5. The First thing we are to inquire into is, the time and place of the exercise of the priesthood of Christ ; and the state of the controversy about them needs only to be touched on in this place, as haying been before laid down. Wherefore with reference hereunto we affirm,—
SECT. 4-6.] OF THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 199 ’ .
(1.) That the Lord Christ was a high priest in the days of his flesh, whilst he was in this world, even as he was also the king and prophet of the church. (2.) That he exercised or discharged this office, as unto the principal acts and duties of it, especially as to the oblation of his great expiatory sacrifice, upon the earth, in his death, and the effusion of his blood thereon. (3.) We say not that the priesthood of Christ was limited or confined unto this world, or the time before his resurrection, but grant that it hath a duration in heaven, and shall have so unto the end of his mediation. He abideth, therefore, a priest for ever, as he doth the king of his church. And the continuance of this office is a matter of singular use and conso- lation to believers, and as such is frequently mentioned. Where- fore, although he ascended not into heaven to be made a priest, but as a priest, yet his ascension, exaltation, and glorious immortality, or the “power of an endless lite,” were antecedently necessary to the actual discharge of some duties belonging unto that office, as his intercession and the continual application of the fruits and benefits of his oblation.
The Socinians, as hath been declared, comply with us in none of these assertions; for whereas they judge that Christ is then and therein only a priest, when and wherein he offereth himself unto God, this they say he did not until his entrance into heaven upon his ascension, and that there he continueth still soto do. Whilst he was in this world, if we may believe them, he was no priest, nor were any of his duties or actings sacerdotal. But yet, to mollify the harsh- ness of this conceit, they grant that, by the appointment of God, his temptations, sufferings, and death, were antecedently necessary unto his heavenly oblation, and so belong unto his priestly office metony- mically. These being the things in difference, how they may be established or invalidated is our next consideration.
6. Our first argument for the time and place of the exercise of the priesthood of Christ shall be taken from the judgment and opinion of our adversaries themselves; for if the Lord Christ whilst he was upon the earth had power to perform, and did actually perform, all those things wherein they affirm that his sacerdotal office doth con- sist, then was he a priest at that time and in that place; for the denomination of the office is taken from the power and its exercise. And themselves judge that the priesthood of Christ consisteth solely in a right, power, and readiness, to do the things which they ascribe unto him. Neither can any difference be feigned from a distinct manner of the performance of the things so ascribed unto him, In heaven, indeed, he doth them conspicuously and illustriously; in the earth he did them under sundry concealments. But this altereth not the nature of the things themselves. Sacerdotal actions
200 OF THE ACTS AND ADJUNCTS [EXERC. XXXIIIL. 4
will be so whatever various accidents may attend them in the man- negof their performance. Now, that Christ did all things on the earth which they assign as acts of his sacerdotal office will appear in the ensuing instances :—
(1.) On the earth he presented himself unto God as one that was ready to do his will, and as one that had done it unto the utter- most, in the last finishing of his work. This presentation they call his offering himself unto God. And this he doth, Heb. x. 7, “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.” That this was with respect unto the obedience which he performed on the earth is manifest from the place of the psalmist whence the words are taken; for he so pre- sents himself in them unto God as one acting a principle of obe- dience unto him in suffering and preaching the gospel: “I come to do thy will; thy law is written in my heart,” Ps. xl. 8-10. Again, he solemnly offered himself unto God on the earth upon the consi- deration of the accomplishment of the whole work which was corn- mitted unto him, when he was in the close and finishing of it. And herewithal he made his request to God that those who believed on him, or should so do to the end of the world, might have all the benefits which God had decreed and purposed to bestow on them through his obedience unto him;—which is the full description of the oblation of Christ, according to these men. See John xvii. 1-6, ete.
(2.) He had and exercised on the earth a most tender love and care for his whole church, both his present disciples and all that should believe on him through their word. This they make to be the principal property of this office of Christ, or rather, from hence it is,—namely, his tender care, love, and readiness to relieve, which we cannot apprehend in him under the notion of his kingly power alone,—that he is called a high priest, and is so to be looked on. Now, whereas two things may be considered in the love and care of Christ towards his church; first, The evidencing fruits of it; and, secondly, Its effects ;—the former were more conspicuous in what he did in this life than in what he doth in heaven, and the latter every way equal thereunto. For, [1.] The great evidencing fruit of the love of Christ and his care of his church was in this, that he died for tt. This both himself and all the divine writers express and testify to be the greatest fruit and evidence of love, expressly affirming that greater love there cannot be than what is so expressed. See John x. 14, 15, xv. 18; Rom. v. 6; Gal. i. 20; Eph. v. 25; 1 John iii. 16; Rev. i. 5. If, therefore, Christ be denominated a high priest because of his love and care towards his church, as he had them in the highest degree, so he gave the greatest evidence of them possible, whilst he was in this world. This he did in dying for it, in giving his life for it;