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Fulfilment of the Figures* 33
cording to the order of Melchisedech* The priesthood of
Jesus Christ will, therefore, be eternal, since, even after
the end of the world, he will always continue to offer in
heaven this same victim that he once offered on the
Cross for the glory
kind.
The third condition of the sacrifice namely, the im
molation of the victim was evidently accomplished by
the death of our Lord on the Cross.
There remains for us yet to verify, in the Sacrifice of
of God and for the salvation of man
Jesus Christ, the two other conditions requisite to ren
der a sacrifice perfect that is, the consumption of the vic
tim and the partaking of it.
It is then asked, What was this consumption of the
victim in the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ? for although his
body was by death separated from his holy soul, yet it
was not consumed, nor destroyed.
The anonymous author of whom I
spoke in the begin
ning, says that this fourth condition was fulfilled by the
resurrection of our Lord
; for, then, his adorable body
was divested of all that is terrestrial and mortal, and
was clothed in divine glory. He adds that it is this
glory that Jesus
Christ asked of his Father before his
death: And now glorify Thou me, O Father, with Thyself,
with the glory which I had, before the world was, with Thee?
Our Lord did not ask this glory for his divinity, since
the Word
he possessed
it from all eternity as being
equal to the Father; but he asked it for his humanity,
and he obtained it at his resurrection, by which he
entered in a certain manner into his divine glory.
In speaking of the fifth condition, which is, the par
taking of the victim, or Communion, the same author
" 1
Tu es Sacerdos in aeternum secundum ordinem Melchisedech."
2 "
Ps. cix. 4.
Et nunc clarinca me tu, Pater, apud temetipsum, claritatr
quam habui, priusquam mundus fieret, apud te." John, xvii. 5.