aware that certain Churches have ordained, for the sake of decency, that the priest should have the help of an acolyte, though not necessarily for communion, but at the same time have asserted that, even without his aid, the Sacrament might be effectually celebrated.

And this is what we would contend for in our own Church of England-the same liberty that is accorded to his brethren in other communions is tacitly allowed to the English priest, without let or hindrance from any known rubric or canon, and has ever been accorded to him from the first settlement of Christianity among the Anglo-Saxons; that is, that he may celebrate the Divine Liturgy, in accordance with the Divine command, on any and every day, without the aid of a second or third person to assist or communicate with him.

Having disposed of some popular arguments against this Catholic custom, I shall defer to another chapter the explanation and proof that this is the chief and particular work of a priest in God's Church, viz. to offer up the holy, all-prevailing, and propitiatory sacrifice of Christ's precious Body and Blood.

PART II.

OUR PRIESTS, THEIR PECULIAR WORK, AND THE CHURCH'S METHOD OF RECRUITING FOR THE PRIESTHOOD.

CHAPTER V.

THE OFFERING OF THE HOLY SACRIFICE THE PARTICULAR WORK OF A PRIEST; PROOFS AFFORDED BY HOLY WRIT, AND BY EXAMPLES OF CHRIST AND HIS APOSTLES.

"That they may offer an offering in righteousness.”—MAL. i. 11; iii. 3.

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Continuing daily in breaking bread," etc.-ACTs ii. 42, 46.
We will give ourselves continually to prayer," etc.—ACTs vi. 4.

I PROPOSE to examine this question by the word and example of Christ Himself, as afforded us in Holy Scripture, by that of the holy Apostles, and by the example afforded us in the Old Testament, viz. that the particular and chief work of a priest is to offer the holy Eucharistic sacrifice.

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Our Lord Himself is described to us as the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world." Does this not shew to us the peculiar work and office of Him who is both Priest and Victim? And as was foreshadowed under the Old Dispensation, so afterwards our Lord fulfilled His vocation by at the same time surrendering Himself as our expiatory Sacrifice and officiating Priest for His people. And as He began His work on earth, so He continues to shew forth that one sacrifice once offered on earth now in the courts of Heaven, where He ever liveth to intercede

for us as our great High Priest. In this character He vouchsafed to appear to His Apostle, S. John, in Patmos, clothed in His sacerdotal vestments, and nothing is clearer than the description given us of the great golden altar before the throne of God in high Heaven.

An altar in Heaven would not exist without there had been something to offer, and one who should have authority to offer that offering. And this we find to be none other than Christ, and the offering is the incense of His own inestimable merits, as set forth by His once dying, and the marks of that death manifested in His glorious Body, together with the prayers of all saints. But our Lord, before He left earth, ordained certain others who should "continually" set forth that same death, and offer that unbloody sacrifice which He Himself now continues to offer for us in Heaven. It was to this end we know that He instituted the most holy Sacrament of His Body and Blood, and gave authority to His sacred ministers to celebrate this mystery by His injunction, "Do this in remembrance of Me."

But, before proceeding, I should like to remark, as within parentheses, that we are aware our Lord is represented to us more especially in His threefold character as Priest, Prophet, and King. And so in some respects His sacred ministers of course, in a much lower degree and by His deputed authorityalso exercise the duties of these same offices as His representatives. But I would submit that the offices. of prophet and king would, in the case of His ministers, be only subsidiary to that of a sacrificing priest, or sacerdos, whose duties are pre-eminently to offer the