tical priesthood was conferred on Levi according to covenant, as the Lord declares by the prophet Malachi: “My covenant was with him of life and peace." (ii, 5.) It is, however, peculiar to this priesthood of Christ, that the covenant on which it is founded, was confirmed by an oath.—Let us briefly consider each of them.

The covenant into which God entered with our High Priest, Jesus Christ, consisted, on the part of God, of the demand of an action to be performed, and of the promise of an immense remuneration. On the part of Christ, our High Priest, it consisted of an accepting of the PROMISE, and a voluntary engagement to PERFORM the ACTION.-First. God required of him, that he should lay down his soul as a victim in sacrifice for sin, (Isa. liii, 11.) that he should give his flesh for the life of the world, (John vi, 51.) and that he should pay the price of redemption for the sins and the captivity of the human race.-God "promised," that, if he performed all this, “he should see a seed whose days should be prolonged," (Isa. liii, 11.) and that he should be himself "an everlasting Priest after the order of Melchizedec," (Psalm cx, 4.) that is, he should, by the discharge of his priestly functions, be elevated to the regal dignity.-Secondly. Christ, our High Priest, accepted of these conditions, and permitted the province to be assigned to him of atoning for our transgressions, exclaiming, "Lo, I come that I may do thy will, O my God." (Ps. xl, 8.) But he accepted them under a stipulation, that, on completing his great undertaking, he should for ever enjoy the honour of a priesthood similar to that of Melchizedec, and that, being placed on his royal throne, he might, as KING of RIGHTEOUSNESS and PRINCE of PEACE, rule in righteousness the people subject to his sway, and might dispense peace to his people.— He, therefore, "for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame;" (Heb. xii, 2.) that, "being anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows," (Psalm xlv, 7.) he might sit for ever in the throne of equity at the right hand of the throne of God.

Great indeed was the condescension of the All-powerful God in being willing to treat with our High Priest rather in the way of covenant, than by a display of his authority. And strong were the pious affections of our High Priest, who did not refuse to take upon himself, on our account, the discharge of those difficult and arduous duties which were full of pain, trouble, and misery.-Most glorious act, performed by thee,

O Christ, who art infinite in Goodness! Thou Great High Priest, accept of the honours due to thy pious affection, and continue in that way to proceed to glory, to the complete consecration of our salvation!-For it was the will of God, that the duties of the office should be administered from a voluntary and disinterested zeal and affection for his glory and the salvation of sinners; and it was a deed worthy of his abundant benignity, to recompense with a large reward the voluntary promptitude which Christ exhibited.

God added an oath to the covenant, both for the purpose of confirming it, and as a demonstration of the dignity and unchangeable nature of that priesthood. Though the constant and unvarying veracity of God's nature might very properly set aside the necessity of an oath, yet as he had conformed to the customs of men in their method of solemnizing agreements, it was his pleasure by an oath to confirm his covenant; that our High Priest, relying in assured hope on the two-fold and immoveable anchor of the promise and of the oath, "might despise the shame and endure the cross."-The immutability and perpetuity of this priesthood have been pointed out by the oath which was added to the covenant. For whatever that be which God confirms by an oath, it is something eternal and immutable.

But it may be asked, "Are not all the words which God speaks, all the promises which he makes, and all the covenants into which he enters, of the same nature, even when they are unaccompanied by the sanctity of an oath ?" Let me be permitted to describe the difference between the two cases here stated, and to prove it by an important example. There are two methods or plans by which it might be possible for man to arrive at a state of righteousness before God and to obtain life from him,-the one is according to righteousness through the law, by works and "of debt ;" the other is according to mercy through the gospel, "by grace, and through faith :" These two methods are so constituted as not to allow both of them to be in a course of operation at the same time; but they proceed on the principle, that when the first of them is made void, a vacancy may be created for the second. In the beginning, therefore, it was the will of God to prescribe to man the first of these methods; which arrangement was required by his righteousness and the primitive institution of mankind. But it was not his pleasure to deal strictly with man according to the process of that legal covenant, and peremptorily to proVOL. I.

