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ces, which in no sort militates against the Sacrifice of the Mass; this being the same sacrifice with that of the cross, as to the victim that is offered, and as to the Priest who offers it, differing in nothing but the manner of offering; (1) in the one there being a real, and in the other a mystical effusion of the victim's blood. (2) So far from invalidating the Catholic doctrine on this point, the Apostle confirms it in this very Epistle, where, quoting and repeating the sublime Psalm of the Royal Prophet concerning the Messiah, Thou art a Priest for ever ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF MELCHISEDECH, Ps. cix. alias cx., he enlarges on the dignity of this Sacerdotal Patriarch, to whom Aaron himself, the High Priest of the Old Law, paid tribute, as to his superior, through his ancestor Abraham. Heb. v.-vii. Now in what did this Order of Melchisedech consist? In what, ask, did his sacrifice differ from those which Abraham himself and the other Patriarchs, as well as Aaron and his sons, offered? Let us consult the sacred text, as to what it says concerning this Royal Priest, when he came to meet Abraham on his return from victory: Melchisedech, the King of Salem, bringing forth BREAD AND WINE, for he was the Priest of the Most High God, blessed him. Gen. xiv. 18. It was then in offering up a sacrifice of Bread and Wine, (3) instead of slaughtered animals, that Melchisedech's sacrifice differed from the generality of those in the Old Law, and that he prefigured the sacrifice which Christ was to institute in the New Law, from the same elements. No other sense but this can be elicited from the Scripture as to this matter; and accord

(1) Concil. Trid. Sess. xxii. cap. 2.

(2) Cat. ad Paroc. P. ii. p. 81.

(3) The sacrifice of Cain, Gen. iv. 3, and that ordered in Levit. ii. 1, of flour, oil, and incense, prove that inanimate things were sometimes of old offered in sacrifice.

ingly the Holy Fathers unanimously adhere to this meaning. (1)

In finishing this letter, I cannot help, Dear Sir, making two or three short but important observations.-The first regards the deception practised on the unlearned by the above-named Bishops, Dr. Hey and most other Protestant controvertists, in talking of the Popish Mass, and representing the tenets of the Real Presence, Transubstantiation, and a subsisting true propitiatory Sacrifice, as peculiar to the Catholics; whereas, if they are persons of any learning, they must know that these are, and ever have been held, by all the Christians in the world, except the comparatively few who inhabit the northern parts of Europe. I speak of the Melchite, or common Greeks of Turkey, the Armenians, the Muscovites, the Nestorians, the Eutychians or Jacobites, the Christians of St. Thomas in India, the Cophts, and Ethiopians in Africa; all of whom maintain each of those articles, and almost every other on which Protestants differ from Catholics, with as much firmness as we ourselves do. Now as these sects have been totally separated from the Catholic Church, some of them 800 and some 1,400 years, it is impossible they should have derived any recent doctrines or practices from her; and divided as they ever have been among themselves, they cannot have combined to adopt them. On the other hand, since the rise of Protestantism, attempts have been repeatedly made, to draw some or other of them to the novel creed; but all in vain. Melancthon translated the Augsburg Confession of Faith into Greek, and sent it to Joseph, Patriarch of C. P. hoping he would adopt it; whereas the Patriarch did not so much as acknowledge the receipt of the present. (2)

(1) St. Cypr. Ep. 63. St. Aug, in Ps. xxxiii. St. Chrys. Hom, 35. St. Jerom. Ep. 126, &c. (2) Sheffmac. tem, ii. p. 7.

Fourteen years later Crusius, Professor of Tubigen, made a similar attempt on Jeremy, the successor of Joseph, who wrote back, requesting him to write no more on the subject, at the same time making the most explicit declaration of his belief in the seven Sacraments, the sacrifice of the Mass, Transubstantiation, &c. (1) In the middle of the 17th century fresh overtures being made to the Greeks by the Calvinists of Holland, the most convincing evidence of the orthodox belief of all the above-mentioned communions, on the articles in question, were furnished by them; the original of which was deposited in the French King's library at Paris. (2)-I have to remark, in the second place, on the inconsistencies of the Church of England, respecting this point: she has Priests, (3) but no sacrifice! She has altars, (4) but no victim! She has an essential consecration of the sacramental elements, (5) without any the least effect upon them! Not to dive deeper into this chaos, I would gladly ask Bishop Porteus, what hinders a Protestant Deacon, or even a layman, from consecrating the sacramental bread and wine, as validly as a Priest or a Bishop could do, agreeably to his system of consecration? There is evidently no obstacle at all, except such as the mutable law of the land interposes.-In the last place, I think it right to quote some of the absurd and irreligious invectives of the renowned Dr. Hey against the Holy Mass, because they show the extreme ignorance of our religion, which generally prevails amongst the most learned Protestants, who write against it. The Doctor

1

(1) Sheffac. tom. ii. p. 7.

