same Christ is contained and sacrificed without bloodshed, who once offered himself up by a bloody death upon the altar of the Cross ;" and remarks "that such sacrifice is really propitiatory; and by means thereof, if we, being humble and penitent, come unto God with a true heart, a right faith, with fear and reverence, we shall obtain mercy and find favour in him seasonably helping; because by the oblation thereof, the appeased God, granting grace and the gift of penitence, remits crimes, nay, even grievous sins; for it is one and the same host and oblation, the same person now offering himself in the ministry of the Priests, that then offered himself up upon the Cross, the manner only of the offering being different."* To this doctrine it may be sufficient to reply, that "the Scripture, when it extols the perfection and infinite value of Christ's sacrifice, doth infer from it, that there needed. not therefore any repetition of it. But if the same Christ. is offered in the Mass, as was on the Cross, and that unbloody sacrifice is alike propitiatory as the bloody, there is then a repetition of the same sacrifice, and he is daily offeredt." The following are some of the passages of Scripture which support this reasoning, and prove the doctrine utterly unscriptural: (Heb. ix. 26, 27:) "Such an High Priest became us, who needeth not daily, as those High Priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did once when he offered up himself:" (ix. 22-28 :) "Without shedding of blood is no remission:" "Nor yet that he should offer himself often; for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world; but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself:" "Christ was once offered.” (See also x. 814.) 7. The celibacy of the Clergy.-By the Council of Lateran it is ordained, "That those who are married shall not be admitted into holy orders; that those that are ad monies attendant on the consecration of the Eucharist. It most probably obtained this designation from the form of words Ite missa est, regularly used at the dismissal of the catechumens, previous to the celebration of the Eucharist. → Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent: Sess. 22. pp. 97, 98. Wesley's Works, xv. 165. mitted shall not be allowed to marry; and that those who being admitted do marry, shall be separated." And the Council of Trent decreed, "That if any one shall say, the Clergymen in orders, or professed regulars, may marry, and their marriage be valid, notwithstanding any ecclesiastical law or vow, and that the contrary is nothing else but a condemning of matrimony; and that all those who find they have not the gift of chastity, although they have vowed it, may marry; he shall be accursed." To this doctrine of the Romish church it has been well replied, that "the Apostle on the contrary, says, 'Marriage is honourable in all;' (Heb. xiii. 4;) and accuses those who forbid to marry, of teaching the doctrine of devils.' How lawful it was for the Clergy to marry, his directions concerning it show. (1 Tim. iv 1-3.) And how convenient, yea, necessary, in many cases it is, clearly appears from the innumerable mischiefs which have in all ages followed the prohibition of it in the church of Rome; which so many wise and good men, even of her own communion, have lamented."* We have now glanced at the grounds on which the Romanists build their hopes of demonstrating that the Church. of Rome is the only true Church, and shown that the claims to Unity, Sanctity, Catholicity, and Apostolicity, are utterly unsupported and unscriptural; and consequently, that her imperious assumption of exclusive salvation is destitute of proof, and only marks the inquisitorial and uncharitable character of the system itself. * Wesley's Works, Vol. XV. p. 193. Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, p. 122. |