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IT sounds not more prodi∣giously, that a Priest should euerie day make his God, then that hee should sacrifice him. Antiquitie would haue as much abhorred the sense, as it hath allowed the word. Nothing is more ordinarie with the Fathers, then to call Gods Table an Altar, the holy Elements an Obla∣tion,* 1.1 the act of Celebration an Im∣molation, the Actor a Priest. S. Chrysostome reckons ten kindes of Sacrifice, and at last (as hauing for∣gotten
it) addes the eleuenth; All which we well allow;* 1.2 and indeed many Sacrifices are offered to God in this one; but a true, proper, pro∣pitiatorie Sacrifice for quicke and dead, (which the Tridentine Fa∣thers would force vpon our beleefe) would haue seemed no lesse strange a Soloecisme to the eares of the An∣cient, then it doth to ours. Saint Augustine calls it a Designation of Christs offering vpon the Crosse.* 1.3 Saint Chrysostome (and Theophylact after him) a Remembrance of his Sacrifice: Emissenus a daily celebra∣tion in mysterie of that which was once offered in payment;* 1.4 and Lom∣bard himselfe, a memoriall and re∣presentation of the true Sacrifice vpon the Crosse: That which Cas∣sander cites from Saint Ambrose or Chrysostome,* 1.5 may be in stead of all. In Christ is the Sacrifice once offe∣red able to giue saluation; What doe we therefore? Doe we not offer euerie day? Surely, if we offer daily, it is done for a recorbation of his
death: This is the language and meaning of Antiquitie,* 1.6 the verie same which the Tridentine Synod condemneth in vs. If any man shall say, that the Sacrifice of the Masse is onely a Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiuing, or a bare commemo∣ration of the Sacrifice offered vpon the Crosse, let him be accursed·
HOw plaine is the Scripture; whiles it tells vs that our High Priest needeth not daily, as those High Priests (vnder the Law) to of∣fer vp sacrifice, first for his own sins, then, for the peoples;* 1.7 For this hee did once, when hee offered vp him∣selfe. The contradiction of the Trent-Fathers is here verie remark∣able:
Christ (say they) who on the altar of the Crosse offered himselfe in a bloudie Sacrifice,* 1.8 is now this true Propitiatorie Sacrifice in the Masse made by himselfe: Hee is one and the same Sacrifice, and one and the same offerer of that Sacrifice, by the Ministerie of his Priests, who then offered himselfe on the Crosse; So then, they say, that Christ offe∣red vp that Sacrifice then, and this now: Saint Paul sayes he offered vp that Sacrifice and no more. Saint Paul saies our High Priest needs not to offer daily Sacrifice. They say these daily Sacrifices must bee offe∣red by him; Saint Paul sayes that he offered himselfe but once, for the sins of the people. They say hee offers himselfe daily for the sins of quicke and dead: And if the Apostle in the spirit of prophesie foresaw this er∣rour, and would purposely fore-stall it, he could not speake more direct∣ly,* 1.9 then when he saith, We are sancti∣fied through the offering of the bodie of Iesus Christ, once for all. And euerie
High Priest standeth daily ministring and offering oftentimes the same sacri∣fices which can neuer take away sinnes;* 1.10 But this man after hee had offered one sacrifice for sinnes,* 1.11 for euer sate downe on the right hand of God; from hence∣forth expecting till his enemies be made his footstoole: For by one offering hee hath perfected for euer them that are sanctified.
Now let the vaine heads of men seeke subtill euasions in the different manner of this offering,* 1.12 bloudie then, vnbloudie now; The Holy Ghost speakes punctually of the ve∣rie substance of the act; and tells vs absolutely, there is but one Sacrifice once offered by him in any kinde; Else the opposition that is there made betwixt the Legall Priesthood and his, should not hold, if, as they, so he had often properly and truly sacrificed.
