whereof is concerning sacrifices There God saith Gather my Saints together unto me which make covenant with me by sacrifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And vers 16. of the sacrifices of the wicked and such as amend not their lives Vnto the wicked God saith What hast thou to do to declare my statutes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and take my Covenant in thy mouth seeing thou hatest instruction c. Statutes here are Rites and Ordinances and particularly those of Sacrifice which who so bringeth unto God and thereby supplicates and cals upon his Name is said to take the covenant of God in his mouth Forasmuch as to invocate God with this Rite was to do it by way of commemoration of his Covenant and to say Remember Lord thy Covenant and for thy Covenants sake Lord hear my prayer and supplication For what hath man to do with God to beg any favour at his hands unlesse he be in Covenant with him whereby appears the reason why mankinde from the beginning of the world used to approach their God by this Rite of sacrificing that is ritu foederali I adde in this last place for a farther confirmation That when God was to make a Covenant with Abraham Gen. 15. he commanded him to offer him a Sacrifice Offer unto me saith he so it should be turned a heifer a she-goat and aram each of three years old a turtle Dove and a young pigeon All which he offered accordingly and divided them in the midst laying each piece or moity one against the other and when the sun went down God in the likenesse of a smoaking furnace and burning lamp past between the pieces and so as the Text sayes made a Covenant with Abraham saying Vnto thy seed will I give this land c. By which Rite of passing through the parts God condescended to the manner of men And note here that the Gentiles and Jews likewise in their more solemn covenants between men and men which were made under pain of curse or execration used this Rite of Sacrifice whereby men covenanted with their God as it were to make their God both a witnesse and a party with them And here the Jews cut the Sacrifice in sunder and past between the parts thereof as God did here with Abraham which was as much as if they had said Thus let me be divided and cut in pieces if I violate the oath I have now made in the presence of my God The Gentiles besides other ceremonies used not to eat at all of these sacrifices but to fling them into the sea or bury them in the earth as if they had said If I break Covenant thus let me be excluded from all amity and favour with my God as I am now from eating of his Sacrifice Hence came those phrases secare foedus in the Hebrew of ferire percutere icere foedus in Latine of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Homer à feriendis percutiendis secandis sacrificiis in foederibus sanciendis Though this manner of speech may be also derived from their ordinary Epula foederales wherein they killed beasts which the Ancients in their ordinary diet did not Having thus seen what is the nature of a Sacrifice and wherein the ratio thereof consisteth it will not be hard to judge whether the ancient Christians did rightly in giving the Eucharist that name or not For that the Lords supper is Epulum foederale we all grant and our Saviour expresly affirms it of the Cup in the stitution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Cup is the Rite of the new Covenant in my Blood which is powred out for many for the remission of sins evidently implying that the bloody sacrifices of the Law with their meat and drink-offerings were Rites of an old covenant and that this succeeded them as the rite of the new That that was contracted with the blood of beevs sheep and goats but this founded in the blood of Christ This parallel is so plain as I think none will deny it There is nothing then remains to make this sacred Epulum a full sacrifice but that the Viands thereof should be first offered unto God that he may be the Convivator we the Convivae or the guests SECT V. MY last task was to prove that the rite of the Lords Supper is indeed a Sacrifice not in a Metaphoricall but a proper sense and this if the nature of Sacrifice be truly defined is no whit repugnant to the reformed Religion To evidence which I shewed that a Sacrifice was nothing else but a Sacred-feast wherein God mystically entertained man at his own Table in token of amity and friendship with him which that he might do the Viands of that feast were first made Gods by oblation and so eaten of not as of Mans but Gods provision There is nothing then wanting to make this sacred Epulum of which we speak full out a Sacrifice but that we shew that the Viands thereof were in like manner first offered unto God that so being his he might be the Convivator man the Conviva or the guest And this the ancient Church was wont to do this they beleeved our blessed Saviour himself did when at the institution of this holy Rite he took the Bread and the Cup into his sacred hands and looking up to heaven gave thanks and blessed And after his example they first offered the Bread and Wine unto God to agnize him the Lord of the Creature and then received them from him again in a Banquet as the Symbols of the Body and Blood of his Son This is that I am now to prove out of the testimonies of Antiquity not long after but next unto the Apostles times when it is not likely the Church had altered the form they left her for the celebration of this Mystery I will begin with Irenaeus as the most full and copious in this point He in his fourth Book cap. xxxii speaks thus Dominus