The works of the pious and profoundly-learned Joseph Mede, B.D., sometime fellow of Christ's Colledge in Cambridge

CHAP. V.

The Second Particular, That the Christian Sacrifice is an Oblation of Thanksgiving and Prayer, proved from Iustin Martyr, Tertullian, Clemens Alexand, &c. The Altar, or Holy Table, anciently the place of the publick Prayers of the Church. Prayer, Oblation and Sacrifice promiscuously used by the Fathers when they speak of the Chri∣stian Sacrifice. The Conjunction of Prayer and the Eucharist argued from Acts 2. 42. and from Ignatius ad Ephes. The three parts of which the Christian Synaxis con∣sisted.

[unspec II] NOW I come to the Second particular contained in my Definition; To prove that the Christian Sacrifice, according to the meaning of the ancient Church, is an Oblation of Thanksgiving and Prayer.

My first Author shall be Iustin Martyr, in his Dialogue with Tryphon the Iew; where, to the Evasion of the Iews, labouring to bereave the Christians of this Text (by saying it was meant of the Prayers which the dispersed Iews at that time offered unto God in all places where they lived among the Gentiles; which Sacrifices, though they wanted the material Rite, yet were more acceptable unto God in re∣gard of their sincerity than those prophaned ones at Ierusalem; and not that here was meant any Sacrifice which the Gentiles should offer to the God of Israel: to this Eva∣sion) Iustin replies, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. That Prayers and Thanksgivings made by those that are worthy are the only Sacrifi∣ces that are perfect and acceptable unto God, I do also affirm; for these are the only Sacri∣fices which Christians have been taught they should perform. If you ask where, and how; he tells you, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 [leg. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉] 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in that thankful remembrance of their food both dry and liquid, wherein also is commemorated the Passion which the Son of God suffered by himself. It is a description of the Eucharist, wherein, as I have al∣ready told you, the Bread and Wine were first presented unto God, as the Primitiae or a kind of First-fruit-Offering, to agnize him the Giver of our Food both dry and liquid; and then consecrated to be the Symbols of the Body and Bloud of Christ.

My next Author shall be Tertullian ad Scap. in the* 1.1 place before alledged: Sacrifi∣camus (saith he) pro salute Imperatoris;—sed, quomodo praecepit Deus, purâ prece: Non enim eget Deus, Conditor Vniversitatis, odoris & sanguinis alicujus; haec enim Dae∣moniorum pabula sunt. The Gentiles so thought, that their Gods were refreshed and nourisht with the smell and savour of their Sacrifices. Besides, in his third Book con∣tra Marcionem cap. 22. In omni loco sacrificium nomini meo offertur, & sacrificium mundum, (to wit, saith he) Gloriae relatio, benedictio, laus & hymni; and Lib. 4. cap. 1. Sacrificium mundum, scilicet simplex oratio de conscientia pura.

Thirdly, Clemens Alexandrinus Lib. 7. Stromat. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, We (Christians) honour God by Prayer; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, And this we send up unto him as the best and holiest Sacrifice, honouring him by that most sacred Word, where∣by we receive knowledge; that is, by Christ. Again, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, The sacrifice of the Church is an oration exhaled from sanctified souls. He speaks not of the private Prayer of every Christian, but of the pub∣lick Prayer of the Church as a Body; as will be evident to him that reads the place, and appears by the words quoted, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, The Sacrifice of the Church; and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, exhaled (not from a sanctified soul, but) from sanctified souls. For to private Prayer was not given this title of the Christian Sa∣crifice, but unto the publick, which the Church offered unto God when she presented her self before him, as one Body in Christ, by the mystical Communication of his Body and Bloud.

This my next Author, Cyprian, will make plain in his 16, Epist. ad Mosen & Maxi∣mum. Nos quidem (saith he) vestri diebus & noctibus memores, & quando in sacrifi∣ciis precem cum pluribus facimus, & cum in secessu privatis precibus oramus: We indeed are mindful of you day and night; both when we in our Sacrifices pray publickly with others, and when we pray privately in our retirements: where we see the Sacrifice of Prayer to be, cùm precent cum pluribus facimus, and distinguisht from that we do cùm in secessu privatis precibus oramus.

