Scotland/Scots > Life of John Knox ; and, The life of Alexander Henderson

LIFE OF JOHN KNOX.
ticce, of thanksgiving; in which last sense the mortifica¬
tion of the body, prayer, and alms-giving, were called
sacrifices in Scripture. He wished, therefore, to know
whether the abbot understood the word in the first or
second of these senses in this dispute. The abbot said,
that he would not at present dispute what his opponent
meant by a sacrifice propiliatorium; but he held the
sacrifice on the cross to be the only sacrifice of redemp¬
tion, and that of the mass to be the sacrifice of commem¬
oration of the death and passion of Christ. Knox
replied, that the chief head which he intended to impugn
seemed to be yielded by the abbot; and he, for his part,
cheerfully granted, that there was a commemoration of
Christ’s death in the right use of the ordinance of the
supper.
The abbot insisted that he should proceed to impugn
the warrant which he had taken from Scripture for his
article. “Protesting,” said the Reformer, “that this
mekle is win, that the sacrifice of the messe being denied
by me to be a sacrifice propitiatorie for the sins of the
quick and the dead, (according to the opinion thereof
before conceaved) hath no patron at the present, I am
content to procede.”—“ I protest he hes win nothing of
me as yit, and referres it to black and quhite contened
in our writing.”—“I have openlie denied the masse to be
an sacrifice propitiatorie for the quick, &c., and the
defence thereof is denied. And, therefore, I referre me
unto the same judges that my lord hath clamed.”—“ Ye
may denie quhat ye pleis; for all that ye denie I tak not
presentlie to impung; but quhair I began thair will I
end, that is, to defend the messe conform to my artickle.”
“ Your lordship’s ground,” said Knox, after some alter¬
cation, “ is, that Melchizedeck is the figure of Christe in
that he did offer unto God bread and wine, and that it
behoved Jesus Christ to offer, in his latter supper, his
body and blude, under the forms of bread and wine. I
answer to your ground yet againe, that Melchizedeck
offered neither bread nor wine unto God; and therefore,