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the seven spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth.” In this vision, is revealed to us, the High Priest and Bishop of our souls, as both Priest and Sacrifice, appearing for us in Heaven, in the presence, and before the throne of God, in that he is said to be there as a Lumb slain. Again; He is represented as the chief "Bishop and Shepherd of our souls," in that He is said to have " seven horns and seven eyes," both signifying the seven spirits or angels of God, sent forth into all the earth "to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation ;" and signified and represented by the seven Deacons, who, in the first days of Christianity, attended the Bishop, and were called-oculi Episcopi -the eyes of the Bishop.2

We see also the representation of the Bishops' Presbytery in the four and twenty Elders; and the Christian assembly in the four Beasts, which were on the standards of the four camps of the Israelites in the wilderness; and both these last, as performing the offices of the inferior Priests, and Levites, and people of Israel, in falling down and worshipping, and saying, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing."3

We have now seen the "true" or real worship of God, both as it is done before the throne of His

1 Heb. i. 14.

2 Vide 14th Canon of Neocæsarea.

3 For part of this explanation and for an exhaustive treatise on the subject-See Scandret on the Christian Sacrifice.

most awful Majesty in heaven, and as He has been pleased to ordain and institute it to be performed on earth. That it is (Christ having appeared with His glorified body in heaven), a true, real, and material offering which God is pleased to accept. In heaven, the real vicarious offering of the Lamb slain from the beginning:-on earth the real material memorials of the same by his constituted, and representative Priests at the Christian Altar.

Under the Levitical dispensation, we have the typical sacrifice of the Paschal Lamb-the offering of flesh and blood. Under the Evangelical, we have the memorial Eucharistic sacrifice-the offering of Bread and Wine. The one was the symbolical representation of the great vicarious sacrifice of Christ, ordained under the more severe dispensation of the Law; the other the memorial oblation of the same, under the milder dispensation of Evangelical ordinances. In the former the blood was to be brought and sprinkled by the priest on the altar; in the latter the bread and wine are brought, offered, and pleaded before God as the material, visible memorial of Christ's "one offering" of Himself for the sins of the whole world; it is the outward, ordained, and visible symbol of God's renewed covenant with man; an outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual grace vouchsafed to the redeemed and sanctified people of God, and a "pledge to assure them thereof."

But some say "we are justified by faith ;" which, rightly received, is doubtless the Catholic doctrine; but it will not, I think, be disputed that the mystical offering of the blood of the sacrifice, was but darkly apprehended by the Jewish people. Let us consider of what avail would faith have been to the Jew, apart from his obedience to the instituted ordinance of God. He doubtless had faith in God, although he saw not the mystical offering of Christ in the blood of the sacrifice; and yet, will it be denied that this typical offering availed for the removal and remission of sins? and how? by faith? or by obedience through faith?

Again; let us consider what this faith is, of which so large an account is made in the present day. Grant that it is a true, sincere faith, and better even than the faith of Abraham or Moses, or the Prophets; shall we make it-being only a qualification, a grace bestowed upon us, by which we are made fit objects of the mercy and pardon of God— shall we make it, let us ask ourselves, any more than we should our good works, or our repentance, or anything else we call ours-a legal demand for the remission of sins, while we are "treading under foot the Son of God, and counting the blood of the covenant, whereby we are sanctified, an unholy thing?" Suppose the Jew had said, "I believe in the efficacy of sacrifice, and doubt not but that God, according to

1 Heb. x. 29.

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His word, will make it effectual to the saving of his people; but as He requires truth in the inward parts, a spiritual worship, and needeth not an outward sign, seeing He looketh upon the heart of man, I will rest upon His mercies through the merits of this sacrifice, though I outwardly partake not of it." But," some will perhaps argue, "the Jewish sacrifice was the only mode by which the people of God could then approach Him acceptably." Most true; but let me earnestly ask, what excuse we shall have to offer, if it should prove, as the Catholic Church has ever held, that the Eucharistic sacrifice, is even now, the only acceptable way in which we can approach the throne of God? Observe: "by faith, Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness that is by faith." "By faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac; and he that had received the promises, offered up his only begotten son-accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure." Abraham had" received the promises," and yet he was obedient unto the heavenly word, and offered up his only begotten son. Was it faith, or the work done in faith, that was "counted unto him for righteousness?" Was it in Abraham's belief, or in his obedience, in

1 Heb. xi. 7.

2 Heb. xi. 17-19.

the offering up of his only son as the type of that sacrifice which was to save the world? "Was not Abraham our father, justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the Altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness." Let us ever remember that faith is a qualification only, given by the grace of God, by which we are enabled to apprehend and adore his goodness in his own great work of redemption. The pardon of sin is the work of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, as our Priest and Sacrifice. It is not by pleading our faith, but by worshipping in faith, after the pattern he has set before us; which is in bringing into His presence, and offering up, and pleading before Him, by his substituted Priests on earth, not our faith, but the all-prevailing sacrifice of His Son in the commanded memorials-visible-material-of the Body and Blood of Christ; his representative Priests doing on earth, humbly at a distance, and in mystery, that which He, in His own person, is doing in Heaven gloriously, before the Majesty of God, in reality and truth.

The Jews sacrificed such things as God had appointed; being offered in the first place, in acknowledgment of His temporal gifts; these very offerings

1 James ii. 21, 23.

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