us, and delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into his kingdom.[1] And this indeed is that pure oblation, which cannot be defiled by any unworthiness, or malice of those that offer it; which the Lord foretold by Malachi was to be offered in every place, pure unto his name, which was to be great amongst the Gentiles;[2] and which the apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthians, has not obscurely intimated, when he says, that they who are defiled by the participation of the table of devils, cannot be partakers of the table of the Lord;[3] by the table, meaning in both places the altar. This, in fine, is that [oblation] which was prefigured by various types of sacrifices, during the period of nature, and of the law; inasmuch as it comprises all the good things signified by those [sacrifices], as being the consummation and perfection of them all.
CHAPTER II.
That the Sacrifice of the Mass is propitiatory as well for the Living as the Dead.
And inasmuch as, in this divine sacrifice which is performed in the mass, that same Christ is contained and immolated in a bloodless manner, who once offered Himself in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross; the holy synod teaches, that this sacrifice is truly propitiatory, and that by means thereof this is effected, that we obtain mercy, and find grace in convenient aid, if we draw nigh unto God, contrite and penitent, with a true heart and upright faith, with fear and reverence. For the Lord, appeased by the oblation thereof, and granting the grace and gift of penitence, forgives even heinous crimes and sins. For the victim is one and the same, the same now offering by the ministry of priests, who then offered Himself on the cross, the manner alone of offering being different. The fruits indeed of which oblation, of that bloody one, to wit, are most plentifully received through this bloodless one; so far is this latter from derogating in any way from that former [oblation]. Wherefore, not only for the sins, punishments, satisfactions, and other necessities of the faithful who are alive, but also for those who are departed in Christ, and who are not as yet
