Selected quad for the lemma: sense_n
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A34974
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Roman-Catholick doctrines no novelties, or, An answer to Dr. Pierce's court-sermon, miscall'd The primitive rule of Reformation by S.C. a Roman-Catholick.
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Cressy, Serenus, 1605-1674.
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1663
(1663)
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Wing C6902; ESTC R1088
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159,933
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352
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A thing which neither any Canon nor Custom hath deliver'd that those who have no power of offering should give the Body of Christ to those who offer Whole volums may be transcribed to this effect I will only therefore refer him to St. Hierom on Titus and St. Chrysostom on the Acts where he will find the Eucharist not only a Sacrifice but a Sacrifice for remission of sins a Sacrifice for the Priest that offers a Sacrifice for the multitude a Sacrifice for the procuring of plenty c. sutably to the modern and ancient Liturgies 4. If after all this he will not allow any of these expressions in Doctors Canons Liturgies c. to be proper and litteral St. Augustin will contradict him Who saies Presbyters and Bishops are now in the Church properly called Sacerdotes sacrificing Priests And because the fancy which Protestants have entertained against the term Sacrifice Oblation c. proceeds from a mistake of the true sense in which the Church intends it for ordinarily the conception of a Sacrifice is supposed to import an immolation shedding of blood killing c. and no such matter appearing here but only a commemoration of a former real immolation and shedding of Christs blood therefore generally among all Sects divided from the Church the title of Sacrifice will not be endured 5. To prevent therefore for the future such a mis-understanding let them be pleased to take notice that all the Sacrifices of the Law were shadows and types of the Sacrifices of our Lord and the Legal Priest-hood a type of his Priest-hood But above all other Sacrifices and functions of Priest-hood those were most lively figures of our Lord which were perform'd on a certain day only once every year for the sins of the whole Congregation In the solemn celebration of which Sacrifice besides the immolation of it on the Altar the High Priest alone was appointed to carry of the blood of that Victime into the most holy place within the Veile and there to sprinkle it before the Propitiatory or Mercy-Seat This is that Sacrifice which St. Paul especially applies to our Lord and shews that Christ as a Victime was once and but once immolated on the Altar of the Cross for the sins of all mankind And that for the merit of his obedience to the death even of the Cross he was raised from death and made a Priest after the order of Melchisedech a Kingly Priest a Priest who had power given him in Heaven and Earth to apply the merits of his own Sacrifice And that the proper function of his Regal Priesthood was the entring with his immolated Body into the Sancta Sanctorum the highest Heavens there appearing before his heavenly Fathers Throne and presenting that most precious Victime to him This function of Priest-hood far more august than the immolation he does and will continually exercise to the end of the World By vertue of this he is made Head of the Church he has the power of sending the Holy Ghost c. and hereby he perfects Redemption 6. And withal knowing of what infinite value and vertue this function of his Priest-hood is he has been pleased to execute as it were by proxy the same function on Earth that himself immediately performs in Heaven For which purpose he has instituted Bishops and Priests to be not only his Ministers but Substitutes and Vice-gerents on Earth giving them power to consecrate and by cosecrating to place upon the Altar that very Body and Blood which was immolated on the Cross and is now present before his Father in Heaven This body and blood they Sacrifice this they offer this they with the People participate It is not a Sacrifice of immolation in that mistaken sense for nothing is slain the Victime suffers nothing It is but a Commemorative Sacrifice of Immolation But it is in the most proper rigorous sence an Oblation the very same of the very same body and blood that our Lord now offers in Heaven And the same vertue it has the same effects it produces propitiation remission of sins participation of the graces of Gods holy Spirit and all blessings both spiritual and temporal So that in a word as under the Law the Legal propitiation was said to perfected by the High Priests offring the blood in the most holy place So by this Oblation of Christs bood in the Heavenly Sanctuary perfect Redemption iâ— obtained and by the Commemorative Oblation of the same body and blood by his Priests in our earthly Sanctuaries an application of the benefit and vertue of that only meritorious Sacrifice once offered on the Cross is then procured unto us for remission of our sins and the donation of all other benefits spiritual and temporal 7. In regard of this sublime function of the Priest it is that the holy Fathers exalt his office before that of Princes yea even of Angels in this regard they call the oblation it self the most dreadful Mystery at which the Angels themselves assist with reverence and astonishment To which purpose I will content my self with only one or two passages of St. Chrysostâ—m When the Sacrifice saith he is brought out of the Quire Christ himself the Lamb of our Lord immolated When thou shalt hear the Deacons voyce crying Let us pray all in common when thou seest the Curtains and Veyls of the Gates drawn then think the Heavens are opened and the Angels descend And in an other place When the Priest has invâ—cated the Holy Spirit and perfected the Sacrifice full of terrour and reverence touching and handling with his Fingers him who is Lord of all things to how sublime a rank is he elevated c. In that time the Angels assist the Priest and all the Celestical powers send forth cryes of Ioy all the places about the Altar are filled with Quires of Angels in honour of him who is offered This we may have ground to believe if we only consider the super-eminent greatness of the Sacrifice then performed But moreover I have heard from the report of one who learnt the story from the mouth of an admirable old man to whom many revâ—lations of divine Mysteries have been revealed from Heaven How God was graciously pleased to honor him with a Vision of these things and how in the time of the Sacrifice he sau suddenly appear with as much splendor as human sight could support a multitude of Angels cloathed with white Robes encompassing the Altar and having their heads enclined in the same posture as we oft see the Souldiers in the presence of the Emperour Thus Saint Chrysostom CHAP. XIV Of Veneration of Images The Roman-Churches approved practise of it most suitable to Reason 1. THe seventh Novelty produced by the Preacher is the worshipping of Images but it being only named without any proofs or quotations I will spare them too And to shew that the term of worshipping is none of ours but invented by Protestants to render a most innocent
