A SERMON

PREACHED AT THE

FUNERAL OF THE RIGHT REVEREND FATHER IN GOD,

LANCELOT,

LATE LORD BISHOP OF WINCHESTER.

HEB. xiii. 16.

To do good and to distribute forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

[Beneficentiæ autem et communionis nolite oblivisci; talibus enim hostiis promeretur Deus. Lat. Vulg.]

[But to do good and communicate forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Eng. Trans.]

In the tenth verse the Apostle saith, "We have an altar, of which they have no right to eat that serve the tabernacle.” Habemus altare, "We have," that is, Christians. So it is proprium Christianorum, 'proper to Christians,' not common to the Jews together with Christians; they have no right to communicate and eat there, that "serve the tabernacle." And yet it is commune altare, a common altar' to all Christians, they have all right to eat there. And so it is externum altare, not only a spiritual altar in the heart of every Christian-then St. Paul should have said habeo, or habet unusquisque, I have,' and 'every Christian hath in private to himself— but "We have an altar," that is, all Christians have; and it must be external, else all Christians cannot have it.

Our Head, Christ, offered His sacrifice of Himself upon the cross; Crux altare Christi; and 'the cross of Christ was the altar' of our Head, where He offered the unicum, verum, et proprium sacrificium, 'the only, true, proper sacrifice, propitiatory' for the sins of mankind, in which all other sacrifices are accepted, and applicatory of this propitiation.

FUNERAL

5.

SERM.

1. The only sacrifice, one in itself, and once only offered, that purchased eternal redemption; and if the redemption be eternal what need is there that it should be offered more than once, when once is all-sufficient?

2. And the true sacrifice. All other are but types and representations of this sacrifice; this only hath power to appease God's wrath, and make all other sacrificers and sacrifices acceptable.

[Heb. 10. 3. And the proper sacrifice: as the Psalm saith, Corpus Ps. 40. 6.] aptasti Mihi, "Thou hast fitted Me with a body;" the Deity assumed the humanity, that It might accipere a nobis quod of ferret pro nobis; being the Deity could not offer nor be offered to Itself, IIe took flesh of ours that He might offer for us.

Now as Christ's cross was His altar where He offered Himself for us, so the Church hath an altar also, where it offereth itself; not Christum in Capite, but Christum in membris, not Christ the Head' properly but only by commemoration, but Christ the members. For Christ cannot be offered truly and properly no more but once upon the cross, for He cannot be offered again no more than He can be dead again; and dying and shedding blood as He did upon the cross, and not dying and not shedding blood as in the Eucharist, cannot be one action of Christ offered on the cross, and of Christ offered in the Church at the altar by the priest by representation only, no more than Christ and the Priest are one person and therefore, though in the cross and the Eucharist. there be idem sacrificatum, 'the same sacrificed thing,' that is, the body and blood of Christ offered by Christ to His Father on the cross, and received and participated by the communicants in the sacrifice of the altar; yet idem sacrificium quoad actionem sacrificii, or sacrificandi, 'it is impossible there should be the same sacrifice, understanding by sacrifice the action of sacrifice. For then the action of Christ's sacrifice, which is long since past, should continue as long as the Eucharist shall endure, even unto the world's end, and His consummatum est is not yet finished; and dying and not dying, shedding of blood and not shedding of blood, and suffering and not suf fering, cannot possibly be one action; and the representation of an action cannot be the action itself.

And this conceit was unknown to antiquity. All the

Faustum,

Hom.

