Laity into the full privileges and membership of her institutions, " and to turn the solitary Mass into a Communion" at which all are partakers of equal spiritual blessings.

If Christ has ordained full communion with Himself for all His people without reservation, no Church or man may say they are only entitled to a partial share. Christ's Blood was shed, as His Body was given, for all, and all can claim the right to taste the full pledges of that His inestimable benefit. "What therefore God had joined together let not man put asunder.”

ARTICLE XXXI.-" Of the one Oblation of Christ finished upon the Cross."

"It is finished," our Saviour declared, when having offered Himself to God, "a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world," He "bowed his head and gave up the ghost," the Lamb for sinners slain.

It is not finished, the Church of Rome asserts with her usual reverence for and submission to the Word of God, and never can be; but my priests must repeat it daily. And so there they stand "offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins." For if "it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins," which were sacrifices of God's own appoint

ing, how much less the "unbloody sacrifice of the Mass," for "without shedding of blood there is no remission"?

We have seen when considering Articles XXII., XXVIII. what these sacrifices of the Mass were. The chief or High Mass performed with all the ceremony of an elaborate ritual before the congregation, in which "the priest did offer Christ for the living," and low or private Masses of which the most common was the "Missa pro defunctis," where He was" offered" for the remission of departed spirits from the pains of purgatory, are denounced in this Article as "blasphemous fables, and dangerous deceits."

The Tridentine decrees on this subject are to the following effect: "Since the same Christ who once offered Himself by His blood on the altar of the Cross, is contained in this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the Mass, and offered without blood; the holy Council teaches that this sacrifice is really propitiatory, and made by Christ Himself." And the fruits of that bloody oblation are plentifully enjoyed by means of this unbloody one; so untrue is it that the latter derogates from the glory of the former. Wherefore it is properly offered, according to Apostolic tradition, not only for the sins, punishments, satisfactions, and other necessities of living believers, but also for the dead in Christ, who are not yet thoroughly purified."

"If any one shall affirm that a true and proper

sacrifice is not offered to God in the Mass, or that nothing else is offered save that Christ is given us to eat, let him be Anathema."

"But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God." Once done and for ever finished. Christ's atoning work is complete. Unless it were absolutely perfect and sufficient, He would not have "sat down" to rest.

Having finished the work which had been given Him to do, He entered into His rest. By the only way in which sin and punishment could be removed He has taken it away, having made atonement not only for our inborn, indwelling guilt, but also for each and every actual sin we have committed or may commit. That work of atonement once done upon the Cross cannot be repeated; it is finished. It cannot be added to; it is sufficient. It cannot lose its power; it is of the strength and fulness of Christ. And that perfect work of Christ is ours, all the benefits of His Cross and passion are His free gifts to us, on the sole condition that we believe in, and take Him at His word, and accept them. If we will, "we are complete in Him," "for by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified."

ARTICLE XXXII.-" Of the Marriage of Priests."

"Forbidding to marry," was one of those "lies in hypocrisy," which St. Paul warned Timothy would in the latter times be taught. Accordingly we find

the Church of Rome imposing on all her clergy the vow of celibacy, as a strict condition on which alone they can enter her priesthood.

This was not warrantable from either the Old or New Testament; the Jewish priests were all permitted under certain restrictions to marry; and with regard to the Apostolic Church, we find St. Paul not only allowing its ministers to enter the holy estate of matrimony, but giving special directions for their behaviour therein. The three orders of the ministry are also severally mentioned.

As was before remarked, the Apostles during their continuance on earth were in the place taken by the Bishops of a later age, Bishops being at the first but chief Presbyters. As regards the first then, we know that St. Peter was married, and St. Paul declared himself free to marry also if he chose. 'Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?"

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Respecting Presbyters; "A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, . . . one

that ruleth well his own house, having his children. in subjection with all gravity."

With regard to deacons; "Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well." "Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things." "Marriage is honourable in all," not the Laity alone.

But this will not do for the Church of Rome. She aims at superior holiness and self-denial-at works of supererogation in short; so, setting aside as usual, the precepts of the Bible, she lays upon her clergy burdens and restrictions not in accordance with Divine or natural laws, and which give rise to immorality and scandal. But so long as the letter of the law is adhered to, she does not exact obedience to its spirit, but quietly says, speaking of those of her clergy who lead immoral lives, that "such are not therefore to be debarred from the exercise of priestly functions." Is it to be wondered at, then, that we often find "His Holiness" himself, St. Peter's successor, the Divine vice-gerent on earth, guilty of vices which would not be tolerated now among worldly society?

The Reformed Church prefers to follow the teaching of the Word of God, and the practice of the Apostolic Church in permitting her clergy to "marry at their own discretion," only advising them that they should wisely make choice of fit persons who be may helps to them in their sacred work. ·