designed it principally as a tribute of piety to God. And herein he has shewn us our duty towards the Priests and Ministers of God. If they perform their office, as Melchizedec did, with a tender concern for those amongst whom they minister, and with real piety towards God, they ought to be " esteemed very highly in love for their work's sake:" " While they serve at the altar, they ought to live of the altar;" and "while they minister unto us of their spiritual things, we should feel happy in imparting to them of our temporal things." What if our property be earned with the sweat of our brow, or purchased, as Abram's was, at the risk of our life ; we should account a portion of it due to God, who has enabled us to acquire it ; and we should consider the support of his Ministry and his religion as having the first and most urgent demand upon us.]
2. A hidden mystery —
[We should have seen nothing particular in this transac- tion, if God had not been pleased to reveal it to us. But by the light of the New Testament we see in it nothing less than the abolition of the whole Jewish polity, and the establishment of Christianity upon its ruins.
The tribe of Levi were by God's special command ordained to be priests; and the tithes of every thing (which God claimed as his property) were to be given to them for their support. They were to be considered as God's representatives ; and therefore they had, in this respect, a superiority above all the other tribes. But Melchizedec ministered in the priesthood four hundred years before they had any designation to the office; and an hundred and fifty years before Levi himself existed: and to him Abram, the father of all the tribes, paid tithes. The same superiority therefore which the tribe of Levi claimed on account of the priesthood above their brethren, Melchizedec claimed above Abram himself, and consequently above Levi also: for " Levi being in the loins of his father Abram, may be considered as paying tithes in Abram." Here then at once we see, that Melchizedec's priesthood was supe- rior to that of Levi. Now the priesthood of Christ was to be, not after the order of Levi, but after the order of Melchize- dec; (for God foretold, even while the Levitical priesthood was in all its plenitude of sanctity and power, that another priest should arise after the order of Melchizedec h.) Christ therefore had a priesthood of a higher order than that of Levi. This further appears from the circumstance of his being appointed to the priesthood with an oath, (" The Lord sware, and said, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedec:") whereas the Levitical priests were appointed
11 Ps. ex. 4.