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The End of Controversy, Controverted.

LETTER XXXVII.

MOST REVEREND SIR:

THE topic to which your favorite Milner next leads the way is the Mass, which he considers as the Sacrifice of the New Law. He begins by saying that Bishop Porteus is brief on this subject, and evidently embarrassed. I do not think that you will find me either the one or the other, since there is abundance of testimony, and the result is so clear, that the advocate of truth finds nothing to embarrass his course, except the difficulty of making a topic, rather dry in itself, interesting to the reader.

Your author presents the Mass, which is the Roman word for the celebration of the Eucharist, under the aspect of a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice, offered by the priest for the living and the dead. And the Church of England, in our 31st Article, calls this "a blasphemous fable, and a dangerous deceit." We shall see, in due time, why this strong language is employed, and, if I am not greatly mistaken, it will be found none too strong for the occasion.

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He commences by defining a sacrifice as an offering up and immolation of a living animal or other sensible thing to God, in testimony that He is the Master of life and death, the Lord of us and all things." And here, in the very beginning, is a most false and perilous definition, because it is perfectly destitute of every mark of a Christian faith, and at open war with the Bible. According to the true and con

stant doctrine of the Church, animal sacrifices were appointed by the divine command after the fall, to typify Christ, that promised "Seed of the woman" who should bruise the serpent's head, and restore our ruined race to the happiness which the sin of our first parents had forfeited. Hence it was BY FAITH, as St. Paul expressly saith, that Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain. Because Abel, believing in the promised Seed, brought the appointed firstlings of his flock, the commanded sacrifice which typi-. fied the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. While Cain, in proud unbelief, refused to unite in the act, and brought only the fruits of the ground. Yet there is no reason to doubt that Cain was willing to acknowledge God as "the Master of life and death, the Lord of us and all things," in the words of Dr. Milner; because the very fact of making his offering imported his belief in God; and his subsequent language to the Almighty is the language of fear and submission. In other words, Cain was a Deist, while Abel was a Christian in his heart. The first rejected the promised Saviour, and therefore would not bring the appointed memorial of Him. The other embraced the hope set before him with sincerity, and offered his lamb in faith. In totally omitting this essential connection of animal sacrifice with . Christ, therefore, Dr. Milner has put forth, not a Christian, but a deistical definition.

But this is not his only error. For although the term sacrifice is properly applicable to the immolating of a living animal or other sensible thing to God, yet he had no right to confine the term to this, because it is also applicable to many other offerings, some of a lower, and some of a far more precious character, as the Scriptures abundantly testify. A few of the proofs shall be given from your own Douay Bible to substantiate this assertion. Thus :

:

Lev.

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vii. 9. And every sacrifice of flour that is baked in the oven,
and whatsoever is dressed on the griddle or in the
frying-pan, shall be the priest's that offereth it.
Whether they be tempered with oil or dry, all the
sons of Aaron shall have one as much another.
This is the law of the sacrifice of peace-offering to
the Lord.

66 13. Moreover, loaves of leavened bread with the sacrifice
of thanks, which is offered for peace-offerings.
Offer up the sacrifice of justice.

Psalm iv.

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6.

xxvi. 6. I have offered up in His tabernacle a sacrifice of jubila

tion.

1. 19. A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit.

cvi. 22. Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of praise. Also, Psalm

CXV. 16.

cxl. 2. Let the lifting up of my hands be as an evening sacrifice.

Amos, iv. 5. Offer a sacrifice of praise with leaven.

Rom. xii.

Phil. ii.

1. I beseech you, brethren, by the mercy of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, your reasonable service.

17. Yea, and if I be made a victim upon the sacrifice and service of your faith.

iv. 18. I am filled, having received from Epaphroditus the things you sent, an odor of sweetness, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God.

Heb. xiii. 15. Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips confessing His name.

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xiii. 16. And do not forget to do good and to impart, for by such sacrifices God's favor is obtained.

1 Pet., ii. 5. Be you also as living stones, built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Now here it is abundantly evident that the term sacrifice is applied to every offering of faith to God. Not only to the offering up and immolation of a living animal or other sensible thing, according to Dr. Milner's definition, but to the of fering of insensible things, such as the flour baked in the

The Prophecy of Malachi fulfilled.

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oven, and the other peace-offerings, under the Mosaic dispensation, to the offering of thanks, of justice, of joy, of contrition, of praise, of prayer, of ourselves, of the gifts of Christian charity, and of all holy devotion. The whole basis, therefore, of your author's reasoning is overthrown by the plain evidence of Scripture. For if we grant that there is in the Eucharist, or the Mass, a sacrifice, and a true sacrifice, it does not follow that it is an animal sacrifice, or a propitiatory sacrifice, or the sacrifice of a sensible thing: but it may be, and, as I shall show in due time, it actually is, a spiritual sacrifice of ourselves, our souls and bodies, in faith and praise, and thanks, and holy obedience.

Your favorite author next proceeds to show that the prophecy of Malachi has been truly verified in the primitive Catholic Church. And we grant, most fully, his statement that God has not left His people destitute of sacrifice under the New Law. No true Christian ever doubted it. For Christ, to whom all the typical animal sacrifices of the Old Law pointed, has fulfilled them by His great sacrifice once for all upon the Cross. And His Church commemorates that blessed offering in the Eucharist, according to His own command, Do this in remembrance of me, and accompanies the sacramental memorial of that only propitiatory sacrifice by all the other spiritual sacrifices of praise, gratitude, and self-dedication, which are acceptable to God through faith in the great Redeemer. "From the rising of the sun," therefore, as saith the Lord by the Prophet Malachi, 66 even to the going down thereof, my name is great among the Gentiles; and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation.”* But all this is plainly as applicable to our doctrine as to the system of

* i. 11.

Romanism, and far more so, by the testimony of Scripture, and by the judgment of the truly Catholic Church, the fathers being witness.

To them, therefore, I willingly appeal, not by assertion, but by proof; and here you will find, most. Reverend Sir, that the Church, not of Rome, but of England, is faithful to the really Catholic interpretation of Malachi, and all the other Scriptures.

Beginning with Tertullian, we have a very express testimony on the point before us. For this father, quoting the very passage of the prophet to which Dr. Milner refers, saith as follows:

"I will not receive sacrifice from your hands, for from the rising of the sun even to the going down thereof, my name is made great in all nations, saith the Omnipotent Lord. And in every place clean sacrifices are offered to My name. *** For that God is not appeased by earthly, but by spiritual sacrifices, we thus read as it is written: A contrite and an humble heart is a sacrifice to God. And elsewhere: Sacrifice to God the sacrifice of praise, and render your vows to the Most High. Thus, therefore, the spiritual sacrifices of praise are indicated, and a broken heart is shown to be the acceptable sacrifice to God."* Again, this eminent teacher, in another treatise, refers to the same text of Malachi. "In every

place," saith He, "sacrifice is offered to My name, and a clean sacrifice, to wit, SIMPLE PRAYER FROM A PURE CONSCIENCE."

Clement of Alexandria gives us the same doctrine, as follows:

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Therefore," saith he, "we must offer to Gud, not sumptuous and splendid sacrifices, but those which are pious and

* Tertul. adv. Judæos, p 187-8.

† Tertul. adv. Marcion., L. 4, p. 414.