The other sense is, that being the humanity of God, it was altogether pervaded by the presence and by the communicable perfections of God. The Fathers liken it to the iron which, glowing with fire, is pervaded by the nature of fire; so the whole humanity of Jesus was pervaded by the personal presence and sanctity of the Son of God. It had, as the Fathers say, a twofold unction, whereby He was anointed as the Christ. It has the uncreated sanctity of the Son, and the created sanctification of the Holy Ghost. But this is a secondary sense derived from the true and proper meaning of the word 'deify,' which is that our humanity in Him became the humanity of God.
Now, if any man does not hold this truth, he does not hold the doctrine of the Incarnation. He may think he does. He may intend to do so. He may deceive himself; he may deceive others. But he does not hold the doctrine of the Incarnation as delivered by the Holy Ghost, as taught to the world by the Apostles, as defined by the Church of God, and as it is the doctrine of divine and Catholic Faith necessary to all who hope for salvation. But if the Sacred Humanity be the humanity of God, then it is invested with all the divine glories. As our Lord Himself has said, 'And now, Father, glorify Me, with the glory that I had with Thee before the world was.,' (1 S. John xvii. 5.) Before the world was.' What, then, is this glory but the divine ? "What was the glory of Jesus before the world was, but the glory which He had with the Father as the Eternal Word? Therefore, the humanity of Jesus is glorified with the divine glory in all its fullness. He was exalted to the right hand of God to sit in the glory of the Father, to be adored and worshipped in one divine glory with the Father and the Holy Ghost.
He is the Divine High-Priest by whom the world is redeemed. If the body on the cross had not been the body of God, God could not have given His life for us. But S. John writes by the Holy Ghost, 'In this we have known the charity of God, because He hath laid down His life for us.' (Ibid. iii. 16.) What life did God lay down upon the cross, if the sacred humanity and the life thereof was not the life of God? And if the Blood that was shed on the cross was not the Blood of God, how was the world redeemed ? Your blood and my blood, even though we were saints, would not redeem even ourselves from our own sins, much less redeem the world. What, then, is the Blood which redeemed the world? What is the Blood which is offered for ever for us before the mercy-seat in the glory of the Father ? It is the Precious Blood of God the Son, the Eternal Word Incarnate. And at the right hand of the Eternal Father He offers perpetually His own Divine and Adorable Blood, which is the Blood of God, for the propitiation of the sin of the world.