Discipulis suis dans consilium Primitias Deo offerre ex suis Creaturis non quasi indigenti sed ut ipsi nec infructuosi nec ingrati sint eum qui ex Creatura est panis accepit gratias egit dicens Hoc est corpus meum Calicem similiter qul ex Creatura est quae est secundum nos suum sanguinem con fessus est Novo Testamento novam docuit oblationem quam Ecclesia ab Apostolis accipiens offert Deo ei qui alimenta nobis praestat primitias suorum munerum in Novo Testamento And Cap. xxxiii Igitur Ecclesiae oblatio quam Dominus docuit offerri in universo mundo purum sacrificium reputatum est apud Deum acceptum est ei non quod indigeat à nobis sacrificium sed quoniam is qui offert glorificatur ipse in eo quod offert si acceptetur munus ejus Per munus enim erga Regem honos affâ—ctio ostenditur He alludes to that in the first of Malachi I am a great King
for whom even themselves being Judges it would be an uncomely thing to wear a vail that is a womans habit so by the like reason was it as uncomely for a woman to be without a vail that is in the guise and dresse of a man And howsoever the Devils of the Gentiles sometimes took pleasure in uncomelinesse and absurd garbs and gestures yet the God whom they worshipped with his holy Angels who were present at their devotions loved a comely accommodation agreeable to Nature and Custome in such as worshipped him For this cause therefore saith he ought a woman to have a covering on her head because of the Angels Lastly he concludes it from the example and custome both of the Iewish and Christian Churches neither of which had any such use for their women to be unvailed in their sacred assemblies If any man saith he be contentious that is will not be satisfied with these reasons let him know that we that is we of the Circumcision have no such custome nor the Church of God For so with S. Ambrose Anselme and some of the ancients I take the meaning of the Apostle to be in those words Thus you have heard briefly what was the fault of these Corinthian Dames which the Apostle here taxeth From which we our selves may learn thus much That God requires a decent and comely accommodation in his House in the act of his worship and service For if in their habit and dresse surely much more in their gestures and deportment he loves nothing that is unseemly in the one or in the other TITUS 3. 5. By the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost THese words as it is easie to conceive upon the first hearing are spoken of Baptisme of which I intend not by this choyce to make any full or accurate tractation but onely to acquaint you as I am wont with my thoughts concerning two particulars therein One from what propriety analogy or use of water the washing therewith was instituted for a sign of new birth according as it is here called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the washing of regeneration The other what is the counter-type or thing which the water figureth in this Sacrament I will begin with the last first because the knowledge thereof must be supposed for the explication and more distinct understanding of the other In every Sacrament as ye well know there is the outward Symbole or sign res terrena and the signatum figured and represented thereby res coelestis In this of Baptism the sign or res terrena is washing with water The question is what is the Signatum the invisible and celestiall thing which answers thereunto In our Catecheticall explications of this mystery it is wont to be affirmed to be the blood of Christ That as Water washeth away the filth of the body so the blood of Christ cleanseth us from the guilt and pollution of sin And there is no question but the blood of Christ is the fountain of all the grace and good communicated unto us either in this or any other Sacrament or mystery of the Gospel But that this should be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the counterpart or thing figured by the water in Baptism I beleeve not because the Scripture which must be our guide and direction in this case makes it another thing to wit the Spirit or Holy Ghost this to be that whereby the soul is cleansed and renewed within as the body with water is without so saith our Saviour to Nicodemus Ioh. 3. Except a man be born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God And the Apostle in the words I have read parallels the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost as type and countertype God saith he hath saved us that is brought us into the state of salvation by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost where none I trow will deny that he speaks of Baptism The same was represented by that vision at our Saviours Baptism of the holy Ghosts descending upon him as he came out of the water in the similitude of a Dove For I suppose that in that Baptism of his the mystery of all our Baptisms was visibly acted and that God sayes to every one truly baptized as he said to him in a proportionable sense Thou art my Son in whom I am well pleased And how pliable the analogy of water is to typifie the Spirit well appears by the figuring of the Spirit thereby in other places of Scripture As in that of Isay I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and slouds upon the dry ground I will pour my Spirit upon by seed and my blessing upon thine off-spring where the latter expounds the former Also by the discourse of our Saviour with the Samaritan woman Iohn 4. 14. Whosoever saith he drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up to everlasting life By that also Ioh. 7. 