substantiam, in veram ejus corporis, et sanguinis substantiam convertit." x On this statement it may be remarked in passing, that if the ministers are not the real offerers, they are not real priests. A priest is one appointed to offer sacrifices. But ac- cording to the theory, the officiating minister in the service of the mass, does not offer the sacrifice. He is a supernumerary. He has no function. There is no reason why without his interven- tion, Christ should not when his people meet to commemorate his death, offer Himself anew to God. The Roman theory in this, as in many other points, is not self-consistent. Romanists repre* sent ministers as true priests; mediators between God and the people, without whose intervention, no sinner can have access to God or obtain pardon or acceptance. They are not only invested with priestly authority and prerogatives, but imbued with super- natural power. The words of consecration pronounced by other than sacerdotal lips, are inoperative. The mass unless performed by a priest is no sacrifice. All this supposes that their office is a reality, that ministers are really priests; but according to the passage just quoted, they are not priests at all. According to the common mode of representation, however, the minister in the mass as truly offers the body and blood of Christ, as the priests under the Old Testament offered the blood of lambs or of goats. Cardinal Gousset, for example, says : " According to the faith of the Catholic Church, the mass is a sacrifice of the new law, in which the priest offers to God the body and blood of Jesus Christ under the form of bread and wine. The mass is a true sac- rifice instituted by Jesus Christ." " A sacrifice, from its nature, is an act of supreme worship, due to God alone. Hence when a mass is celebrated in the name of a saint, it is not to be believed that the sacrifice is offered to the saint ; but simply in his mem- ory, to implore his protection, and to secure his intercession. It is a sacrifice in which is offered the body and blood of Christ. Jesus Christ, whose body and blood are present under the forms of bread and wine, is Himself the victim. Finally, the eucha- ristic sacrifice is made by the hands of the priest, but Jesus Christ is the principal minister ; He is at once priest and victim, offer- ing himself to God the Father by the ministry of his priests." 2
4. As under the Old Testament some of the sin offerings availed for those who brought the victims, and for whose benefit they were offered ; and others, as the morning and evening sacri-
1 Catechismus Romanus, n. iv. qusest. 61 [lxxxiii. 77], Streitwolf, vol. i. pp. 359, 360. a Gousset, Theologie, ut supra, vol. u. p. 522.
688 PART ni. Ch. XX. — the means of grace.,
fices, and those offered on the feast days, and especially that on the great day of atonement, were intended for the whole nation ; so according to Romanists, the propitiatory sacrifice, in the ordi- nary public service, is offered for the sins of the faithful in gen- eral, while at other times it is offered for particular individuals. And as it matters not whether such individuals be living or dead, it is obvious that such masses may be indefinitely multi- plied. As according to the Church of Rome the great majority of those dying within the pale of the Church, pass into purga- tory, where they remain in a state of suffering for a period to which there is no certainly known termination before the day of judgment ; for their benefit, to alleviate or shorten their suffer- ings, masses may be, and should be offered by their surviving friends. It has ever been found that men at the approach of death, or the affectionate relatives of the departed, are willing to appropriate money at their command, to pay for masses for their benefit. This, as just remarked, has proved an inexhaustible mine of wealth to the Church. " Hujus sacrificii earn vim esse, parochi docebunt, ut non solum immolanti, et sumenti prosit, sed omnibus etiam fidelibus, sive illi nobiscum in terris vivant, sive jam in Domino mortui, nondum plane expiati sint. Neque enim minus ex Apostolorum certissima traditione, pro his utiliter offer- tur, quam pro vivorum peccatis, poenis, satisfactionibus, ac quibus- vis calamitatibus, et angustiis." l
Remarks.
No doctrine of the Church of Rome is more portentous or more fruitful of evil consequences than this doctrine of the mass ; and no doctrine of that Church is more entirely destitute of even a semblance of Scriptural support. The words of Christ, " This do in remembrance of me," are made to mean, " Offer the sacrifice which I myself have just offered " (Offrez le sacrifice que je vien d'offrir moi-meme).2 These words constituted the Apostles and all their successors priests. The Council of Trent even anathema- tizes all who do not put that preposterous interpretation on those simple words.3 Romanists also appeal to the fact that Christ is said to be a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, from which they infer that He continually repeats the sacrifice once offered on the cross. They even argue from such passages as
1 Catechismus Romanus, par. n. cap. iv. quaest. 63 [86, lxxxvi], Streitwolf, vol. i. pp. 360, 361. 3 Gousset, Tkeologie, ut supra, vol. ii. p. 538. 3 See Sess. xxii. canon 2; quoted above on page 685.