ART. and clear authorities are so strong, even in dark and corrupt XXX. times, as not to be easily overcome. And this may be said

concerning this matter, that as there is not any one point in which the Church of Rome has acted more visibly contrary to the Gospel, than in this; so there is not any one thing that has raised higher prejudices against her, that has made more forsake her, and has possessed mankind more against her, than this. This has cost her dearer than any other.

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 Driginal and Actual: And there is none other Satisfaction for Sin but that alone: Wherefore in 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.

IT

17.

T were a mere question of words to dispute concerning the term sacrifice, to consider the extent of that word, and the many various respects in which the Eucharist may be called a sacrifice. In general, all acts of religious worship may be called sacrifices: because somewhat is in them of fered up to God: Let my prayer be set forth before thee as Psal. cxli. incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacri- 2. fice. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and Psal. li. a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. These shew how largely this word was used in the Old Testament : so in the New we are exhorted by him (that is, by Christ) to offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the Hebr. xiii. fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. A Christian's 15. dedicating himself to the service of God, is also expressed by the same word of presenting our bodies a living sacrifice, Rom. xii. holy and acceptable to God. All acts of charity are also 1. called sacrifices, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice accept- Phil. iv. 18. able, well pleasing to God. So in this large sense we do not deny that the Eucharist is a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving and our Church calls it so in the office of the Communion. In two other respects it may be also more strictly called a sacrifice. One is, because there is an oblation of bread and wine made in it, which being sanctified are consumed in an act of religion. To this many passages in the writings of the Fathers do relate. This was the oblation made at the altar by the people: and though at first the Christians were reproached, as having a strange sort of religion, in which they had neither temples, altars, nor sacrifices, because they had not those things in so gross

:

ART.

a manner as the Heathens had; yet both Clemens RomaXXXI. nus, Ignatius, and all the succeeding writers of the Church, do frequently mention the oblations that they made: and in the ancient liturgies they did with particular prayers offer the bread and wine to God, as the great Creator of all things; those were called the gifts or offerings which were offered to God, in imitation of Abel, who offered the fruits of the earth, in a sacrifice to God. Both Justin Martyr, Irenæus, the Constitutions, and all the ancient liturgies, have very express words relating to this. Another respect, in which the Eucharist is called a sacrifice, is, because it is a commemoration and a representation to God of the sacrifice that Christ offered for us on the cross: in which we claim to that, as to our expiation, and feast upon it, as our peace-offering, according to that ancient notion, that covenants were confirmed by a sacrifice, and were concluded in a feast on the sacrifice. Upon these accounts we do not deny, but that the Eucharist may be well called a sacrifice: but still it is a commemorative sacrifice, and not propitiatory: that is, we do not distinguish the sacrifice from the Sacrament; as if the Priest's consecrating and consuming the elements, were in an especial manner a sacrifice any other way, than as the communicating of others with him is one: nor do we think that the consecrating and consuming the elements, is an act that does reconcile God to the quick and the dead: we consider it only as a federal act of professing our belief in the death of Christ, and of renewing our baptismal covenant with him. The virtue or effects of this are not general; they are limited to those who go about this piece of worship sincerely and devoutly; they, and they only, are concerned in it, who go about it: and there is no special propitiation made by this service. It is only an act of devotion and obedience in those that eat and drink worthily; and though in it they ought to pray for the whole body of the Church, yet those their prayers do only prevail with God, as they are devout intercessions, but not by any peculiar virtue in this action.

On the other hand, the doctrine of the Church of Rome is, that the Eucharist is the highest act of homage and honour that creatures can offer up to the Creator, as being an oblation of the Son to the Father; so that whosoever procures a mass to be said, procures a new piece of honour to be done to God, with which he is highly pleased; and for the sake of which he will be reconciled to all that are concerned in the procuring such masses to be said; whether they be still on earth, or if they are now in pur

gatory and that the Priest, in offering and consuming ART. this sacrifice, performs a true act of priesthood by reconcil- XXXI. ing sinners to God. Somewhat was already said of this on the head of Purgatory.

