enters into that secret, which the Spirit of God conveys under that signature. Now, since the mystery is perfectly and openly expressed to be the remission of sins, -if the soul does the work of the soul, as the body the work of the body, the soul receives remission of sins, as the body does the symbols of it and the sacrament.

3 (2). But we must be infinitely careful to remember, that even the death of Christ brings no pardon to the impenitent persevering sinner, but to him that repents truly: and so does the sacrament of Christ's death; this can do no more than that: and, therefore, let, no man come with his guilt about him, and in the heat, and in the affections of his sin, and hope to find his pardon by this ministry.. He that thinks so, will but deceive, will but ruin himself. They are excellent, but very severe, words which God spake to the Jews, and which are a prophetical reproof of all unworthy communicants in these divine mysteries: "What hath my beloved to do in my house, seeing she hath wrought lewdness, with many? The holy flesh hath passed, from thee, when thou dost evil;" that is, this holy sacrifice, the flesh and blood of thy, Lord, shall slip from thee without doing thee any good, if thou hast not ceased from doing evil.' But the vulgar Latin reads these words much more emphatically to our purpose:" Shall the holy flesh take from thee thy wickedness, in which thou rejoicest?" Deceive not thyself, thou hast no part nor portion in this matter. For the holy sacra ment operates indeed, and consigns our pardon, but not alone; but in conjunction with all that Christ requires as conditions of pardon. But when the conditions are present, the sacrament ministers pardon, as pardon is ministered in this world, that is, by parts, and in order to several purposes, and with power of revocation, by suspending the divine wrath, by procuring more graces, by, obtaining time of repentance, and powers and possibilities of working out our salvation, and by setting forward the method and economy of our salvation. For, in the usual methods of God,

Qui scelerate vivunt in ecclesià, et communicare non desinunt, putantes se tali communione mundari, discant nihil ad emundationem proficere, dicente propheta, quid est, quod dilectus meus facit in domo meâ scelera multa? nunquid carnes sanctæ auferent à te malitias tuas ?-Jer. xi, 15. Isider. Hispal. de summo bono, lib. i. cap. 24.

pardon of sins is proportionable to our repentance; which because it is all that state of piety we have in this whole life after our first sin,-pardon of sins is all that effect of grace, which is consequent to that repentance; and the worthy receiving of the holy communion is but one conjugation of holy actions and parts of repentance, but indeed it is the best and the noblest, and such in which man does but best co-operate towards pardon, and the grace of God does the most illustriously consign it. But of these particulars I shall give full account, when I shall discourse of the preparations of repentance.

4. It is the greatest solemnity of prayer, the most powerful liturgy and means of impetration, in this world. For when Christ was consecrated on the cross, and became our High Priest, having reconciled us to God by the death of the cross, he became infinitely gracious in the eyes of God, and was admitted to the celestial and eternal priesthood in heaven; where, in the virtue of the cross, he intercedes for us, and represents an eternal sacrifice in the heavens on our behalf. That he is a priest in heaven, appears in the large discourses and direct affirmatives of St. Paul, That 'there is no other sacrifice to be offered, but that on the cross, it is evident, because he hath but once appeared in the end of the world to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself;" and, therefore, since it is necessary, that he hath something to offer so long as he is a priest, and there is no other sacrifice but that of himself offered upon the cross-it follows, that Christ, in heaven, perpetually offers and represents that sacrifice to his heavenly Father, and, in virtue of that, obtains all good things for his church.

4 (2). Now what Christ does in heaven, he hath commanded us to do on earth; that is, to represent his death, to commemorate this sacrifice", by humble prayer, and thankful re

1 Όπως ὁ Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν ὁ προσδεξάμενος αὐτὸν εἰς τὸ ἅγιον, καὶ τὸ ὑπερουράνιον, νοερὸν, καὶ πνευματικὸν αὐτοῦ θυσιαστήριον εἰς ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας πνευματικῆς, &c.

Nonne semel immolatus est Christus in seipso? et tamen in sacramento, non solum per omnes pascha solennitates, sed omni die, populis immolatur. Nec utique mentitur qui interrogatus, eum responderit immolari :' si enim sacramenta quandam similitudinem earum rerum, quarum sacramenta sunt, non habeant, omnino sacramenta non essent. St. Aug. Epist. ad Bonifac. 23. Quia corpus assumptum ablaturus erat ab oculis, et illaturus sideribus, necessarium erat, ut, die cœnæ, sacramentum nobis corporis et sanguinis

cord; and, by faithful manifestation and joyful eucharist, to lay it before the eyes of our heavenly Father, so ministering in his priesthood, and doing according to his commandment and his example; the church being the image of heaven; the priest, the minister of Christ; the holy table being a copy of the celestial altar; and the eternal sacrifice of the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world, being always the same; it bleeds no more after the finishing of it on the cross; but it is wonderfully represented in heaven, and graciously represented here; by Christ's action there, by his commandment here. And the event of it is plainly this,➡ that as Christ, in virtue of his sacrifice on the cross, intercedes for us with his Father,-so does the minister of Christ's priesthood here; that the virtue of the eternal sacrifice may be salutary and effectual to all the needs of the church, both for things temporal and eternal. And, therefore, it was not without great mystery and clear signification, that our blessed Lord was pleased to command the representation of his death and sacrifice on the cross should be made by breaking bread, and effusion of wine; to signify to us the nature and sacredness of the liturgy we are about, and that we minister in the priesthood of Christ, who is a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec; that is, we are ministers in that unchangeable priesthood, imitating, in the external ministry, the prototype Melchisedec: of whom it was said, "He brought forth bread and wine, and was the priest of the most high God";" and, in the internal, imitating the antitype, or the

consecraretur, ut coleretur jugiter per mysterium, quod semel offerebatur in pretium; ut, quia quotidiana et indefessa currebat pro omnium salute redemptio, perpetua esset redemptionis oblatio, et perennis victima illa viveret in memoria, et semper præsens esset in gratia, vera, unica, et perfecta hostia, fide æstimanda, non specie, neque exteriori censenda visu,sed interiori affectu. Unde cœlestis confirmat autoritas, quia 'caro mea verè est cibus,' et 'sanguis meus verè est potus.' Recedat ergo omne infidelitatis ambiguum; quoniam, qui autor est muneris, idem testis est veritatis.- Euseb. Emiss.

