VII.] AND SPECIFICALLY. 237 priesthood. It is to the special priesthood found in the Christian The special society, and to its inherent functions, that we must next address ourselves. be self The thought may at once occur, that there might It is not to be something of arrogance in any one's assuming for assumed. himself such special position towards others. It would be an interference and a presumption. Even if there be, at times, a broad distinction of moral gifts, and the power to benefit those around us, the greatest gentleness, and self-restraint, and the least selfassertion should mark its exercise. This may be at once admitted; and it explains the meaning of the words as to our Lord's special Priesthood, Christ glorified not Himself in being made High Priest ;' that is, God sent Him' to be such. His special Priesthood, however, is affirmed as an essential fact of the universe, irreversible as God's own nature; for God sware and would not repent, Thou art Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.' There is the highest reason therefore for our admitting at once the moral unfitness of any one's taking to himself a pre-eminence in 'things of God:' the Priest of the Most High God' did not so. It is not necessary for our present purpose, because it was not for the Apostle's argument, to examine who this special priest of God, 'Melchisedec,' was. It is enough to know that which S. Paul actually tells us; for he abstained from fuller teaching, because the Hebrews were still unready. Melchisedec was a 'priest of the Most High God'-a 'priest' prior to the Levitical Law,-'prior' even to Abraham the Gen. xiv. 18. father of the Hebrew race; a priest apparently with no bloody offering, but only bringing forth bread and wine,' and giving 'benediction;' a priest who It is after was also 'King of Righteousness and Peace;' a the order of Melchise priest whose name belonged to no genealogy of dec. Points of the parallel of Christ and Melchisedec. Heb. vii. 3, 8. μένει and ὅτι ζῇ. priests, no family inheritance or transmission of sacerdotal rites in a carnal way; a priest of heavenly appointment, recalled to Israel's memory ages afterwards in a prophetic Psalm as still remaining a priest,' and so a type of the future Messiah. It has been latterly objected among the Jews that the word used for 'priest,' in the Psalm so referred to, does not necessarily imply Sacrificial power such as Aaron's; but this is of no consequence, because the sacrifice of Melchisedec might be of another kind, and not Levitical, and yet full of sacredness, benediction, and mystery. The points of chief stress in the parallel suggested between Christ and Melchisedec evidently are his Divine appointment, and his 'continuance' after death; which are so expressed as to imply that a gift from God, such as Melchisedec's, never perishes, but may be even hereafter in some continuous way a means of indelible grace to the mystical body of which it is part.-There are other coincidences of this mysterious type and the antitype; and the marvellous Incarnation of our Lord seems to be shadowed forth in what is said of Melchisedec's origin. But we must keep to the main considerations, the Origin and the Continuance of this priesthood; though we shall afterwards notice some of its functions. VII.] THE DIVINE TYPE OF THE TRUE. 239 origin an xxi. 37; 37; S. Luke iv. 18; S. John iii. 17, 34; vi. 42; xvii. The Origin of this priesthood is regarded as directly As to its from God, 'Sent' expressly on a mission of Bene- Apostolate. diction' to man. Melchisedec's was such, and such was Christ's. We are not accustomed to speak of s. Matt. our Lord as an 'Apostle,' and yet He describes s. Mark ix. Himself in many places as 'the Sent' of the Father; and S. Paul, introducing the subject of the Lord's priesthood, expressly links together His apostolate 57 vi and His sacerdotal character, as if inseparable; 'Con- 3, sider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.' The juxtaposition of the words implies that He was 'Sent as Sacerdotal'—Apostle, and therefore Priest. In His Incarnation as First-born' of a new creation, 'the Father Sanctified and Sent Him to the world.' He fulfilled, then, in His origin, both the patriarchal type and that of Melchisedec. 8, 18. continu Incarna Thus also the Continuance of that priesthood is 48 to its even guaranteed. It is said of Melchisedec that ance by the he 'abides a priest.' But the new creation of which tion. Christ is the Head, the Beginning, and the Perfecting, abides; it 'continueth ever,' and Christ is 'over all for ever,' and so is His Priesthood 'unchangeable.' The suffering and death which destroyed all other priesthoods only perfected Him in His ". It was fit and right that He Who was Heir of all, and by Whom the whole order of things was made, Who was to bring many sons of God to glory in the heavens, should, as their Leader, be Himself perfected through the sufferings and death which belonged to the nature which He had taken. Because He Who n See Appendix, Hebrews, ch. ii. and iii. His func tions as priest directed to ' perfec tion.' sanctifies, and the 'sons' who are sanctified, are of 6 And if we pause at all to consider the functions of our Heavenly High Priest, we shall readily see how our moral they are Divinely directed to the moral Perfection of those who come unto God by Him.' His work is described in prophecy quoted by S. Paul: Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not; in burnt-offering, holocausts, or sin-offerings, (such as the Law offered,) Thou hadst no pleasure;' 'a Body hast Thou prepared Me;' Lo I come to do Thy will, O God;' He taketh away the first, that He may establish the second-taketh away' the blood of sacrifices 'that He may establish the doing God's will.' By His 'doing God's will' it is affirmed that we have been 'Sanctified through the Offering of the Body of Christ' according to that will, to die once for all. Mystery of the atone ment. Bible and But how is it that that wondrous Offering of His Body has such an effect?--We know, indeed, that it was the triumph over death,—triumph for all who (Comp. The finally are members of Him, the Second Adam Who 'undertakes with God' for all His race. But here is p. 85, &c. something more than triumph over death: and what is it? It seems at one moment as though S. Paul were being borne along, in his lofty exposition of truth, to tell us this somewhat more' as to the its Inter preters, VII.] THE MYSTERY REMAINS AS TO ATONEMENT. 241 nature of that Atoning mercy, that omnipotent and Divine dealing with sin, of our High Priest within the veil. The Apostle says, when describing the duties of the Levitical high priesthood, as 'shadows of the good to be in Christ,' that within the Holy of Holies, the second veil,' there was of old the 'ark of the covenant, the pot of manna, and Aaron's Heb. ix. rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant, and the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy- rdinarseat,'—but then he pauses and says, that he will not Comp. Rom. speak of these things more particularly!' Were the Hebrews unready still? or was it that the Churches now had all that was needed? The Apostle had before declared, in one of his earlier letters, indeed, that Jesus was the MERCY SEAT,' and he goes no further now; nor in this place is he allowed to explain to us this secret thing of the Lord our God,'-how sin has been abolished before the FATHER on high through His Body that died, and His Blood that He poured out for man. wings of Cherubim still cover that Mercy-Seat,' and angels yet 'veil their faces,' and adore. The III. Let us recall our position. We have been taught by the Apostle that it is a moral truth which he urges when bidding Christians to advance to Perfection,' and that we cannot advance solitarily, but need that help which all probation implies, which the old priesthood foreshadowed, and which Christ has brought, as the Apostle, that is High • See Appendix, Hebrews, ch. ix. 1-10. R I-5. τὸ ἱλασ. τήριον. iii. 25. III. |