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ARTICLE XXXI.

OF THE ONE OBLATION OF CHRIST FINISHED UPON THE CROSS.

THE OFFERING OF CHRIST, ONCE MADE, IS THAT PERFECT REDEMPTION, PROPITIATION AND SATISFACTION FOR ALL THE SINS OF THE WHOLE WORLD, BOTH ORIGINAL AND ACTUAL; AND THERE IS NONE OTHER SATISFACTION FOR SIN BUT THAT ALONE. WHEREFORE THE SACRIFICES OF MASSES, IN THE WHICH IT WAS COMMONLY SAID THAT THE PRIEST DID OFFER CHRIST FOR THE QUICK AND THE DEAD TO HAVE REMISSION OF PAIN AND GUILT, WERE BLASPHEMOUS FABLES AND DANGEROUS DECEITS.

THIS Article asserts, that the sacrifice of Christ, once made, is the only satisfaction for sin.

As the object of this Article is to explain the true nature of the Eucharist, it will be necessary to consider with respect to it, 1st, the doctrine of the Church of England; and 2dly, the doctrine of the Church of Rome.

1st. As to the doctrine of the Church of England.

We admit that the Eucharist may be called a sacrifice in any of these three senses: 1. Sacri

fice is sometimes put for all acts of religious worship, because by them something is offered up to God. Thus, (in Ps. cxli. 2,) " let my prayer "be set forth before thee as incense, and the "lifting up of my hands as the evening sacri"fice." Again, "the sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit," (Ps. li. 15.) Likewise, in the New Testament, we are desired " by him," (that is, Christ,)" to offer the sacrifice of praise to "God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips,

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giving thanks to his name." (Heb. xiii. 15.) Again, a Christian's dedicating himself to God is called "presenting his body a living sacrifice.". (Rom. xii. 1.) Acts of charity also are called " a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God." (Phil. iv. 18.) In this sense the Eucharist may be a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, as our Church terms it in the office of the communion. 2. The Eucharist may be called a sacrifice, because in it there is an oblation made of bread and wine, which being sanctified are consumed by those who come to the Lord's table. To this many passages in the writings of the Fathers relate, and though the early Christians were reproached with holding a strange religion, in which there were neither temples, altars, nor sacrifices, yet Clemens Romanus, Ignatius, and the succeeding writers of the Church frequently mention the oblations which they made. And

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in all the ancient liturgies there are particular prayers, with which they offered up the bread and wine to God as the great Creator of all things. 3. The Eucharist may be called a sacrifice, as being a commemoration and representation to God of the sacrifice which Christ offered for us on the cross, in which we lay hold on that sacrifice as our only expiation, and feast upon it as our peace offering, in compliance with the ancient idea that covenants were confirmed by a sacrifice, and concluded in a feast upon it. In any of these senses we allow that the Eucharist may be called a sacrifice; still it is only commemorative, not propitiatory. We do not distinguish the sacrament from the sacrifice, as if the priest's consecrating and consuming the elements were a sacrifice in any sense different from that in which the communicating of others with him is one, nor do we think that by so doing, he reconciles God to the quick and the dead. On the contrary, we consider it only as a fœderal act of professing our belief in the death of Christ, and renewing our baptismal covenant with him, the acceptance of which by God depends on the sincerity of the prayers that accompany it, not on any peculiar virtue in the action itself.

2nd. We shall consider the doctrine of the Church of Rome.

The Church of Rome a hold that the Eucharist is the highest act of honour that creatures can offer up to their Creator, being an oblation of the Son to the Father; that the procuring a mass to be said is therefore highly pleasing to God, for the sake of which he will be reconciled to all that are concerned in it, whether they be still on earth or in purgatory, and that the priest, in offering and consuming this sacrifice, performs a true act of priesthood, by restoring sinners to the favour of God.

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The falsehood of this doctrine appears, 1. from Scripture, (1.) In the institution, our Saviour says, "take, eat ;" (Matt. xxvi. 26.) And St. Paul calls it "a communion of the body and blood of Christ." (1 Cor. x. 16.) These texts plainly consider it as an action of the whole body, but by no means intimate any thing peculiar to the priest. (2.) In the Epistle to the Hebrews, the author proves that Christ is both priest and sacrifice in the New Dispensation. In this Epistle "a priest" means a person called and consecrated to offer some living sacrifice, and to make reconciliation to God by the shedding or sprinkling of its blood;

a See Conc. Trid. sess. 21. can. 3. sess. 22. can. 3, 5. Catech. Trid. de Sac. Euch. and Bell. de Miss. l. i. c. 2.

b See Bilson on Christ. Subj. part. 4. p. 690. Jewel's Reply Art. 17. Potter on Ch. Gov. c. 5. sec. 4. and Gibson's Preserv. Tit. vi. c. ii.

which was the idea entertained by the Jews. He begins the fifth chapter by explaining the meaning of a priest, according to the Jewish ideas, and proceeds to prove that Christ" was called "of God, an high priest after the order of Mel"chisedech." (v. 10.) And in this sense he appropriates the priesthood of the New Dispensation solely to Christ, in opposition to the many priests of the Levitical law: " they truly were many priests, but they were not suffered to "continue by reason of death, but this man, "because he continueth ever, hath an unchange"able priesthood." (vii. 23, 24.) Again he proves, that as Christ is the only priest, so is his death the only sacrifice under the Gospel, in opposition to the many oblations that were made under the Mosaical law, in order to take away sin: "who needeth not daily as those high priests

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to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and "then for the people, for this he did once, when "he offered up himself." (vii. 27.) He sets this in opposition to the annual expiation made by the Jewish High Priest: "Christ entered in once in

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to the holy place, having obtained eternal re"demption for us." (ix. 12.) And having laid down the general maxim, that " without shedding of blood there is no remission,” (ver. 22,) he says, "Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many." (v. 28.) He intimates that sacrifices should now cease, by asking "if the sacrifices

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