our LORD's was θυσία εἰς τὸ διηνεκές (Heb. x. 12), juge Sacrificium,-a continual Sacrifice,- commencing at the first moment of His Conception, continued during every day of His holy Life, offered on the night before His salutary Passion, consummated and slain upon the Altar of the Cross, and now carried by Himself, as the Melchisedecan Priest, within the veil, and perpetually pleaded and presented by Him there to the Eternal FATHER, and in image by the Church on earth in the Holy Sacrament." *

If we now turn to the Theological Defence, we find iii. Passages the following explanation of the term "sacrifice:"

from his
"Theological

"We have now to go on to consider the sense in Defence." which the word 'sacrifice' is used in the passage which has been presented. I must beg the Court to bear very strongly in mind what I have said with reference to the word 'sacrifice' as it is taken actively or passively a distinction, indeed, which runs through. all our language. I believe that the misunderstanding of my meaning has arisen entirely in this, that whereas I used the word sacrifice' passively † of that which is offered, those who objected to my doctrine understood what I said actively,' i. e., of the act of Sacrifice or Offering. For the passages from the XXXIst Article and the Liturgy, which they accuse me of having 'contradicted and depraved,' relate solely to our Blessed LORD's act of offering Himself upon the Cross; while in my teaching, which they charge with having depraved them, the word 'sacrifice' is used' passively' for that which is 'offered.'" ‡

Again: "It were a grave offence to teach any error, * Bishop Forbes, Primary Charge, pp. 48–50.

† Italics ours.

Idem, Theological Defence, p. 13.

on matters of faith; but that I should have been supposed to contravene these simple and fundamental truths of the Gospel-on which our only hope of Salvation depends-which I have ever taught and for which with my last breath-I hope to bless my GOD -this is, indeed, passing strange. Need I assert, then, that I do, from the bottom of my heart, hold and believe that 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 that there is none other satisfaction for sin but that alone? I believe and confess that GOD did give His only SON JESUS CHRIST to suffer death upon the Cross for our Redemption, Who, by His own oblation of Himself once offered, made a full, perfect, sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world, and did institute, and in His holy Gospel command us to continue a perpetual memorial of that His precious Death and Sacrifice till His coming again.

"I believe that He, by this single oblation on the Cross, consummated, or made a consummate oblation, paid a consummate and perfect price for our redemption and satisfaction, whereby, as by a boundless and inexhaustible fountain, to be effectual always, and even to the end of the world, yea, to all eternity, He should perfect those who are sanctified; so that though an infinite number of men should be born, and commit an infinite number of sins, no other oblation should be needed for their redemption and sanctification, but for that end this single oblation on the Cross should suffice, by the application of which all should be completely justified.

"This single Sacrifice on the Cross is universal

and all-powerful. This alone is meritorious. To it CHRIST Himself in His Eternal Intercession addeth nothing. Briefly, then, I hold and confess, that the Holy Communion is actively the commemoration of the most precious Death and Sacrifice of JESUS CHRIST; but all this is perfectly compatible with the belief that passively the Sacrifice, i. e., that which is offered and presented to Almighty GOD, is the Body and Blood of JESUS CHRIST, and therefore, in virtue of the hypostatic union, JESUS CHRIST Himself."

In treating of our LORD's Mediatorial work in heaven, in regard to which the Bishop quotes passages from Jeremy Taylor given in the last chapter, we find the following:

"The question

will then be, whether it is erroneous to say that the sacrifice in heaven is the same substantially with the Sacrifice of the Cross. I need not say that I here use sacrifice in the passive sense. Is there then a sacrifice in this sense at this moment in heaven?"†

The Bishop then refers to the ritual of the Day of Atonement, and says:

"Of the first of these functions [the slaying of the victim outside the Tabernacle, which is called making an atonement' (Lev. xvi. 6)], the sacrificial action wrought upon the Cross is confessedly the Antitype. Of the latter [the sprinkling of the blood within the Holy of holies] the Antitype is distinctly described in the Epistle to the Hebrews to be the appearing (εμpaviolñvai) of our LORD before His FATHER in the heavenly Sanctuary. Now, if the presentation of Bishop Forbes, Theological Defence, pp. 15, 16.

*

† Ibid., pp. 64, 65.

the victim's blood within the Holy of holies can be called an act of oblation and sacrifice, the same term must of necessity apply to the antitypical act, viz., our LORD'S entering into heaven once for all, at once the High Priest and the Victim.

"But it is certain that the typical act in this case is spoken of in Scripture not only as an act of offering (oроopέper, Heb. ix. 7), but also as, we perceive, making an atonement,'- that our Blessed LORD, then, does not 'make a propitiation,' but 'is the Propitiation for our sins,' that He is that Propitiation by virtue of that Body which He once offered for the sins of the whole world upon the Cross; that that Body, wounded for our transgressions, does and 'must,' by its very presence, 'plead' with the FATHER; its Being' pleads;' the sight of the Lamb which was slain 'pleads.'

"It is therefore certain even thus far that our LORD'S present Being in heaven has a sacrificial, nay, a propitiatory character, not as making a propitiation, but as propitiating the FATHER, in that He continually, as our High Priest, presents and pleads that active Sacrifice once made; in other words, that He is present in heaven as the Propitiation for our sins, i. e., as the Sacrifice in the passive sense, in that He causes the FATHER to be at one with us severally, one by one, generation after generation, by virtue of that Sacrifice which He continually pleads. His Death upon the Cross atoned for the sins of the whole world. The sins of the whole world were laid upon Him then. But the merits of that One Atoning Death are applied continually, and pleaded, and made available to all who shall be saved, through His continual Intercession. Who would say that he should

have been saved by that Atoning Death, apart from the continual Presence of our LORD at the right hand of GOD to intercede for him? It were plain blasphemy. For it would be to say that that Intercession was something superfluous and unnecessary.

"It will be obvious that in Leviticus atonement is predicated of the sprinkling of blood in this sense, that it was the presentation before GOD of the satisfactory virtue of the action performed outside the veil, so that then it was one work 'under two aspects,' which partook of a deep mysterious identity.' The mactation of the victim was not repeated within the Holy of holies, but it was applied and made effectual for those in whose behalf it was offered. . . . In Heb. viii. 3, we are told that He, whose present action as High Priest has in the immediate context been set forth, must necessarily have something also to offer. I must call attention to the emphatic word 'offer.' If the word 'intercede' had stood alone in Holy Scripture, it might have been misunderstood. Our LORD'S Intercession is an act not of mere prayer, but of oblation. And what has He to offer? Surely His Body and Blood - His sacred humanity - that is, by virtue of the hypostatic union, Himself, really present under natural conditions at the FATHER'S Right Hand.” †

The Bishop also refers to a passage in a sermon of his on Manasseh, from which we cite the following iv. A passage

extract:

"The adorable and Blessed SON of GOD and Man, . has entered into the heaven of heavens, there to appear in the Presence of GOD for us. There, upon * Italics ours.

† Bishop Forbes, Theological Defence, pp. 64-66.

from his

sermon on Manasseh.