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the good Fathers in the primitive Church frequented it." So that whatever hath been proved to be the purpose of the institution, the practice of the holy Apostles, and usage of the ancient Fathers, will fall within the meaning and intention of the Church of England.

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For better manifesting of the which intention, we will next look into the Agenda, the public Liturgy of this Church. Where first we find it granted, that "CHRIST our SAVIOUR is the very Paschal Lamb that was offered for us, and hath taken away the sin of the world," (Preface on Easter Day); that suffering" death upon the cross for our redemption," He “ made there by His one oblation of Himself once offered, a full, perfect, and sufficient Sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world," (Prayer of Consecration); " and, to the end that we should always remember, &c. . . He hath instituted and ordained holy mysteries, as pledges of His love and continual remembrance of His death," (Exhortation before the Communion); instituting, and in His holy Gospel commanding us to continue a perpetual memory of that His precious death till His coming again," (Prayer of Consecration.) Then followeth the consecration of the creatures of bread and wine, for a remembrance of His death and Passion, in the same words and phrases which CHRIST OUR SAVIOUR recommended unto His Apostles, and the Apostles to the Fathers of the primitive times which now, as then, is to be done only by the Priest, (" then the Priest standing up, shall say as followeth,") to whom it properly belongeth, and upon whom his ordination doth confer a power of ministering the Sacraments, not given to any other order in the holy Ministry. The memory or commemoration of CHRIST's death thus celebrated, is called (Prayer after the Communion) a Sacrifice, a "Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving ;" a Sacrifice, representative of that one and only expiatory Sacrifice, which CHRIST once offered for us all: the whole communicants "beseeching God to grant, that," &c. . . . Nor stay they there, but forthwith" offer and present unto the LORD themselves, their souls, and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively Sacrifice unto Him" and howsoever, as they most humbly do acknowledge, hey are" unworthy through their manifold sins, to offer to Him

any Sacrifice, yet they beseech Him to accept that their bounden duty and service." In which last words, that present service which they do to ALMIGHTY GOD, according to their "bounden duties," in celebrating the "perpetual memory of CHRIST'S precious death," and the oblation of themselves, and, with themselves "the Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving," in due acknowledgment of the benefits and comforts by His death received, is humbly offered unto God, for and as a Sacrifice, and publicly avowed for such, as from the tenour and coherence of the words doth appear most plainly. Put all together which hath been here delivered from the Book of Articles, the Homilies, and public Liturgy, and tell me if you ever found a more excellent concord, than this between Eusebius' and the Church of England, in the present business our SAVIOUR's Sacrifice upon the cross, called there, τὸ τοῦ παντὸς κόσμου καθάρσιον, and here acknowledged to be the "perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction for all the sins of the whole world."... The memory or commemoration of this His death, called there, τοῦ σώματος αὐτοῦ καὶ τοῦ αἵματος iñóμνησ, and here, (Hom.) the public "celebration of the memory" of His precious death, at the LORD's table; there, μvýμnv тov μeɣáλov úμaros, here, (Hom.) the remembrance of His great mercy expressed in His Passion; there, for the offering of this Sacrifice to ALMIGHTY GOD, Távτwg kaì iepwovrns, &c.; there was a Priesthood thought to be very necessary, and, here, the Priest alone hath power to consecrate the creatures of bread and wine, for a remembrance of His death and Passion; there the whole action, as it relates to Priest and people, is called Ovoíav aivéoɛws, and here, the Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving; there, raç λoyikas Ovoías Kai iερOTρεñès Ouμa, here, in the selfsame words, "a reasonable and holy Sacrifice;" there, the communicants do offer to the LoRD σφᾶς αὐτοὺς, σώματι καὶ ψυχῇ, and here they do present unto Him theirselves, souls, and bodies; finally, there it is said, θύομεν τὴν μνήμην τοῦ μεγάλου θύματος, that they do sacrifice unto the LORD the memory of that great oblation; i. e. as he expounds himself, they offer to Him the commemoration of the same, avri ris Ovoías, for, and as a Sacrifice; and here, we do 1 Vid. sup. cit. p. 125.

VOL. IV. 81..

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beseech the LORD to accept this our "bounden duty and service," for, and as a Sacrifice, which, notwithstanding, we confess ourselves "unworthy to offer" to Him. Never did Church agree more perfectly with the ancient patterns. pp. 159-164.

ID.-Life and Death of Archbishop Laud. Necessary Introduction.

