world-(for you are to suppress | difficulty whatever can throw me laughter, and to take it for granted into a moment's consternation, or that theirs was the primitive faith) deter me from giving a plain, instan-when was it that they all went to taneous, unequivocal reply! Well, bed, on one dark night, all orthodox, then, I say, since my reverend opall of sound belief-all sound Cal-ponent is so bold, so courageous, so vinists-and awoke--oh, wonder of daring a polemic, I have now prowonders! on the following morning, posed to him a difficulty which will without even the warning notice of require his utmost strength, and a dream as to the coming, the im- agility, and dexterity, to surmount. pending evil-awoke, I say, on the But alas! my friends, I am afraid following morning, all rank Papists, you will be disappointed-I am all prostrate at the feet of crucifixes afraid that it will meet with the and altars, all listening with solemn same result which the same question and profound devotion to the cele- met with on the last occasion that bration of the Mass. Surely my I put it: namely, that it will either reverend friend, when he is rising be passed over in total silence, or to harangue us to-night, cannot, he that it will be referred to one of cannot surely refrain, out of common those convenient "dark ages" for pity and humanity to his poor be- an extrication from the entanglenighted Roman Catholic brethren-ment-which are the usual resorts he cannot refrain from throwing of our Protestant antagonists. Yes, some faint light, at least, upon the my friends, that it will be referred dark involutions of this wondrous, to that convenient cover and place this mysterious tale! The diffi- of exile for almost every event which culty, I must tell my reverend friend puzzles the investigation of Protesbefore-hand-for I have been dis- tants, when they are asked to give appointed before whenever I have a satisfactory answer to the Cathoasked the question-the difficulty lic as to the first appearance of the must not be eluded by him this Eucharist or the Mass, which we evening, by any ingenious subtlety, contend to be as old as Christianity nor shrunk from by any pusillani- itself. mity. My reverend friend told us, the other evening, in rather boastful language, that he was "an undaunted son of Scotia," that he was not to be intimidated, that he was not to be appalled by any difficulty or danger in the polemical field; he seemed to exclaim-if I may use a classical allusion familiar to the ears of my learned and reverend opponent :"Talibus viris non labor ullus insolitus, non locus ullus asper aut ar duus; non armatus hostis formidolosus."-Sallust.

Such, I say, seemed, virtually, to be the exclamation of my learned antagonist-the plain English of which is, paraphrastically at least, no danger in the polemical field, no]

Now, my friends, I must inform you that the uniform answer we receive from our theological antagonists, either in places of public discussion or in private conversation, is uniformly, "Oh! it must have sprung up in some of the dark ages; I am not obliged to point out when it sprang up, but most undoubtedly it was in one of those dark ages that both the Sacrifice of the Mass and the doctrine of Transubstantiation dated their origin.” And here, before I come to illustrate and explain what we mean by the Sacrifice of the Mass, I shall beg leave to use one argument, in corroboration of the perpetuity of this Sacrifice since the days of the apos

Mr. French.]

SACRIFICE OF THE MASS.

trine of Transubstantiation and the
Sacrifice of the Mass.

them copious matter to meditate upon, as well as to reply to. It is a little tract that I wrote about a year ago, to point out, as it were by the finger, the Catholic Church. says:Addressing Protestants, it

