N. B. The remainder of the exposition of the fifth com- AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE DOCTRINES of the CHRISTIAN RELIGION, with respect to both FAITH and PRACTICE, UPON THE PLAN OF The ASSEMBLY'S SHORTER CATECHISM. Of Christ's priestly Office. HEBREWS vii. 17. Thou art a Priest for ever, after the order of Melchifedec. T is evident from the context, that the aIpostle is speaking of Christ as a Prieft, applying to him this passage taken from Pfal. cx. 4. Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchifedek. Where two things are proposed. 1. That he is indeed a Priest, whose business it is to offer facrifices. 2. That he is so after the order of Melchifedec; noting thereby the similitude betwixt the two, the one being a notable type of the other. This likeness confists not in an unbloody facrifice, that of bread and wine which Melchifedec brought forth to Abraham when he returned from the flaughter of the kings who had taken Sodom and Gomorrah; but, (1.) In the name, Christ being the true King of righVOL. II. teousness, and King of peace, in which respect Melchifedec was only a type of him, Heb. vii. 2. (2.) In their original, ver. 3. Melchifedec is represented as without father, without mother, without descent, having no beginning of days; nothing being recorded of his birth and parentage, he is like an immortal. In this he was a notable type of Christ, who had no father as man, no mother as God, was God himself from eternity, and his goings forth were of old, from everlasting. (3.) In their continuance, because Melchifedec's death is no where recorded, ver. 8.; but is reprefented as one who-who liveth. So Christ our High Prieft liveth for ever to make interceffion for us. (4.) In their office. Melchifedec was priest of the most high God, and king of Salem, or Jerufalem. So Christ is a Prieft, who offered himself a facrifice to God, and he is contituted King of Zion, of the church. (5.) In respect of unity. Melchifedec is fet forth as having neither predeceffor nor fucceffor in his office. So Christ was fet up to be a Prieft from everlasting, and is reprefented as a lamb frain from the foundation of the world; and the sacrifice that he offered being perfect, there is no more occafion for any other priests, and he has no fucceffor, having an unchangeable and perpetual priesthood. (6.) In respect of dignity; Melchifedec being proposed as greater than Abraham. So Chrift is greater than both: for he faid, Before Abrabam was, I am. Thus Chrift is a Prieft, and that for ever, In this office is contained the grand relief of poor fouls distreffed and perplexed with the guilt and burden of their fins. When all other remedies have been tried in vain, it is the blood of the facrifice of Christ, sprinkled by faith upon the trembling confcience, that must cool and refresh, and sweetly compose and fettle it. The doctrine arifing from the text is, Docr. "Christ executeth the office of a Prieft, in " his once offering himself a facrifice to fatisfy divine " juftice, and reconcile us to God, and in making "continual interceffion for us." In difcoursing from this doctrine, I shall, 2. Becaufe I. I am to shew that Christ is truly and properly a Prieft. This is evident, if we consider, 1. That the fcripture holds him forth as fuch, Pfal. cx. 4. and Heb. v. and other places of that epittle. he exercises the acts of the priestly office, in offering facrifice, and praying for his people. 3. Because he was typified by such as were really priests, as all the Levitical priests, and Melchifedec. Quest. Wherein did Chritt's prieftly office differ from the priestly office under the ceremonial law? 1. The priests under the law were priests after the order of Aaron; but Christ is a Prieft after the order of Melchifedec. Who this Melchifedec was, it is in vain to inquire, and cannot possibly be known; the Holy Ghost designedly concealing his genealogy, be. ginning and ending, and defcent, that fo he might be a fitter type of Chrift and his everlasting priesthood, He was like a man dropt from the clouds, and at lait caught up again, and none knew how. It is faid of him, Heb. vii. 3. that he was without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest continually, Now, Christ was a Prieft after the order of this Melchifedec, not by a corporeal unction, legal ceremony, or the intervening act of a human ordination, but by a divine and heavenly inttitution, and immediate 'unction of the Spirit of life, in that extraordinary manner, whereby he was to be both King and Prieft unto God, as Melchifedec was, Heb. vi. 16. He was not a Priest after the order of Aaron, because the law made nothing perfect, but was weak and unprofitable; and therefore was to be abolihed, and to give place to another priesthood. Men were not to reft in it, but to be led by it to him who was to abolish it, Heb. vii. 11. 12. The ministry and promises of Christ were better than those of the law; and therefore his priesthood, which was the office of dispensing them, was to be more excellent too, Heb. viii. 6. For when the law and covenant were to be abolished, the priesthood, in which they were eftablished, was likewife to die. 2. The priests under the law were sinful men, and therefore offered facrifices for their own fins, as well as for the fins of the people, Heb. v. 3. But Chrift was holy, harmless, undefiled, feparate from finners, and made higher than the heavens; who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up facrifice, first for his own fins, and then for the people's: for this he did once, when he offered up himself, Heb, vii. 26. 27. He was perfectly pure and holy, and could stand before God even in the eye of bis strict justice, as a lamb without blemish and without spot. Though he made his foul an offering for fin, yet he had done no iniquity, neither was there any guile found in his mouth. And indeed his facrifice had done us no good, had he been tainted with the least fin, 3. The priests under the law were many, because they were mortal; death as an universal deluge was continually sweeping them off the stage, But Chrift is a Prieft for ever, Pfal. cx. 4. Heb. yii. 23, This man continueth ever. 4. The priesthood under the law was changeable; but Chrift's priesthood is unchangeable. The legal difpenfation was to continue only for a time. It was、 but like the morning-star to usher in the rifing fun, which so soon as he appears in our horizon, it evanishes and shrinks away, Heb. vii. 12. God confirmed this priesthood with an oath, Pfal. cx. 4. Heb. vii, 21. as well as a King. Those offices which were divided before between two familes, were both united and vested in Chrift; this being abfolutely neceffary for the discharge of his mediatory undertaking, and for the establishment of his kingdom, which being of another kind than the kingdoms of this world, even |