monies of the holy sacrifice of the Mass, and of
those prayers which appeared to need explana-

tion.

The doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church is, "That in the Mass, there is offered to God, a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead," and "that the victim offered to God, is the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, under the appearance of bread and wine." Assuming this doctrine to be true in all its parts, the Editor trusts the candid reader will find, upon examination, that the ceremonies are not only not ridiculous, but are deeply significant, highly instructive, wisely insti tuted, and greatly edifying. Every Roman Ca tholic necessarily believes this doctrine in its fullest extent and plainest meaning, otherwise he would cease to be a member of the Church: as he is also supposed tô which this doctrine rests, for if know the grounds upon them, his ignorance is the consequence of his neglect, it was deemed quite unnecessary to enter upon those grounds in the explanation to the Catholic reader; and to enter upon them with sufficient accuracy and expansion, to satisfy the mind of any other person, would require more space than could be conveniently given, or than would, indeed, be compatible with a principal object of the compiler-to keep the price of the book as low as possible.

hè be 'ignorant of

To establish the doctrinal parts of the Liturgy, would require the proofs of the "Real presence,"

of "Transubstantiation," of "Communion of Saints," of "The intercession of Angels and of Saints," of "respecting the relics of Saints," of " the existence of Purgatory," of "praying for the dead," and for the validity of the Sacrifice, of "the indelible character of Holy Orders," as well as of "the distinction of Orders," and "their divine institution." This range would be far too extensive to comprise in such a prefatory explanation, as the Missal required; and the subjects were too important to be only slightly touched upon, in place of being fully examined. Hence the Editor determined to avoid them altogether, and to refer those who may be destroals of information upon such topics, to to the works wiition expressly for the elucidation and vindication of those doctrines.Therefore the explanation does not contain a single argument in support of doctrine.

: The next part of the work is the translation of the Missal, to which is prefixed the prayer for all classes, in these United States, which has been compiled by the venerable father of the American Catholic Church, the late Archbishop Carroll, the recollection of whose virtues as a Prelate and a patriot, is embalmed in the hearts of all who had the happiness of knowing him, and of thousands who regret their not having enjoyed that honour.

The Editor has not advanced any positions of his own; his labour has been to compress, to connect, and to translate, what had been diffusely written upon the subject by some of the best and earliest writers of the Church: indeed he could give no

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thing new; for the glory of the Church in which he has the honour to hold so responsible a station, as it is also a proof of her integrity, is that she has never deviated from the form of sound words which she has heard from the Apostles, but † the things which she has heard of them by many witnesses, the same she has commended to faithful men who have been fit to teach others; and she has thus I stood fast, and held the traditions which she has learned of them, whether by word or by epistle. Her doctrine in all ages has been the same; such as it is now, it was one thousand years ago; such as it was then, it was in the days of the Apostles: such as they taught it, the received it frori cur Divine Redeemer, who sent them to teach alinations, with a promise of his special protection, all days, even to the consummition, of the world. The ingenuity of man, search, may enable him daily to Iscover new facto his penetration and rewhich were unobserved by his ancestors, and thus the arts and the sciences are in a state of perpetual progressive improvement. This vast territory of nature, in which so much treasure lics as yet concealed, is the mighty expanse in which God gave the human mind liberty to roam abroad at its

discretion.

But as the Lord commanded boundaries to be set round Sinai whilst in the exhibition of his majesty, he vindicated his right to receive obedience, and commanded man to believe and to practise

*2 Tim. i. 13.

upon his authority; the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven are to be learned only by revelation, and the perfection of religion consists in the exact and scrupulous preservation of the truth originally disclosed. Man is not free to call God before his tribunal, and to demand from him the reason for his acts, nor is he at liberty to reject the propositions which have been originally delivered, nor to depart from their spirit; and hence the Apostle St. Paul wrote, * Though we, or an angel from Heaven, preach a gospel to you, besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema. For the religion of Christ is essentially unchangeable, its doctrines are incipimable--for truth cannot become falsehood, nor falsehood become truth. Hence the Editor of this work has only sought for, and brought forward, what had been originally testified by that cloud of witnesses that has gone before him in the Church, and entreats, as a recompense for his labours, a share of the prayers of those who may profit thereby.

* Galat. i. 8.

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in which, under the appearance of bread and v the Redeemer of the world is offered up in an bloody manner upon our altars, as propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead It is not a different sacrifice from that of the for the victim in each is the same; the High who makes the offering is the same: Christ h personally and manifestly made the oblation Calvary, and this High Priest, according to the of Melchisedech, having instituted this office recom night before his death, commissioned his apostle ayers of their successors, in all days, to the consummat

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the world, to do the same, for a commemorat him, to show forth his death until his second co they are his substitutes and representatives, he is the principal but invisible offerer. The fice, though repeated, is not different, but the of the oblation in the repetition differs from that spectacle, which was exhibited in Jerusalem, person of him by whose bruises we were heal This holy sacrifice, in which Christ who Lamb without spot, offers himself upon our al that clean oblation referred to by the prophet chias, which is every where made to the eter ther, from the rising of the sun to the going thereof, and by which his name is magnified a