She delivers her mind sincerely candidly ingenuously But if I should ask him what his Church holds it would cost him more labour to give a satisfactory Answer than to make ten such Sermons 6. There are among Christians only four ways of expressing a presence of Christ in the Sacrament 1 That of the Zuinglians Socinians c. who admit nothing at all real here The Presence say they is only figurative or imaginary As we see Bread broken and eaten c. so we ought to call to mind that that Christs Body was crucified and torn for us and by Faith or a strong fancy we are made partakers of his Body that is not his Body but the blessings that the offring his Body may procure 2. That of Calvin and English Divines who usually say as Calvin did That in the holy Sacrament our Lord offers unto us not onely the benefit of his Death and Resurrection but the very Body it self in which he dyed and rose again Or as King Iames We acknowledge a presence no lesse true and real then Catholics do only we are ignorant of the manner Of which it seems he thought that Catholics were not So that this presence is supposed a Substantial presence but after a spiritual manner A presence not to all but to the worthy receivers Offred perhaps to the unworthy but only partaken by the worthy A presence not to the Symbols but the Receivers Soul only Or if according to Mr. Hooker in some sence the Symbols do exhibit the very Body of Christ yet they do not contain in them what they exhibit at least not before the actual receiving 3. Of the Lutherans who hold a presence of Christs Body in the Sacrament as real proper and substantial as Catholics do but deny an exclusion of Bread For Bread say they remains as before but to and with it the Body of our Lord every where present is in a sort hypostatically united Yet some among them dâ—ny any reverence is to be exhibited to Christ though indeed substantially present 4. That of Roman Catholics whose sense was let down before whereto this only is to be added That believing a real conversion of Bread into our Lords Body c. they think themselves obliged in conformity to the Ancient Church as to embrace the Doctrine so to imitate their practise in exhibiting due reverence and worship not to the Symbols not to any thing which is the object of sense as Calvinists slander them but to our Lord himself only present in and under the Symbols 7. Now three of these four Opinions that is every one but that of English Protestants speak intelligible sense Every one knows what Zuinglians Lutherans and Roman Catholics mean But theirs which they call a Mystery is Indeed a Iargon a Linsey-Wolsey Stuff made probably to suiâ— with any Sect according to interests They that taught it first in England were willing to speak at least and if they had been permitted to mean likewise as the Catholic Church instructed them but the Sacrilegious Protectour in King Edwards daies and afterward the Privy Council in Queen Elizabeths found it for their wordly advantage that their Divines should at least in words accuse the Roman Church for that Doctrine which themselves believed to be true But now since the last Restitution if that renew'd Rubrick at the end of the Communion be to be esteem'd Doctrinall then the last Edition of their Religion in this Point is meer Zuinglianism to which the Presbyterians themselves if they are true Calvinists will refuse to subscribe Thus the new Religion of England is almost become the Religion of New England 8. 〈◊〉 remains now that I should by a few authorities justifie our Catholic Doctrine of Transubstantiation or real substantial Presence to be far from deserving to be called a Novelty of â—our hundred years standing By Catholic Doctrine I mean the Doctrine of the Church not of the Schools the Doctrine delivered by Tradition not Ratiocination Not a Doctrine that can be demonstrated by human empty Philosophy On the contrary it may be confidently assorted that all such pretended demonstrations are not only not concluding but illusory because that is said to be demonstrated by reason which Tradition tells us is above reason and ought not to be squared by the Rule of Philosophy The presence of Christ in the Sacrament is truly real and Substantial but withall Sacramental that is Mystical inexplicable incomprehensible It is a great mistake among Protestants when they argue that we by acknowledging a Conversion by Transubstantiation pretend to declare the modum conversionis No that is far from the Churches or the Antient Fathers thoughts For by that expression the onely signifies the change is not a matter of fancy but real yet withal Mystical The Fathers to expresse their belief of a real conversion make use of many real changes mentioned in the Scripture as of Aarons Rod into a Serpent of water into wine c. But withal they adde That not any of these Examples do fit or properly represent the Mystical change in the Sacrament Sence or Reason might comprehend and judge of those changes but Faith alone must submit to the incomprehensiblenesse of this When Water was turn'd into Wine the eyes saw and the Palat tasted Wine it had the colour extension and locality of Wine But so is it not when Bread by consecration becomes the Body of Christ For ought that Sence can judge there is no change at all Christs Body is present but without locality It is present but not corporally as natural bodies are present one part here and another there The Quomodo of this presence is not to be inquired into nor can it without presumption be determin'd This is that which the Church calls a Sacramental Mystical presence But that this presence is real and substantial a presence in the Symbols or Elements and not only in the mind of the worthy receiver the Fathers unanimously teach And indeed if it were not so none could receive the Body of Christ unworthily because according to Protestants it is not the Body of Christ but meer Bread that an impenitent Sinner receives And St. Pauls charge would be irrational when he saies such An one receives judgment to himself in that he does not discern the Body of our Lord. Besides if the change be not in the Elements but in the Receivers Soul what need is there of Consecration What effect can Consecration have Why may not another man or woman as well as a Priest administer this Sacrament What hinders that such a Presence may not be effected in the mind every Dinner or Supper and as well when we eat flesh and drink any other Liquor besides Wine at our own Table as at that of our Lord. 9. Now whether their Doctrine or ours be a Novelty let Antiquity judge If I should produce as he knows I may hundreds of Testimonies that by conversion a change is made of the Bread into