37. where on the last day of the great feast Iesus stood and said If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink He that beleeveth on me as the Scripture saith that is as the Scripture is wont to expresse it for otherwise there is no such place of Scripture to be found in all the Bible out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water But this saith the Euangelist he spake of the Spirit which they that beleeve on him should receive Nor did the Fathers or ancient Church as far as I can finde suppose any other correlative to the element in Baptism but this of this they speak often of the blood of Christ they are altogether silent in their explicatioÌ„s of this mystery many are the allusioÌ„s they seek out for the illustration thereof and some perhaps forced but this of the water signifying or having any relation to the blood of Christ never comes amongst them which were impossible if they â—ad not supposed some other thing figured by the water then it which barred them from falling on that conceit The like silence is to be observed in our Liturgy where the Holy Ghost is more then once paralled with the water in Baptism washing and regeneration attributed thereunto but no such notion of the blood of Christ. And that the opinion thereof is novell may be gathered because some Lutheran Divines make it peculiar and proper to the followers of Calvin Whatsoever it be it hath no foundation in Scripture and we must not of our own heads assigne significations to Sacramentall types without some warrant thence For whereas some conceive those two expressions of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or sprinkling of the blood of Christ and of our being washed from our sins in or by his blood do intimate some such matter they are surely mistaken for those expressions have reference not to the
water of Baptism in the New Testament but to the rite and manner of sacrificing in the Old where the Altar was wont to be sprinkled with the blood of the Sacrifices which were offered and that which was unclean purified with the same blood whence is that elegant discourse of Saint Paul Heb. 9. comparing the sacrifices of the Law with that of Christ upon the Crosse as much the better And that whereas in the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Almost all things were purified with blood so much more the blood of Christ who offered himself without spot to God cleanseth our consciences from dead works But that this washing that is cleansing by the blood of Christ should have reference to Baptism where is that to be found I suppose they will not alledge the water and blood which came out of our Saviours side when they pierced him For that is taken to signifie the two Sacraments ordained by Christ that of blood the Eucharist of water Baptism not both to be referred to Baptism I add because perhaps some mens fancies are corrupted therwith that there was no such thing as sprinkling or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in Baptism in the Apostles times nor many ages after them and that therefore it is no way probable that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Peter should have any reference to the Laver of Baptism Let this then be our conclusion That the blood of Christ concurres in the mystery of Baptism by way of efficacy and merit but not as the thing there figured which the Scripture tels us not to be the blood of Christ but the Spirit And so I come to my other Quaere From what property or use of water the washing therewith is a Sacrament of our new birth for so it is here called the washing of regeneration and our Saviour sayes to Nicodemus Except a man be born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God For in every Sacrament there is some analogy between what is outwardly done and what is thereby signified therefore in this But what should it be It is a thing of some moment and yet in the tractates of this mystery but little or seldom enquired after and therefore deserves the more consideration I answer this analogy between the washing with water and regeneration lies in that custome of washing infants from the pollutions of the womb when they are first born for this is the first office done unto them when they come out of the womb if they purpose to nourish and bring them up As therefore in our naturall birth the body is washt with water from the pollutions wherewith it comes besmeared out of the matrix so in our second birth from above the soul is purified by the Spirit from the guilt and pollution of sin to begin a new life to God-ward The analogy you see is apt and proper if that be true of the custome whereof there is no cause to make question For the use at present any man I think knows how to inform himself For that of elder times I can produce two pregnant and notable testimonies one of the Jews and people of God another of the Gentiles The first you shall finde Ezek. 16. where God describes the poor and forlorn condition of Jerusalem when he first took her to himself under the parable of an exposed Infant As for thy nativity saith he in the day thou wast born thy navell was not cut neither was thou washed in water to supple thee thou wast not salted at all nor swadled at all None eye pitied thee to do any of these things unto thee to have compassion on thee but thou wast cast out in the open field to the loathing of thy person in the day that thou wast born Here you may learn what was wont to be done unto infants at their nativity by that which was not done to Israel till God himself took pity on her cutting off the navell