The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

THE CUP WITHHELD. 323is only one priest in the universe ; there never was, andthere never will be, any other ;for the circumstances of ourworld render it impossible that priesthood, in the true senseof the term, should be borne by any mere creature. Thepriests of the former economy were but types and figures.And as there is but one priest, so there is but one sacrifice.The sacrifices of the Mosaic dispensation were typical, likethe priests; and now both are for ever at an end.Accordingly,in the New Testament, the term priest does not onceoccur, save in relation to a priesthood now abolished. Theclaim of priesthood, then, is sacrilegious and blasphemous,and the man who makes it is inferior in guilt only to theman who lays claim to Deity.There are several practices connected with the celebrationof the mass, which our limits may permit us to indicate, butforbid us to dwell upon. The Council of Trent, which wasthe first to decree that the mass is a true propitiatory sacrifice,also enacted that the cup should be denied to the laity.The King of France is (or rather was) the only layman inChristendom who, by virtue of a pontifical permission, is allowedthe privilege of communicating in both kinds.only were present at thePriestsfirst communion, say the Papists,and therefore the laity have no right to the cup. But thisproves too much, and therefore proves nothing ; for if thiswarrants the exclusion of the laity from the cup, itequallywarrants their exclusion from the bread,—from the sacramentaltogether. Sensible that this ground would not sustainher practice of giving the cup to no one but theofficiatingpriest, the Roman Catholic Church has had recourseto tradition, but with no better success.It does not admitof doubt, that in early times the people were allowed the cupequally with the bread.But the practice has now come tobe extremely common in the Church of Rome for the priestalone to partake sacramentally; so that, in point of fact, thepeople, in all ordinary cases, are debarred from both kinds.The writer has seen mass celebrated in most of the greatcathedrals out of Italy ; but in no instance did he ever see