to his Father his body and blood, under the appearances of bread and wine; and, under those appearances, delivered the same to his Apostles, whom, at the time, he appointed the Priests of the New Testament. To them, and to their successors in the Priesthood, he gave command to offer the same, saying: Do this for a commemoration of me. (Luke xxii.) So the Catholic Church has always understood and taught. This is the clean offering which the prophet Malachy foretold should be offered in every place. This the offering which was prefigured by the various typical sacrifices of the law and of nature, comprising whatever good things they signified, consummating and perfecting all.” Sess. xxii. c. 1, p. 189.-“And because in this divine Sacrifice, which is performed in the Mass, the same Christ is contained, and offered in an unbloody manner, who, on the altar of the cross, offered himself in a bloody manner—the holy Synod teaches, that this Sacrifice is truly propitiatory, and that, by it, to the sincerely penitent, the sins we commit, however enormous they be, are remitted. For it is one and the same victim; the same Christ now offering himself by the ministry of the Priest, who offered himself on the cross; the difference being only in the manner of offering. By this offering, then, the fruits of that bloody offering are most plentifully received: so far is it from truth, that hereby the least part is derogated from it.[1] Wherefore, according
- ↑ I subjoin, on this important point, the Exposition of our great Bossuet: “ The Church is so far from believing, that any thing is wanting to the sacrifice of the cross, that she deems it, on the contrary, so perfectly and so fully sufficient, that whatever is afterwards added, has been instituted to celebrate its memory, and to apply its virtue. We acknowledge, that all the merit of the redemption of mankind is derived from the death of the son of God: when, therefore, in the celebration of the divine mysteries, we say: “We offer to thee this holy victim ; we pretend not, by this oblation, to make or to present to God a new payment of the price of our salvation; but to offer to him, in our behalf, the merits of Jesus Christ present, and that infinite price which he once paid for us upon the cross. Exposition de la Doctrine Cathol. Sect. xiv. p. 168, Edit. Bruxelles, 1751.