string washing salting swadling upon this place S. Hierome takes notice but scarce any body else that I can yet finde that our Saviour where speaking of Baptism he says Except a man be born of water the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God alludes to the custom here mentioned of washing Infants at their nativity The other testimony and that most pertinent to the application we make I finde in a story related by Plutarch in his Quaestiones Romanae not far from the beginning in this manner Among the Greeks if one that were living were reported to be dead and funerall obsequies performed for him if afterward he returned alive he was of all men abominated as a pro phane and unlucky person no man would come into his company and which was the highest degree of calamity they excluded him from their Temples and the Sacrifices of their gods It chanced that one Aristinus being faln into such a disaster not knowing which way to expiate himself therefrom sent to the Oracle at Delphos to Apollo beseeching him to shew him the means whereby he might be freed and discharged thereof Pythia gave him this answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arastinus rightly apprehending what the Oracle meant offered himself to women as one newly brought forth to be washed again with water from which example it grew a custome among the Greeks when the like misfortune befell any man after this manner to expiate them they called them Hysteropâ—tmi or Postliminiâ—nati How well doth this befit the mystery of Baptism where those who were dead to God through sin are like Hysteropotmi regenerate and born again by water and the Holy Ghost These two passages discover sufficiently the analogy of the washing with water in Baptism to regeneration or new birth according as the Text I have chosen for the scope of my discourse expresseth it namely that washing with water is a signe of spirituall infancy for as much as infants are wont to be washed when they come first into the world Hence the Jews before Iohn the Baptist came amongst them were wont by this rite to initiate such as they made Proselytes to wit as becomming infants again and entring into a new life and being which before they had not That which here I have affirmed will be yet more evident if we consider those other rites anciently added and used in the celebration of this mystery which had the self-same end we speak of namely to signifie spirituall Infancy I will name them and so conclude As that of giving the new baptized milk and honey ad infantandum as Tertullian speaks ad infantie significationem so S. Hierome because the like was used to infants new born according to that in the seventh of Isay of Immanuels infancy A Virgin shall conceive and bear a son butter and honey shall he eat that he may know to refuse evill and chuse good Secondly that of salt as is implied in that
through him and yet not to apply and buckle our selves thereto were indeed to beleeve what is true but yet no saving faith because we embraced not the thing we beleeved as we beleeved it Thou sayest then thou hast faith and beleevest that Christ is the atonement to God for the sins of all such as leave and forsake their sins by repentance Why then repent thee of thy sins that Christ may be an atonement for thee Thou sayest thou hast this faith that God in Jesus Christ will accept thy undeserving works and services unto eternall life why then embrace thou Christ and rely upon him for this end that thou mayest do works of piety towards God and charity towards men that so God in Christ may accept thee and them unto eternall life Now if this be the faith which is saving and unites us unto Christ and no other then it is plain that a saving faith cannot be severed from good works because no man can embrace Christ as he is promised but he must apply himself to do them For out of that which hath been spoken three reasons may be gathered for the necessity of them First it is the end of our faith and justification by Christ yea the end why he shed his blood for us that we being reconciled to God in him might bring forth fruits of righteousnesse which else we could never have done This is no speculation but plain Scripture S. Peter 1 â—p 2. 24. telleth us that Christ his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousnesse S. Paul Tit. 2. 11 12 13 14. The grace of God saith he that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men wherefore teaching us that denying ungodlinesse and worldly lusts we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Iesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works These words contain the summe of all I have hitherto told you That Christ is therefore given us to be a propitiation for our sins and to justifie us that in him we might walk before God in newnesse of life so to obtain a Crown of righteousnesse in the world to come Answerable is that place Ephes. 2. 