It seems very plain, by the institution, that our Saviour, as he blessed the Sacrament, said, Take, eat: St. Paul calls it a communion of the body and blood of the Lord; and a partaking of the Lord's table: and he, through his whole discourse of it, speaks of it as an action of the Church and of all Christians; but does not so much as by a hint intimate any thing peculiar to the Priest: so that all that the Scripture has delivered to us concerning it, represents it as an action of the whole body, in which the Priest has no special share but that of officiating. In the Epistle to the Hebrews there is a very long discourse concerning Sacrifices and Priests, in order to the explaining of Christ's being both Priest and Sacrifice. There a Priest stands for a person called and consecrated to offer some living sacrifice, and to slay it, and to make reconciliation of sinners to God, by the shedding, offering, or sprinkling the blood of the sacrifice. This was the notion that the Jews had of a Priest; and the Apostle, designing to prove that the death of Christ was a true sacrifice, brings this for an argument, that there was to be another priesthood after the order of Melchisedec. He begins the fifth chapter with settling the notion of a Priest, according to the Jewish ideas; and then he goes on to prove that Christ was such a Priest, called of Heb. v. 10. God and consecrated. But in this sense he appropriates the priesthood of the New Dispensation singly to Christ, in opposition to the many Priests of the Levitical Law: and ch. vii. 23, they truly were many Priests, because they were not suffered 24. to continue, by reason of death: but this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood.

It is clear from the whole thread of that discourse, that, in the strictest sense of the word, Christ himself is the only Priest under the Gospel; and it is also no less evident that his death is the only Sacrifice, in opposition to the many oblations that were under the Mosaical Law, to take away sin; which appears very plain from these words, Who ver. 27. needeth not daily, as those High Priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people; for this he did once, when he offered up himself. He opposes that to the annual expiation made by the Jewish High Priest, Christ entered in once to the holy place, having made redemption for us by his own blood: and having laid down that general maxim, that without shedding of blood there was no remission, ch. ix. 22. he says, Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many: he ver, 28.

ART. puts a question to shew that all sacrifices were now to XXXI. cease; When the worshippers are once purged, then would Heb. x. 2. not sacrifices cease to be offered? And he ends with this, ver. 11, 12. as a full conclusion to that part of his discourse: Every

Priest stands daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sin: but this man, after he had offered up one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God. Here are not general words, ambiguous expressions, or remote hints, but a thread of a full and clear discourse, to shew that, in the strict sense of the words, we have but one Priest, and likewise but one Sacrifice under the Gospel; therefore how largely soever those words of Priest or Sacrifice may have been used; yet, according to the true idea of a propitiatory Sacrifice, and of a Priest that reconciles sinners to God, they cannot be applied to any acts of our worship, or to any order of men upon earth. Nor can the value and virtue of any instituted act of religion be carried, by any inferences or reasonings, beyond that which is put in them by the institution: and therefore since the institution of this Sacrament has nothing in it, that gives us this idea of it, we cannot set any such value upon it: and since the reconciling sinners to God, and the pardoning of sin, are free acts of his grace, it is therefore a high presumption in any man to imagine they can do this by any act of theirs, without powers and warrants for it from Scripture. Nor can this be pretended to without assuming a most sacrilegious sort of power over the attributes of God: therefore all the virtue that can be in the Sacrament is, that we do therein gratefully commemorate the sacrifice of Christ's death, and, by renewed acts of faith, present that to God as our sacrifice, in the memorial of it, which he himself has appointed: by so doing we renew our covenant with God, and share in the effects of that death which he suffered for us. All the ancient liturgies have this as a main part of the office, that being mindful of the death of Christ, or commemorating it, they offered up the gifts.

This is the language of Justin Martyr, Irenæus, Tertullian, Cyprian, and of all the following writers. They do compare this sacrifice to that of Melchisedec, who offered bread and wine: and though the text imports only his giving bread and wine to Abraham and his followers, yet they applied that generally to the oblation of bread and wine that was made on the altar: but this shews that they did not think of any sacrifice made by the offering up of Christ. It was the bread and the wine only which they thought the Priests of the Christian religion did offer