part of the Canon and the words of consecration are uttered in a low voice, is to be condemned; or that the Mass ought to be cele brated only in the vulgar tongue : let him be accursed." in such a tongue as the people understandeth. "It is a thing plainly repugnant to the word of God, and the custom of the Primitive Church, to have publick Prayer in the Church, or to minister the Sacraments, in a tongue not understanded of the people." But, as there is no more favourite doctrine of the Church of Rome, so is there none on which the Church of England animadverts with more severity, than that which converts the holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper into a true and proper sacrifice; as if the real and proper body and blood of our Saviour Christ, once offered on the cross, were again offered to God at every celebration of the Eucharist; and as if a propitiatory offering were thus again and again made to God for the dead as well as for the living. The decision of the Church of Rome in favour of this most important doctrine is contained in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th canons of the twenty-second Session of the Council of Trent; and that of the Church of England in reprobation of it in her 31st Article; after the following manner: THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS, as cording to the Church of Rome. "Canon 1. If any one shall say, that in the Mass there is not offered to God a true and proper sacrifice; or that the offering is nothing else than that Christ is given us to eat: let him be accursed. 2. If any one shall say, that by these words, Do this in remembrance of me,' Christ did not constitute his apostles priests; or did not ordain that they and other THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS, according to the Church of England. "Of the One Oblation of Christ finished on the cross. "The offering of Christ once made is that perfect redemption. propitiation, and satisfaction, for all the sins of the whole world, both original and actual; and there is none other satisfaction for sin, but that alone. Wherefore the sacrifices of Masses, in the which it was priests should offer his body and blood: let him be accursed. 3. "If any one shall say that the sacrifice of the Mass is only a service of praise and thanksgiving, or a bare commemoration of the sacrifice made upon the Cross, but not a propitiatory offering; or that it is profitable to the receiver alone; and that it ought not to be offered for the living and the dead, for sins, punishmeats, satisfactions, and other necessities: let him be accursed. 4. "If any one shall say, that the most holy sacrifice of Christ, made upon the cross, is blasphemed by the sacrifice of the Mass; or that the latter derogates from the former let him be accursed." commonly said, 'that the priest did offer Christ for the quick and the dead, to have remission of pain or guilt, were blasphemous fables, aud dangerous deceits." [Note. This language of our Reformers may possibly to some persons appear strong; but being strongly impressed with a sense of the true character of this fundamental doctrine of the Romish Church, of its origin in fiction, of its injuriousness to the honour of their Saviour, and of its dangerous deceitfulness, by giving the people a false method and false hopes of pardon, they delivered their judg ment accordingly.] Nor must I omit to mention specifically those solitary masses performed by the priest alone, which are included in the condemnatory sentence of the Church of England, last cited from her 31st Article, and are guarded against in practice by her Rubrick at the end of her Communion service; but which are commended and approved by the Church of Rome; and of which the disapprovers are laid under the usual sentence of anathema, by the 6th Chapter of the Decree, and the 8th canon of the Tridentine Council, at its twenty-second Session. SOLITARY MASSES, according | SOLITARY COMMUNION, according to the to the Church of Rome. Church of England. "There shall be no celebration of the Lord's Supper, exeept there be a convenient number to communicate with the priest, according to his discretion. "And if there be not above twenty persons in the parish of discretion to receive the communion, yet there shall be no communion, except four (or three also in the sacramental re ceiving of the Eucharist, so that more abundant benefit might be derived to them from this most holy sacrifice. But, although this be not always done, the Synod nevertheless does not therefore condemn, as private and unlawful, those Masses in which the priest alone sacramentally communicates, but she approves and conmends them. Seeing that those Masses also ought to be deemed truly common: partly because the people spiritually communicates in them; and partly because they are celebrated by the publick minister of the church, not for himself only, but for all the faithful who belong to the body of Christ." "Can. 8. If any one shall say, that Masses, in which the priest alone sacramentally communicates, are unlawful, and therefore to be abolished: let him be accursed." at the least) communicate with the priest.". "if the sick person be not able to come to the church, and yet is desirous to receive the communion in his house; then he must give timely notice to the Curate, signifying also how many there are to communicate with him, which shall be three or two at the least" "But if a man, either by reason of or for lack of company to receive with him, or