Theol. Zach., p. 51, etc., says on Zech. ix. 11 : "The blood is considered under that aspect of profusion and effusion, but not as it is in its natural state and within its ordinary vessels. 1. Because the manner (nature) of the type requires this : for the blood, under the Old Testament or Covenant, was considered as extravasated and shed, and by this very circumstance it was the shadow of the profusion and effusion of blood which was to take place under the New Testament. 2. Because the nature of the Divine covenant requires this, which demands shedding of Hood. 3. Because in this aspect of the blood [i.e. by the effusion of the blood] an act of satisfactory obedience due to God for sin is per formed, etc." Sal. Deylingius : " Christ having ascended into heaven, and sitting at the right hand of GOD, commits our affairs to GOD, and shows to the Father His blood that was shed for us, and His wounds." Again, quoting Rappoltus, he says : " He presents (shows) to His Father His own blood as the ran som and price of redemption for us, and teaches that by the shed ding of it Divine justice has been satisfied." Observ. Miscell., pp. 571, 572. I do not maintain that these interpreters show the present condition of the blood that has been shed ; but I say, that their statements, if such a condition be kept in mind, are more consistent with the texts of which they treat.
§ 6. The blood of Jesus Christ always remains blood shed.
If the return of the blood of Jesus Christ into His body ever could or should have happened, it could or should have happened at least at the very moment of the resurrection, and not later. But that this did not happen before the ascension is evident from the preceding section. Therefore it did not happen at the re surrection ; and therefore no time can be found, to which we may ascribe that return. The condition of the blood shed is perpetual. Jesus Himself is in heaven, and His body is also there : so too is His blood in heaven ; but His blood is not for that reason now in His body. I am not inclined to refer to this the vision in Rev. i. 14, concerning the whiteness of the head of Jesus Christ, as if it were bloodless ; for it has respect to the hair white as snow ; but the face is compared to the exceeding brightness of the sun in his greatest strength, ibid. v. 16. Nor do we allege what is found at Luke xxiv. 39, which has been alleged by Augustine, as bearing on this point ; for the bloody