tles, which I know will not be admitted by my Calvinistic friend, And here I hope my learned but which we always insist upon to be one of the most incontrovertible friend will excuse me, if, in the arguments-we always, as Catho- course of this argument, I enliven lies, and most unanswerably, as we this our dry discussion by reading a contend, appeal to the voice of the few verses, which I think extremely Church of God, which must be appropriate to the subject in hand; granted to be our Church, until the at all events, it will give me a greater existence in every age of some other facility in conveying my meaning to Church agreeing with Calvinism or you in the future progress of this Luther be proved-and I am sorry argumentation. I expect, as usual, that we began this discussion by some little sallies of my learned first taking Transubstantiation, and friend's wit for indulging in this then going to the Mass. It appears excursion, and wandering into the to me that we, both of us, have realms of poetry; but, though the committed an error, in not taking poetry be colloquial, the thoughts the Rule of Faith first, for I should are condensed with such solidity in there have proved to you, most un- the few lines I am about to submit equivocally, that there is a Church—to him, that I think he will find in founded by Christ-which Church all Christians are bound to obey, and that that Church can be no other but the Catholic church, because no other Church has records to show of its existence in all ages. All the churches now in existence, not excepting that of Calvin, the sainted instructor of my reverend friend, every one of them sprang up, as you well know, at the period of the Reformation, each of them maintaining that theirs is the real Catholic Church. But the great pity is, that they can give no proof to the world of their being Catholic, or persuade others to think them Catholic, much less to call them Catholic; though they say every day of their lives, I believe in the holy Catholic Church." But the Catholic church has this advantage over them all Still call'd by Catholics Transubstantiation? it is called Catholic by its friends as If ye the Church when that hard tenet rose, well as by its enemies; and the con- Why fail'd her guardians to ward off her sequence is, there is but one Catho-Dwelt in your Church the Spirit of all Truth, lic church, speaking one language, When that old dogma was in days of youth! m all ages; that is, holding one Could no librarian in your Church be found uniform system of tenets, and in- No priest, no layman, in the Christian wea), calcating those tenets regularly and To check the spreading sore, or none to b faithfully; and in the front of them Could no pure Christian in the w all, gloriously illumined, is the doc-To shed o'er dying truth one fa..

:

tized,

"Built by its founder on a lofty hill,
The Church ca.I'd Catholic is call'd so still;
The Church by which all nations were bap-
Which none who sought eternal life despised;
The Church in vain the gates of hell assail
Based on a tow'ring rock, not lowly vale,
That every nation might the eye uplift,
And recognise on high th' eternal gift.
Say, Protestants, if this the Church ye hold,
What sacred archives have your deeds en
Who were your heads in each successive age
What book can show the long-recording page.
Or what tradition, if your books should fail,
Is found to prop your legendary tale?
Where was your Church when first the Mass
Why hurl'd she not her thunders at the man
Whose tongue first broach'd that daring in-

roll'd?

began?

novation,

foes?

To stigmatize th' inflictors of the wound,-

pear,

E 2

View next those glorious Liturgies of old,
Read what those ancient monuments unfold;

What the Priest taught, what nations un-
derstood,

Was it the real body and the blood,
Or was the consecrated bread and wine
A shadowy type and unsubstantial sign?
Alas! all teach alike, Christ Jesus whole,
The Flesh, the Blood, Divinity and Soul!

Th' Eutychians still, and the Nestorians

thrive,

And flourish in the East a numerous hive;
In the fifth century, as all agree,

These dropp'd off, sunder'd from the parent

tree;

No more than you our hallow'd Church they

bless.

Yet Transubstantiation all confess;

All cry aloud to those who dare oppose,
In no dark age the sacred tenet rose;
It was no tenet gradually creeping
Into the Church when all mankind were
sleeping;

It sprang up, then, when all th' apostles

shared

interpretation, means the sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ, offered up to God on our holy altars, in an unbloody manner, by the hands of the priest; or what amounts to the same thing, an external oblation, made to God, of the body and blood of Christ, under the forms of bread and of wine." Now, my friends, it is manifest by the most ancient records of Christianity, by the unanswerable and undeniable testimony of the fathers, ever since the times of the apostles, by the ancient liturgies of all nations, Latins, Greeks, Nestorians, Eutychians, Armenians, Ethiopians, and Copts, and even by the confession of Protestants themselves, for which I refer you to the learned Dr. Field, (book iii. chap. 19,) it is affirmed by all these that the holy Eucharist always has been used in the Church of God, not only as a Sacrament, but also as a Sacrifice, instituted by Christ at his last Supper, for proof of which from the ancient Greek and Latin fathers I refer my respected friend to the ancient Greek and Latin fathers, St. Justin and St. Irenæus, of the second age. St. Chrysostom and St. Augustine, speaking of the words of the prophet Malachi, refer them to this service; and one of the most remarkable proofs of the doctrine But before I enter on the Sacri- of the Mass is, that almost all the fice of the Mass, that is, to explain fathers of the Church appeal to the to you what it is, it may not be very same text of the ancient Bible unseasonable to mention that the to prove that grand sacrifice which whole Greek schismatic Church, constitutes the pride and consolation which separated from us in the year of the Catholic:-the words of the 890, as well as the numerous Greek prophet are, From the rising of the Catholics in existence, and who per- sun to the going down of the same, my form the Sacrifice of the Mass in name shall be great among the Genthe Greek language, likewise agree, tiles, and in every place sacrifice shall with all Roman Catholics in the be offered unto my name and a clean universe, in declaring that they oblation;" and, for further proof of received the sacred dogma from the it, they allude to these words of the hands of the apostles. The word Psalmist :- "Thou art a priest for Mass, according to our Catholic | ever, according to the order of Melchi

