SECT. 12.] THE OFFICE OF PRIESTHOOD. 13
took in war. So Camillus framed his yow unto Apollo when he went to destroy the city of Vei: “Tuo ductu Pythice Apollo, tuo- que numine instinctus, pergo ad delendam urbem Veios, tibique hinc decumam partem predz voveo,” Liv., lib. v. cap. xxi.
The like instances occur in other authors. ’Axpod/viw is not used for the spoils themselves anywhere but in this place. In other authors, according to the derivation of the word, as it signifies the top or uppermost part of an heap, it is used only for that part or portion of spoils taken in war which was devoted and made sacred: Herod. lib. i. cap. Ixxxvi., Ere 64 dxpobina raira xarayiciv Jediv brewd4. And again, lib. viii. cap. cxxi., Hpaira jév vv rotor Seotor eEeTrov dxpodivas —“They took out the dedicated spoils for the gods.’ And the reason why our.apostle useth the word for the whole spoils, whence a tenth was given to Melchizedek, is, because the whole spoil was sacred and devoted unto God, whence an honorary tenth was taken for Melchizedek, as the priests had afterwards out of the portion of the Levites; for all Levi was now to be tithed in Abraham. Among those spoils there is no question but there were many clean beasts meet for sacrifice; for in their herds of cattle consisted the princi- pal parts of the riches of those days, and these were the principal spoils of war. See Num. xxxi. 32, 33. And because Saul knew that part of the spoils taken in lawful war was to be given for sacri- fices unto God, he made that his pretence of saving the fat cattle of the Amalekites, contrary to the express command of God, 1 Sam. xv. 15. Abraham therefore delivered these spoils unto Melchizedek, as the priest of the most high God, to offer im sacrifice for him. And it may be there was somewhat more in it than the mere pre-eminence of Melchizedek, which was the principal consideration hereof, and his being the first and only priest in office, by virtue of especial call from God,—namely, that Abraham himself, coming immediately from the slaughter of many kings and their numerous army, was not yet ready or prepared for this sacred service; for even among the heathens they would abstain from their sacred offices after the shedding of blood, until they were, one way or other, purified to their own satisfaction. So in the poet, Virg. Aineid. ii. 717:—
«Tu, genitor, cape sacra manu patriosque penates ; Me. bello e tanto digressum et czede recenti, Attrectare nefas, donec me flumine vivo Abluero.”’
12. The matter is yet made more evident by the solemn election of a priesthood of old among the people of God, or the church in the wilderness. Sacrificing from the foundation of the world had been hitherto left at liberty. Every one who was called to perform any part of solemn religious worship was allowed to discharge that
14 THE ORIGIN OF THE [EXERC. XXVI.
duty also. But it pleased God, in the reducing of his church into an especial peculiar order,—to represent in and by it more conspicuously what he would afterwards really effect in Jesus Christ,—to erect among them a peculiar office of priesthood. And although this re- spected in general r& xpi¢ rv Ody, all things that were to be done with God on the behalf of the people, yet the especial work and duty belonging unto it was sacrificing. The institution of this office we have Exod. xxviii., whereof afterwards. And herein an enclosure was made of sacrificing unto the office of the priests; that is, so soon as such an office there was by virtue of especial institution. And these two things belonged to them:—(1.) That they were sacrificers ; and, (2.) That they only were so: which answers all that I intend to evince from this discourse, namely, that a priest is a sacrificer. Whereas, therefore, it is in prophecy foretold that the Messiah should be a priest, and he is said so to be, the principal meaning of it is, that he should be a sacrificer, one that had right and was called to offer sacrifice unto God. This was that for which he was principally and properly called a priest, and by his undertaking so to be, an enclosure of sacrificing is made unto himself alone.
This is the general notion of a priest amongst all men throughout the world; and a due consideration hereof is of itself sufficient to discharge all the vain imaginations of the Socinians about this office of Christ, whereof we shall treat afterwards.
EXERCITATION XXVI. OF THE ORIGIN OF THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST.
1. Of the origin of the priesthood of Christ—The eternal counsels of God; how to be inquired into. 2. No priest or sacrifices in the state of innocence. 3. Priesthood and sacrifices related. 4. The nature of the office of the priesthood, Heb. v. 1, explained. 5. In the state of innocence some [might act] for God towards men, none for other men towards God. 6. No sacri- fices in that state—To sacrifice is properly to slay. 7. Killing essential to sacrifices. 8. No revelation concerning sacrifices before the fall. 9. Opinion of some, that the Son of God should have been incarnate though man had not sinned—Of the necessity of sacrifices in all religious worship. 10. Pretences of reasons for the incarnation of Christ, without respect to sin or grace, 11. The whole unwritten; 12. Contrary to what is written; 13. And desti- tute of countenance from spiritual reason. 14. Pleas of the Pelagians and ancient schoolmen for the incarnation of the Son of God in the state of inno- cernice—Their first argument, from the glory of God and good of the universe, proposed and answered. 15. The second argument, from the capacity of the human nature for the grace of union in the state of innocence, answered. 16. [The third argument], the mystery of the incarnation revealed to Adam in the state of innocence—The meaning of these words, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.” 17. The order of God’s decrees con-