10. where the Apostle having told us we are saved by grace through faith and not of works lest any man should boast he addes presently lest his meaning might be mistaken as it is of too many that we are Gods workmanship created in Iesus Christ unto good works which God hath before ordained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that we should walk in them as if he should say Those works of obedience ordained by God aforetime in his law for us to walk in which we could not perform of our selves now God hath as it were new moulded us in Jesus Christ that we might perform them in him namely by way of acceptation though they come short of that exactnesse the Law requireth And thus to be saved is to be saved by grace and favour and not by the merit of works because the foundation whereby our selves and our services are approved in the eyes of God and acquitted of guilt which the Scripture calleth to be justified is the meer favour of God in Jesus Christ and not any thing in us And this way of salvation excludes all boasting for what have we to boast of when all the righteousnesse of our works is none of ours but Christs imputed to us whereby onely and not for any merit in themselves they become acceptable and have promise of reward But that men should be saved by Christ though they be idle and doe nothing I know no such grace of God revealed in Scripture Now that in Christ we may perform works of righteousnesse which God will accept and crown is plain by the tenour of Scripture S. Paul Philip. 1. 11. desires that the Philippians might be filled with the fruits of righteousnesse which are by Iesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God And the same Apostle tels the Romanes Rom. 6. 22. that being made free from sin and become servants to God they have their fruit unto holinesse and the end everlasting life that is as the Syriack turns it Sunt vobis fructus sancti they have holy fruits whose end is life eternall And if we would seriously consider it we should finde that the more we beleeve this righteousnesse of faith in Christ the more reason we have to perform works of service and obedience unto God then if we beleeved it not For if our works would not be acceptable with God unlesse they were compleat in every point as the Law required if there were no reward to be looked for at the hands of God unlesse we could merit it by the worthinesse of our deeds who that considers his own weaknesse and insufficiency would not sooner despair then go about to please God by works He would think it better to do nothing at all then to endevour what he could never hope to attain and so lose his labour But we who beleeve that those who serve God in Christ have their failings and wants covered with his righteousnesse and so their works accepted as if they were in every point as they should be why should not we of all men fall to work being sure by Christs means and merit we shall not lose our labour A second motive why we should do good works is because they are the way and means ordained by God to obtain the reward of eternall life without which we shall never attain it Without holinesse no man shall see God Heb. 12. 14. Look to your selves saith S. Iohn Ep. 2. ver 8. that ye lose not those things ye have wrought for but that ye may receive a full reward The Angels message from heaven to devout Cornelius was Thy prayers and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God whereupon S. Peter inferred that in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousnesse is accepted with him Acts 10. Hence it is that we shall be judged and receive sentence at the last day according to our works Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the world For I was hungry and ye gave me meat I was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was a stranger and ye took me in naked and ye clothed me I was sick and ye visited me I was in prison and ye came unto me For in as much as ye have done these unto one of the least of my brethren ye have done it unto me Lord how do those look to be saved at that day who think good works not required to salvation and accordingly do them not Can our Saviour passe this blessed sentence on them think they
that in the eldest and purest times of the Church a Text of eminent note and familiarly known to every Christian being alledged by their Pastours and Teachers as an express undoubted Prophesie of the Christian Sacrifice or solemne worship in the Eucharist taught by our blessed Saviour unto his Disciples to be observed of all that should beleeve in his Name And this so generally and grantedly as could never have been at least so early unlesse they had learned thus to apply it by tradition from the Apostles For in the age immediately succeeding them being the second 100 year after Christ we find it alledged to this purpose by Iustin Martyr and Irenaeus the Pillars of that Age The former of them flourishing within little more then 30 years after the death of S. Iohn and the latter a Disciple of Polycarp S. Iohns Scholar In the Age following or third Seculum it is alledged by Tertullian Zeno Veronensis and Cyprian In the fourth Seculum by Eusebius Chrysostome Hierome and Augustine and in the after ages by whom not Nor is it alledged by them as some singular opinion or private conceit of their own but as the received Tradition of the Church whence in some Liturgies as that of the Church of Alexandria commonly called the Liturgy of S. Mark it is inserted into the Hymne or Preface which begins Dignum justum est the conclusion of the Hymne or Laud there being Gratias agentes offerimus rationalem incruentam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seu oblationem hanc quam offerunt tibi Domine omnes Gentes ab ortu solis ad occasum quoniam magnum Nomen tuum in omnibus Gentibus in omni loco incensum offertur Nomini tuo sacrificium purum Thus you see the antiquity of Tradition for the meaning and application of this Prophecy But for the Christian Sacrifice it self whereunto it is applied what the ancient Church understood thereby what and wherein the nature of this Sacrifice consisted is a point though most needfull to be known yet beyond belief obscure intricate and perplext