XXX. yet for a while they used to fuck it up through small quills or ART. pipes (called Fiftula, in the Ordo Romanus), which answered the objection from the beards. In the twelfth century, the bread grew to be given generally dipt in wine. The writers of that time, though they justify this practice, yet they acknowledge it to be contrary to the inftitution. Ivo of Chartres fays, the people did communicate with dipt bread, not by authority, but by neceffity, for fear of spilling the blood of Chrift. Pope Innocent the Fourth faid that all might have the chalice who were fo cautious, that nothing of it fhould be fpilt. Euf. Hift. 1. vi. c. 44. Juft. Mart. Apol. 2. In the ancient Church, the inftance of Serapion is brought to fhew that the bread alone was fent to the fick, which he that carried it was ordered to moisten before he gave it him. Juftin Martyr does plainly infinuate that both kinds were fent to the abfents; fo fome of the wine might be fent to Serapion with the bread; and it is much more reasonable to believe this, than that the bread was ordered to be dipt in water; there being no fuch inftance in all hiftory; whereas there are inftances brought to fhew that both kinds were carried to the fick. St. Ambrofe received the bread, but expired before he received the Paulinus in cup this proves nothing but the weaknefs of the caufe that vita Ambrof needs fuch fupports. Nor can any argument be brought from fome words concerning the communicating of the fick, or of infants. Rules are made from ordinary, and not from extraordinary practices. The fmall portions of the facrament that fome carried home, and referved to other occafions, does not prove that they communicated only in one kind. They received in both, only they kept (out of too much fuperftition) fome fragments of the one, which could be more easily and with less obfervation faved and preferved, than of the other: and yet there are inftances that they carried off fome portions of both kinds. The Greek Church communicates during moft of the days in Lent in bread dipt in wine; and in the Ordo Romanus, there is mention made of a particular communion on Good Friday; fome of the bread that had been formerly confecrated, was put into a chalice with unconfecrated wine: this was a practice that was grounded on an opinion that the unconfecrated wine was fanctified and confecrated by the contact of the bread: and though they ufed not a formal confecration, yet they used other prayers, which was all that the primitive Church thought was neceffary even to confecration; it being thought, even so late as Gregory the Great's time, that the Lord's Prayer was at first the prayer of confecration. Thefe are all the colours which the ftudies and the fubtilties of this age have been able to produce for juftifying the decree of the Council of Conftance; that does acknowledge, that XXX. ART. that Chrift did inftitute this facrament in both kinds, and that the faithful in the primitive Church did receive in both kinds: yet a practice being reafonably brought in to avoid fome dangers and fcandals, they appoint the custom to continue, of confecrating in both kinds, and of giving to the laity only in one kind: fince Chrift was entire and truly under each kind. They established this practice, and ordered that it fhould not be altered without the authority of the Church. So late a practice and so late a decree cannot make void the command of Christ, nor be set in oppofition to fuch a clear and univerfal practice to the contrary. The wars of Bohemia that followed upon that decree, and all that scene of cruelty which was acted upon John Hus and Jerom of Prague, at the first establishment of it, fhews what oppofition was made to it even in dark ages; and by men that did not deny Tranfubftantiation. These prove that plain sense and clear authorities are fo ftrong, even in dark and corrupt times, as not to be easily overcome. And this may be said concerning this matter, that as there is not any one point in which the Church of Rome has acted more vifibly, contrary to the Gospel, than in this; so there is not any one thing that has raifed higher prejudices against her, that has made more forfake her, and has poffeffed mankind more against her, than this. This has coft her dearer than any other. ARTICLE ARTICLE XXXI. Of the one Oblation of Chrift finifhed upon the Crofs. The Offering of Chrißk once made, is that perfea Redemption, Propitiation and Satisfation for all the Sins of the whole World, both Driginal and Actual: And there is none other Satisfaaion for Sin but that alone: Wherefore in the Sacrifices of Malles, in the which it was commonly faid, that the Prielt did offer Chrift for the quick and the dead, to Have Remillion of Pain and Guilt, were blafphemous Fables and dangerous Deceits. 2. Pfal. li. 17. T were a mere question of words to dispute concerning the ART. term facrifice, to confider the extent of that word, and XXXI. the many various refpects in which the eucharift may be called a facrifice. In general, all acts of religious worship may be called facrifices: becaufe fomewhat is in them offered up to God: Let my prayer be fet forth before thee as incenfe, and the Pfaf. clxi. lifting up of my hands as the evening facrifice. The facrifices of God are a broken fpirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not defpife. Thefe fhew how largely this word Hebr. xiii. was used in the Old Teftament: fo in the New we are exhorted 15. by him (that is, by Chrift) to offer the facrifice of praife to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. A Chriftian's dedicating himself to the fervice of God, is alfo expreffed by the fame word of presenting our bo- Rom. xii. dies a living facrifice holy and acceptable to God. All acts of 1. charity are alfo called facrifices, an odour of a sweet smell, a Phil. iv. 18. facrifice acceptable, well pleafing to God. So in this large fenfe we do not deny that the eucharist is a facrifice of praife and thanksgiving and our Church calls it fo in the office of the Communion. In two other refpects it may be alfo more strictly called a facrifice. One is, because there is an oblation of bread and wine made in it, which being