Heathens sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God. And I would not, that you should be made partakers with devils.-You cannot drink the chalice of the Lord, and the chalice of devils: you cannot be partakers of the table of the Lord, and of the table of devils.
As the Apostle speaks of the participation of the victims, among the Jews, which were offered on their altars, and of a similar participation among the Gentiles; so, instituting a comparison, he plainly speaks of Christians partaking of the body and blood of our Lord from the Eucharistic altar.
Heb. xiii. 10, 11, 12. “ We have an altar, whereof they have no power to eat, who serve the tabernacle. For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high Priest, for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.”
The meaning of this passage is not plain, but it seems to intimate the superiority of the Christian worshippers. The Jews-not even their priests—were not allowed to taste of the victims which were solemnly offered for sin: but we have an altar and a victim, typified by those of the Jews, of which we may, at all times, partake ; a victim, once offered for sin, and represented by the daily oblation of his body and blood.
Acts xiii. 2. “And as they were ministering to the Lord, and fasting, the Holy Ghost said to them.”—The breaking of bread is often mentioned in the same Acts; and in the two quotations just given from St. Paul, the altar and table are mentioned, which must refer to Sacrifice.(Rev. v. 6.) “And I saw: and behold in the midst of the throne, and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the ancients, a lamb standing as it were slain.”-8.—“And when he had opened the book, the four living creatures, and the four and
