Page:Three Books of Occult Philosophy (De Occulta Philosophia) (1651).djvu/558

 which the high priest Christ offered for the remission of sins, purifying all things by the blood of his cross; the other, by the which a man offereth up himself clean, unspotted, for a living sacrifice to God, as Christ the high priest offered himself, and taught us to be offered together with him, as he was offered, saying of the sacrament of his body, and blood, Do this in remembrance of me; viz. that we should offer our selves together, being mortified by the passion of his mortal body, and quickned in spirit; of the which Porphyry saith, Let us labor to offer up holines of life for a sacrifice; for no man can be a good priest of God, but he which bringeth forth himself for a sacrifice, and buildeth up his own soul, as it were for an Image, and doth constitute both his mind, and understanding for a Temple in the which he may receive the divine light; but eternal sacrifices (as Heraclitus saith) are certain cures of the soul, instituted by the most High Physician; for the evill spirit possesseth a man (as Proclus saith) even untill he be expiated by sacrifices; therefore sacrifices are required to pacifie God and the Heavenly powers, and to expiate a man, who beareth the Image both of God and the world; But our Lord Iesus Christ the true high priest concluded all sacrifices in bread and wine only, as in the primary substance of mans meat, needing further the offering up of no animals, nor other things, or the effusion of blood, in which we may be cleansed, being perfectly cleansed in his blood. There were also amongst the Aegyptians six hundred sixty six kinds of sacrifices; for they did appoynt divine honors, and holy sacrifices to each star, and planet, because they were divine animals partaking of an intellectual soul and a divine mind; whence they say that the stars being humbly prayed unto, do hear our prayer, and bestow celestial gifts, not so much by any natural agreement, as by their own free will. And this is that which Iamblicus saith, that celestial bodies, and the dieties of the world have certain divine and superior powers in themselves, as also natural and inferior, which Orpheus calls the keyes to open and shut; and that by those we are bound to the fatall influences, but by these to loose us from fate. Whence if any