As if he said in other words: therefore the high priest alone with blood entered once into the Holy of Holies, that we might learn that the heavenly kingdom was as yet inaccessible to mortals, until Christ should come, who, His passion accomplished, would open to us the gate of the heavenly homeland, the veil being unbarred, that is, heaven: for the way of the saints, of entering into the heavenly homeland, was not yet manifest; or the understanding was not made manifest: because men were ignorant what those mysteries signified. Nor let us think that we cannot enter there because our High Priest entered first: for He Himself says to the Father: 'Father, I will that where I am, they also may be with Me.' And elsewhere: 'Where I am, there also shall My minister be.'
And because the temple was still standing when the Apostle was speaking these things, and the legal gifts, although without cause, were being offered there, therefore he subjoined, saying: 'The former tabernacle yet having its standing: which'—understand: thing—'is a parable'—that is, a figure and likeness—'of the time instant'—or present: because what was performed in the temple at that time was a figure and likeness of that truth which was also being fulfilled in the Church. There follows: 'According to which'—understand: parable or figure—'gifts and sacrifices are offered'—still there by the priests—'which'—gifts or sacrifices—'cannot make perfect, as pertaining to the conscience, him that serves.' The conscience is called the knowledge of the heart, through which the mind of man is understood.
'Those carnal gifts,' he says, 'could not render perfect in the perfection of the mind him that serves in the Law, because they were not able to justify the mind, since they did not take away sins': for the Law brought no one to perfection. But wherein for the most part the cleansing of the Law consisted, he subsequently shows, saying: 'Only in meats, and in drinks, and various baptisms, and justices of the flesh.' Understand: it seemed to make perfect him that serves. 'Until the time of correction'—that is, of amendment and emendation—'imposed'—these justices of the flesh.
These carnal justices, in the distinction of meats and drinks, and various baptisms or washings, were imposed until the time of the Lord's coming, as also the rest which were performed in figure: but upon the Lord's coming, they were corrected, that is, amended, and changed for the better. For by the clean animals, which the Law enjoins to be eaten, clean works are signified; but by the unclean animals, unclean works are understood, from which one must abstain. But by clean drinks, the teaching of ecclesiastical men; and by unclean ones, the teaching of heretics we ought nonetheless to understand.
Concerning the washings of the Jews one may read more fully in the Gospel of Mark, where the Pharisees found fault with the Lord and his disciples for eating with unwashed hands; for by the name of baptism he designates all their washings. Sometimes they washed only their hands, sometimes their feet, sometimes the whole body, whenever they touched anything unclean, or even if they went in to a dead person. But in vain do they wash their hands and their body, while they scorn to be cleansed at the Saviour's font. For what the Prophet says, 'Be washed, be clean, and be purified, you who carry the vessels of the Lord,' they understood only in a carnal sense, whereas it was rather spoken of the washing of Christ's baptism and the purity of works.
All these things were imposed until the time of reformation, that is, until the time of the Lord's coming; but afterwards they were changed by Christ for the better. For while they were observed carnally, they fulfilled a cleansing of the body; but when they began to be observed spiritually, they likewise began to effect a cleansing of the soul. But Christ, standing as High Priest of the good things to come, through a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. The High Priest of the Jews, who once a year entered within the veil into the Holy of Holies with blood, to pray for the people, signified Christ the Lord, as has already been declared in many places:
who with the blood of his own passion, heaven being unlocked, entered the secret places of the heavenly homeland, where now he stands before the face of God for us. Now he is called High Priest of the good things to come in two ways. For the future good things which he himself administered to us were the heavenly words, his own nativity, his baptism, his passion, his resurrection, the remission of sins, and perfect justification: which are for this reason called future good things, either because they were prefigured in the mysteries, or also because they were foretold in the divine oracles. But by a loftier understanding we may take the future good things to be the joys of the heavenly homeland, which have been ministered to us through Christ:
whence too he is called Pontifex (Bridge-builder, High Priest), because he has shown us the bridge, that is, the way of righteousness by which to ascend to the heavenly homeland. Another rendering has, 'Christ coming as High Priest of the things to come'; for unless he had come, he would in no way have administered the future good things to us, nor would he stand before the face of God for us. It is to be noted that the Apostle did not simply say that he stands, but 'through a tabernacle'; and he used the comparative degree, saying 'greater and more perfect.' Now the tabernacle through which he stands before God the Father is his humanity: since unless he had become man, he could in no way have stood before God the Father. Therefore the tabernacle, the body of the Lord, is greater than the tabernacle of Moses, and than the tabernacle of Solomon; for those were made by the hands of carnal men:
but this was formed within the womb of the Virgin, without the seed of man, by the work of the whole Trinity. It is greater and larger than those tabernacles in this respect, that the divinity of the Word, which in its entirety cannot be contained in a tabernacle made with hands, rests most fully in that Man; and it is more perfect or more holy than those tabernacles in this, that neither of them could sanctify those who ministered in them, nor make them perfect. What he said, 'not made with hands,' he himself explained, saying, 'that is, not of this creation of which we are,' because it was not compacted of the seed of a man. This is the stone which Daniel saw cut out of the mountain without hands, that is, born of the people of the Jews without the seed of man and without the intercourse of a male.
