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 we have not all, there is one thing more my definition intimates, when I say, "through the Sacrifice of JESUS CHRIST commemorated in the creatures of bread and wine, wherewith GOD had first been agnized." The Body and Blood of CHRIST were not made of common bread and common wine, but of bread and wine first sanctified, by being offered and set before God as a present to agnize Him the LORD and giver of all; according to that, "The earth is the LORD's, and the fulness thereof;" (Psal. xxiv. 1.) and, "Let no man appear before the LORD empty." (Deut. xvi. 16.) Therefore as this Sacrifice consisted of two parts, as I told you, of praise and prayer, (which in respect of the other I call Sacrificium quod,) and of the commemoration of CHRIST crucified (which I call Sacrificium quo), so the symbols of bread and wine traversed both; being first presented as symbols of praise and thanksgiving to agnize GOD the LORD of the creatures in the Sacrificium quod, then, by invocation of the Holy Ghost, made the symbols of the Body and Blood of CHRIST, in the Sacrificium quo. So that the whole service throughout consisted of a reasonable part, and of a material part, as of a soul and a body: of which I shall speak more fully hereafter, when I come to prove this I have said by the testimonies of the ancients.-p. 356, 7.

And this is that Sacrifice which Malachi foretold the Gentiles should one day offer unto God; "in every place incense shall be offered unto My name, and a pure Mincha: for My name shall be great among the heathen, saith the LORD of Hosts." Which words I am now, according to the order I propounded, to explicate, and apply to my definition. Now to apply them..... "Incense" (as the Scripture itself tells) notes the "prayers of the saints." It was also that wherewith the remembrance was made in the sacrifices, or GoD put in mind. Mincha, which we term munus, a "gift" or "offering," is oblatio farrea, an offering made of meal or flour, baked or fried, or dried or parched corn. We, in our English, when we make distinction, call it a "meat-offering;" but might call it a "bread offering," of which the libamen, or the

drink-offering, being an indivisible concomitant, both are implied under the name mincha, where it alone is named.

The application then is easy: "incense "here notes the rational part of our Christian Sacrifice, which is prayer, thanksgiving, and commemoration; mincha, the material part thereof, which is oblatio farrea, a present of bread and wine.-pp. 357, 8.

I come now to the third and longest part of my task, to prove each particular contained in my definition by the testimonies and authorities of the ancient Fathers and writers of the first and purest ages of the Church. The particulars I am to prove are in number six.

1. That this Christian service is an oblation, and expressed under that notion by the utmost antiquity.

2. That it is an oblation of thanksgiving and prayer.

3. An oblation through JESUS CHRIST Commemorated in the creatures of bread and wine.

4. That this commemoration of CHRIST, according to the style of the ancient Church, is also a Sacrifice.

5. That the Body and Blood of CHRIST, in this mystical service, was made of bread and wine, which had first been offered unto GOD, to agnize Him the LORD of the creature.

6. That this Sacrifice was placed in commemoration only of CHRIST'S Sacrifice upon the Cross, and not in a real offering of His Body and Blood anew....

Let us then begin with the first, That this Christian service is an oblation, and under that notion expressed by all antiquity. The names whereby the ancient Church called this service are Προσφορά, Θυσία, " oblation,” “ Sacrifice ;" Εὐχαριστία, “Eucharist," (a word, if rightly understood, of equipollent sense;) Ovoía αἰνέσεως, Θυσία λογικὴ καὶ ἀναίμακτος, " a Sacrifice of praise," a reasonable and unbloody Sacrifice;" Sacrificium Mediatoris, Sacrificium Altaris, Sacrificium pretii nostri, Sacrificium corporis et sanguinis Christi," the Sacrifice of our Mediator," "the Sacrifice of the Altar," "the Sacrifice of our Ransom," "the Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of CHRIST." It would be infinite to note all the places and authors where and by whom it is thus called.-p. 360. But what if one of them, namely Ovoía, were used sooner, even VOL. IV. No. 81.

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in St. Paul's and St. Peter's time? In the first Epistle of Peter, chap. ii. 5. "You are (saith he, speaking of the body of the Church) an holy priesthood, to offer avevμarikas dvoías spiritual sacrifices to GoD by JESUS CHRIST." In the Epistle to the Hebrews, xiii. 15. "By Him (that is, through CHRIST our Altar) let us offer θυσίαν αἰνέσεως διαπαντὸς τῷ Θεῷ, the sacrifice of praise to God continually." Why should I not think St. Paul and St. Peter speak here of the solemn and public service of Christians, wherein the Passion of CHRIST was commemorated? I am sure the Fathers frequently call this Sacrifice Θυσίαν αἰνέσεως, “ the Sacrifice of praise." And in some ancient Liturgies, immediately before the Consecration, the Church gives thanks unto God for choosing them to be an holy priesthood to offer Sacrifices unto Him, as it were alluding to St. Peter. Thus you see, first or last or both, the words ПIpoopopà and Ovoía were no strangers to the Apostles' age.