That I may not say they build herein what they destroy; for an vnbloudie Sacrifice, in this sense, can bee no other then figuratiue, and
commemoratiue. Is it really propi∣tiatorie?* 1.13 Without shedding of bloud there is no remission. If ther∣fore sins be remitted by this Sacri∣fice, it must bee in relation to that bloud, which was shed in his true personall Sacrifice vpon the Crosse; and what relation can bee betwixt this and that, but of representation and remembrance;* 1.14 in which their moderate Cassander fully resteth?
IN reason, there must be in euerie Sacrifice (as Cardinall Bellarmine grants) a destruction of the thing offered; and shall we say that they make their Sauiour to crucifie him againe?* 1.15 No, but to eat him; For (Consumptio seu manducatio quae sit à
sacerdote) The consumption or manducation which is done of the Priest is an essentiall part of this Sa∣crifice; (saith the same Author;) For in the whole action of the Masse, there is (saith hee) no other reall destruction but this:
Suppose we then the true humane flesh, bloud, and bone of Christ, God and man, really and corpo∣rally made such by this Transsub∣stantiation, Whether is more horri∣ble to crucifie, or to eat it?
By this rule it is the Priests teeth, and not his tongue, that makes Christs bodie a sacrifice:
By this rule it shall be (hostia) an host, when it is not a Sacrifice; and a reserued host is no Sacrifice, how∣soeuer consecrated. And what if a mouse, or other vermin,* 1.16 should eat the Host (it is a case put by them∣selues) who then sacrificeth? To stop all mouthes; Laicks eat as well as the Priest, there is no difference in their manducation, but Laicks sacri∣fice not; And (as Salmeron vrges)
the Scripture distinguisheth betwixt the Sacrifice and the participation of it;* 1.17 Are not they which eat of the Sacrifices, partakers of the Al∣tar? And in the verie Canon of the Masse, Vt quot quot, &c. the prayer is, that all wee which in the partici∣pation of the Altar haue taken the sacred bodie and bloud of thy Son, &c. Wherein it is plaine, saith hee, that there is a distinction betwixt the Host, and the eating of the Host.
Lastly, sacrificing is an act done to God; if then eating bee sacrifi∣cing, The Priest eats his God to his God; Quorum Deus venter. Whiles they in vaine studie to reconcile this new-made Sacrifice of Christ alrea∣dy in heauen, with (Iube haec perfer∣ri) Command these to be carried by the hands of thine holy Angels to thine high Altar in Heauen, in the sight of thy diuine Maiestie: Wee conclude, That this proper and pro∣pitiatorie Sacrifice of the Masse, as a new, vnholy, vnreasonable sacrifice
is iustly abhorred by vs, and wee for abhorring it vniustly eiected.
Macarium in altare insult as∣se, mensam do∣mini euertisse, Socrat. l. 1. c. 10· Chrys. in Ps. 95.
Concil. Trid. sess. 6. c. 2. can. 1. Verum, pro∣prium propitia∣torium, &c.
In lib. sent. Prosp. Hom. 17. ad Hebr.
Prece mystica consecratur no∣bis in memoria dominicae passio∣nis. Lomb. sent. l. 4. d. 12.
Cassand. consult. de sacrificio. Et Ibidem, hoc autem sacrifi∣cium exemplar est illius. Chrys. vbi supra.
Si qu••s dixerit Missae Sacrifi∣cium antum esse laudis & tiarum actionis, &c. Sess. 6. cap. 9.
Heb. 7.27.
Co•• Tri••. sess. 6 cap. 2.
Heb. 10.10.
Verse 11, 12.
Verse 13, 14.
Sola offerendi ratione diuersa. Ibid. Concil. Trid
Heb. 9.12.
Cassand. Con∣sult. de sacrif.
Bell. l. 1. de Mis∣sa, cap. 2.
Io▪ de Burg 4. partis c. 8. de Ministratione Euch. Salmer. Tom. 8. Tract. 29. An Euchar. sit pro∣prie sacrificium
1. Cor. 10.8.