Not through the blood of goats or of calves, but through his own blood he entered in once, having obtained eternal redemption. Not with the blood of the legal animals, from which justification could not perfectly be given, but with the blood of his own passion he entered into the heavenly homeland: by which blood all are redeemed and perfectly justified, not by a temporal, but by an eternal redemption. Of this redemption it is said through Zechariah: 'He has visited us, and wrought the redemption of his people.' Now redemption pertains to captives, and we were captives, taken captive by the devil in our first parent.
For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled, sanctify the defiled unto the cleansing of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the Holy Spirit offered himself unspotted to God, cleanse our conscience from dead works to serve the living God! If the blood of irrational animals could cleanse the flesh, and, as it then seemed, one was sanctified, if any unclean person had been sprinkled with that blood: much more could the blood of Christ cleanse the soul and justify it most fully. But lest anyone should suppose that full justification and cleansing came from the sprinkling of that legal blood, the Apostle added that a cleansing of the flesh according to the law was given through it:
as if he said, 'The flesh indeed is sanctified and cleansed by reason of the precept of the law: yet the soul is not expiated.' He added also the cause of the difference, by which he showed that the blood of those animals was not unspotted, saying of Christ: 'Who through the Holy Spirit offered himself unspotted to God.' The Holy Spirit, who filled that Man in the virginal womb, kept him so that he passed from this world without sin, and was an unspotted sacrifice, unto an odour of sweetness to God the Father. 'He shall cleanse our conscience,' that is, our mind. 'From dead works.' Dead works are the sins which slay the soul: for just as the soul lives by the virtues, which are called works of life:
so it dies by vices and sins, and at the same time is dragged to the death of eternal perdition; and he well said, 'from dead works': for if anyone under the law touched a dead body, he was defiled, yet by the sprinkling of blood he was afterwards cleansed: similarly, whoever has imitated the work of a dead soul is defiled, yet through faith in the Lord's passion he is cleansed. 'For he who touches pitch shall be defiled by it': that is, if anyone has been washed from dead works through penitence and the grace of baptism, if he touches those same things again, he will be contaminated. There follows: 'To serve the living God.' Here he most fittingly shows that those who have dead works cannot serve the true and living God, because those works are dead and false:
for if he who touched a dead body or anything unclean ought not to enter the temple, how much more shall one who has dead works be unable to enter heaven? And therefore he is the Mediator of the New Testament, so that by means of a death intervening. Or coming between. For the redemption of those transgressions which were under the former Testament, they who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. For where there is a testament, it is necessary that a death intervene. Or come between. Of the testator. For a testament is confirmed among the dead; otherwise. That is, otherwise. It is not yet of force. The testament is firm while he lives. He. Who has made the testament.
