But all such priests as pretend to be Christ's successors, in making a sacrifice of him, they be his most heinous and horrible adversaries. For never no person made a sacrifice of Christ, but he himself only. And therefore St. Paul saith, "That Christ's priesthood cannot pass from himself to another. For what needeth any more sacrifices, if Christ's sacrifice be perfect and sufficient? (Heb. VII) And as St. Paul saith, "That if the sacrifices and ministrations of Aaron, and oher priests of that time, had lacked nothing, but had been perfect and sufficient, then should not the sacrifice of Christ have been required, (for it had been but in vain to add anything to that, which of itself was perfect;) so likewise if Christ's sacrifice which he had made himself be sufficient, what need we every day to have more and more sacrifices?" (Heb. VIII) Wherefore all popish priests that presume to make every day a sacrifice of Christ, either must they needs make Christ's sacrifice vain, imperfect and unsufficient, or else is their sacrifice in vain, which is added to the sacrifice which is already of itself sufficient and perfect.
But it is a wondrous thing what shifts and cautels the Popish Antichrists devise, to colour and cloak their wicked errors. And as a chain is so joined together, that one link draweth another after it; so be vices and errors knit together that every one draweth his fellow with him. And so doth it here in this matter.
For the papists, to excuse themselves, do say, that they make no new sacrifice, nor none other sacrifice than Christ made; for they be not so blind, but they see that then they should add another sacrifice to Christ's sacrifice, and so make his sacrifice imperfect; but they say, that they make the self-same sacrifice for sin that Christ himself made.
And here they run headlong into the foulest and most heinous error that ever was imagined. For if they make every day the same oblation and sacrifice for sin that Christ himself made, and the oblation that he made was his death, and the effusion of the most precious blood upon the cross, for our redemption and price of our sins: then followeth it of necessity, that they every day slay Christ and shed his blood; and so be they worse than the wicked Jews and Pharisees, which slew him, and shed his blood but once.
- Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, A Defence Of The True And Catholick Doctrine Of The Sacrament Of The Body And Blood Of Our Saviour Christ : With A Confutation Of Sundry Errors Concerning The Same, Book V, Chapters VI, VII.
But it is a wondrous thing what shifts and cautels the Popish Antichrists devise, to colour and cloak their wicked errors. And as a chain is so joined together, that one link draweth another after it; so be vices and errors knit together that every one draweth his fellow with him. And so doth it here in this matter.
For the papists, to excuse themselves, do say, that they make no new sacrifice, nor none other sacrifice than Christ made; for they be not so blind, but they see that then they should add another sacrifice to Christ's sacrifice, and so make his sacrifice imperfect; but they say, that they make the self-same sacrifice for sin that Christ himself made.
And here they run headlong into the foulest and most heinous error that ever was imagined. For if they make every day the same oblation and sacrifice for sin that Christ himself made, and the oblation that he made was his death, and the effusion of the most precious blood upon the cross, for our redemption and price of our sins: then followeth it of necessity, that they every day slay Christ and shed his blood; and so be they worse than the wicked Jews and Pharisees, which slew him, and shed his blood but once.
- Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, A Defence Of The True And Catholick Doctrine Of The Sacrament Of The Body And Blood Of Our Saviour Christ : With A Confutation Of Sundry Errors Concerning The Same, Book V, Chapters VI, VII.