These Authorities are all within the first three hundred years: to which I will add one of the fourth; Optatus Milevitanns Lib. 6. contra Parmenianum, where he thus expostulates with the Donatists for breaking and defacing the Altars of the Catholicks: Quid est enim tam sacrilegum (saith he) quàm Altaria Dei (in quibus & vos aliquando obtulistis) frangere, radere, removere? in quibus Vota Populi & Membra Christi* 1.2 por∣tata sunt; quò Deus omnipotens invocatus sit: For what is there so sacrilegious as to break and deface, nay and quite take away, the Altars of God, whereon ye your selves have some∣times offered; those Altars which did bear both the Prayers of the People and the Body and Bloud of Christ, that so Almighty God might be invocated? Mark here Altaria in quibus Vota populi & Membra Christi portata sunt, and gather hence what parts the Christian Sacrifice consisted of: Vota populi are the Prayers of the Church, Membra Christi the Body and Bloud of Christi, which the Prayers were offered with; both of them upon the Altar. For it is worthy your notice, That the ancient Church had no other Place whereat she offered her publick Prayers and Orisons but that whereon the memory of the Body and Bloud of Christ was celebrated; that as they were joyned in their Use, so they might not be severed in their Place.

According to which use, and agreeable to this passage of Optatus, speaks the Council of Rhemes, commanding the Table of Christ (that is, the Altar) to be reverenced and honoured, Quia Corpus Domini ibi consecratur, & sanguis ejus hauritur; Preces quoque & Vota populi in conspectu Dei à Sacerdote offeruntur: Because there the Body of Christ is consecrated, and his Bloud is drunk; there also the Prayers and Desires of the People are offered up by the Priest before God.

Furthermore, That the Christian Sacrifice was an Oblation of Prayer, and consisted in Invocation, is also another way to be evinc'd; namely, Because the Fathers, when they speak thereof, use the terms of Prayer, Oblation and Sacrifice promiscuously and interchangeably one for the other, as words importing the same thing.

Tertullian Exhort. ad Cast. disswading a Widower from marrying again, because it would be uncomely in the Sacrifice of the Church to make mention (as the manner then was) of more Wives than one, and that too by the mouth of an once-married Priest, speaks thus; Neque enim pristinam poteris odisse, cui etiam religiostorem reservas affectionem, ut jam receptae apud Dominum, pro cujus spiritu postulas, pro qua oblationes annuas reddis. Stabis ergo ad Dominum cum tot uxoribus quoi in oratione commemoras? & offeres pro duabus? & commendabis illas duas per Sacerdotem de monogamia ordina∣tum? circundatum virginibus & univiris? & ascendet sacrificium tuum cum liberâ fron∣te? For thou canst not hate thy former wife, for whom thou reservest a more religious af∣fection, as being received already with the Lord, for whose spirit thou makest request, for whom thou rendrest yearly Oblations. Wilt thou then stand before the Lord with as many wives as in thy prayers thou makest mention of? and wilt thou offer for two? and com∣mend those two by a Priest ordained after his having been but once-married? encompassed with virgins and with women but once married? and shall thy Sacrifice ascend freely and confidently? Here postulatio and oblatio, oratio and offerre, oratio and sacrificium are in∣terchangeably put one for the other. So also, in his Book De Oratione are Oratio and Sacrificium; where he speaks of the kiss of Peace and Reconcilement, used at the Eucharist: Quae oratio (saith he) cum divortio sancti osculi integra? quale sacrificium, à quo sine pace receditur? What Prayer can be complete that is without the holy kiss? what a kind of Sacrifice is that, from which Christians come away without the kiss of Peace?

Augustine De Civit. Dei Lib. 8. cap. 27. speaking of the honour of Martyrs; Nec Martyribus (saith he) sacrificia constituimus—quis audivit aliquando fidelium, stan∣tem Sacerdotem ad Altare (etiam super sanctum corpus Martyris) ad Dei honorem cultúm∣que constructum, dicere in Precibus Offero tibi sacrificium, Petre, vel Paule? &c. We do not sacrifice to Martyrs—Who among the faithful, while the Priest was standing at the Altar built for the honour and worship of God, (nay though it were over the holy body of the Martyr,) I say, who ever heard the Priest to say thus in Prayer, To thee, O Peter, or O Paul, do I offer Sacrifice? Here Sacrificium is expounded by Preces, and Preces put for Sacrificium.