by any other just impediment, do not receive the sacrament of Christ's body and blood, the Curate shall instruct him, that if he do truly repent him of his sins, and steadfastly believe that Jesus Christ hath suffered death upon the cross for him, and shed his Blood for his redemption, earnestly remembering the benefits he hath thereby, and giving him hearty thanks therefore, he doth eat and drink the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ profitably to his soul's health, although he doth not receive the sacrament with his mouth." "In.. contagious times of sickness and disease, when none of the parish or neighbours can be gotten to communicate with the sick in their houses, for fear of the infection, upon special request of the diseased the Minister may only communicate with him." Such are specimens of those tares, with which the Church of Rome has overlaid, stifled, and superseded the good seed of God's holy word: which the Church of England has set herself to root out and cast away; and which may assist us in judging of the agreement of the two Churches, so far as regards the fundamental doctrines and instructions of the gospel, in connexion with the holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. But other docrines still remain, not less striking or fundamental than those which have preceded, and worthy of attention, in order to a just estimate of the agreement between the two Churches. " Notice was just now taken of their disagreement concerning the number of the sacraments, which the Church of England limits to two only, pronouncing that "those five commonly called sacraments, that is to say, Confirmation, Penance, Orders, Matrimony, and Extreme Unction, are not to be counted for sacraments of the gospel; whereas the Church of Rome anathematises any one who shall say of either of these, "that it is not truly and properly a sacrament." Upon four of these it is not my purpose to detain the reader: but it appears desirable that some remarks should be here introduced on the so called sacrament of "Penance," as comprising the two important articles of Confession and Absolution, which are an ample source of disagreement. And here it may be convenient to notice, in the first place, the sentiments of the two Churches, generally, as to the private Confession of sins to a priest, which is an indispensable act of religious discipline in the Church of Rome, being in fact one of the ingredients of her so called sacrament of penance, but of which, as practised by the Church of Rome, there is no acknowledgment in the Church of England. A full view of the subject, as entertained by the Romish Church, is given in the decrees and canons of the fourteenth Session of the Tridentine Council: it will be sufficient for our purpose, if we confine ourselves to the annexed extracts from the canous. The only specifick mention, made by the Church of England, of private "confession of sins" is contained implicitly, in her 25th Article “Of the Sacraments," and explicitly, in her "Order for the Visitation of the Sick," in the passages which I annex in the parallel column; and having cited the passages, I purpose to invite the reader's attention to two or three remarks upon them. PRIVATE CONFESSION OF SINS, according to the Church of Rome. "Can. 1. If any one shall say, that penance in the Catholick Church is not truly and properly a sacrament, instituted by Christ our Lord, for reconciling the faithful to God, as often as they fall into sin after baptism: let him be accursed. "Can. 4. If any one shall deny, that for the entire and perfect remission of sins there are required three acts in the penitent, being, as it were, the matter of the sacrament of penance, namely, Contrition, Confession, and Satisfaction, which are called the three parts of penance: ...... let him be accursed. "Can. 6. If any one shall deny, that sacramental confession was either instituted, or is necessary to salvation, by the divine law; or shall say, that the method, which the Catholick Church from the beginning has always observed and does observe, of secretly confessing to the priest alone, is foreign from the institution and command of Christ, and is a human invention: let him be accursed. "Can. 7. If any one shall say, that in the sacrament of penance it is not by the divine law necessary for the remission of sins. to confess all and singular mortal sins, the memory of which may be had on due and diligent premeditation, even secret ones, and those which are against the two last commandments of the decalogue, and the circumstances which change the appearance of the sin; but that such confession is only useful for instructing and consoling the penitent, and was formerly observed only for imposing canonical satisfaction; or shall say that they, who study to confess all their sins, are willing to leave nothing to be pardoned by the divine mercy; or, finally, that it is not lawful to confess venial sins: let him be accursed. "Can. 8. If any one shall say, that Confession of all sins, such as the Church preserves, is impossible, and a human tradition, to be abolished by the pious: or that all and singular the faithful of Christ of each sex are not bound to observe it, according to the constitution of the great council of Lateran, once a PRIVATE CONFES- monly called sa- "Visitation of the Sick. "Here shall the sick person be moved to make a special confession of his sins, if he feel his conscience troubled with any weighty matter." "Catechism. "How many sacraments haih |