read in the general council of Ephesus, in 431, and approved by the council, as conveying the belief of the universal Church. They write to the heresiarch Nestorius:-"On this occasion it is our duty to add, that while we announce the death of Jesus, the only Son of God, and his resurrection from the dead, and his ascension into heaven, we likewise celebrate the unbloody sacrifice in the Churches, approach to the mystic thanksgivings, and are thus sanctified, being made partakers of the sacred flesh and precious blood of Christ, the Saviour of all men, and receiving it, not as common flesh: far be this thought from us: nor as the flesh of a sanctified man, and united to the word by an equality of honour, nor as having obtained a divine inhabitation; but we receive it as the truly vivifying flesh of the word made man. For as the word, as God, is essentially life, the moment it became one with its flesh, it imparted to this flesh a vivifying virtue. Wherefore, although Christ said: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you; (John, vi. 53.) we are not to imagine, that it is the flesh of a man like to ourselves, but truly the flesh of him who for us was made and called the

Son of man. For how could the flesh of man, according to its own nature, give life?" Ep. ad Nest. Conc. Gen. T. iii. p. 404.—In confirmation of this doctrine, they then add the following anathema: "He that does not confess the flesh of the Lord to be vivifying, and the proper flesh of the word of God made man; but to be the flesh of some other, united in dignity to the word, or that has obtained only a divine inhabitation; and shall not acknowledge that

(2) την ἀναμακτον ἐν ταις ἐκκλησίαις τελουμεν θυσίαν, προσιμεν τε όντω ταις μυστικαις ευλογίαις, και αγιαζόμεθα, μετοχοι γενόμενοι της τε ἅγιας σαρκός, και του τιμιου αιματος του παντων ἡμων σωτηρος Κριστου, και ουχ ̓ ὡς σαρκα κοινην δεχομενοι μη γενοιτο,

flesh to give life, as we have said, because it is the flesh of the word that gives life to all things, let him be anathema." Ibid. p. 409.

S. PETER CHRYSOLOGUS,(") L. C.-" Let Christians understand, who every day touch the body of Christ,(*) what helps they may draw from that body, when the woman was perfectly cured by only touching the hem of his garment.' Serm. xxiv. p. 872. Edit. Lugduni, 1676. THEODORET,() G. C." After the consecration, the mystical symbols lose not their proper nature: they remain in the former substance, figure, and appearance, (or rather in the shape and form of the former substance,) to be seen, and to be felt, as before; but they are understood to be what they have been made; this they are believed to be; and as such they are adored." Dial. ii. T. iv. Edit. Paris. 1642. SYLVIANUS, L. C.-"The Jews ate manna; we (9)

(m) He was placed on the archiepiscopal chair of Ravenna, about the year 430, and governed that Church about twenty years. We have 176 of his discourses, which were so much esteemed in those days as to procure him the name of Chrysologus.

(n) Qui quotidie corpus Christi attingunt.

(0) Theodoret is best known as the author of an Ecclesiastical History. He was Bishop of Cyrus, a city of Syria; was connected with many of the great men of the age, and involved in various controversies. Few men have written more, or with so extensive a knowledge of all the subjects he treats, scriptural, moral, and historical. He died at an advanced age, about the year 457, or perhaps later.

(P)

μένει γαρ ἐπι της προτέρας ουσίας, και το σχηματος, και το είδος. -The word pоrepas (former) seems to imply the second translation.

(4) Sylvianus was a learned priest of Marseilles, who flourished from about the middle to the end of the fifth century; and of whom we have eight books "On the Government of God," and four books" Against Avarice," addressed to the Catholic Church, under the name of Timotheus; besides some epistles. Baluze published them, together with the "Commonitorium" of Vincent of Lerins, at Paris, 1684.

Christ they the flesh of birds; we the body of God: they the dew of heaven; we the God of heaven."() Adv. Avaritiam, L. ii, p. 246. Edit. Paris. 1684.