He that shall make tryall will finde I say true A reverend and learned Prelate of ours acknowledges as much Apud veteres Patres saith he ut quod res est liberè fateamur de sacrificio corporis Christi in Eucharistia incruento frequens est mentio quae dici vix potest quantopere quorundam alioqui doctorum hominum ingenia exercuerit torserit vexaverit The reason of this obscurity hath grown partly from the changing of the notion of the Church thereabout in following times partly by the violence of the controversies of this last Age whilest each party finding the knot and studying not so much the right way of untying it as how to give the least advantage to the adverse party have infinitely intangled the same and made it more indissoluble then before I have acquainted my self long with this Argument and spent many a thought thereabout using the best means I could conceive to be inform'd Namely Not so much to relye upon the opinions of modern writers as to peruse and compare the passages of the Ancients themselves and their Forms of Liturgies out of which I was assur'd the truth might be learned if I were but able to understand them What I have found and learned I desire to give an account of in this place as I shall have occasion the Argument being such as befits no other Auditorie but the Schools of the Prophets Nor will the discourse be unprofitable for such as mean to be acquainted with the writings of the Fathers and Antiquities of the Church there being nothing in them so like to stumble the reader as this To come then to the matter where I will chalk out my discourse in this order First I shall premise as the ground thereof a Definition of the Christian sacrifice as the ancient Church meant it Secondly Explain the meaning of my Text by application thereto Thirdly Prove each part of the Definition I shall give by the Testimonies of the Fathers Councels and Liturgies of the first and best Ages interlacing therewith such passages as may make for the better understanding either of the Testimonies I bring or of the matter it self for which they are brought SECTION 1. TO begin with the first The definition of the Christian sacrifice under which name first know That the ancient Church understood not as many suppose the meer Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ but the whole sacred Action or solemn Service of the Church assembled whereof this sacred Mysterie was then a prime and principall part and as it were the Pearl or Jewel of this Ring no publike service of the Church being without it This observed and remembred I define the Christian sacrifice ex mente antiquae Ecclesiae in this manner An oblation of Thanksgiving and Prayer to God the Father through Jesus Christ and his Sacrifice commemorated in the Creatures of Bread and Wine wherewith God had first been agniz'd So that this sacrifice as you see hath a double object or matter First Praise and Prayer which you may call Sacrificium quod Secondly The commemoration of Christs sacrifice on the Crosse which is Sacrificium quo the sacrifice whereby the other is accepted For all the Prayers Thansgivings and Devotions of a Christian are tendred up unto God in the name of Jesus Christ crucified According whereunto we are wont to conclude our Prayers with Through Iesus Christ our Lord. And this is the specification whereby the worship of a Christian is distinguisht from that of the Jew Now that which we in all our Prayers and Thanksgivings do vocally when we say Per Iesum Christum Dominum nostrum the ancient Church in her publick and solemn Service did visibly by representing him according as he commanded in the symbols of his Body and Blood For there he is commemorated and received by us for the same end for which he was given and suffered for us that through him we receiving forgivenesse of our sins God our Father might accept our service and hear our prayers we make unto him What time then so fit and seasonable to commend our devotions unto God as when the Lamb of God lies slain upon the Holy Table and we receive visibly though mystically those gracious Pledges of his blessed Body and Blood This was that sacrifice of the ancient Church the Fathers so much ring in our ears The sacrifice of praise and prayer through Jesus Christ mystically represented in the Creatures of Bread and Wine But yet there is one thing more my definition intimates when I say through the sacrifice of Iesus Christ commemorated in the Creatures of Bread and Wine wherewith God had first been agniz'd The Body and Blood of Christ were not made of common Bread and common Wine but of Bread and Wine first sanctified by being offer'd and set before God as a present to agnize him the Lord and giver of all
saith the Lord of Hosts Ibid. Oportet nos oblationem Deo facere omnibus gratos inveniri Fabricatori Deo Primitias earum quae sunt ejus Creaturarum offerentes hanc oblationem Ecclesia sola puram offert Fabricatori offerens ei cum gratiarum Actione ex Creatura ejus In the same place Offerimus autem ei non quasi indigenti sed gratias agentes Dominationi ejus sanctificantes creaturam He alludes again to that in this Chapter of Malachi Si Dominus sum ubi est timor meus O sacerdotes qui offertis super Altare meum panem pollutum My next witnesse shall be Iustin Martyr in time elder then Irenaeus He in his Dialogue with Tryphon the place defore alledged telling the Jew that the Sacrifices of Christians are Supplications and giving of Thanks Has vero solas saith he facere Christiani traditione acceperunt in commemoratione Alimoniae suae aridae juxta liquidae in