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nounce a destructive sentence against him in conformity with the rigour of the law. Wherefore he did not subjoin an oath to that covenant, lest such an addition should have served to point out its immutability, a quality which God would not permit it to possess. The necessary consequence of this was, that when the first covenant was made void through sin, a vacancy was created by the good pleasure of God for another and a better covenant, in the manifestation of which he employed an oath, because it was to be the last and peremptory one respecting the method of obtaining righteousness and life. "By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, that in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." (Gen. xxii, 18.) "As I live, saith the Lord, have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? and not that he should return from his ways and live?" (Ezek. xviii, 23.)—" So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest. And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” (Heb. iii, 11, 18.) For the same reason it is said, "The wrath of God [from which it is possible for sinners to be liberated by faith in Christ,] abides on those who are unbelievers." (John iii, 36.) A similar process is observed in relation to the priesthood. For he did not confirm with an cath the Levitical priesthood, which had been "imposed until the time of reformation." (Heb. ix, 10.) But because it was his will that the priesthood of Christ should be everlasting, he ratified it by an oath. The Apostle to the Hebrews demonstrates the whole of this subject in the most nervous style, by quotations from the Hundred-and-tenth Psalm.-Blessed are we in whose behalf God was willing to swear! but most miserable shall we be, if we give no credit to him who swears. -The greatest dignity is likewise obtained to this priesthood and imparted to it, by the addition of an oath, which elevates it far above the honour to which that of Levi attained. "For the law of a carnal commandment maketh men priests who have infirmities, and are sinners, to offer both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him perfect who did the service, as pertaining to the conscience;" (Heb. ix, 9.) neither could they abolish sin, or procure heavenly blessings. "But the words of the oath, which was since the law, constituteth the Son a High Priest consecrated for evermore, who, after the power of an endless life and through the Eternal Spirit, offers himself without spot to God, and by that one offering he perfects for ever them that are sanctified, their consciences being purified to

serve the living God: by how much also it was a more excellent covenant, by so much the more ought it to be confirmed, since it was established upon better promises: (Heb. vii-x.) and that which God hath deigned to honour with the sanctity of an oath, should be viewed as an object of the most momentous importance.

II. We have spoken to the act of IMPOSING the Priesthood, as long as our circumscribed time will allow us. Let us now contemplate its EXECUTION, in which we have to consider the duties to be performed, and in them the feeling and condition of him who performs them. The functions to be executed were two: (1) The OBLATION of an expiatory sacrifice, and (2) PRAYER.

1. The OBLATION was preceded by a preparation through the deepest privation and àbasement, the most devoted obedience, vehement supplications, and the most exquisitely painful experience of human infirmities, on each of which it is not now necessary to speak.-This oblation consists of two parts succeeding each other: The FIRST is the immolation or sacrifice of the body of Christ, by the shedding of his blood on the altar of the cross, which was succeeded by death,—thus paying the price of redemption for sins by suffering the punishment due to them. The OTHER PART consists of the offering of his body reanimated and sprinkled with the blood which he shed, -a symbol of the price which he has paid and of the redemption which he has obtained.-The FIRST PART of this oblation was to be performed without the Holy of Holies, that is, on earth, because no effusion of blood can take place in heaven,` since it is necessarily succeeded by death. For death has no more sway in heaven, in the presence and sight of the Majesty of the True God, than sin itself has, which contains within it the deserts of death, and as death contains within itself the punishment of sin. For thus says the scripture: "The Son of man came, not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." (Matt. xx, 28.) "For this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the

remission of sins." (Matt. xxvi, 28.) "Christ Jesus gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." (1 Tim. ii, 6.)—But the SECOND PART of this offering was to be accomplished in heaven, in the Holy of Holies. For that body which had suffered the punishment of death and had been recalled to life, was entitled to appear before the Divine Majesty besprinkled with its own blood, that, remaining thus before God

as a continual memorial, it might also be a perpetual expiation for transgressions. On this subject the Apostle says: "Into the second tabernacle went the High Priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people. But Christ being come a High Priest of good things to come, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the Holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us:" (Heb. ix, 11.) that is, by his own blood already poured out and sprinkled upon him, that he might appear with it in the presence of God. That act, being once performed, was never repeated; "for in that he died, he died unto sin once." But this is a perpetual act; "for in that he liveth, he liveth unto God." (Rom. vi, 10.)- This man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood." (Heb. vii, 24.) The former was the act of the Lamb to be slain, the latter that of the Lamb already slain and raised again from death to life. The one was completed in a state of the deepest humiliation, the other in a state of glory; and both of them out of a consummate affection for the glory of God and the salvation of sinners. Sanctified by the anointing of the Spirit, he completed the former act; and the latter was likewise his work, when he had been further consecrated by his sufferings and sprinkled with his own blood. By the former, therefore, he sanctified himself, and made a kind of preparation on earth that he might be qualified to discharge the functions of the latter in heaven.

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2. The SECOND of the two functions to be discharged, was the act of prayer and intercession, the latter of which depends upon the former. Prayer is that which Christ offers for himself, and intercession is what he offers for believers; each of which is most luminously described to us by John, in the Seventeenth Chapter of his Gospel, which contains a perpetual rule and exact canon of the prayers and intercessions which Christ offers in heaven to his Father. For although that prayer was recited by Christ while he remained upon earth, yet it properly belongs to his sublime state of exaltation in heaven And it was his will, that it should be described in his word, that we on earth might derive from it perpetual consolation. Christ offers up a prayer to the Father for himself, according to the Father's command and promise combined, "Ask of me, and I shall give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance." (Psalm ii, 8.) Christ had regard to this promise, when he said, "Father, glorify thy Son, that thy Son also