THE

PRESBYTERIAN REVIEW.

OCTOBER 1843.

No. LXII.

ART. I.-The Scottish Prelatic Communion Office.

(Continued from page 226.)

II. In the second place, let us, as we have purposed, prove that the Scottish Prelatic communion office professes to offer a sort of propitiatory sacrifice, which is efficacious both for the living and the dead; and in doing so let us also compare that office with the missal and other liturgies.

The following are the principal clauses in the canon of the mass in which a propitiatory sacrifice is supposed to be offered: 'We humbly pray and beseech thee, most merciful Father, through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, that thou wouldst vouchsafe to accept and bless these gifts, these presents, these holy, and unspotted sacrifices which we offer thee, &c.' We beseech thee, O Lord, ciously to accept this oblation of our servitude, as also of thy whole family, and to dispose our days in thy peace; preserve us from damnation, and rank us in the number of thine elect: Through Christ our Lord. Amen.'

These prayers are presented before transubstantiation is supposed to have taken place. After that change has been effected, the priest kneeling, and elevating the host, (or victim as the word means) prays, or offers thus, O Lord we offer unto

VOL. XVI. NO. III.

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thy most excellent Majesty, of thy gifts bestowed upon us, a pure host (or victim), a holy host, an unspotted host, the holy bread of eternal life, and the chalice of eternal salvation: Upon which vouchsafe to look with a propitious and serene countenance, and to accept them as thou wert most graciously pleased to accept the gifts of thy justservant Abel, and the sacrifice of our patriarch Abraham, and that which thy High Priest Melchisedeck offered to thee a holy sacrifice, an unspotted host.' Such is the form in which the Church of Rome offers her pretended sacrifice in the mass.

We need not give the prayers of oblation in the first office of Edward VI., or in that of Laud, which slightly differ from the above, as we have not space to make any particular remarks upon them. We come then at once to the Non-jurors' office. In this office, after the prayer which contains the words of institution (This is my body, &c.'), has been said, the priest is directed to present another prayer in which the following clause occurs, We offer to thee, our King and our God, according to His (Christ's) holy institution, this bread and this cup, giving thanks to thee through him that thou hast vouchsafed us the honour to stand before thee, and to sacrifice unto thee; and we beseech thee to look favourably upon these thy gifts, which are here set before thee, O thou self-sufficient God, and do thou accept them to the honour of thy Christ.' The prayer of invocation,' in which, as we have seen, the transubstantiating power is supposed to reside, is then presented. The elements, being now transubstantiated, are offered to God as a propitiatory sacrifice in an express prayer appointed for the purpose, from which we extract merely a few words as a sample of the whole : We humbly beseech thee to accept these our oblations, and to receive these our prayers, which we offer unto thy divine majesty, beseeching thee, &c.; and then follow prayers and thanksgivings, both for the living and the dead.

Although we are compelled from want of room to give but a most meagre sample of these prayers and rites, and thus weaken much the impression which a perusal of the whole office would produce upon our readers, yet, to afford the more space for what is to follow, we proceed, without further remark, to the Scottish communion office.

In this office there are various acts of sacrifice, or, we should perhaps rather say, various acts that go to constitute a complete sacrifice. Towards the commencement of the office, the priest, or his attendant deacon, asks the people to contribute of their possessions in the following terms: Let us present our offerings to the Lord with reverence and godly fear; and while the people are contributing, a rubric directs the priest to begin the offertory." When the devotions and oblations of the people,' as their alms

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thy most excellent Majesty, of thy gifts bestowed upon us, a pure host (or victim), a holy host, an unspotted host, the holy bread of eternal life, and the chalice of eternal salvation: Upon which vouchsafe to look with a propitious and serene countenance, and to accept them as thou wert most graciously pleased to accept the gifts of thy justservant Abel, and the sacrifice of our patriarch Abraham, and that which thy High Priest Melchisedeck offered to thee a holy sacrifice, an unspotted host.' Such is the form in which the Church of Rome offers her pretended sacrifice in the mass.