And Lib. 22. cap. 8. concerning one Hesperius, a man of quality in the City where∣of Austin was Bishop, who, by the affliction of his cattel and servants, perceiving his Country-Grange liable to some malignant power of evil spirits, Rogavit nostros, (saith S. Austin) me absente, Presbyteros, ut aliquis eorum illò pergeret, cujus orationibus cederent. Perrexit unus, obtulit ibi sacrificium corporis Christi, orans, quantum potuit, ut cessaret illa vexatio. Deo protinus miserante cessavit. He entreated our Presbyters, in my absence, that some one of them would go to the place, through the prevalency of whose

Prayers he hoped the evil spirits would be forced away. Accordingly one of them went thi∣ther, and offered there the Sacrifice of Christ's Body, praying earnestly with all his might for the ceasing of that fore affliction: and it ceased forthwith through God's mercy. The Priest was entreated to pray there; he went, and offered sacrifice, and so prayed.

For this reason the Christian Sacrifice is among the Fathers, by way of distinction, called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Sacrificium laudis, that is, of Confession and Invocation of God; namely, to difference it from those of Bloud and Incense. Augustine Lib. 1. contra Adversarium Legis & Prophetarum cap. 20. Ecclesia immolat Deo in corpore Christi sacri∣ficium laudis, ex quo Deus Deorum locutus vocavit terram à Solis ortu usque ab occasum: The Church offereth to God the Sacrifice of praise, ever since the fulfilling of that in Psalm 50. The God of Gods hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the Sun to the go∣ing down thereof. Again, Epist. 86. Sacrificium laudis ab Ecclesia toto orbe diffusa die∣bus omnibus immolatur: The Sacrifice of Praise is continually offered by the Christian Church dispersed all the world over. And elsewhere. And amongst the Greek Fathers this term is so frequent as I shall not need to quote any of them.

Now this joyning of the Prayers of the Church with the mystical commemoration of Christ in the Sacrament of his Body and Bloud, was no after-Invention of the Fa∣thers, but took its original from the Apostles times, and the very beginning of Chri∣stianity: For so we read of the first believers Acts 2. 42. that they were 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. which the Vulgar Latine turns, Erant autem perseverantes in doctrina Apostolorum, & communicatione fractionis panis, & orationibus; And they persevered in the doctrine of the Apostles, and in the communication of the breaking of bread, and Prayers: but the Syriack, Perseverantes erant in doctrina Apostolorum, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉; & communicabant in oratione, & fractione Eucharistiae: They persevered in the doctrine of the Apostles, and communicated in Prayer and in breaking of the Eucha∣rist; that is, They were assiduous and constant in hearing the Apostles, and in cele∣brating the Christian Sacrifice. Both which Translations teach us, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Breaking of Bread and Prayers, are to be referred to 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Commu∣nion, as the Exegesis thereof; namely, that this Communion of the Church consisted in the Breaking of Bread and Prayers; and so the conjunction 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to be Exegetically taken, as if the Greek were rendred thus, Erant perseverantes in (audienda) doctrina Aposto∣lorum, & in communicatione, videlicet, fractione panis, & orationibus. And who knows not that the Synaxis of the ancient Christians consisted of these three parts, Of hearing the Word of God, of Prayers, and Commemoration of Christ in the Eucharist? Our Translation therefore here is not so right, which refers 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and translates it, The fellowship of the Apostles.

The Antiquity also of this conjunction we speak of appears out of Ignatius, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, where speaking of the damage which Schismaticks incur by dividing themselves from the communion of the Church, he utters it in this manner; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; Let no man (saith he) deceive himself: unless a man be within the Altar, he is deprived of the Bread of God. And if the prayer of one or two be of that force as to set Christ in the midst of them, how much more shall the joynt-prayer of the Bishop and whole Church, sent up unto God, prevail with him to grant us all our requests in Christ? These words of Ignatius directly imply that the Altar was the place as of the Bread of God, so of the Publick Prayers of the Church; and that they were so nearly linked together, that he that was not within the Altar, (that is, who should be divided therefrom) had no benefit of either.

Notes

• * 1.1

  [See Chap. 3. of this Trea∣tise, pag. 358. where these two passages are translated.]
• * 1.2

  [Vide infra—Eregistis etiam Calices, Dominici San∣guinis portato∣res.]