Sect. 260Sacrifices and Divine WorshipSacrifices and Divine Worship
I. History knows of no religion without some form of sacrifice. Jews and Gentiles, civilized and uncivilized nations, have found in human reason, and in the religious instinct common to all, a natural impulse to communicate with the Supreme Being by means of gifts, called sacrifices on account of the sacred character they receive from being destined for Divine acceptance. As between man and man, so between man and God, gifts of things visible serve to express the invisible feelings of esteem and gratitude, to conciliate benevolence, and to atone for misdeeds. There is, then, in gifts to God, or sacrifices, an innate aptitude to be the external manifestation of all the acts of Divine worship—adoration, thanksgiving, petition, propitiation or expiation.
II. The natural aptitude of a gift to be the subject-matter of acts of worship, receives its final form when, by private intention or authorized institution, certain sacrifices are set apart to express certain acts of worship. Public worship necessarily postulates public institution by lawful authority. This alone can determine the signification of the single acts for the whole community, and impart to the whole system the uniformity required by society considered as a unit. In the supernatural order the lawful authority is God. He alone determines which sacrifices He accepts, for what purposes He accepts them, and by whom they are to be offered. Scripture—at least since the Mosaic legislation—is most explicit in this matter. Nothing essential is left to the arbitrary decision of man: God has revealed the matter and form, and the minister of the sacrifices by which He commands us to worship Him.
III. The whole character of the sacrificial institutions of the Old Testament was temporary, and typical of the great sacrifice of the New Law. The Epistle to the Hebrews is devoted to the demonstration of this proposition. The Levitical priesthood, “who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things” (Heb. 8:5), foreshadowed and pointed to the “High Priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of majesty in the heavens, a minister of the holies, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord hath pitched, and not man” (ibid. 1, 2). The sacrifices and ceremonies and the whole external worship were imperfect and powerless as to the expiation of sins. They produced only legal expiations, “the cleansing of the flesh,” thus expressing the necessity of an internal expiation and of the sacrifice of Christ, by which this true expiation is accomplished. “The Holy Ghost signifying this, that the way into the holies was not yet made manifest, whilst the former tabernacle was yet standing. Which is a parable of the time present; according to which gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot, as to the conscience, make him perfect that serveth, only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and justices of the flesh laid on them until the time of correction (διωρθώσεως). But Christ, being come an High Priest of the good things to come, … by His own blood, entered once into the holies, having obtained eternal redemption” (Heb. 9:8–12 sqq.).
IV. “Entering once (ἐφάπαξ, ‘once for all’) into the holies, Christ obtained eternal redemption;” that is, He acquired merit sufficient to redeem all mankind. His sacrifice has consummated the work of redemption: it need not and cannot be repeated (cf. Book V. § 196). It deprives of their object the ancient sacrifices, which were but “an oblation for sin,” a confession of impotence to give due satisfaction. It also excludes a repetition of itself for the purpose of further merit. But it implies, or at least does not exclude, a representation of itself for the application to individual members of mankind of the infinite treasure of grace gained by Christ. In view of the way in which saving grace is applied to man, viz. by the free use of the means of grace, and in view of the nature of public worship, of which sacrifice is the central and most solemn act, a perennial representation of Onrist’s sacrifice appears as a most fitting element in the organism of the supernatural order. The Council of Trent adopts this view (sess. xxii. ch. 1).
I. History knows of no religion without some form of sacrifice. Jews and Gentiles, civilized and uncivilized nations, have found in human reason, and in the religious instinct common to all, a natural impulse to communicate with the Supreme Being by means of gifts, called sacrifices on account of the sacred character they receive from being destined for Divine acceptance. As between man and man, so between man and God, gifts of things visible serve to express the invisible feelings of esteem and gratitude, to conciliate benevolence, and to atone for misdeeds. There is, then, in gifts to God, or sacrifices, an innate aptitude to be the external manifestation of all the acts of Divine worship—adoration, thanksgiving, petition, propitiation or expiation.
II. The natural aptitude of a gift to be the subject-matter of acts of worship, receives its final form when, by private intention or authorized institution, certain sacrifices are set apart to express certain acts of worship. Public worship necessarily postulates public institution by lawful authority. This alone can determine the signification of the single acts for the whole community, and impart to the whole system the uniformity required by society considered as a unit. In the supernatural order the lawful authority is God. He alone determines which sacrifices He accepts, for what purposes He accepts them, and by whom they are to be offered. Scripture—at least since the Mosaic legislation—is most explicit in this matter. Nothing essential is left to the arbitrary decision of man: God has revealed the matter and form, and the minister of the sacrifices by which He commands us to worship Him.
III. The whole character of the sacrificial institutions of the Old Testament was temporary, and typical of the great sacrifice of the New Law. The Epistle to the Hebrews is devoted to the demonstration of this proposition. The Levitical priesthood, “who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things” (Heb. 8:5), foreshadowed and pointed to the “High Priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of majesty in the heavens, a minister of the holies, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord hath pitched, and not man” (ibid. 1, 2). The sacrifices and ceremonies and the whole external worship were imperfect and powerless as to the expiation of sins. They produced only legal expiations, “the cleansing of the flesh,” thus expressing the necessity of an internal expiation and of the sacrifice of Christ, by which this true expiation is accomplished. “The Holy Ghost signifying this, that the way into the holies was not yet made manifest, whilst the former tabernacle was yet standing. Which is a parable of the time present; according to which gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot, as to the conscience, make him perfect that serveth, only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and justices of the flesh laid on them until the time of correction (διωρθώσεως). But Christ, being come an High Priest of the good things to come, … by His own blood, entered once into the holies, having obtained eternal redemption” (Heb. 9:8–12 sqq.).
IV. “Entering once (ἐφάπαξ, ‘once for all’) into the holies, Christ obtained eternal redemption;” that is, He acquired merit sufficient to redeem all mankind. His sacrifice has consummated the work of redemption: it need not and cannot be repeated (cf. Book V. § 196). It deprives of their object the ancient sacrifices, which were but “an oblation for sin,” a confession of impotence to give due satisfaction. It also excludes a repetition of itself for the purpose of further merit. But it implies, or at least does not exclude, a representation of itself for the application to individual members of mankind of the infinite treasure of grace gained by Christ. In view of the way in which saving grace is applied to man, viz. by the free use of the means of grace, and in view of the nature of public worship, of which sacrifice is the central and most solemn act, a perennial representation of Onrist’s sacrifice appears as a most fitting element in the organism of the supernatural order. The Council of Trent adopts this view (sess. xxii. ch. 1).
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