fanctified are confumed in an act of religion. To this many paffages in the writings of the Fathers do relate. This was the oblation made at the altar by the people: and though at firft the Chriftians were reproached, as having a ftrange fort of a religion, in which they had neither temples, altars, nor facrifices, because they had not those XXXI. ART. things in so grofs a manner as the Heathens had; yet both Clemens Romanus, Ignatius, and all the fucceeding writers of the Church, do frequently mention the oblations that they made: and in the ancient liturgies they did with particular prayers offer the bread and wine to God, as the great Creator of all things; thofe were called the gifts or offerings which were offered to God, in imitation of Abel, who offered the fruits of the earth, in a facrifice to God. Both Juftin Martyr, Irenæus, the Conflitutions, and all the ancient liturgies have very exprefs words relating to this. Another refpect in which the eucharift is called a facrifice, is because it is a commemoration and a representation to God of the facrifice that Chrift offered for us on the crofs: in which we claim to that, as to our expiation, and feast upon it as our peace-offering, according to that ancient notion, that covenants were confirmed by a facrifice, and were concluded in a feast on the facrifice. Upon thefe accounts we do not deny but that the eucharift may be well called a facrifice but ftill it is a commemorative facrifice, and not propitiatory: that is, we do not diftinguifh the facrifice from the facrament; as if the Prieft's confecrating and confuming the elements, were in an efpecial manner a facrifice any other way, than as the communicating of others with him is one: nor do we think that the confecrating and confuming the elements, is an act that does reconcile God to the quick and the dead: we confider it only as a federal act of profeffing our belief in the death of Chrift, and of renewing our baptifmal covenant with him. The virtue or effects of this are not general; they are limited to those who go about this piece of worship fincerely and devoutly; they, and they only, are concerned in it, who go about it: and there is no fpecial propitiation made by this fervice. It is only an act of devotion and obedience in thofe that eat and drink worthily; and though in it they ought to pray for the whole body of the Church, yet those their prayers do only prevail with God, as they are devout interceffions: but not by any peculiar virtue in this action. On the other hand, the doctrine of the Church of Rome is, that the eucharist is the highest act of homage and honour that creatures can offer up to the Creator, as being an oblation of the Son to the Father; fo that whofoever procures a mass to be faid, procures a new piece of honour to be done to God, with which he is highly pleafed; and for the fake of which he will be reconciled to all that are concerned in the procuring fuch maffes to be faid; whether they be still on earth, or if they are now in purgatory and that the Prieft, in offering and confuming this facrifice, performs a true act of priesthood by reconciling finners to God. Somewhat was already faid of this on the head of Purgatory. XXXI. It seems very plain by the inftitution, that our Saviour, as he ART. bleffed the facrament, faid, Take, eat: St. Paul calls it a communion of the body and blood of the Lord; and a partaking of the Lord's table and he, through his whole difcourfe of it, fpeaks of it, as an action of the Church and of all Chriftians; but does not fo much as by a hint intimate any thing peculiar to the Priest: so that all that the Scripture has delivered to us concerning it, represents it as an action of the whole body, in which the Priest has no fpecial fhare but that of officiating. In the Epiftle to the Hebrews there is a very long difcourfe concerning Sacrifices and Priests, in order to the explaining of Chrift's being both Priest and Sacrifice. There a Prieft ftands for a perfon called and confecrated to offer fome living facrifice, and to flay it, and to make reconciliation of finners to God by the fhedding, offering, or fprinkling the blood of the facrifice. This was the notion that the Jews had of a Prieft; and the Apoftle defigning to prove that the death of Chrift was a true facrifice, brings this for an argument, that there was to be another priesthood after the order of Melchifedech. He begins the fifth chap- Heb. v. 10. ter with fettling the notion of a Prieft, according to the Jewish ideas and then he goes on to prove that Chrift was such a Prieft, called of God and confecrated. But in this fenfe he appropriates the priesthood of the New Difpenfation fingly to Chrift, in oppofition to the many Priefts of the Levitical Law: and they truly were many Priefts, because they were not fuffered ch. vii. 24. to continue, by reafon of death: but this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. It is clear from the whole thread of that difcourfe, that, in the ftrictest sense of the word, Chrift himself is the only Priest under the Gofpel; and it is also no less evident that his death is the only Sacrifice, in oppofition to the many oblations that were under the Mofaical Law, to take away fin; which appears very plain from thefe words, Who needeth not daily as thofe High- v. 27. Priests to offer up facrifice, firft for his own fins, and then for the people; for this he did once when he offered up himself. He opposes that to the annual expiation made by the Jewish HighPrieft, Chrift entered in once to the holy place, having made redemption for us by his own blood: and having laid down that general maxim, that without shedding of blood there was no re- ch. ix. 22. miffion, he fays, Christ was offered once to bear the fins of many: v. 28. he puts a question to fhew that all facrifices were now to cease; When the worshippers are once purged, then would not facrifices ch. x. ceafe to be offered? And he ends with this, as a full conclu- V. II. fion to that part of his difcourfe: Every Prieft ftands daily mi- v. 12. niftering and offering oftentimes the fame facrifices, which can never take away fin: but this man, after he had offered up one fa crifice |