The Sacrament of the LORD's Supper they (the first Reformers) called the Sacrament of the Altar, as appears plainly by the statute 1st Edward VI., entituled, "An Act against such as speak unreverently against the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of CHRIST, commonly called the Sacrament of the altar." For which consult the body of the Act itself. Or, secondly, by Bishop Ridley, (one of the chief Compilers of the Common Prayer Book,) who doth not only call it the "Sacrament of the Altar," affirming thus, "that in the sacrament of the altar is the natural Body and Blood of CHRIST," &c.; but in his reply to an argument of the Bishop of Lincoln's, taken out of St. Cyril, he doth resolve it thus, viz. "The word Altar' in the Scripture signifieth as well the altar whereon the Jews were wont to offer their burnt Sacrifice, as the Table of the LORD's Supper and that St. Cyril meaneth by this word Altar, not the Jewish altar, but the Table of the LORD," &c. (Acts and Mon. part iii. pp. 492. 497.) Thirdly, by Bishop Latimer, his fellow martyr, who plainly grants, "That the LORD's Table may be called an Altar, and that the Doctors called it so in many places, though there be no propitiatory Sacrifice, but only CHRIST." (Part ii. p. 85.) Fourthly, by the several affirmations of John Lambert, and John Philpot, two learned and religious men, whereof the one suffered death for religion under Henry VIII., the other in the fiery time of Queen Mary,— this Sacrament being called by both, "the Sacrament of the altar" in their several times: for which consult the Acts and Monuments, commonly called the Book of Martyrs.-p. 21.

Here, then, we have the word, the "altar," sed ubi est victima holocausti? (as Isaac said unto his father,) "but where is the lamb for the burnt-offering ?" (Gen. xxii. 7.) Assuredly, if the Priest and Altar be so near, the lamb for the burnt-offering

cannot be far off, even the most blessed "Lamb of GoD, which taketh away the sins of the world," as the Scripture styles Him, whose Passion we find commemorated in the Sacrament of the Altar, as before is said; called for the same reason by St. Augustine, in his Enchiridion, Sacrificium Altaris, "the Sacrifice of the altar" by the English Liturgy, in the Prayer next after the participation, the "Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving” (Sacrificium laudis); by Chrysostom, 'Aváμvnous ris Ovoías, "the remembrance of a Sacrifice;" by many learned writers amongst ourselves, a "commemorative Sacrifice." For thus saith Bishop Andrews in his answer to Cardinal Bellarmine, (c. 8.) "Tollite," &c.' . . . . The like we find in Bishop Morton. . . . But what need any thing have been said for the proof hereof, when the most Rev. Archbishop Cranmer, one (and the chief) of the compilers of the public Liturgy, and one who suffered death for opposing the Sacrifice of the Mass, distinguisheth most plainly between the Sacrifice propitiatory, made by CHRIST Himself only, and the Sacrifice commemorative and gratulatory, made by Priests and people for which consult his Defence against Bishop Gardiner, lib. v. p. 439. And, finally, the testimony of John Lambert, who suffered for his conscience in the time of Henry VIII., whose words are these: "CHRIST (saith he) being offered up once for all in His own proper person, is yet said to be offered up, not only every year at Easter, but also every day in the celebration of the Sacrament; because His oblation, once for all made, is thereby represented." (Act. Mon. p. ii. 35.) So uniform is the consent of our Liturgy, our Martyrs, and our learned writers in the name of Sacrifice so that we may behold the Eucharist or the LORD's Supper, first, as it is a Sacrifice, or the commemoration of that Sacrifice offered unto God; by which both we and the whole Church do obtain remission of our sins, and all other benefits of CHRIST's Passion; And, secondly, as it is a Sacrament, participated by men, by which we hope that, being made partakers of that holy Communion, we may be fulfilled with His grace and heavenly benediction. Both which occur in the next Prayer after the Communion. Look on it as a

1 Vid. sup. p. 95.

Sacrifice, and then the LORD's board not improperly may be called an altar, as it is properly called the table in respect of the Sacrament.-pp. 22, 3.

SPARROW, Bishop.-Rationale upon the Book of Common Prayer.

The reason why this Creed [the Nicene] follows immediately after the Epistle and Gospel, is the same that was given for the Apostles' Creed following next after the Lessons of Morning and Evening Prayer. To which the canon of Toledo, last cited, hath added another reason of the saying it here before the people draw near to the holy Communion. . . .

A third reason is given by Dionys. Eccl. Hierarch. It will not be amiss to set down some passages of his at large; because they will both give us a third reason of using the Creed in this place, and discover to us, as I conceive, much of the ancient beautiful order of the Communion service.

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The Bishop or Priest, standing at the altar, begins the melody of psalms, all the degrees of ecclesiastics singing with him. . . . Then is read by some of the ministers, first a lesson out of the Old Testament, then one out of the New, in their order. ... After this the catechumens, the possessed, and the penitents are dismissed, and they only allowed to stay, who are deemed worthy to receive the holy Sacrament. Then the ministers and devout people, reverently beholding the holy signs, not yet consecrated, but blest and offered up to GoD, on a by-standing table, called "the table of proposition,” (τpáñeľa πрobéσewc) praise and bless the FATHER of lights, from whom, as all good gifts, so this great blessing of the Communion does come, with the Catholic hymn of praise, which some call the Creed, others, more divinely, the pontifical Thanksgiving, as containing in it all the spiritual gifts which flow from heaven upon us, the whole mystery of our salvation. When this hymn of praise is finished, the Deacons, with the Priests, set the holy bread and cup of blessing upon the altar; after which, the Priest or Bishop says the most sacred, that is, the LORD's prayer, and gives the blessing to the people. Then they (in token of perfect charity, a most necessary virtue at this

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