beautifully typical of the Eucharistic sacrifice peculiar to the Christian dispensation, is evident from the attestations of the holy Fathers. For a proof of this, the curious reader is referred to a learned and invaluable work containing extracts from the writings of those early and venerable witnesses of the Faith.* In that volume are recited the observations on this subject delivered by St. Cyprian,+ Eusebius of Cæsarea, St. Jerom,§ and Theodoret.||

XIII.-ILLUSTRATED BY AN ANCIENT MOSAIC AT

RAVENNA.

But there is another curious and highly interesting illustration of this text, which, as far as the writer is aware, has hitherto never been introduced to notice. This is furnished by one amongst those numerous pictorial monuments of early Christian piety which decorate the ancient church of St. Vitalis at Ravenna.¶ The wall about the apsis or

ried to a husband,'-but which is rendered in the Protestant Version, for she is a man's wife.' No Protestant can therefore rationally object to a mode of translation which is approved by his own Church, in her authorized version of the Sacred Scriptures.

* The Faith of Catholics confirmed and attested by the Fathers of the first five centuries, compiled by the Rev. Joseph Berington, and the Rev. John Kirk, London, 1830.

+ Ib p. 271. Ib. p. 273. § Ib. p. 281. || Ib. p. 286. ¶ Ciampini, Monimenta Vetera, tom. ii. p. 70, tab. xxi.

recess, which overhangs the sanctuary, is encrusted with mosaic-work, in which are represented various subjects, chosen from the Old and New Testaments. Amongst those Scripture histories, three are prominently discernible: they are, the sacrifice of Abel; the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham, and the sacrifice of Melchisedech.

The King of Salem is represented as standing by an altar, on which are two small circular cakes,

The church of St. Vitalis was built in the year 547, and adorned with mosaics at the same epoch.

*The wood-cut is as faithful a delineation of the Ravenna Mosaic, as could be procured; the reader, therefore, when he remarks its want of perspective, and the awkward, if not impossible position of Melchisedech's left foot, should remember, that such defects and inaccuracies are characteristic of the time when the original was executed.

between which stands a little vase, not much unlike a drinking cup; a nimbus, or glory, surrounds his head; his arms are outstretched towards the altar, almost in the same way that our priests extend theirs at Mass, when they spread their hands over the sacramental elements, and recite the prayer Hanc igitur,' &c. just before the consecration. His robes exactly resemble our vestments of the sanctuary; the under one descends to the ankles like an Alb; and the tunic, or mantle, is fashioned precisely as the ancient Chasuble, and like it, is a garment adapted to envelope the whole person, but gathered up above the shoulders, for greater convenience during the oblation of the sacrifice in fact, Melchisedech, both in attitude and costume, is nothing but the figure of a priest celebrating Mass. There can be no doubt, that these three subjects, and particularly the sacrifice of Melchisedech, were selected to indicate that they were ancient types of the sacrifice of the new Law, called the Mass. Theophilus, the Patriarch of Antioch,† remarks, that Melchisedech is represented with the circle of glory round his head, to signify that he was the first man who became a priest; and St. Cypriant notices, that the bread and little vessel are symbols of the blessed sacra

* See Ch. XII, on the Vestments, No. 41.

+ Lib. II, ad Autolycum circa finem.

In Epist. LXIII, ad Caecilium de sacramento Domini.

ment. Indeed, these observations on these three sacrifices are all but asserted in that prayer which almost immediately succeeds the consecration;— Upon which, (the holy bread of eternal life and the chalice of our everlasting salvation) vouchsafe to look down with a propitious and serene countenance, and accept them, as thou wast pleased to accept the gifts of thy just servant Abel, and the sacrifice of our Patriarch Abraham, and that which thy high-priest Melchisedech, offered to thee, a holy sacrifice and immaculate victim." This representation, therefore, of the offering of bread and wine, by Melchisedech, affords another ancient warrant for regarding it as a prefiguration of the sacrifice of the Mass.*

In those ages, when printing was unknown, the pastors of the Church availed themselves of the arts to represent to their people, by means of fresco-painting, mosaic-work, and sculpture, executed on the walls of the churches, the scripture-history, and the truths of our holy religion. The reason was obvious: to the faithful, these were instructive volumes, written in intelligible and selfspeaking characters. But as their religious instructors justly conceived that the guardians of the faith, were the best expounders of its mysteries, instead of permitting the artist to select and treat the subjects according to his own imagination; they rather employed his pencil to inscribe, in colours, what they dictated to him; and it is a well attested fact, that, in the early ages of the Church, painters, and those who wrought in mosaic, and artists in general, were, in the execution of their works, permitted

XIV. THE PASCHAL LAMB A FIGURE OF THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS.

A second argument to prove the Mass to be a real sacrifice, may be drawn from the ceremony of the Paschal Lamb!* That the oblation of this victim was a figure of the Eucharist, is evident from the words of the Apostle, who tells us ;-" Christ our Pasch is sacrificed, therefore let us feast, not with the old leaven, but with the leaven of sincerity and truth." From the Evangelists we learn that, immediately after our Divine Redeemer had concluded the legal observance of the Passover, he proceeded to celebrate the Eucharist.

By the

to exercise their own liberty and invention, no further than in the drawing and colouring of their pieces. The bishop, or pastor of the edifice which was to be ornamented, not merely fixed upon the subjects, but invariably prescribed the precise manner in which each one should be treated in all its several, and even its smallest parts. (Anastasius Bibliothecarius de vitis Romanorum Pontificum Curante Blanchinio, Vol. iii. p. 124.) Nor did they permit themselves to be directed by their own caprice, while guiding the labours of the painter or the sculptor; but most religiously adhered to the traditions which had been handed down to them. We may, therefore, rest assured, that these ancient monuments are faithful and authentic records, not of the opinion of Laics, and private individuals, but of the public doctrine of the Church at the period when they were executed.

*Exod. C. xii.

+ 1 Cor. C. v. V. 7, 8.