The Apostle here seems to touch upon human laws, which are wont to confirm a testament, which one man makes to another concerning his inheritance, only when the testator of that testament has departed by an intervening death; but when that testator who made the testament is dead, it then remains altogether firm. In this manner the testament of eternal life, which we have received from Christ, could not otherwise remain firm for us, unless he had ratified it by his own death. For so great was our sin, that we could not otherwise be redeemed and saved, unless the only-begotten Son of God should die for us;
and because we were unworthy to attain that which he himself had promised, he became our mediator by his own death, so that through his own undeserved death he might take away that death which was owed to us. And because perhaps many less perfect ones might doubt concerning the promises of the Lord, especially from the fact that he died, as though weak, the blessed Apostle sets forth examples, showing from the common custom of human laws that testaments are not confirmed and do not receive their force while the testators are living, but when they are dying: for as long as the testator lives, he can change his sentence; wherefore the Apostle, wishing the testament which Christ left us to be firm, says the same, declaring:
Christ is the Mediator of the New Testament, so that by his own death intervening for the redemption of those transgressions which could not be taken away and blotted out under the former Testament—but were blotted out through his passion—those who have been called by an eternal calling might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance; for he does not here speak of the general calling, of which the Lord says, 'Many are called, but few are chosen,' but of that calling of which the same distinguished preacher says, speaking of the elect: 'Whom he foreknew, them he also predestined; and whom he predestined, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified.'
Now the title-deed of the eternal inheritance we already possess in part in the present age, the Gospel having been given to us by the Lord—namely, the Gospel of him who makes those who keep it live eternally with God: the grace of the Holy Spirit, the remission of sins, the knowledge of himself, and the peace which he left us as he went to his passion: 'Peace,' he says, 'I leave with you.' This title-deed of the inheritance we have in the present as a pledge, but it will be more perfectly fulfilled for us when God shall be all in all, when Christ shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father, when we shall have been brought to the joys of the heavenly homeland, in which the elect shall be as the angels of God in heaven, seeing God as he is.
And this shall be the perfect inheritance of the elect, which Christ confirmed in his death. Whence not even the first was dedicated without blood. That is, confirmed and consecrated. For when every commandment of the law had been read by Moses to all the people, taking the blood of calves and of goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, he sprinkled both the book itself and all the people. All these things were done in figure: for that calf, which for the most part was the priest's, signified Christ, who, being the true Priest, offered the calf, that is, himself, to God the Father on the altar of the cross. This is the calf which the father killed for the return of the prodigal son.
The goat also, which was offered for sin, signifies the same Christ, who was offered for sinners: according to what the same Apostle elsewhere says: 'Him who knew no sin, God the Father made sin for us,' that is, a victim for sin. For as the Old Testament was sprinkled with blood for its confirmation, so likewise the people was typically signified—that the New Testament was to be confirmed by the blood of Christ's passion, and the believing people to be cleansed. Now the water with which the people was sprinkled is baptismal water, with which the faithful are washed. The scarlet wool signifies the love of Christ, with which he suffered for us, and of which it is elsewhere said: 'So God loved the world, that he gave his Only-begotten for the world.'
Hyssop is a lowly herb, growing in the rock, by which is signified the humility of Christ and his strength, by which our inward parts are purged: for by a species of this herb the ailments of the lungs are wont to be cured. By hyssop penance may also be understood, which, once accomplished, purges the inward vices of the mind. Saying: 'This is the blood of the testament which God has enjoined unto you.' As if he said: this is the confirmation of this testament which God has enjoined unto you: that blood prefigured the blood which flowed from the side of Christ on the cross: with this blood Christ both sprinkled us and confirmed his testament, as he himself said, 'This is the blood of the New Testament, unto the remission of sins.'
