Still less can there be any second offering of our Lord Jesus Christ himself. It would be strange to suppose that there could be any fresh propitiation made by any fresh victim, but stranger still would be the idea that the Saviour himself, the Son of God, should again suffer for man. The whole plan of the Gospel from the beginning to the end is a uniform contradiction to such a thought. There was a long and progressive work planned in eternal wisdom for the Holy One, of which his incarnation, his life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension, his mediation, and his coming reign are successive steps. And all these are essential to each other; his mediation, _e.g._, is essential to his atonement, and his atonement to his mediation. If there had been no atonement there could have been no mediation, for there would have been no offering to present; and if there had been no mediation, then the atonement had been valueless, for there had been no priest to present it before God. So, again, with the crucifixion and the resurrection; had there been no death there could have been no resurrection, and had there been no resurrection, there would have been no acceptance of the perfect satisfaction in the death. We are therefore to regard the whole as one divinely appointed work, and we learn that as at the appointed time it was necessary to redemption that Christ should die, so now that the resurrection day is past, it is no less needful that he should live. It would subvert the whole plan and economy of the Gospel to suppose that he could be a second time offered. It would utterly neutralize the resurrection, for when he rose from the dead he was accepted in the completeness of his satisfaction, and welcomed with the words, “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.” {19} It is no less opposed to the doctrine of his mediation, for it is a living priest that we require, and it is because he ever liveth that “he is able to save to the uttermost all them that come unto God by him.” And it is no less in violation with every description of his glory, for though he appears in heaven as the Lamb, that _has been_ slain, he has declared from that very throne that he can be slain no more: “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold I am alive for evermore.” I need not say that these are the principles of the Church of England. They are distinctly contained in the sentence of the Article, “the offering of Christ _once_ made.” Whether or not they are the principles of the Church of Rome, I leave you to judge from the following extracts from the decrees of the Council of Trent respecting the Mass:—