Jackson on Article XXXI: Of the one Oblation of Christ finished upon the Cross

This Article together with the last clause of Article II. gives us four words to describe the meaning of Christ’s sacrifice, viz., reconciliation, redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction. They correspond to four aspects of sin, viz., sin as creating enmity, sin as bringing us into bondage, sin as leaving a stain which bars us from God’s presence, and sin as incurring guilt for the breach of the law. The special point of the statement in this Article is that the sacrifice is “ perfect. ~~ and there is none other but that alone.”

(2) Repudiation of the false doctrine of the sacri- fices of Masses.

The only thing sacrificial in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, as originally instituted by Christ, was its reference to the sacrifice of Calvary. But by a true instinct the commemora~ tion of that one perfect sacrifice for sins awakened in the hearts of believers a spirit of sacrifice; and

63 y the service in which the Lord’s Supper was ad- ministered became from earliest times the natural and fitting occasion for making thank- offering and thanksgiving to God. Until the time of Cyprian (250) the idea of sacrifice went no further than the oblation of the bread and wine, the offering of prayer and praise, the self- consecration of the communicants and, through their act, of the whole Church. From that time onward ‘‘ the Fathers speak of the Eucharist as a sacrifice with special reference to the Body and Blood of Christ commemorated and spiritually present in that holy Sacrament ’’ (Bishop Browne, p. 740). It is easy to see how this idea would develop under the influence of the theory of ‘* the real presence ’’ in the Roman doctrine of ‘‘ the sacrifices of Masses, in the which it was com- monly said, that the Priest did offer Christ for the quick and the dead.’’ This doctrine at once vir- tually denied the sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice and divested the Holy Communion of its sacra- mental character. On the sacrificial aspect of the Holy Communion, see Meyrick’s ‘‘ Doctrine of the Holy Communion,”’ ch. iv., and following. Two alterations were made in the wording of this Article in 1562-1563, to give express contradic- tion to the Tridentine Canons on the Mass- sacrifice, which were issued on September 17th, 1562. The title was altered from ‘‘ Of the perfect oblation of Christ made upon the Cross ’’ to ‘‘ Of the one (L. unica) oblation of Christ finished upon the cross ’’ ; and the words ‘‘ forged fables ’’ were altered into ‘‘ blasphemous fables,’’ thus bringing - the Article exactly under the Anathema of Trent. (See Tomlinson’s ‘‘ Prayer Book, Articles and Homilies ’’ ch. xiii.)

GROUP V. (ARTICLES XXXII.—XXXIX:).

ArticLE XXXII. Or THE MarRRIAGE OF PRIESTS (L. SaceRpoTum).*