, urgent, and irrefragable argument.

If a doubt were to exist, whether any particular practice formed a part of the law of this land, a specific declaration of the legislature would unquestionably be deemed decisive, as to the nature of the contested point. In vain would individuals be permitted to allege, that they have before them the statute or written law; and that all things necessary for the welfare of society, and connected with the fundamental principles of the British constitution, are expressed so clearly as to admit of no doubt. The obvious reply would be, that such a plea would not only supersede the necessity of judges, counsellors, pleaders, and attorneys, but would subvert the authority of the governing powers, by which laws are made and explained. And is not this sensible and appropriate reply equally admissible in the concerns of religion, as well as in those of a temporal nature? Is the authority left by Christ in his church, of a less sacred nature than that power, by which kings govern and judges expound laws? I must therefore be allowed to assume an inevitable inference, that when this church, which Christ has promised to protect for ever, has pronounced that a true, proper, and

propitiatory sacrifice is left by our Redeemer in the holy mass, it becomes indispensably necessary for all members of his church to admit such a truth, as well as every other proposed by the same authority.

That no doubt whatever exists as to the nature of the doctrine of the church of Christ on this subject, is well known. Let the catechist and his friends examine the doctrine as proposed by the council of Trent on this great sacrifice', and from this period let them ascend through every age to the apostolic times, and they will find at every step traces of this distinguished tenet. The testimony of St. Paul is clear, from the passages already produced. St. Clement, a man endued with an apostolic spirit, and a contemporary of the apostle's, in his 1st Epistle to the Corinthians, speaks of the oblation, which it is the peculiar province of the Christian priesthood to make, evidently alluding to the great eucharistic sacrifice. The doctrine taught by St. Ignatius the martyr, who was bishop of Antioch, and suffered for the faith in the year 107, is equally conclusive on the subject. The same doctrine may be collected from various parts of the writings of St. Justin, the ornament of the second age, but particularly from his learned and ingenious Dia

1 Sess. 22.

2 See St. Clem. 1 Epis. ad Cor. c. 44, cum notâ doctiss. editoris Russel. Lond. 1746. 3 See

Epist. ad. Smyrn. tom. ii. p. 49, c. 7, edit. Russel, cum notâ Edit

logue with Tryphon the Jew1. The celebrated passage also, in his Great Apology, which has always excited so much attention in the learned world, may be produced as a decisive testimony in favour of the Catholic doctrine 2.

In the most ancient of all liturgies, inserted in the Apostolic Constitutions, the body and blood of Christ is said in express terms to be offered to God by his order for the various purposes of sacrifice there enumerated. St. Irenæus may be produced as an uncontradicted witness of the doctrine of the third age, who declares that our Redeemer at his last supper introduced a new sacrifice of the new testament, which the church receives from the apostles, and offers to God throughout the whole world.

4

Indeed the testimonies on the subject from the ancient fathers would be sufficient to fill volumes, and would assuredly swell this treatise to an immeasurable length. But, in fact, all this labour is abridged by the acknowledgments of our adversaries. "Habemus confitentes reos." The centuriators of Magdeburgh-whose zeal and acuteness displayed in the Protestant cause, are well known-have been constrained reluctantly to own, that the existence of this sacrifice of the new law stands recorded in the early

1 See Dial. cum Tryphon, p. 339. tom. iii. edit. Jebb.

2 See Apol. c. 87, p. 131, tom. i. edit. Grabe.

3 Lib. viii. c. 12.

* Lib. iv. c. 32, et seq.

E

monuments of Christianity; and on the passage of St. Irenæus just referred to, they express their acknowledgment in terms of indignation'. They. also betray a considerable share of asperity at the expence of St. Cyprian, for affirming that the priest officiates in the person of Christ, and that a real sacrifice is offered to God. If in addition to the testimonies both of friends and foes, the catechist will deign slightly to inspect the various ancient liturgies now extant, particularly those of St. James, of St. Clement, of St. John Chrysostom, of St. Basil, and that explained by St. Cyril of Jerusalem, in his celebrated Catechetical Discourses now extant, he will discover such a mass of evidence in favour of the Catholic doctrine relative to the eucharistic sacrifice, as even his bigotry and ignorance will not resist.

But as he is fond of making an occasional display of learning, by referring to the belief of the Greek church, let me inform him, that the Calvinists of France, in the reign of Louis XIV. adopted the same plan, and laboured to persuade the Christian world, that the Greek schismatics favoured their innovations in every point. In consequence of this assertion so often and so solemnly repeated, his Christian Majesty directed his ambassador at Constantinople, to collect official documents, containing the precise belief

1 Cent. ii. c. 4.

2 Ibid. iii. c. 4.

« ZurückWeiter »