Page:Faithcatholics.pdf/344

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by calling the Sacrifice clean, he plainly denotes of what victim he spoke. And finally, the offerings will be made, not in Israel, but in all nations. In every place he says, evidently shewing, that wherever the sun sheds its light, there the Gospel shall be preached. He speaks of a clean offering, not as if, by its own nature, that of the Jews had been unclean, unless through the will of the offerers. Wherefore God said: their incense is an abomination to me. Nevertheless, if our present Sacrifice be compared with the former, so vast will the difference be found, that ours alone can merit the name of clean." Adv. Judæos, Orat. v. T. 1. p. 647. “ The office of Priesthood is, indeed, performed on earth, but it should itself be referred to the class and order of things celestial. Wherefore it is necessary, that the Priest be pure, as if, placed in heaven, he stood among the celestial spirits.-For when you behold the Lord immolated, and the Priest presiding over the Sacrifice, and pouring out prayers, and then the surrounding multitude partaking of the sacred blood, (n) can you, at that moment, fancy, you are among mortals, and dwelling on the earth ? Rather, are you not transported to the heavens ? De Sacerd. L. iii. c. iv. T. 1. p. 382.–“But when the Priest shall have invoked the holy Spirit, and shall have completed this tremendous and awful Sacrifice, the common Lord of all being handled by him:(0) I ask you, in what rank shall we place him? And what integrity of life, and what sense of religion shall we not demand from him? Reflect, what those hands should be; what the tongue that utters those words; how pure and holy the soul that has been so honoured. Meanwhile, the angels stand by the Priest, the army of heavenly powers cry out, and the space around the altar is filled by them in ho-