Instructions for Hearing Mass.
WHAT THE MASS IS, AND FOR WHAT END IT IS TO BE OFFERED.
ROM the beginning of the world the servants of God were always accustomed to offer Sacrifice to Him, by way of acknowledging His sovereignty and paying their homage to Him; and in all ancient religions, true or false, this worship of Sacrifice was always regarded as a most solemn act of religion, due to the Deity worshipped.
In the law of nature, and in the law of Moses, there was a great variety of Sacrifices: some bloody, in which the victim was slain; others unbloody. Some were called Holocausts, or whole burnt-offerings, in which the whole host or victim was consumed in fire upon God's altar, for His honor and glory; others were called Sin-offerings, which were offered for sins; others were offerings of Thanksgivings; others were pacific or Peace-offerings, which were offered for obtaining favors of God—the word "peace" in the Scripture style signifying all manner of good and prosperity.
All these Sacrifices of the law of nature, and of the law of Moses, were of themselves but weak and needy elements (Gal. iv. 9), and only figures of a Sacrifice to come, viz., that of Jesus Christ; in consideration of which Sacrifice only, and of the faith of the offerers, by which they believed in the Redeemer to come, those ancient Sacrifices were then accepted by the Divine Majesty,84
