the Only-Begotten SON, Who taketh away the sins of the world, Who ceaseth not offering Himself for us, and defendeth us in His Presence with a perpetual advocacy; because being sacrificed He never dieth, but being slain He ever liveth.” d This Sacrifice of CHRIST then was perfect and complete on the Cross, as far as concerns the bloody mactation or slaying of the Victim. And as the remission of sins is connected with this actual mactation, for "without shedding of blood is no remission; "e so "where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin." And we thence conclude that, strictly speaking, the Atonement was wrought absolutely on the Cross, and has thence effected our justification; as S. Paul saith, "But GOD commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, CHRIST died for us. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to Gop by the death of His SON, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."8 "We are sanctified" then "through the offering of the body of JESUS CHRIST once for all (páma§)." And that offering, as made by Himself, admits of no repetition or iteration.

But here arises a difficulty from the discrepancy existing between the Sacrifice of CHRIST on the Cross and those which preceded and prefigured It; for here the Priest and the Victim or Sacrifice is identical. Now in the type of the Atonement, namely, the sin-offering of the day of expiation, Aaron's work of atonement was incomplete in the mere mactation of the bullock and the goat, which was done at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation; he had to take of the blood within the vail into the Holy of Holies, and there make atonement by burning incense and sprinkling the blood upon and before the mercy-seat. "Into the second (tabernacle) went the High Priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people: the HOLY GHOST this signifying, that the way into the holiest

of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing. But CHRIST being come an High Priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." As the application of the ancient typical sacrifice required the acts subsequent to the mactation, as Aaron's entering within the vail and censing and sprinkling with blood the Mercy-seat, although the shedding of blood was the pledge of remission of sins; so in the anti-type the benefits of the Atonement are applied to the Elect by the imperishable Priesthood of IMMANUEL, by His effectual intercessions at His FATHER'S right hand (typified by the 'incense beaten small '), by His perpetual pleading of His meritorious Cross and Passion. "We have such an High Priest, Who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the LORD pitched, and not man." k "But this Man, because He continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them."1 And as this supplemental part of the Atonement is being still carried on by our High Priest in the heavens, so is it continually represented on earth by those to whom He hath given "the ministry of reconciliation "m in the sacramental Sacrifice of the Eucharist, wherein we "do show the LORD's death till He come." n S. Paul alludes to this exhibition of our Redemption, coupled with the previous seal of justification in Baptism, still tracing the analogy with Aaron's preparatory rite of purification. "Having therefore boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of JESUS, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; and having an High Priest over the house of GOD; let us draw near with

Heb. ix. 7, 8, 11, 12.

Ibid. viii. 1, 2.

1 Ib. vii. 24, 25.

m 2 Cor. v. 18.

1 Cor. xi. 26,

• Lev. xvi. 4.

a true heart with full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water." P

"The Body and Blood of CHRIST, once offered on the Cross," says Cassander, " is a perpetual sacrifice for the salvation of the whole world, which being once offered cannot be consumed, but remains efficacious to the remission of daily offences; wherefore also CHRIST, having a perpetual Priesthood in the heavens, in a manner daily offers this perpetual sacrifice for us, when He intercedes with the FATHER for us. And so the ministers of the Church in pursuance of His commandment daily offer that same Body of CHRIST, by way of a mystical representation and commemoration of the Sacrifice. once for all performed; the Perpetual Victim of which Sacrifice, sitting in heaven at His FATHER'S right hand, they have present on the holy Table; through Whom they supplicate GOD the FATHER, that He would make the grace of this Perpetual Victim to be effectual to all needs of body and soul; and because the virtue of this Sacrifice belongs equally to the living and to the dead, this Sacrifice is said to be offered for them also, for whom the virtue thereof is said to be effectual. Here therefore is no new Sacrifice; for there is here both the same Victim which was offered on the Cross, and a commemoration in a mystery of that Sacrifice performed on the Cross, and a representation of the Priesthood continued in the heavens, and an image of the Sacrifice of CHRIST; whereby is not effected a new propitiation and remission of sins, but that which was once for all sufficiently done on the Cross is besought to be efficacious for us also. And so the Ancients had an account in this mystical Sacrifice not so much of the Oblation once for all accomplished on the Cross, whereof the memory is here celebrated, as of the perpetual Priesthood and continual Sacrifice, which the everlasting Priest offers in heaven; the image whereof is here expressed by the solemn prayers of the ministers. Wherefore this Sacrifice is said to be done for the common salvation of all, but as an unbloody one, (and as Tertullian expresses it) with pure prayer." a

Heb. x. 19-22.

• Consultatio Cassandri, ap. Opp. pp. 998, 9.

289

CHAPTER XVI.

OF CHRIST'S DESCENT INTO HELL, OF HIS RESURRECTION,
AND ASCENSION.

§. 1. CHRIST, having truly suffered in the flesh, descended into Hell or Hades in His soul hypostatically united with His Godhead. The Scripture proof of this statement is clear and consistent. S. Paul saith of Him, "When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things.")" S. Peter expounds the lower parts of the earth' by 'hell,' or some impalpable, invisible, mysterious region or place, to express which we are forced to borrow material images implying time and locality. Nor can it be explained away by reference to the grave, because it is expressly stated that it was 'the soul' of JESUS which was not left in hell;' nor yet pretended that the pains of death' merely mean His sufferings on the cross, for when He surrendered His soul or spirit into His FATHER'S hands, He had said, 'It is finished.' The pains of death,' which GOD loosed' in JESUS, seem to be the absence of the full light of GOD's countenance, and the earnest longing wherewith the souls of those who died before the Atonement had been completed yearned for the manifestation of the sons of GOD; which 'pains' of privation might affect those 'prisoners of hope,' who like David are not ascended into the heavens,' but could not assail JESUS; "Whom God hath because it was not

raised, having loosed the pains of death:

possible that He should be holden of it. For David speaketh concerning Him, 'I foresaw the LORD always before my face, for He is on my right hand, that I should not be moved : therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: because Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption.' He (David) seeing this before spake of the resurrection of CHRIST, that His soul was not left in hell, neither His flesh did see corruption."t

S. Peter further declares the fact of CHRIST'S descent into Hell, and mysteriously hints at its object. "For CHRIST also hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to GOD, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit (or, in the spirit): by which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of GOD waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water." " The words of Zechariah are mystically applied to express the waiting of the souls of the Fathers in Hades for the joyful Advent of CHRIST among them; "As for thee, by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water." What change the descent of CHRIST actually wrought in the condition of the souls of the Fathers may not perhaps be determined with certainty; though some of the ancients scruple not to assert, that it was to make the Patriarchs and Prophets possessors of CHRIST, and to translate them to Paradise as 'appendices' of His Re

Acts ii. 24-27.

1 S. Pet. iii. 18-20. I am inclined to interpret 'spirit' here of the soul of JESUS, as contrasted with His flesh ; θανατωθεὶς μὲν σαρκί, ζωοποιηθεὶς δὲ τῷ πνεύματι. Whether the disobedient spirits,' here mentioned, refer to those who perished on earth from their non-compliance with or disobedience to Noah's preaching, or to some traditional and ancient exposition of the 'sons of GOD' who loved the daughters of men,' implying a Fall of Angels, is a matter of insuperable difficulty. For if CHRIST's preaching in Hell