Pagan, the Catechumen, the uninitiated, what was said and done in the celebration of the divine mysteries. The Liturgies unfold to us what was there said and done. Till the middle of the fifth Century these were carefully concealed, and were confided to the memory of the Bishops and Priests, lest, being committed to writing, the secret should be betrayed. About the time of the Council of Ephesus, held in 431, Christianity being then firmly established, the Pastors of the Church felt they had nothing to fear from the disclosure of the mysteries, and the Liturgies of the Churches were committed to writing. Now, all these, as will be shewn hereafter, present to our view, the altar, the oblation of sacrifice, the Real Presence, by the change of the substance, and the adoration. Nestorians, Eutychians, Jacobites, are here agreed, both among themselves, and with Catholics—all, notwithstanding schism and heresy; in spite of distance and separation; in spite of the difference of rites, prayers, and solemnities : all in Italy, Africa, Spain, Gaul, and Great Britain; as well as in Greece and its Islands, in Asia Minor, the Indies, Egypt and Abyssinia : all describe to us the same mysteries, the same dogmas; all profess the same Faith, and proclaim the same doctrine. An agreement so wonderful, an uniformity so admirable, could only proceed from one and the same cause; and that cause would be sought for in vain elsewhere, but in the teaching of the Apostles.” In a word, the secrecy of the Christians concealed the mysteries of the Altar. The Liturgies disclose them, and display to us, the Real Presence, Transubstantiation, and the Adoration. Therefore these mysteries were really enveloped in the secret.[1]
- ↑ “I find," says Grotius, " in all the Liturgies, Greek, Latin, Arabic, Syriac, and others, prayers to God, that he would consecrate, by his Holy Spirit , the gifts offered, and make them the Body and Blood of his Son. I was right, therefore, in saying, that a custom, so ancient and universal, that it must be considered to have come down from the primitive times, ought not to have been changed."--Votum pro pace.