S. NILUS, G. C.-" Before the prayer of the priest, and the coming of the Holy Spirit, the things laid on the table are common bread and wine; but after the solemn invocations, and the descent of the adorable spirit, it is no longer bread, and no longer wine, but is the body, and pure and precious blood, of Christ, the God of all." Ep. xliv. L. 1. p. 21.—“Let us not approach to the mystic bread as to mere bread, for it is the flesh of God, the venerable, and life-giving flesh."(*) Ep. xxxix. L. iii, p. 322.

THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS.

Our Saviour, in leaving to us his body and blood, under two distinct species or kinds, instituted not only a Sacrament, but also a Sacrifice; a commemorative sacrifice, distinctly shewing his passion and death until he come. For as the

() Nos Christum,-nos corpus Dei-nos Deum cœli.

(*) St. Nilus was a disciple of the great St. Chrysostom. After having been governor of Constantinople, he retired into the desart of Sinah, and there led a solitary life. He flourished under the emperors Arcadius and Theodosius, and died about 451. He has left us several treatises, and a great number of letters on religious subjects.

(*) οὐκ ἔστι ψιλον άρτον, και κοινον δινον τα ἐπιτεθειμενα τῇ άγια τραπεζῃ, ἀλλ ̓ σωμα, και αιμα τιμιον, και άχραντον Κριστό, το Θεό των ἅπαντων.

(u)

μη ὡς ψιλῳ ἀρτῳ προσερχώμεθα τῳ αρτῳ τῷ μυστικῳ, σαρξ γαρ υπαρχει Θεό, σαρξ τιμια, και προσκυνητη, και ζωοποιος.

sacrifice of the cross was performed by a distinct effusion of his blood, so is that sacrifice commemorated in this of the altar, by a distinction of the symbols. Jesus, therefore, is here given not only to us, but for us; and the Church is hereby enriched with a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice, usually termed the Mass: propitiatory, we say, because representing in a lively manner the passion and death of our Lord, it is peculiarly pleasing to our eternal Father, and thus more effectually applies to us the all-sufficient merits of the sacrifice of the cross.

SCRIPTURE.

As the bloody sacrifices ordained by the Jewish law, are understood to have prefigured the sacrifice which the Redeemer of Mankind was once to offer on the Cross, by the effusion of his blood; so do we believe that the unbloody offerings of the same law, but much more than these, the bread and wine, which Melchisedec, "the priest of the most high God," presented to Abraham, (Gen. iv.) were a type or figure of that unbloody sacrifice, which Christ, the priest for ever, according to the order of Melchisedec, (Ps. cix.) would continue to offer, through all ages, under the symbols or species of bread and wine.

Malach. i. 10, 11. I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hands. -For, from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered to my name, and a clean

offering.-Matt. xxvi. 28. This is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many,(1) for the remission of sins.-Mark, xiv. 24. This is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many.-Luke xxii. 19. This is my body that is given for you:(") do this for a commemoration of me.-20. This is the chalice, the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you.-1 Cor. xi. 24. This is my body which is broken for you:(*) this do for the commemoration of me.-25. This chalice is the New Testament in my blood; do ye this as often as you shall drink it, for the commemoration of me.-26. For as often as you shall eat this bread, and drink this chalice, you shall shew the death of the Lord until he come.

According to the translation of these passages, which is conformable to the Greek, our Saviour speaks in the present tense (or time) of the actual immolation of his body, and the actual effusion of his blood for the remission of sins; because at that moment, he really, but mystically, offered up his body and blood for the salvation of the apostles and of all men; while the words, do this for a commemoration, or in remembrance of me, plainly denote the institution of a sacrifice to be celebrated to the end of time. Thus Christ seems to say: As I now immolate my body and shed my blood for the remission of sins; so do you offer up this same body and this same blood in remembrance of me. What I now do, do you and your successors. In this sense, as we have seen, and shall see, have the words of Christ always been understood in the Catholic Church.

1 Cor. x. 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21. Wherefore, my

(*) το ύπερ πολλων ἐκχυνόμενον. (») το ύπερ ύμων διδομενον. (2) το ύπερ ύμων κλωμένον.