1. The Scripture will speedily determine the difference: Eph. v. 2, " Christ hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour." He that offereth sacrifices and offerings unto God is a priest ; so the apostle defines a priest, Heb. v. 1. He is one " taken from amongst men," and "or- dained to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins." Now, thus did Christ do in his giving himself for us. Uapsdcuxiv, " he delivered himself for us," "To deliver himself," or "to be delivered for us," notes his death, always in contradistinction to any other act of his: so Eph. v. 25, Gal. ii. 20, Rom. viii. 32, iv, 25, "Oc Tapsdodri 8ia t& TapwTrrwij.aTa yjf/,uv, xai rty'spQrj bia rriv bixaiuiCiv 7i(i,uv. In that delivery of himself he sacrificed, therefore he was then a priest.
To this Socinus invented an answer, in his book " De Servatore," which he insists., on again, Ep. 2 ad Niemojev., and whereunto his followers have added nothing, it being fixed on by them all, in par- ticular by Smalcius in Cat. Eac. ; and yet it is in itself ludicrous, and almost jocular. The words, they tell us, are thus to be read: Tlapsduxsv iuvrov Imp tj/xuv, and there they place a point in the verse '^pofffopav xcil ^vfflav ru) Qiui^ without any dependence upon the former words ; making this to be the sense of the whole : " Christ gave him- self to death for us; and O what an offering was that to God! and O what a sacrifice ! " that is, in a metaphorical sense ; not that Christ offered himself to God for us, but that Paul called his giving himself to die "an offering," or a thing grateful to God, as good works are called " an offering," Phil. iv. 18; — that is, the dying of Christ was " prceclarum facinus," as Volkelius speaks.^ But, —
1 Volkel. de Ver. Rclig. lib. iii. cap. xxxYii. p. 116.
OF cheist's priestly office. 409
(] .) It is easy to answer or avoid any thing by such ways as this. Divide, cut off sentences in the dependence of the words, and you may make what sense of them you please, or none at all.
(2.) These words, '7rpo0(popav xal ^vsiav, have no other word to be regulated by but -Trapiduxsv, and therefore must relate thereunto; and Christ is affirmed in them to have given himself " an offering and a sacrifice."
(3.) These words, "An offering and a sacrifice," are not a com- mendation of Christ's giving himself, but an illustration and a de- scription of what he gave, — that is, himself, a sacrifice of sweet savour to God. So that notwithstanding this exception (becoming only them that make it), it is evident from hence that Christ offered himself a sacrifice in his death, and was therefore then a priest fitted for that work.
2. Heb. V. 6, 7, " As he saith also in another place. Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death," etc. Verse 6, the apostle tells us that he was a priest ; and, verse 7, what he did by virtue of that priesthood, — vpoff^vsy/is dsr)ffsig Tiai }x.sTripiag. It is a temple expression of the office of a priest that is used. So verse 1, a high priest is appointed hoc '7rpos<pspyi, "that he may offer." Now, when did Christ do this? It was " in the days of his flesh, with strong crying and tears;" both which evidence this his offering to have been before his death and at his death. And his mentioning of prayers and tears is not so much to show the matter of his offering, which was himself, as the manner, or at least the con- comitants of the sacrifice of himself, — prayers and tears. And these were not for himself, but for his church, and the business that for their sakes he had undertaken.
3. Heb. i. 3, " When he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." The purging of our sins was by sacrifice ; there was never any other way xadapia/xou. But now Christ did this before his ascension : Kadapisfxhv '7roiyi<rd//,svog, — "When he had by himself," or after he had, " purged our sins;" and that di' iaurov, " by himself," or the sacrifice of himself That our sins are purged by the oblation of Christ the Scripture is clear ; hence his blood is said to "cleanse us from all sin," 1 John i. 7. And, Heb. x. 10, " sanctified" is the same with " purged," and this " through the offering of the body of Christ £^aTa|." Christ, then, offering this sacrifice whilst he was on the earth, was a priest in so doing.
Unto this maybe added sundry others of the same import: Chap, vii. 27, " Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacri- fice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's : for this he did once, w^hen he offered up himself" The one sacrifice of Christ is here