A Non sine mysterio, sine re, vel panis ad aram
Vel vinum fertur, cui superaddis aquam.

Utraque sub typico ritu, formaque futuri,

Melchisedec Domino sacrificasse ferunt.-Hildebert. Cenoman. Melchisedec Domino panem vinumque litavit ;

Christus idem faciens, pactum vetus evacuavit.-Hugo Card.

Rex ille Salem, qui, munere tali,

Mystica præmisit summi libanina Christi.

Claud. Marian, victor. lib. iii. in Genes.

substance, Christ himself; who offered up his body and blood for atonement for us,and, by the sacraments of bread and wine, and the prayers of oblation and intercession, commands us to officiate in his priesthood, in the external ministering like Melchisedec, in the internal, after the manner of Christ himself.

-

. 4 (3). This is a great and a mysterious truth, which as it is plainly manifested in the Epistle to the Hebrews, so it is understood by the ancient and holy doctors of the church. So St. Ambrose: "Now Christ is offered, but he is offered as a man, as if he received his passion, but he offers himself as a priest, that he may pardon our sins; here, in image or representation,there, in truth, as an advocate interceding with his Father for us."-So St. Chrysostom: "In Christ once the sacrifice was offered, which is powerful to our eternal salvation; but what then do we? do not we offer every day? what we daily offer is at the memorial of his death, and the sacrifice is one, not many; because Christ was once offered, but this sacrifice is the example or representation of that." And another": "Christ is not impiously slain by us, but piously sacrificed; and by this means we 'declare the Lord's death till he come;' for here through him we humbly do in earth, which he, as a Son, who is heard according to his reverence, does powerfully for us in heaven: where, as an advocate, he intercedes with his Father, whose office or work it is; for us to exhibit and interpose his flesh which he took of us, and for us,—and, as it were, to press it upon his Father." To the same sense is the meditation of St. Austin P: "By this he is the priest and the oblation, the sacrament of which he would have the daily sacrifice of the church to be: which because it is the body of that head, she learns from him to offer herself to God by him, who offered himself to God for her." And, therefore, this whole office is called by St. Basil, exǹ πgoσxoμidns, the prayer of oblation,' the great Christian sacrifice and oblation in which we present our prayers and the needs of ourselves and of our brethren unto God, in virtue of the great sacrifice, Christ upon the cross,-whose memorial we then celebrate in a divine manner, by divine appointment.

• In 10. ad Heb. habetur de consecr. dist. 2.

P. De civit. Dei, lib. x. c. 20.

cord; and, by faithful manifestation and joyful eucharist, to lay it before the eyes of our heavenly Father, so ministering in his priesthood, and doing according to his commandment and his example; the church being the image of heaven; the priest, the minister of Christ; the holy table being a copy of the celestial altar; and the eternal sacrifice of the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world, being always the same; it bleeds no more after the finishing of it on the cross; but it is wonderfully represented in heaven, and graciously represented here; by Christ's action there, by his commandment here. And the event of it is plainly this,→ that as Christ, in virtue of his sacrifice on the cross, intercedes for us with his Father,-so does the minister of Christ's priesthood here; that the virtue of the eternal sacrifice may be salutary and effectual to all the needs of the church, both for things temporal and eternal. And, therefore, it was not without great mystery and clear signification, that our blessed Lord was pleased to command the representation of his death and sacrifice on the cross should be made by breaking bread, and effusion of wine; to signify to us the nature and sacredness of the liturgy we are about, and that we minister in the priesthood of Christ, who is a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec; that is, we are ministers in that unchangeable priesthood, imitating, in the external ministry, the prototype Melchisedec: of whom it was said, "He brought forth bread and wine, and was the priest of the most high God";" and, in the internal, imitating the antitype, or the

consecraretur, ut coleretur jugiter per mysterium, quod semel offerebatur in pretium; ut, quia quotidiana et indefessa currebat pro omnium salute redemptio, perpetua esset redemptionis oblatio, et perennis victima illa viveret in memoria, et semper præsens esset in gratia, vera, unica, et perfecta hostia, fide æstimanda, non specie, neque exteriori censenda visu,sed interiori affectu. Unde cœlestis confirmat autoritas, quia 'caro mea verè est cibus,' et 'sanguis meus verè est potus.' Recedat ergo omne infidelitatis ambiguum; quoniam, qui autor est muneris, idem testis est veritatis. -Euseb. Emiss.

Non sine mysterio, sine re, vel panis ad aram

Vel vinum fertur, cui superaddis aquam.

Utraque sub typico ritu, formaque futuri,

Melchisedec Domino sacrificasse ferunt.-Hildebert. Cenoman. Melchisedec Domino panem vinumque litavit ;

Christus idem faciens, pactum vetus evacuavit.-Hugo Card.

Rex ille Salem, qui, munere tali,

Mystica præmisit summi libamina Christi.

Claud. Marian, victor. lib. iii. in Genes.