Fathers held it a sacrifice, only because it is a representation or commemoration of the true sacrifice of Christ upon the cross, even as our Saviour commanded, "Do this in remem- [Lu. 22. 19. ] brance of Me." St. Augustine saith, Hujus sacrificii caro et Contra sanguis, ante adventum Christi, per victimas similitudinum pro- lib. 20. 21. mittebatur; in passione Christi, per ipsam veritatem reddebatur ; post ascensum Christi, per sacramentum memoriæ celebratur, &c. And St. Chrysostom, Hoc est exemplar illius, &c. And Ad Hebr. Thomas Aquinas, giving the reason of the divers names given to this sacrament, saith that it hath a triple signification. 1. Respectu præteriti, one in respect of the time past,' inasmuch as it is commemorative of the Lord's passion, which is called a true sacrifice; and according to this it is called a sacrifice. 2. Respectu presentis, in respect of the present,' that is, of the unity of the Church, unto which men are gathered by this sacrament, and according to this it is named a communion, or synaxis, because by it we communicate with Christ, and are partakers of His Flesh and Deity. 3. Respectu futuri, 'in respect of that which is to come,' inasmuch as this sacrament is prefigurative of the fruition of God, which shall be in heaven; and accordingly it is called viaticum, because it here furnisheth us in the way that leads us thither. Again, it is called the Eucharist, that is, bona gratia, 'the good grace,' because "eternal life is the grace of God;" or else, because it Rom. 6.23. really contains Christ, Who is full of grace. It is also called metalepsis or assumptio, because by it we assume the Deity of the Son. All this, Part III. Q. lxxiii. Art. 4. In corpore. And in his answer ad tertiam he addeth, That this sacrament is called a sacrifice inasmuch as it doth represent the passion of Christ; it is likewise called hostia, an host,' inasmuch as it containeth Christ Himself, Who is Hostia salutaris.

Here is a representative, or commemorative, and participated sacrifice of the passion of Christ, the true sacrifice, that is past; and here is an eucharistical sacrifice; but for any external proper sacrifice, especially as sacrifice doth signify the action. of sacrificing, here is not one word. And therefore this is a new conceit of latter men, since Thomas' time, unknown to him, and a mere novelism. And the cure is as bad as the disease; though Thomas gives no other reasons why it is called a sacrifice, yet say they, Thomas denicth it not. For

Eph. 5. 2.

SERM.

FUNERAL that is plainly to confess that this is but a patch added to antiquity. And yet when he saith it is a representative or commemorative sacrifice, respectu præteriti, in respect of that which is past,' that is, the passion of Christ which was the true sacrifice, he doth deny by consequent that it is the true sacrifice itself which is past. And if Christ be sacrificed daily in the Eucharist, according to the action of sacrifice, and it be one and the same sacrifice offered by Christ on the cross and the priest at the altar, then can it not be a representation of that sacrifice which is past, because it is one and the same sacrifice and action present.

66

Therefore St. Paul proceeds in the fifteenth verse: "By IIim therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name." Let us offer up to God." Christians then have an offering. And, "let us offer up to God continually:" this is the ground of the daily sacrifice of Christians, that answereth to the daily sacrifice of the Jews. And this sacrifice of praise and thanks may well be understood the Eucharist, in which we chiefly praise and thank God for this His chief and great blessing of our redemption. And this and all other sacrifices of the Church, external or spiritual, must be offered up and accepted per Ipsum, in, by, and through Christ. St. Paul saith not, Ipsum offeramus, 'Let us offer Him,' that is, Christ; but, "Let us offer and sacrifice" per Ipsum, "by Him,” in Whom only we and our sacrifices are accepted. And Romans the [Rom. 12. twelfth, Offerte corpora, "Offer your bodies living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." It is not corpora sine animis, not 'bodies without souls,' for in them without souls there is no life, no holiness, no accepting; and this is man's "reasonable service," all else is without reason. And St. Peter-the first Pope, as they reckon him, 1 Peter 2. who I am assured had infallibility-saith, "Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God," per Jesum Christum, "by Jesus Christ." And St. James tells us that to this end God "begat us by His word of truth," that we might be primitia creaturarum; not offer to God the first-fruits of our fields or cattle, but that we might offer up ourselves as "first-fruits" to God. So all the offerings of the Church are the

1.]

James I. 18.