I will now make but one quere, and answer it, and so conclude this point whether these words or names were used (seeing they were used) properly, or improperly (karaxpnoтws) of the subject we speak of. I answer briefly; this Christian service, as we have defined it, is an oblation properly: for wheresoever any thing is tendered or presented unto God, there is truly and properly an oblation; (Heb. v. 7. xiii. 15. 1 Pet. ii. 5.) be it spiritual or visible, it matters not; for oblatio is the genus; and Irenæus (lib. iv. c. 34.) tells me here, "For offerings in the general are not reprobated; there were offerings there (viz. in the Old Testament), there are also offerings here (viz. in the New Testament); there were Sacrifices among the people (that is, the Jews), there are Sacrifices also in the Church: but the specification only is changed." But as for Ovaía, or Sacrifice, according to its prime signification, it signifies a "a slaughter-offering," as in Hebrew, so in Greek of Oów, macto, "to slay;" as the angel, Acts x. 13. says to St. Peter, Пérpɛ, Júσov kaì payɛ, "Peter, kill and eat." Now we, in our Christian service, slay no offering, but commemorate Him only that was slain and offered upon the Cross; therefore our service is called Ovaia, improperly and metaphorically. But if Ovola be synecdochically taken for an offering

in general, as it is both in the New Testament and elsewhere, then the Christian Sacrifice is as truly called Θυσία, as Προσφορά, οι Εὐχαριστία.—p. 361.

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 Justin Martyr, in his dialogue with Tryphon the Jew; where, to the evasion of the Jews, labouring to bereave the Christians of this text.. Justin replies, "That prayers and thanksgivings, made by those that are worthy, are the only Sacrifices that are perfect and acceptable unto God, I do also affirm; for these are the only Sacrifices which Christians have been taught they should perform." If you ask where, and how; he tells you, "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.".... My next author shall be Tertullian.... Thirdly, Clemens Alexandrinus... Cyprian. These authorities are all within the first three hundred years, to which I will add one of the fourth; Optatus Milevitanus...

Furthermore, that the Christian Sacrifice was an oblation of prayer, and consisted in invocation, is also another way to be evinced; 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... Augustine. .

For this reason the Christian Sacrifice is among the Fathers, by way of distinction, called Ovoía aivéoewe, Sacrificium laudis, that is, of confession and invocation of GoD; namely, to difference it from those of blood and incense. Augustine... pp. 363, 4.

The second particular thus proved, the third comes next in place, which is, That this oblation of thanksgiving and prayer was made through JESUS CHRIST commemorated in the creatures of bread and wine; namely, they believed that our blessed SAVIOUR Ordained this Sacrament of His Body and Blood as a rite to bless and invocate His FATHER by, instead of the manifold and bloody Sacrifices of the Law...

Instead, therefore, of the slaying of beasts and burning of incense, whereby they called upon the name of God in the Old Testament; the Fathers, I say, believed Our SAVIOUR ordained this Sacrament of bread and wine as a rite whereby to give thanks and make supplication to His FATHER in His name.

The mystery of which rite they took to be this; that as CHRIST, by presenting His Death and Satisfaction to His Father, continually intercedes for us in heaven; so the Church on earth semblably approaches the throne of Grace, by representing CHRIST unto His Father in these holy mysteries of His Death and Passion. "Veteres enim (saith Cassander) in hoc mystico Sacrificio," &c. .. "The ancients did not, in this mystical Sacrifice, so much consider and respect the oblation once made upon the Cross, (the memory whereof is here celebrated,) as the everlasting Priesthood of CHRIST, and the perpetual Sacrifice which He, our High Priest for ever, doth continually offer in heaven; the resemblance whereof is here on earth expressed by the solemn prayers of GOD's Ministers."

This a Reverend and famous Divine1 of blessed memory, once of this society, and interred in this place, saw more clearly, or expressed more plainly, than any other Reformed writer I have yet seen, in his Demonstratio Problematis, and Title de Sacrificio Missa; where he speaks thus: "Veteres," &c. .... "The ancient Fathers used to call the Supper of the LORD, or the whole action of the Supper, a Sacrifice; and that for divers reasons. Because it is a commemoration, and also a representation unto GOD the FATHER, of the Sacrifice of CHRIST offered upon the cross." He goes on, "Hoc modo fideles," &c. "In this sense the faithful in their prayers do offer CHRIST, as a Sacrifice unto God the Father for their sins, in being wholly carried away in their minds and affections unto that only and true Sacrifice, thereby to procure and obtain God's favour to them." That which every Christian doth mentally and vocally, when he commends his prayers to God the FATHER through JESUS CHRIST, making

1 [Perkins.]

2 [Vide Workes, vol. ii. pp. 550–554. Compare "Reformed Catholike," vol. i. pp. 593, 4.]