Sadler, in his The One Offering, quotes it with apparent The issue raised by Socinus practi cally the basis of the modern LORD'S Sacri view of our If the essentially sacrifi cial act took place in heaven, our LORD'S Offer While the opinions of Alford and Bengel go somewhat beyond even that of Socinus, they are all to be traced to the interpretation which he gave to the Epistle to the Hebrews. As all practically agree that the essential act of sacrifice was not merely the effusion of the blood, but its presentation by a priest, the whole fice. issue resolves itself into two questions: Was our LORD a Priest when He died on the Cross? and, Did He there and then make the presentation of His Precious Blood, and so complete His Sacrifice? If He was not a Priest until after His Ascension, as Socinus and others teach, then the Cross was not an Altar, and our LORD'S Death was therefore not a Sacrifice. Even if He were then a Priest, and yet did not make the presentation of His Blood until after His Ascension into heaven, the Sacrifice was only begun upon the Cross, was, therefore, incomplete, and the statement in the and the stateCanon of the English Liturgy that He "made there, by His one Oblation of Himself once offered, a full, perfect, and sufficient Sacrifice, Oblation, and Satisfaction for the sins of the whole world" is not consistent with this fact. There is no possible escape from one of two facts,—that our LORD's Sacrifice was finished on the Cross, and that mankind was there and then redeemed, or that its essential part was offered in heaven, and that man's Redemption did not take place until after the Ascension. ing upon the Cross was not a S. ment in the English Prayer of Consecration is untrue. V. If, for the sake of argument, we assume for a v. If the Socin* Sadler, The One Offering, p. 44. assumed, how are we to ex ian position be moment the latter alternative, how are we to explain not merely "the conviction of the Christian Church in every land and age," but the following statements in Holy Scripture? plain 1. the words, "It is finished;" 2. our LORD'S 1. The words of our LORD upon the Cross : It is finished, " which have always been interpreted in connection with His other saying, "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work," + as CHRIST's own testimony on the Cross to the fact that His FATHER'S work was done and man was redeemed. 2. The statement of S. Peter that CHRIST was "put work in Hades; to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, by which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison." This, together with other passages, has led to the belief that our LORD as Victor, through the power of His completed Redemption, brought out from Hades the "prisoners of hope," the Fathers of the Old Covenant. In connection with this we may notice that S. Leo, speaking of the triumph of the Cross, says: "So swift was the effect of faith, that of the robbers crucified with CHRIST, he who believed in CHRIST the SON of GOD entered Paradise justified."§ But how could he have been so "swiftly "justified if the meritorious cause of his justification, the Sacrifice of CHRIST, was not to be offered for some forty-three days? 3. our LORD'S 3. The salutation which our LORD addressed to His gift of peace on Disciples immediately after His Resurrection, "Peace be unto you." || It has been pointed out again and Easter Day; * S. John xix. 30. † S. John iv. 34. 1 S. Pet. iii. 18, 19. Leo Magnus, Sermo lv. (alias liii.), De Passione Domini. S. John xx. 19. again by the Fathers of the Church, that this gift of peace implied that peace had been made between GOD and man, which would not have been the case if that which was the meritorious cause of our justification had not then been completed. gift of absolu tion on Easter Day; 4. On the evening of Easter Day, when our LORD 4. our LORD'S breathed upon the Apostles, He said: Receive ye the HOLY GHOST: whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained." This surely implied that the gift of pardon was already His to bestow, and was not something still in the future, awaiting the presentation of His Blood, and therefore the accomplishment of the Sacrifice. 5. But perhaps the strongest passage of all is our LORD'S statement made to the Disciples assembled on the mountain in Galilee: All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth." This power was certainly given to the Son of Man only as the consequence of the accomplishment of His redeeming work, as merited by His finished Sacrifice. VI. We have now to investigate carefully the objection that our LORD was not a Priest, and that His Death was not a Sacrifice, but a martyrdom. The most satisfactory way of meeting these difficulties will be to show when our LORD became a Priest, and precisely in what manner His sacrificial act as a Priest was performed. 1. Was our LORD a Priest when He died on the Cross? And if so, when did He become a Priest? Catholic theologians have generally taken the following passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews as the basis of their answer to this question: For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats From Heb. x. 4-9, Theologians unanimously answer, At the Incarnation. the HOLY GHOST at His Baptism considered. should take away sins. Wherefore when He cometh into the world, He saith, Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, But a body didst Thou prepare for Me; In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hadst no pleasure: Then said I, Lo, I am come (In the roll of the book it is written of Me) To do Thy will, O GOD. Saying above, Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein (the which are offered according to the law), then hath He said, Lo, I am come to do Thy will. He taketh away the first, that He may establish the second." * Since these words are evidently to be referred to the moment of the Incarnation, theologians have unanimously taught that CHRIST then became a Priest; that the unction of the Priesthood was the anointing of His The Unction of Human Nature by the HOLY GHOST at the moment of the Incarnation. Some of the Fathers see in the descent of the HOLY GHOST at our LORD's Baptism, and the declaration, "This is My beloved SON, in whom I am well pleased,' an unction to the Priesthood and a proclamation of that office, † as they also see in the Voice from heaven at the Transfiguration the proclamation of our LORD's Prophetical Office, and in the Voice in the Temple on Palm Sunday that of His Regal Office. Yet they do not thereby imply that our LORD was constituted Prophet, Priest, and King by these respective proclamations, but on the contrary they recognize that, *Heb. x. 4-9. † Cf. S. Peter Damian, Opusc., vi., c. 4. since from the first moment of His Incarnation He was Prophet, teaching by His whole life as well as by His words, and since at His Nativity His Kingship was recognized by the royal gifts offered by the Magi, so His Priesthood also dates from his Incarnation. Indeed, the three gifts of the Magi are commonly considered as a testimony that He was then Prophet, Priest, and King. The proclamation at His Baptism, therefore, is generally explained, not as the beginning of His potential Priesthood (as Socinus takes it), but as the beginning of His public ministry, and, therefore, of the exercise of His Office.* That the above passage from the Epistle to the Hebrews is distinctly sacrificial, is most obvious. It has been thus paraphrased: "Behold, I come; in the roll of the Pentateuch (which, through the typical ritual of the Law, witnesses not only in a general sense to Me, but to My unique Sacrifice) it is written of Me that I should fulfil Thy will. But this will refers to a sacrifice quite different from any under the Law, to that Sacrifice which consists in the offering of My Body. Moreover, in saying that GOD did not desire legal oblations, and that He did not find satisfaction in legal sacrifices, and then in adding, ' Behold, I come to do Thy will,' the legal sacrifices are abrogated, and a new Sacrifice instituted. But the character of this new Sacrifice is clearly intimated in the revelation of that will of the FATHER which CHRIST came to fulfil, the will, that is, that He should offer the Sacrifice of His Body. But the purpose of this will was that through that offering, once for all, of the Body of CHRIST We * The whole subject is treated in Petavius, De Incarnatione, 1. xii., c. xi., n. 5, and in Pearson, On the Creed, at great length. Summary of the argument from Heb. x. 4-9. |