(2) See Perpétuité de la Foi. (3) See the Rubrics of the Communion Service. (4) See ditto in Sparrow's Collec. p. 20.

(5) If the consecrated bread or wine be all spent, before all 'have communicaied, the Priest is to consecrate more.' Rubr.-N.B. Bishop Warburton and Bishop Cleaver earnestly contend that the Eucharist is a feast upon a sacrifice; but as, in their dread of Popery, they admit no change, nor even the reality of a victim, their feast is proved to be an imaginary banquet on an ideal viand.

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first describes the Mass, as 'blasphemous, in 'dragging down Christ from heaven!' according 'to his expression; 2dly, as pernicious in giving 'men an easy way,' as he pretends, of evading all their moral and religious duties!' 3dly, as 'promoting infidelity!' in conformity with which latter assertion, he maintains, that 'most Romanists of letters and science are infidels!' He next proceeds seriously to advise Catholics, to abandon this part of their sacred liturgy, namely the adorable sacrifice of the New Law. He then concludes his theological farce, with the following ridiculous threats against this sacrifice. If the "Romanists will not listen to our brotherly ex'hortations; let them fear our threats. The rage of paying for Masses will not last for ever: as men improve (by the French Revolution,) it will continue to grow weaker; as Philosophy (that 6 of Atheism) rises, Masses will sink in price and 'superstition pine away.' (1) I wish I had an opportunity of telling the learned Professor, that I should have expected, from the failure of the Patriarch Luther, counselled and assisted as he was by Satan himself, in his attempts to abolish the Holy Mass, he would have been more cautious in dealing prophetic threats against it! In fact he has lived to see this Divine Worship publicly restored in every part of Christendom, where it was proscribed, when he vented his menaces: for as to the private celebration of Mass, this was never intermitted, not even in the depth of the gloomiest dungeons, and where no pay could be had by the Catholic Priesthood. What other religious worship, I ask, could have triumphed over such a persecution! The same will be the case in the latter days; when the Man of

(1) Dr. Hey's Theol. Lectures, vol. iv. p. 385. The Professor tells us in a note, that this lecture was delivered in the year 1792; the hey-day of that antichristian and antisocial Philosophy, which attempted through an ocean of blood, to subvert every altar and every throne.

sin shall have indignation against the covenant of the sanctuary and shall take away the continual sacrifice, Dan. xi. 30, 34. for even then, the mystical woman who is clothed with the sun, and has the moon under her feet, shall fly into the wilderness, Rev. xii. 1, 6, and perform the Divine Mysteries of a God Incarnate, in caverns and catacombs, as she did in early times; till that happy day comes, when her heavenly Spouse, casting aside those sacramental veils, under which his love now shrouds him, shall shine forth in the glory of God the Father, the Judge of the living and the dead.

I am, &c.

J. M.

LETTER XLI.

To the Rev. ROBERT CLAYTON, M. A.

ON ABSOLUTION FROM SIN.

REVEREND SIR,

I PERCEIVE that, in selecting objections against the Church, although you chiefly follow B. Porteus, who mixes, in the same chapter, the heterogeneous subjects of the Mass and the forgiveness of sins, you adopt some others from the Tracts of Bishop Watson, and even from writers of such little repute as the Rev. C. De Coetlogon. This preacher, in venting the horrid calumnies and blasphemies, which a great proportion of other Protestant preachers and controvertists of different sects, equally with himself, instil into the minds of their ignorant hearers and readers, expresses himself as follows: 'In the Church of Rome you may purchase not only pardons for sins already committed, but for those that shall be committed: so that any one may promise himself impunity, upon paying the rate that

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