What Christ his body and his blood declared." I have entered into the regions of poetry on this occasion, my friends, for no other purpose than that of placing before you, in very concise and pithy language, very momentous matter-matter which would take many diffuse sentences in prose to express clearly; whereas, here you have it impressed upon your memories, in a very compact mode, by the help of a few rhymes, which I hope will long tingle in your ears. Another advantage is, that it will sink more deeply into the mind of the learned gentleman, so 'that he will be able to grapple with me in a firmer manner.

In the year of our Lord 440, (the words are very remarkable,) St. Leo says:—

sedeck." Psalm ix. 4. It is quoted | continued to discharge my duty and by St. Cyprian, in the third age; by began to say Mass."-Lib. ii. epist. St. Jerome, St. Epiphanius, and St. 14. Classes, t. xi. p. 853. Augustine in the fourth; by St. Isidore, and St. Cyril of Alexandria, in the fifth. All these have quoted the very same passage in proof of "In order that the discipline of the Sacrifice of the Mass, or, as our churches may in all things agree, they argue, "the priest, according this should be observed-that when to the order of Aaron, sacrificed a more solemn feast calls the people beasts; but the Sacrifice of Melchi- together, and more assemble togesedeck was bread and wine, as we ther than the church can contain, see by referring to Genesis iv. 18. the offering of the sacrifice ought to St. Cyprian calls the blessed Eu- be repeated, lest any be deprived of charist " a free and full sacrifice." it; for both religion and reason St. Cyprian, as you well know, demand that the sacrifice should be lived in the third century. St. so often repeated as there are people Augustine calls it "a free and to partake; otherwise, if the custom sovereign sacrifice.”—De Civit. Dei, of one Mass be followed, they who book x. chap. 20. Eusebius calls cannot find place must be deprived it "an expiation." St. Cyril of of the sacrifice. We, therefore, Jerusalem, "a spiritual sacrifice, anxiously exhort you, that you do an unbloody worship, a propitiatory not neglect, but join with us as in sacrifice," in his Mystic Catechism, faith, so in practice, to observe a chap. x. But there needs no other rule that by tradition has come proof to substantiate this but down to us.' St. Leo, Ep. ii.

what the Church of England itself teaches; for if "the body and blood of Christ be verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful," and consecrated by the priest, it must necessarily follow that they offer them up verily and indeed on the altar, and that they are an oblation of mercy; or how can Christ be acceptable to his Father, or how can the virtues of his passion be applied more effectually than in his own very Self. My learned friend will, no doubt, insinuate, after the Protestant fashion, that the Mass was an invention of after ages; but, my Protestant brethren, I am sure you will agree with me, that scarcely one of you ever suspected that we could prove, by authentic records, that 1,400 years ago it went under the same appellation as it does now--namely, the sacrifice of the Mass. St. Ambrose, in the fourth century, writes thus:-"I

71, ad Divc. Alex. p. 437. Parisiis, 1675.

Here, then, we have the Sacrifice of the Eucharist plainly spoken of, first, by St. Ambrose in the fourth century, and, secondly, by St. Leo, who lived in the fifth. But we must mount a little higher than St. Ambrose and St. Leo in our investigations, for we Catholics are not content with the testimony of the fourth century: we can go muel: higher. First of all, we will mount to the year 254, and hear from Pope Cornelius, another account, written in the year 256, who remarks, that,

66

on account of the persecution of the Christians, they could not publicly celebrate Mass."-Concil. Gener. t. i. p. 576.

The words are, neque agere missas licet, which is good Latin for saying Mass to this day.

And now, my friends, we must mount up a little higher still, in