unless they are of the same kind with that of Christ, which is not yet affirmed. [38,] The truth is, the whole people under the law were types of believers under the gospel in the highest of their pri- vileges, and therefore the priests were not so. We are now “kings and priests;’ and the apostle Peter expressing this privilege, 1 Pet. ii. 5, doth it in the words spoken of the body of the people or church of old, Exod. xix. 6. Nothing, therefore, is more vain than this supposition,
SECT. 10.] OF THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 207
Fifthly, The principal argument whereby we prove that Christ was a priest on the earth, is taken from the nature of the sacrifice which he offered as a priest. But whereas this cannot be duly managed without a full consideration and debate of all the pro- perties, ends, and concernments of that sacrifice, which is not our present subject nor design, it must, as it was intimated before, be transmitted unto its proper place.
10. It remaineth that we consider the pretences and pleas of our adversaries in the defence of their opinion. It is that, I confess, which they have no concernment in for its own sake, being only a necessary consequent of their judgment concerning the office of the priesthood itself. Wherefore, for that the most part they content themselves with a bare denial that he was a priest on the earth, the proof of their negation they mix with the description of the office and its discharge. Wherefore, to show how little they are able to prove what they pretend unto, I shall represent their plea in the words of one of the chief masters of that sect, that the reader may see what is the true state of the controversy. between them and us in this matter, which they industriously endeavour to conceal, and then consider their proofs in particular. Thisis Valentinus Smalcius, in his book De Regno Christ. cap. xxiii, which is, De Christi Sacer- dotio, whose words ensue :—
“ Deinde considerandum etiam est (1.) totam hane rem, que per sacerdotii vocabulum in Christo describitur, esse figuratam, qua sci- licet explicantur ea que sub veteri foedere olim extabant. Quem- admodum enim sub veteri foedere Deus pontifices esse voluit (2.) qui causam populi apud Deum agerent: sic etiam quia Jesus Christus causam populi divini in celo agit ideo ipse sacerdos, et hoe opus illius, sacerdotium, appellantur. (3.) Potest hoc totum ex eo apparere si consideretur in sola, quodammodo, Epistola ad Hebraeos, Christi, quatenus sacerdos est, et sacerdotii ejus mentionem fieri; et tamen impossibile est alios apostolos in suis scriptis rei tam insignis, sine qua Christi dignitas consistere nequit, nullam mentionem facere.”
Ans. (1.) It is not much that I shall observe on these words, and I shall therein principally respect the perpetual sophistry of these men. It is somewhat plain, indeed, that all things spoken about the priesthood of Christ are figurative, and nothing real or proper; and therefore he speaks of it as a thing utterly of another nature that is intended, only in Christ it is described “ per sacerdotii voca- bulum,’—“ by this word, the priesthood.” But the sober Christian reader will judge whether there be nothing but a mere occasional abuse of that word intended by the Holy Ghost in that full and large description which he hath given us of this office of Christ, its duties, acts, adjuncts, and exercise, with the importance of these things unto
208 OF THE ACTS AND ADJUNCTS [EXERC, XXXII.
our faith and consolation. (2.) Who would not think these expres- sions, first concerning the high priest, “Qui causam populi apud Deum ageret,” “Who should deal with God on the behalf of the people,” and then concerning Christ, “ Qui causam. populi divini in ceelo agit,’ “ Who pleads the holy people’s cause in heaven,” were so far equivalent, especially the one being produced in the illustration of the other, as that the things signified should, though they be not of the same kind, yet at least some way or other agree? But no such mat- ter is intended; for in the first proposition God is expressly asserted as the immediate object of the sacerdotal actings of the high priest under the law, according to the Scripture; but in the latter, “ causam populi in ceelo agit,” which is ascribed unto Christ, nothing is in- tended but the exercise of his love and power in heaven towards his people for their relief,—which is a thing quite of another nature. By these contrary senses of seeming equivalent expressions, all ana- logy between the old priesthood and that of Christ is utterly de- stroyed. (3.) It is falsely pretended that this office of Christ is not formally mentioned by other divine writers besides the apostle in this Epistle unto the Hebrews. He is expressly called a priest in the Old Testament by the way of prophecy, and all acts of this office are expressly mentioned and declared in sundry other places of the New Testament, which have been before produced. And although it becomes not us to call the Spirit of God to an account, or to ex- pect an express reason to be assigned why he teacheth and revealeth any truth more directly and expressly in one place of the Scripture than in another,—it being an article of our faith that what he doth he doth wisely, and on the most rational motives,—yet we are not alto- gether in the dark unto the reason why the doctrine of the priest- hood of Christ was more openly and plainly taught in this Epistle than in any other place of Scripture. It was the prefiguration of it and preparation for it which the church of the Hebrews had received in their Mosaical institutions which was the occasion hereof; and whereas the whole economy of their priesthood and sacrifices had no other end or use but to prefigure and represent those of the Lord Christ, upon his coming and the accomplishment of what was typified by them they were to cease and to be removed out of the church. But those Hebrews, by the long use of them, had contracted an inve- terate persuasion that they had an excellency, use, and efficacy in the worship of God, upon their own account, and were therefore still to be continued and observed. On this occasion the declaration of the nature and use of the priesthood of Christ in the church was not only opportune and seasonable, but necessary and unavoidable. - It was so, that those Hebrews who did sincerely believe the gospel, and yet supposed that the old legal institutions were in force and obliga-