We need not give the prayers of oblation in the first office of Edward VI., or in that of Laud, which slightly differ from the above, as we have not space to make any particular remarks upon them. We come then at once to the Non-jurors' office. In this office, after the prayer which contains the words of institution (This is my body, &c.'), has been said, the priest is directed to present another prayer in which the following clause occurs, We offer to thee, our King and our God, according to His (Christ's) holy institution, this bread and this cup, giving thanks to thee through him that thou hast vouchsafed us the honour to stand before thee, and to sacrifice unto thee; and we beseech thee to look favourably upon these thy gifts, which are here set before thee, 0 thou self-sufficient God, and do thou accept them to the honour of thy Christ.' The prayer of invocation,' in which, as we have seen, the transubstantiating power is supposed to reside, is then presented. The elements, being now transubstantiated, are offered to God as a propitiatory sacrifice in an express prayer appointed for the purpose, from which we extract merely a few words as a sample of the whole : We humbly beseech thee to accept these our oblations, and to receive these our prayers, which we offer unto thy divine majesty, beseeching thee, &c.; and then follow prayers and thanksgivings, both for the living and the dead.

Although we are compelled from want of room to give but a most meagre sample of these prayers and rites, and thus weaken much the impression which a perusal of the whole office would produce upon our readers, yet, to afford the more space for what is to follow, we proceed, without further remark, to the Scottish communion office.

In this office there are various acts of sacrifice, or, we should perhaps rather say, various acts that go to constitute a complete sacrifice. Towards the commencement of the office, the priest, or his attendant deacon, asks the people to contribute of their possessions in the following terms: Let us present our offerings to the Lord with reverence and godly fear; and while the people are contributing, a rubric directs the priest to begin the offertory.' When the devotions and oblations of the people,' as their alms

are termed, have been handed to the priest standing within the rails of the altar, he is directed humbly to present them before the Lord, and to set them,' of course as a sacrifice of thanksgiving, upon the holy altar. The bread and wine for the communion are at this time, not on the altar, for a reason that will immediately appear, but on a little bracket or side table not far from the altar. Up till this time the intended elements were mere common bread and wine, and would of course profane the altar were they placed upon it. But the time has now arrived for impressing upon them both the sacramental and the sacrificial character, and in order that this may be done, but, at the same time, that the altar may not be polluted by the touch of any thing common or unclean, a rubric directs that the priest shall then offer up, and place the bread and wine' upon the altar.

The meaning of this mystical act, according to Mr Skinner,† is, that the priest in placing the bread and wine on the table, offers them solemnly to God, as an acknowledgment of his sovereignty over his creatures, and that they may henceforth become properly and peculiarly his.' 'After which he receives them, as it were, from Him again, in order to convert them into the sacred banquet of the body and blood of his dear Son.' In the ancient Church the bread and wine were presented publicly in church by the intended communicants, and, from the store thus provided, the priests selected such portions as might be necessary for the sacramental elements, and, in imitation of the Mosaic thank-offerings, or peace-offerings of the fruits of the earth, they were presented before God on the altar.

Everything being now ready, the priest standing so as to front the altar, and with his back of course to the people, begins the prayer of consecration thus: All glory be to thee, Almighty God our Heavenly Father, for that thou, of thy tender mercy, didst give thy only Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption (who by his own oblation of himself once offered),‡ made a full, perfect, and complete sacrifice, oblation, and satisfac

Scotch Com. Off. Illustr. p. 102. In a note Mr Skinner informs us that in all chapels where the Scotch communion office is used, the side table (or prothesis, as it is termed in the Greek Church) makes a part of the altar furniture.

+ Ut supra, pp. 102–105; and we have seen his father say the same thing.

In all the offices, not even Laud's, nor the first of Edward excepted, these words are given thus, who by his one oblation once offered,' which clearly imply that there is but one sacrifice of Christ, and that that sacrifice was but once offered, and that by himself. Here, however, the words are, who by his own, &c.' which just as clearly imply that, although Christ himself offered that oblation of himself but once, it is not at all to be inferred but that others may offer it often. It may be remarked that neither the canon of the mass, nor the Non-jurors' office contains any perversion of this clause. It is confined to the Scottish communion office.