Friday, December 11, 2009

Mass-doctors

Calvin's Institutes (1559)
Book 4 of 4 - External Means by which God Invites Us into the Society of Christ and Holds Us Therein

Chapter 18 - Rome's Mass a sacrilege
8-11 - Early practice and rise of misconceptions
8. Private masses are forbidden, as Christ told us to take and divide the elements among ourselves - Luke 22:17; 1 Cor 10:16. Once they did this, they also started multiplying Masses all over, instead of bringing the body together.

9. Rome must show where this is required in Scripture or withdraw it, for obedience is better than sacrifice - 1 Sam 15:22.

10. They "thrust forward detached sentences of the ancient writers," but those ancients didn't hold to their view. They were careful when using the word sacrifice about the Supper to refer it back to Christ's cross, "as a memorial, an image, and a testimony of" it.

11. Some of the fathers referred to Communion as a "repeated or at least renewed sacrifice." They were all right in intent to interpret through the Old Testament, but wind up in error. "They have turned aside too much to the shadows of the law.

No comments:

Post a Comment