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SECT. 6-8.] THE OFFICE OF PRIESTHOOD. 9
the colour of their garments, or their countenances made black with the soot of their fire and sacrifices. But this is not the proper sig- nification of the word; only, denoting the priesthood to be exercised in beautiful garments and sundry ornaments, it was thence tra- duced to express adorning. The LXX. render it by sepiridnus, but withal acknowledge somewhat sacerdotal in the expression: ‘Q¢ wiepiw wepitdnne wor wirpav-—“He hath put on me” (restraining the action unto God) “a mitre as on a bridegroom;” which was a sacer- dotal ornament. And Aquila, “as a bridegroom, ispareuuévos oredr” —“ bearing the crown of the priesthood,” or discharging the priest’s office in a crown. And the Targum, observing the peculiar applica- tion of the word in this place, adds, N27 s2nD3),—“ And as an high priest is adorned.” All agree that an allusion is made to the garments and ornaments of the high priest. The place may be ren- dered, “ As a bridegroom, he” (that is God, the bridegroom of the church) “doth consecrate me with glory,’—“ gloriously set me apart for himself.” The word therefore is sacred; and though 175 be traduced to signify other persons, as we shall see afterwards, yet 132 [properly] is only used in a sacred sense.
8. The Arabic jn>, “ cahan,” is “to divine, to prognosticate, to be a soothsayer, to foretell ;” and jmN2, “caahan,” is “a diviner, a prophet, an astrologer, a figure-caster.’ This use of it came up after the priests had generally taken themselves unto such arts, partly curious, partly diabolical, by the instigation of the false gods whom they ministered unto. Homer puts them together, as they came after- wards mostly to be the same, Iliad. a. 62:—
"ARM aye On tive waves ipsiouer, A bene “H xal bvespororoy-—
“ A prophet, or a priest, or an interpreter of dreams.”
Mayous xual dorpovimoug re nal Ibrag werextuaero, Herod., lib. iv.;— “He sent for magicians, astronomers, and priests,” for Sirn¢ is a priest; for the priests first gave out oracles and divinations in the temples of their gods. From them proceeded a generation of im- postors, who exceedingly infatuated the world with a pretence of foretelling things to come, of interpreting dreams, and doing things uncouth and strange, unto the amazement of the beholders. And as they all pretended to derive their skill and power from their gods, whose priests they were, so they invented, or had suggested unto them by Satan, various ways and means of divination, or of attaining the knowledge of particular future events. According unto those ways which in especial any of them attended unto were they severally denominated. Generally they were called 0°93, “wise men ;” as those of Egypt, Gen. xli. 8, and of Babylon, Dan. 1i, 12, 13.
10 | THE OFFICE OF PRIESTHOOD. [EXERC. XXV.
Hence we render ywéyor, the followers of their arts, “wise men,” Matt. ii. 1. Among the Egyptians they were divided into two sorts, 2010 and D'St/2, Exod. vii. 11; the head of one sort in the days of Moses being probably Jannes, and of the other Jambres, 2 Tim. ii. 8. We call them “ magicians and sorcerers.” Among the Babylonians there is mention of these, and two sorts more are added unto them, namely, DAWN and OND, Dan. ii. 2. Of the difference and distinction among these we shall treat afterwards. From this practice of the generality of priests did }73 come to signify “to soothsay” or “ divine.”
9. 113 is then a priest; and he who was first called so in the Scrip- ture, probably in the world, was Melchizedek, Gen. xiv. 18. On what account he was so called shall be afterwards declared. Some- times, though rarely, it is applied to express a priest of false gods; as of Dagon, 1 Sam. v. 5; of Egypt, Gen. xli. 45, “ Joseph married the daughter of Poti-pherah, j& 172,”—* priest of On,” that is, of Helio- polis, the chief seat of the Egyptian religious worship. Nor is there any colour why the word should here be rendered “ prince,” as it is, xn, by the Targum,—the Latin is “sacerdos,” and the LXX. iepeds, —for the dignity of priests, especially of those who were eminent among them, was no less at that time in Egypt, and other parts also of the world, than was that of princes of the second sort; yea, we shall consider instances afterwards wherein the kingly and priestly offices were conjoined in the same person, although none ever had the one by virtue of the other but upon special reason. It was — therefore, as by Pharaoh intended, an honour to Joseph to be mar- ried unto the daughter of the priest of On; for the man, aeeording unto their esteem, was wise, pious, and honourable, seeing the wis- dom of the Egyptians at that time consisted principally in the know- ledge of the mysteries of their religion, and from their excellency therein were they exalted and esteemed honourable. Nor can it be pleaded, in bar to this exposition, that Joseph would not marry the daughter of an idolatrous priest, for all the Egyptians were no less idolatrous than their priests, and he might as soon convert one of their daughters to the true God as one of any other; which no doubt he did, whereon she became a matriarch in Israel. In other places, where, by 1), an idolatrous priest is intended, the Targum renders it by x7D13; “comara,” whence are chemarims. Yet the Syriac trans- lator of the Epistle to the Hebrews calls a priest and an high priest, even when applied unto Christ, 8255 and 873 21, though elsewhere in the New Testament he useth 8272, “chahana,” constantly. The reason hereof I have declared elsewhere.