He likewise sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. By the tabernacle are to be understood those of whom God says through the prophet: 'I will dwell in them, and walk among them'; and of whom the Apostle elsewhere says: 'The temple of God is holy, which you are.' The vessels are the various faithful of the Church having various offices: for some are vessels of preaching, like Paul, of whom the Lord said to Ananias: 'This man is a vessel of election unto me.' And some have various grades and diverse offices, which the same distinguished one, recounting them, says:
To one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge, to another prophecy, to another kinds of tongues, to another the grace of healings, and to some and others diverse gifts, which the Holy Spirit divides to each of these as he wills. The tabernacle therefore and all its vessels are sprinkled with his blood, because the whole Church, with all who minister within it, is cleansed by the blood of Christ's passion. And almost all things, according to the law, are cleansed in blood: and without the shedding of blood there is no remission. Why did he say: 'Almost all things are cleansed in blood, according to the law; and without the shedding of blood there is no remission'? Because in those things there was not a perfect cleansing, nor a perfect remission;
for bodies, as far as pertains to the law, were cleansed by the sprinkling or shedding of the blood of animals, and lighter sins were remitted; but in this, that it did not take away greater crimes, nor render a man perfect, there was no perfect cleansing. But perfect cleansing and remission consist in the blood of Christ, which was shed for us unto the remission of sins; and without the shedding of his blood no one is redeemed. It is necessary therefore that the copies of the heavenly things should be cleansed with these—sacrifices and sprinklings—but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. The legal sacrifices he calls copies, that is, figure and likeness;
but those things which are now celebrated in truth in the Church he calls heavenly, that is, spiritual, since they are to be performed spiritually; or heavenly, in that they lead those who celebrate them in truth to heavenly things. The heavenly copies, he says, of the mysteries and things which were performed under the law, being a figure of those things which are now fulfilled in the Church, needed to make use of such typical sacrifices and figurative sprinklings in the law, which prefigured the true things. But the heavenly things themselves, that is, the spiritual things which are now celebrated in truth in the Church, are cleansed with better sacrifices than these legal ones: namely, with the blood of Christ's passion.
For because they sought true sacrifices by which men might be perfectly cleansed, and none were found, it was necessary that those should remain so long, until the true ones should come. For Jesus did not enter into the holy places made with hands, copies of the true; but into heaven itself, that he might now appear before the face of God for us. Jesus, he says, did not enter into the things made with hands—understand, which are copies of the true. He calls the Holy of Holies 'made with hands,' which were first made by the hands of Bezalel in the wilderness, and afterwards likewise by the hands of workmen in the temple of Solomon, into which Jesus did not enter, but into heaven itself, which was not made by the hands of men, but stretched out by the command and will of God the Word. Therefore those things were copies and figure of the true:
for they prefigured the true Holy of Holies, which Christ entered once. Now we say that Jesus enters according to that which he is man; for according to that which he is God, he is everywhere, and fills all things, and did not enter into the things made by the hands of men, but into heaven itself, created by the command of God; nor does he show only this difference, but also that the High Priest is the nearest maker, that he might appear before the face of God for us: that is, that he might present himself to the Father's presence, and render him propitious to us. Whence John says: 'We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, and he is the propitiation for our sins.' Nor is it that he should offer himself often, as the high priest enters into the holy places every year in blood not his own.
Otherwise he must often have suffered since the beginning of the world. Christ did not enter into the Holy of Holies for this purpose, that he should often offer himself, as the high priest of the Jews entered into the holy places every year: nor with blood not his own, but with his own: since he himself, who is both priest and sacrifice, once offered himself on the altar of the cross; but rising again, he now dies no more: death shall no more have dominion over him: nor is it necessary that he should die again; because for the salvation of all who believe, his one passion is fully sufficient. 'Otherwise': that is, if it were otherwise, so that having once suffered he did not profit, he would have had to be crucified more often since the beginning of the world:
that is, as many as have been elect, and as many as are to be, he would have had to die for each one, if he wished to redeem them: but he would not, save only to die once, because by his one death redemption was accomplished. But now once, in the consummation of the ages. That is, in the end of the ages, in the last age. He appeared for the abolition of sin through his own victim. That is, through his own body, which he made a victim for sin. Once, he says, in the end of the ages he appeared for this, that through his own victim he might destroy sin: fittingly did he then appear, when there were many sins, that he might show the riches of his grace; for if it had been done in the beginning, perhaps no one would have believed; and this once, in the consummation, through his own blood, not through another's.
