SECT. 1, 2.] PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 15
cerning his glory in the salvation of mankind considered—No order of them to be conceived that is consistent with the pre-ordination of the incarnation without respect to sin and redemption. 18. The arguments of Osiander— The Son, how the image of the Father—The order of subsistence and opera- tion in the Trinity—Christ, how the head of angels and men. 19. The image of God in man, wherein it consisted. 20. How Adam was made in the image of Christ, and Christ made in the image of Adam. 21. The incarna- tion, how occasioned by the fall—The Son of God the head of angels and men even had not sin entered into the world. 22. [In a state of innocence, men would not have died naturally.] 23. No sacrifices in the state of innocence— Bellarmine’s arguments for the necessity of a proper sacrifice in all religion. 24. The mass not proved a sacrifice thereby—The use and efficacy of the sac- rifice of Christ in our religion. 25. An answer to Bellarmine’s arguments— His general assertion overthrown by his own instances. 26. The conclusion.
1. WE have seen that Jesus Christ is a priest, that as such he was prophesied of under the old testament, and declared so to be in the new. ‘The original of this office is in the next place to be inquired after. This, in the general, all will acknowledge to lie in the eternal counsels of God; for “known unto him are all his works from the beginning of the world,” Acts xv. 18. But these counsels, absolutely considered, are hid in God, in the eternal treasures of his own wis- dom and will. What we learn of them is by external revelation and effects: “The secret things belong unto the Lorp our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law,” Deut. xxix. 29. God frequently gives bounds to the curiosity of men, like the limits fixed to the people in the station at Sinai, that they should not gaze after his unrevealed glory, nor pry into the things which they have not seen. It was well said, that “scrutator majestatis absorbetur & gloria.” Our work is, to inquire wherein, how, and whereby, God hath revealed his eternal counsels, to the end that we may know his mind, and fear him for our good. And so even the angels desire to bow down and to look into these things, 1 Pet. i. 12;—not in a way of condescension, as into things in their nature beneath them; but in a way of humble diligence, as into things in their holy contrivance above them. Our present design, therefore, is to trace those dis- eoveries which God hath made of his eternal counsels in this matter, and that through the several degrees of divine revelation whereby he advanced the knowledge of them, until he brought them to their complement in the external exhibition of his Son, clothed in human
‘nature with the glory of this office, and discharging the duties thereof.
2. The counsels of God concerning us, with our relation unto him and his worship, are suited unto the state and condition wherein we
are, for they also are effects of those counsels. Our first condition, under the law of creation, was a condition of innocency and natural
16 THE ORIGIN OF THE [EXERC. XXVI.
righteousness. In reference unto this estate, God had not ordained an establishment in it of either priest or sacrifice; for as they would have been of no use therein, so there was nothing supposed in that condition which might be prefidured or represented by them. Where- fore God did not pre-ordain the priesthood of Chnist with respect unto the obedience of man under the law of creation; nor did he appoint either priesthood or sacrifice, properly so called, in that state of things whilst it did continue; nor should any such have been, upon a supposition of its continuance. And this we must confirm against the opposition of some.
3. We have declared in our preceding discourse that a priest, pro- perly so called, is a sacrificer. There is, therefore, an indissoluble relation between these two,—namely, priesthood and sacrifice,—and they do mutually assert or deny each other; and where the one is proper, the other is so also; and where the one is metaphorical, so is the other. Thus, under the old testament, the priests who were properly so by office had proper carnal sacrifices to offer; and under the new testament, believers being made priests unto God, that is, spiritually and metaphorically, such also are their sacrifices, spiritual and metaphorical. Wherefore arguments against either of these conclude equally against both. Where there are no priests, there are no sacrifices; and where there are no sacrifices, there are no priests. I intend only those who exercise the office of the priesthood for themselves and others. I shall therefore, first, manifest that there was no priesthood to be in the state of innocency; whence it will follow that therein there could be no sacrifice: and, secondly, that there was to be no sacrifice, properly so called; whence it will equally follow, that there was no priesthood there. That which ensues on both is, that there was no counsel of God rapeewing either priesthood or sacrifice in that state or condition.