MASS AND TRANSUBSTANTIATION, 421
to God, and the high priest looking on? Do you not see the fond- ness of your pretension? (3.) I told you before, but now begin to fear that you are too old to learn what you do not like, that the LXX. never translated ^^l, " sacrifice," or to sacrifice, by Xnrovpyia, or XeiTovpyu, nor intimate any sacrifice anyAvhere by that word. And you may, if you please, now learn, by the instance of Samuel, that what men perform in the worship of God according to his command, they may be said therein to " minister unto or before the Lord in." (4.) The note of your own Cajetan upon the place is worth your consi- deration : " Non explicatur species ministeiii ; sed ex eo quod dixerant (prophetse et doctores) insinuatur quod ministrabant Domino, docendo et prophetando ;" — " What kind of ministry is spoken of is not explain- ed ; but by saying they were prophets and teachers (that were employed in it), it is insinuated that they ministered unto the Lord by teaching and prophesying." What have prophets and teachers to do with sacrifice? If as such they administered unto the Lord, they did it by prophesying and teaching, which were accompanied by prayer. Here is no mention of sacrifice nor work for priests; so that the context ex- cludes your sense. The same is the interpretation of Erasmus. (5.) Your vulgar Latin [the Vulgate] reads the words, " administrantibus Domino," as they were " ministering unto the Lord," excluding their notion of sacrificing. And, (G.) The Syriac transposeth the words, and interprets the sacrifice intended in them psti'^nf:)') 1in }''D''V pin 131 KPi^j^^, — and when they " were fasting and praying unto the Lord." Praying (together with prophesying and preaching) was their mi- nistry, not sacrificing. To the same purpose all ancient translations, not one giving countenance unto your fancy. So well have you the plain words of the sacred text for you ! (7.) Are you not ashamed to boast that you have all antiquity for your sense and meaning ? Pro- duce any one ancient author, if you can, that gives the least coun- tenance unto it. This boasting is uncomely, because untrue. Bellar- mine, out of whom you took your plea from this place, and your quo- tation of Erasmus in your " Fiat," cannot produce the suffrage of any one of the ancients for your interpretation of the words ; no more can any of your commentators. The homilies of Chrysostom on that passage are lost. Qllcumenius is quite blank against you ; so is Ca- jetan, Erasmus, and Vatablus of your own. And do you not now see what is become of your boasting? And are not your countrymen Ijeholding unto you, for endeavouring so industriously to draw them oft" from the institution of Christ, to place their confidence and devo- tion in that which hath not the least footstep in Scripture or anti- quity, but is expressly condemned by them both? But, to tell you my judgment, you will prevail with very few of them to answer your desires. Will they judge it meet and equal, think you, to change a
422 A VINDICATION OF THE ANIMADVERSIONS ON FIAT LUX.
blessed sacrament tliat Christ hath appointed, to embrace a sacrifice that you have invented? to leave calling upon God, according to the sense of their svants, with understanding, as they do in that celebra- tion of the eucharist which now they enjoy, to attend unto a priest sometimes muttering, sometimes saying, sometimes singing a deal of Latin, whereof they understand never a word? to forego that in- ternal humility, self-abasement, and prostration of soul unto God, which they are inured unto in that sacrament, to become spectators of the theatrical gestures of your sacrificers? Besides, they are not able to comply with your request, and to make your mass the sum of their devotion and worship of God, without offering the highest violence to their faith as they are Christians, their reason as they are men, and that sense which they have in common with other creatures. And what are you, or what have you done for them, that you should at once expect such a profuse largeness at their hands?
I. For your faith, if it be grounded in the Scripture, as every true Protestant's is, your sacrifice, if admitted, will unquestionably evert it.
1. To accept of a worship pretended to be of such huge import- ance as to be available for the impetration of grace, mercy, pardon of sins, removal of punishment, life eternal for the living and the dead, destitute of all foundation in or countenance from the Scrip- ture, [is] absolutely inconsistent with their faith.
2. It is no less, to have a sacrament, which is given unto us of God as a pledge and token of his love and grace, turned into a sacri- fice, which is a thing by us offered unto God and accepted by him; so that they differ, as in other things, so in their terms, " a quo,"' and "ad quem," from what they proceed, and by Avhom they are accepted.
3. Besides, they will quickly discover your pretensions to be con- trary unto what the Scripture teaclieth them, both concerning the sacrifice of Christ and also his institution of his last supper, which is your rule, and compriseth the whole of your duty in the administra- tion of it. They do not find that therein Christ offered himself unto his Father, but to his disciples : not to him, to be accepted of him ; but to them, to be by faith received.