that thankfull remembrance of their food both dry and liquid in qua passionis quam pertulit per se ipsum Dei filius memoria celebratur Here is a twofold commemoration witnessed to be made in the Eucharist The first as he speaks of our food dry and liquid that is of our meat and drink by agnizing God and recording him the Creator and giver thereof The second of the passion of Christ the Son of God in one and the same food And again in the same Dialogue Panem Eucharistiae in commemorationem passionis suae Christus fieri tradidit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. ut simùl gratias ageremus Deo cum ob id quod mundum cum omnibus in eo Creaturis hominis gratia condiderit tum etiam quod ab omni in qua fuimus miseria nos liberarit Principatusque ac potestates perfectâ dissolutione dissolverit per eum qui de consilio voluntate ejus factus est patibilis To which he immediately subjoins the Text and applies it to the Eucharist Thus Iustin Martyr My third witnesse is Origen in his VIII Book Contra Cels. Celsus saith he thinks it seemly we should be thankfull to Daemons and to offer them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but we think him to live most comely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that remembers who is the Creator unto whom we Christians are carefull not to be unthankfull with whose benefits we are filled and whose Creatures we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is And we have also a Symbol of our thanksgiving unto God the Bread which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where note that the Eucharisticall Bread is said to be a Symbol not onely of the Body and Blood of Christ but a Symbol of that Thanksgiving which we render to the Creator through him Again in the same Book where Celsus likewise would have mankinde thankfull unto Daemons as those to whom the charge of things here upon earth is committed and to offer unto them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Primitias supplicationes Origen thus takes him up Celsus Deum nesciens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 persolvat Daemonibus nos mundi Creatori placere studentes or gratum facientes Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Panes cum gratiarum actione precibus pro datis oblatos comedimus Corpus sanctum quoddam per precationem factos Mark here Bread offered unto God with Prayer and Thanksgiving pro datis for that he hath given us and then by prayer made a holy Body and so eaten Thus much out of Fathers all of them within lesse then two hundred and fifty years after Christ and lesse then one hundred and fifty after the death of Saint Iohn The same appears in the forms of the ancient Liturgie as in that of Clemens where the Priest in the name of the whole Church assembled speaks thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Offerimus tibi Regi Deo secundum ejus id est Christi ordinationem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hunc panem hoc poculum gratias tibi agentes eo quòd nos he speaks of the whole Church dignos fecisti astistere in conspectu tuo fungi sacerdotio tibi Rogamusque te ut benignè aspicere digneris super haec dona proposita in conspectu tuo Tu qui nullo indiges Deus complaceas tibi in ipsis in honorem Christi tui c. Again Pro dono oblato Domino Deo oremus ut bonus Deus suscipiat illud per intercessionem Christi sui in coeleste Altare suum in odorem suavitatis Yea in the Canon of the Roman Church though the Rite be not used yet the words remain still as when the Priest long before the Consecration of the Body and Blood of Christ prays Te clementissime Pater per Iesum Christum Dominum nostrum supplices rogamus ut accepta habeas benedicas haec dona haecmunera and other like passages which now they wrest to a new found oblation of the Body and Blood of Christ which the ancient Church knew not of But of all others this Rite is most strongly confirmed by that wont of the Ancient Fathers to confute the Hereticks of those first times who held the Creator of the world to be some inferiour deity and not the Father of Christ out of the Eucharist For say they unlesse the Father of Christ be the Creator of the world why is the Creature offered unto him in the Eucharist as if he were would he be agnized the Author and Lord of that he is not Here Ireneus Adversus Haeres lib. 4. cap. 34. Haereticorum Synagogae saith he non offerunt Eucharisticam oblationem quà m Dominus offerri docuit Alterum enim praeter fabricatorem dicentes Patrem ideo quae secundum nos Creaturae sunt offerentes ei cupidum alieni ostendunt eum aliena concupiscentem and a little after Quomodo autem constabit eis eum panem in quo gratiae actae sunt Corpus esse Domini sui Calicem sanguinis ejus si non ipsum Fabricatoris mundi filium dicant id est verbum ejus per quod lignum fructificat defluunt fontes terra dat primum quidem gramen post deinde spicam deinde plenum triticum in spica From the same ground Tertullian argues against Marcion contra Marc. lib. 1. cap. 24. Non putem saith he impudentiorem quam qui in aliena aqua alii Deo tinguitur ad alienum Coelum alii Deo expanditur in aliena terra alii Deo sternitur super alienum panem alii Deo gratiarum actionibus fungitur de alienis bonis ab alium Deum nomine eleâ—mosynae dilectionis operatur Origen against the same Heretick useth the same Argument Dialog Advers Marc. 3. paulo ante finem Dominus aspiciens in coelum gratias agit Ecquid non agit conditori gratias cum panem accepisset poculum benedixisset quid alterine pro Creaturis conditoris benedicit an potius