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: so also Christ was once offered to exhaust the sins of many; the second time he shall appear without sin unto those who wait for him, unto salvation. As it is appointed and decreed for men that they cannot die save once; but afterwards they receive judgment: that is, according as each one has done in the body, whether good or evil: so also Christ was once offered by himself to take away the sins of many; nor can he die any more, nor do we need him to. But it is to be noted that he was offered to take away the sins of many, and not of all: because not all will believe. The Lord himself said something like this to the apostles:
This is my blood of the New Testament, which shall be shed for you and for many unto the remission of sins. But as for what follows: 'The second time he shall appear without sin unto those who wait for him, unto salvation,' it is as if he said: First indeed he appeared through his own victim, that is, through his mortal body, which was a victim for sin; but the second time he shall appear without a victim for sin: because there shall no longer be a victim for sin, as there was before: for he can no longer die. For as each one of us after death receives according to his works, so Christ, having conquered death and obtained the kingdom, shall appear the second time unto those who wait for him, unto salvation, that he may justly vindicate his own, who unjustly suffered from strangers.
Better is this appearing unto those who wait for him unto salvation, than the common vision, of which it is said: 'Every eye shall see him, and they also who pierced him.' This then is to appear the second time without sin, no longer to be seen in the likeness of sinful flesh; nor bearing the sins of others in his body upon the tree, as he did in the first coming; nor any more interceding for sins, but exercising vengeance upon sinners. CHAPTER X. For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never, with those same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make the believers perfect. The order of the words is:
The law, having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never make those who approach it perfect by those same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year. The good things to come are to be understood in two ways: namely, either the sacraments which have been fulfilled in truth in Christ and in the Church, which were to come, that they might arrive, or also the joys of the heavenly homeland. He calls the shadow a figure and likeness; but the image he puts for the truth.
In manifold ways it foreshowed the sacraments of Christ and the Church, until the very Truth, Christ, should come, who, when the grace of the Holy Spirit had been given, might disclose to his Church the inner meaning of that same figure, and at the same time by dying might reveal in the creature all its sacraments. But it could never perfectly cleanse those who approached it by those same sacrifices which the priests themselves always offered year by year; they offered those same irrational victims every year: namely, rams, oxen, goats, turtledoves and pigeons. There follows: Otherwise they would have ceased to be offered: because the worshippers, once cleansed, would have had no more consciousness of sin: but in them there is a remembrance of sins year by year.
'Otherwise,' that is, if they had been freed from all sins, those sacrifices would have ceased to be offered, in that they would have had no more consciousness, that is, memory and recollection, of those sins from which the worshippers had once been cleansed; but because this could not be done, and greater and criminal sins could never be cleansed by those sacrifices, there is made year by year a remembrance of sins in those very victims, for example: If anyone had offered in the present year victims for the sin either of adultery, or of sacrilege, or of parricide, it was necessary that he should do it every year: since he could not perfectly be expiated from that guilt: hence there was an accusation of sins in what was done, not an absolution.
An accusation of weakness, not a demonstration of power. For in the fact that it was offered, there was a reproof of sins; in the fact that it was always offered, there was a reproof of the weakness of that same sacrifice. For what cause did he command it always to be offered? On account of weakness: because it could not perfectly cleanse, so that there might be both a memory and a reproof of sins. What then is to be said? Do not even our priests daily do the same, in that they continually offer sacrifice? They do indeed offer, but for the remembrance of his death: and because we daily sin, and daily need to be cleansed:
because he can no longer die, he gave us this sacrament of his body and blood, so that just as his passion was the redemption and absolution of the world, so also this oblation may be redemption and cleansing to all who offer it in true faith and with good intention. For in this our sacrifice differs from that old one, which was more often repeated, though ours is likewise repeated: because ours is the truth, that one the figure; ours renders a man perfect, that one by no means; and ours is not repeated by reason of its own weakness, as though it could not confer perfect salvation, but in remembrance of Christ's passion, as he himself said: 'Do this,' he says, 'in remembrance of me.'
And this victim is one, not many, as those were. How is it one, and not many, when it is offered by many in diverse places and at diverse times? It is therefore most fittingly to be observed that the divinity of the Word of God, which is one, and fills all things, and is wholly everywhere, itself brings it about that there are not several sacrifices, but one, although it is offered by many: and that there is one body of Christ with that which he assumed in the virginal womb, not many bodies: nor do we now offer one thing great, another less, one thing today, another tomorrow, but always the very same, having equal magnitude: therefore this sacrifice of Christ is one, not diverse, as theirs were.