execute all other sacerdotal functions, but in a more spiritual and heavenly way than other priests had done: which detracts not at all from the propriety of the Christian priesthood, but adds very much to its value and excellency, and shows it to be of superior dignity to any real or pretended priesthood, either of Jews or Pagans.

A distinct summary View of the several OBLATIONS in the Eucharist, previous to CONSECRATION, or subsequent.

What is previous, goes under the name of Ante-oblation : what is subsequent, falls under the name of Postoblation.

I. Of the Ante-oblation.

THE ante-oblation has three parts, or three views, as

here follows:

1. There is a presenting to God alms for the poor, and oblations for the use of the Church. The material things are gifts to men: the benevolent act, or work, is a gift, or sacrifice unto God. St. Paul points out this distinction where he teaches, " To do good and to communicate" are "such sacrifices" as "God is well pleased witha." The benevolent services are the sacrifice; not the material money, or goods. This distinction is further confirmed bythe common custom of speech; which shows what the common ideas are. Alms (that is, alms-deeds) make an atonement for sin a true and a proper expression, understanding atonement in a qualified sense. But who would say, that money makes an atonement? By bounty and charity God is appeased: the proposition is true, and the expression proper. But can we say, that by silver and gold God is appeased? No, certainly. And why cannot we? Because it would be confounding ideas: for, even in common language, expressive of the common ideas, the service is the gift to God, not the material thing.

2. There is in the Eucharist a presenting to God (virtually at least) an acknowledgment of God's being Creator

a Hebr. xiii. 16. The like distinction is clearly laid down in Justin Martyr. Apol. ii. p. 60. ed. Paris. 1636. Τὰ ὑπ' ἐκείνου εἰς διατροφὴν γενόμενα, οὐ περὶ δαπανῶν, ἀλλ ̓ ἑαυτοῖς καὶ τοῖς δεομένοις προσφέρειν, ἐκείνῳ δὲ εὐχαρίστους ὄντας, διὰ λόγου πομπὰς καὶ ὕμνους πέμπειν.

and Giver of all good things; as Irenæus intimates b. Tertullian extends it to both Sacraments: inasmuch as the religious use of water in Baptism carries in it a tacit acknowledgment that water is a creature of God.

3. There is also a presenting of the elements to God for consecration: which is common to both Sacraments. For in Baptism the waters are so presented, and for the same or like spiritual purposes.

II. Of the Post-Oblation.

The post-oblation, otherwise called commemoration, may likewise be considered under three views, or as containing three parts.

1. The first is, the offering to view, viz. of God, angels, and men, under certain symbols, the death, passion, or sacrifice of Christ. We do the like (not precisely the same) in Baptism also: for there we represent and commemorate mentally, vocally, and manually, (in mind, and by mouth, and by significant actions,) the death and burial of Christ our Lord.

2. The second is, the offering, as it were, to Divine consideration, with our praises and thanksgivings, Christ and his sacrifice, pleading the merit of it, in behalf of ourselves and others. We do something near akin to this in Baptism likewise, pleading the same sacrifice of atonement, with the merits thereof, in behalf of the persons baptized; offering the same to Divine consideration.

3. The third is, the offering up Christ's mystical body, the Church, or ourselves a part of itd, as an holy, lively,

Iren. lib. iv. cap. 18. p. 251.

Tertull. contr. Marc. lib. i. cap. 14. 23.

d Fulgentius's doctrine on this head is well worth the noting, as making the Church to be the sacrifice offered, and likewise as interpreting the illapse of the Spirit, conformably, of the Spirit's sanctifying that mystical body, viz. the Church. He flourished about 510, and is of greater antiquity and authority than most of the Greek, Latin, or Oriental liturgies now extant.

Cum ergo sancti Spiritus ad sanctificandum totius Ecclesiæ sacrificium postulatur adventus, nihil aliud postulari mihi videtur, nisi ut per gratiam salutarem in corpore Christi (quod est Ecclesia) caritatis unitas jugiter indisrupta

reasonable sacrifice unto God: a sacrifice represented by the outward signs, and conveyed, as it were, under the symbols of bread and wine.

This third article of the post-oblation is seen also in Baptism for we are therein supposed to be dedicated, consecrated, devoted, through Christ, to God. On which account Baptism has been looked upon as a kind of sacrifice among the ancients e.

Nevertheless, the Sacrament of the Eucharist has more particularly obtained the name of sacrifice: partly, on account of the offerings to church and poor in the ante-oblation, which are peculiar to that Sacrament; and partly, on account of the commemorated sacrifice in the post-oblation. For though Baptism commemorates the death and burial, and indirectly the grand sacrifice; yet it does not so precisely, formally, and directly represent or commemorate the sacrifice of the cross, as the Eucharist does.

servetur.- -Dum itaque Ecclesia Spiritum sanctum sibi cælitus postulat mitti, donum sibi caritatis et unanimitatis postulat a Deo conferri. Quando autem congruentius quam ad consecrandum sacrificium corporis Christi sancta Ecclesia (quæ corpus est Christi) Spiritus sancti deposcat adventum ? quæ ipsum caput suum secundum carnem de Spiritu sancto noverit natum. -Hoc ergo factum est caritate divina, ut ex ipso Spiritu corpus illius capitis esset renatum, de quo ipsum caput est natum.Hæc itaque spiritalis ædificatio corporis Christi, quæ fit in caritate, (cum scilicet secundum B. Petri sermonem, lapides vivi ædificantur in domum spiritalem, in sacerdotium sanctum, offerentes spiritales hostias, acceptabiles Deo per Jesum Christum) nunquam opportunius petitur, quam cum ab ipso Christi corpore (quod est Ecclesia) in sacramento panis et calicis ipsum Christi corpus et sanguis offertur. Calix enim quem bibimus, &c. 1 Cor. x. 16, 17. Fulgent. ad Monim. lib. ii. p. 34-37. edit. Paris. Conf. Fragment. p. 641.

• Cum venis ad gratiam Baptismi, vitulum obtulisti, quia in mortem Christi baptizaris. Origen. in Levit. Hom. ii. p. 191. ed. Bened.

Holocausto dominicæ passionis, quod eo tempore offert quisque pro peccatis suis, quo ejusdem passionis fide dedicatur, et Christianorum fidelium nomine baptizatus imbuitur. Augustin. ad Rom. Expos. cap. xix. p. 937. ed. Bened.

Ipse homo, Dei nomini consecratus, et Deo devotus, in quantum mundo moritur ut Deo vivat, sacrificium est. Augustin. de Civit. Dei, lib. x. cap. 6. p. 242.