" Lord God of hosts" (Jer. v, 14 ; xxx\aii, 17 ; xliv, 7 ; Hos. xii, 5 ; Amos iii, 13 ; Psa. lix, 5 ; Ixxx, 4, 7, 14). This is a very usual appellation of the Most High God in some of the prophetical and other books, especially in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah, and Malachi ; but does not occur in the Pentateuch, in the books of Joshua and Judges, nor in Ezekiel, Job, and the writings of Solo- mon. The Hebrew word "Sabaoth," i. o. hosts, is used by the apostles Paid and James (Rom. ix, 29 ; James v, 4), and is retained untranslated in the English Version. As to the grammatical construction oi Jehovah of hosts, some suppose it to be by ellipsis for Jehovah God of hosts; Gesenius says this is not necessarj^, and the Ar- abs, too, subjoin in like manner a genitive of attribute to the proper names of persons, as A ntara, of the hoise, q. d. Aniara, chief of the horse. So, too, in the con- struction God of hosts, the word hosts may be taken as an attribute which could be put in apposition with the names of God. The hosts thus signified in Jehovah of hosts can hardly be doubtful if we compare the expres- sions host and hosts of Jehovah (Josh, v, 14, 15; Psa. ciii, 21; cxlviii, 2), which, again, do not differ from host of heaven, embracing both angels, and the sun, moon, and stars (Gen. xxxii, 1, 2; Deut. iv, 19), The phrase Je- hovah of hosts, therefore, differs little from the latter form, God of heaven, and Jehovah God of heaven (Gen. xxiv, 7 ; 2 Chron. xxxvi, 23 ; Job xv, 15 ; Ezra i, 2 ; v, 11, 12 ; vi, 9, 10 ; Neh. i, 4, 5 ; ii, 4, 20 ; Psa. cxxxvi, 26 ; Jon. i, 9 ; Dan. ii, 18, 37 ; Rev. xi, 13). See Sabaotk. Host (oblation, from hostia, victim, sacrifice"), the name given in the Romish Church to the bread or v.a- fers used in the celebration of the Eucharist. It is \m- leavened, thin, flat, and of circular form, and has certain emblematic devices, as the crucifixion, the Lamb, or some words, or initials of words, having reference to the sacrifice, impressed on it. The Greek and other Orien- tal churches, as well as the various Protestant chiurchcs, celebrate the Eucharist by using leavened bread, only differing from ordinary bread in being of a finer qual- ity ; and one of the grounds of separation from tlie "West alleged bj' Michael Cerularius was the Western practice of using unleavened bread. " The Greek and Protes- tant controversialists allege that in the early Church ordinary or leavened bread was always used, and that our Lord himself, at the Last Supper, employed the same. Even the learned cardinal Bona and the Jesuit Sirmond are of the same opinion ; but most Roman di- vines, with the great Mabillon at their head, contend for the antiquity of the use of the unleavened bread, and especially for its conformity with the institution of our Lord, inasmuch as at the paschal supper, at wliich ' he took bread, and blessed, and brake it,' none other than the unleavened was admissible (Exod. xii, 8, 1 5 ; Lev. xxiii, 5). (See Klee, Dogmatih, iii, 190.)" — Chambers. At the Council of Florence it was left at the option of the churches to use leavened or mdeavened bread. " Romanists worship the host under a false presumption that they are no longer bread and wine, but transub- stantiated into the real body and blood of Christ, who is, on each occasion of the celebration of that sacrament, offered up anew as a victim (hostia) by the so-called ' priests.' Against this error the XXXIst Article of Re- Ugion is expressh- directed, and also these words in the consecration prayer of the Communion Service of the Protestant Episcopal Church, ' By his one oblation of himself once offered,' etc., that Church pointedly declar- ing in both those places that the minister, ' so far from offering any sacrifice himself, refers' the people ' to the sacrifice already made by another' " (Eden). After the Council of Trent had determined that, upon consecra- tion, the bread and wine in the sacrament are changed into the Lord Jesus Christ, true God and man, and that though the Saviour always sits at the right hand of God in heaven, he is, notwithstanding, in many other places sacramentally present, this decision follows : " There is, therefore, noVoom to doubt that all the faithful in Christ are bomid to venerate this most holy sacrament, and to
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render thereto the worship of lairia, which is due to the true God, according to tlie constant usage of the Catho- lic Church. Nor is it tlie less to be thus adored that it was instituted by Christ tlie Lord." We learn that, in conformity with this instruction, as the Missal directs, tlie priest, in every mass, as soon as he has consecrated the bread and wine, with bended knees adores the sac- rament. He worships what is before him on the paten and in tlie clialice, and gives to it the supreme worship, both of mind and body, that he would pay to Christ himself. "With his head bowing towards it, and his eyes and thoughts fixed on it and directed towards it, he prays to it as to Christ : " Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Lamb of (iod, who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, give us peace." The following is a trans- lation from tlie rubric of the IMissal: "Having uttered the words of consecration, the priest, immediately fall- ing on his knees, adores the consecrated host; he rises, shows it to the people, places it on the corporale, and again adores it." When the wine is consecrated, the priest, in like manner, " falling on his knees, adores it, rises, shows it to the people, puts the cup in its place, covers it over, and again adores it." The priest, rising up after he has adored it himself, lifts it up as high as he can conveniently, and, with his eyes fixed upon it, shows it, to be devoutly adored by the people; who, having notice also, by ringing the mass-bell, as soon as they see it, fall down in the humblest adoration to it, as if it were God himself. If Christ were visibly present, they could not bestow on him more acts of homage than they do on the host. Tliey pray to it, and use the same acts of invocation as they do to Christ himself. Tlie host is also worshipped when it is carried through the street in solemn procession, either before the pope, or when taken to some sick person, or on the feast of Corpus Christi. The person who, in great churches, conveys the sacrament to tlie numerous communicants, is called hajulus Dei, the porter or carrier of God. This idolatrous custom of the Church of Rome was not known till the year 1210; for it was in 1215 that transubstan- tiation, by the Council of Lateran, under pope Innocent III, was made an article of faith ; and we also find in the Roman canon law that it was pope Honorius who ordered, in the following year, that the priests, at a cer- tain part of tlie mass service, should elevate the host, and cause the people to prostrate tliiinsrlves in wor- shipping it. See Augusti, J>i uLirUnlliiL-citi-n aus der christi. Archdol. viii, 275 sq. ; Elliott, JJiliiiealion of Ro- vmnism, bk. ii, ch. iv, v ; Brown, Expos, of the 39 A rti- cles, p. G06, 731, n. ; Neale, Iiitrod. East. Church, ii, 516; Siegel, Christ. Allerth. i, 80; Bingham, Christ. Antiq. ii, 819; Farrar, s. v. Adoration; SchriJckh, Kirchengesch. xxviii, p. 73; and the articles Azymites; Lord's Sup- PEit; IM.vss; Tkansubstantiation. (J. H.W.)