tant might have a perpetual and visible Sacrifice for the purging away of our fins, and for turning the Wrath of our Heavenly Father, who is many times offended with our wickedness into Mercy, and the rigour of his juft punishment into Clemency: So in the Mafs there is offered unto God a true and proper Sacrifice, for the pardon both of the Living and of the Dead, by the offering of the which Sacrifice the Lord is fo far appeafed as to give Grace, and the Gift of Repentance to Sinners, and by means thereof does forgive Men their Sins and Offences, tho' never fo enormous; the Hoft that is offered by the Ministry of the Prieft on the Altar of the Church, being one and the fame that was offered for us on the Cross, with no other difference befides that of the reason of their being offered: And so it is not only offered for the Sins, Punishments, Satisfactions, and other Neceffities of the Faithful that are Living, but alfo for the Dead, departed in Chrift, and that are in the Torments of Purgatory, being not as yet fully purged by reafon of their not having made a compleat fatisfaction for the punishments due to their fins, it being but just and reasonable,that all should be benefited by a Sacrifice, which was inftituted for the Remedy and Health of all Mankind; which Oblation is of that purity, that no indignity or wickedness in the Offerers is able to defile it: so that as to the fubftance, value, and acceptation, it is the fame when offered by a wicked and unclean finner, as when by a pure and holy Priest, because it

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does

does not derive its Dignity from the Offerer, but from the Majesty and excellency of what is offered, neither does the Eternal Father accept thereof for the Merits and Vertue of the Priest that offers it, but for the value of the Sacrifice it self, and the infinite Merits of Chrift, who is offered therein; fo that our Saviour being about to offer himself to God the Father on the Altar of the Crofs, could not poffibly have given us a greater expreffion of his immenfe Love for us, than by leaving us this vifible Sacrifice in his Church, in which the Blood which was presently to be once offered upon the Altar of the Cross, was to be renewed every day upon the Altar of the Church, and the Memory thereof to our great profit, was to be adored every where in the Church until the end of the World; which Divine Sacrifice is offered to God only, notwithstanding it is fometimes celebrated in Memory and Honour of the Martyrs, and other Saints in Blifs; it not being offered to them but to God only, who has been pleased to Crown them with Immortal Honour, rendring him thereby our bounden thanks for the notable Victory of the Martyrs, and the publick Mercies and Bleffings he has vouchfafed to other Saints, and for the Victories which by these means they obtained over the World, the Flesh, and the Devil; befeeching the faid Saints to be pleased to intercede for us in Heaven, whofe Memories we celebrate on Earth: and tho' the Divine Eucharift does still continue to be a Sacrament, yet it is never a Sacrifice, but as it is offered in the Mass,

Decree

F

Decree I.

Orafmuch as it is of great moment, that all things belonging to the Sacrifice of the Mafs, Thould be preferv'd pure and undefiled,and whereas this Church has been for *1200 years from under the Obedience of the Holy Roman Church, the Miftrefs of all the other Churches, and from whence all good Government and true Doctrines do come, all the Bishops that came hither from Babylon having been Schifmaticks and Neftorian Hereticks, who have added to, and taken from the Mafs at their pleasure without any order; from whence it has come to pass, that several things are foisted into the Syrian Mafs which is faid in this Diocefs, without any confideration, and fuch things too as may give occafion to many Impious and Heretical Errors:. For which, if due Order were obferved, all the Miffals of this Bishoprick ought to be burned, as alfo for their having been of Neftorian ufe, and compiled by Neftorian Hereticks; but being there are no other at prefent, they are tolerated, until fuch time as our Lord the Pope shall take fome Order therein, and there

* 1200 Bears.] It would puzzle them to prove that they had ever been at any time under her obedience; however this fhows what a Cheat that fubmiffion of the Patriarch of Babylon, in his own name, and in the name of all the Churches that were subject to him,

fhall be Miffals fent by him printed in the Chaldee Tongue, which is what this Synod humbly and earnestly defires may be done: And in the mean time it doth command, that the Miffals now in ufe be purged and reformed as to all the following Matters, and that till fuch time as they are fo purged, which the moft Illuftrious Metropolitan, with the affiftance of fome Perfons well verfed in the Chaldee Tongue will fee done the next Vifitation, no Priest shall presume to make use of them any more.

Whereas from the above declared Doctrine of this Sacrament it is evident, that the Priest does not Confecrate with his own words, but with thofe of our Lord Chrift, the Author and Inftitutor of the faid Divine Sacrament; it is not therefore lawful to add any Claufe, how good foever in it felf to the Form of Confecration, or to what our Lord Chrift faid therein; in which we do not comprehend the word Enim, which the Church of Rome adds to the Confecration of the Body and Blood; for befides that, there is the † Tradition of the Holy Apostles, for our Lord Chrift's having ufed it in the Confecration

tradition] This is what The confidently pretends to have for all her Novelties. Cardinal Bona in the 24 Chap. of his first Book of Liturgies, paffeth the following true judgment upon the common practice of the Church of Rome in all fuch Matters; Orta deinde eft 4 ferè feculis poft 6 Synodum controverfia de

Azymo fermentato, & diu agitata inter Gracos & Latinos, partium potius quam veritatis inveniende ftu dic, ut in fimilibus fieri folet, atque bine fa&tum eft ut pertinaciter contenderint fuam quifque confuetudinem, à Chrifto & ab Apoftolis ad noftra ufque tempora derivari: fed fi omiffis hac de re Scholafticorum fubtilitatibus argumentis quæ apud

of

of the Body; and that St. Matthew also relates it in the Confecration of the Cup, it is no Claufe or distinct Sentence, but a conjunction to a Sentence of the words of Chrift which immediately follow. As alfo the word Æterni in the Confecration of the Cup; and the words Myfterium Fidei, which tho' not mentioned by the Evangelifts, yet as it is proved by Apoftolical Tradition, were ufed by our Lord Chrift in the Confecration of the Cup, and for that reason the Holy Church continues to use them in the fame; but as for the words added to the Confecration of the Cup in the Syrian Miffal, Et hoc erit vobis pignus in fæcula feculorum, they being no where in any of the four Evangelifts, nor in any Book of the New Teftament; and it not appearing to the Church by Apoftolical Tradition, that Chrift ufed them in that Confecration, the Synod doth prohibit them to be used therein any more; but the words in themselves being good and Holy, and agreeable

ipfor legi poffunt, veritatem fincerè & fine affectu ad alterutram partem ex veterum Patrum monumentis & ex praxi Ecclefiæ inveftigare volueri mus, inveniemus proculdubio, quam parvi momenti fint in re, que à facto pendet, Doctorum fpeculationes; tum perfpicuè cognofcemus multum intereffe inter tempora que præcefferunt, &qua poftea fecuta funt, eofque turpiter errare, qui ex prafenti rerum ftatu omnem eftimant antiquitatem; which is what the Church of Rome has done above thefe 600 Years, and will do for all that Cardinal Bona or any body else can tell her

the unreasonableness of it. But

the Cardinal goes on, Quisman vi det Scholafticos ad banc rem pertractandam præoccupatis mentibus acceffiffe, cum enim ab infantia fola azyma offerri viderint, eaque fola in fcholis & in exedris prædicari audierint, ea fola femper in ufu fuiffe crediderunt, & hoc pofito varias fubinde convenientias, variaque argumenta excogâitrunt, ut quad femel conceperant, firmiu ftabilirent. Never was there a truer description given of any thing, than this the Catdinal gives of the Genius of the People that defend the Novelties of the Church of Rome.