charged; and becoming subject to those infirmities, the recital of which enables us more clearly to apprehend him as a merciful and faithful High Priest for us in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for our sins, and succour us in our temptations. "For every high priest taken from among men, is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins: who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity. And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins. And no man taketh this honour upon himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron: so also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee. As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; and being made perfect, became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec."* Connect the reiterated declaration of the order of *Heb. v. 1-10. Christ's priesthood, which we have shown to be individual and exclusive, with the fact, that neither in the Hebrews nor in any other book of the New Testament, is there a reference to any other priest as officiating for the Christian church; and with the statements contained in this passage, that no man taketh the honour of the priesthood upon himself, but he that is called of God as was Aaron,-that not even Christ glorified himself to be made an high priest; and we have all which we can need in proof of the first part of the argument of this chapter, that HE is the only priest who is authorized to officiate for the church of which he is the Head. How lamentably do those mistake the design, and pervert the application of the statement, that "no man taketh the honour upon himself, but he that is called of God as was Aaron," who quote it for the uncharitable purpose of nullifying the ministerial functions of all, who have not, like themselves, received priest's orders. Bigotry is defective in its organs of vision, and therefore often stumbles most unhappily, where the light, too strong for its eye, shines with most clearness. There is no passage in the Scriptures which more decisively overthrows all the pretensions which men make to the office of the priesthood, than does this, which is most commonly quoted for their support and confirmation. It will fully sustain an assertion, even stronger, and more comprehensive than any which we have yet ventured to make;-that there is no priest, officiating for men by divine appointment, in the universe of God, besides Christ; because, none but he can clearly show, like Aaron and his descendants, a call from God to the office of the priesthood. We may, with this inspired declaration in our hand, go round the world, and demonstrate the fallacy of every pretension to the honour of the priesthood, by whomsoever made; and end in the conclusion, that there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we can be saved, than that of the man Christ Jesus; because he only officiates, by divine appointment, as priest and mediator between God and man. It will not for a moment be pretended, that the priests of any of the idolatrous systems which yet exist in the earth, can show that they have a call from God corresponding with that of Aaron. They disclaim the authority of the living God by whom Aaron was called; but they disclaim it in vain, for they are destined, with the systems which they uphold, to fall before it. The light, which chased from the earth the delusions which were found in the various systems of classic idolatry, is spreading amongst them. The rod of the Redeemer's strength, which, when it was first sent forth from Sion, broke the spell of the strongest enchantments under which the mind of man had ever been held, is already carried to the threshold, or has entered the interior of every idolatrous structure which is found upon the globe. Feeble, despised, and reproached, may be the hands which bear it; but its work is deter mined by him, who hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and its execution is certain. It will again, as in classic regions of old, leave to posterity nothing but the remembrance and the name of the systems, the deities, and the priests, against which its stroke is directed. Of Jewish priests, besides that the order is disannulled, none, who can prove their descent from Aaron, are to be found. The genealogical tables are irrecoverably lost, if the race of Aaron itself is not altogether extinct. Could a descendant of Aaron be produced, there is no temple in which he could officiate, no altar at which he could serve. The city, in which only the daily rites or annual solemnities of his religion can be lawfully observed, is desecrated, and trodden under foot of the gentiles. The mosque of Omar, reared for the disciples of the false prophet, stands upon the very spot on which David placed the ark, and Solomon, subsequently reared the temple; and it is death to a Jew to pass over its threshold.* : No * "When the Romans took Jerusalem, Titus ordered his soldiers to dig up the foundations both of the city and the temple and Terentius Rufus, the Roman general, is stated to have driven a ploughshare over the site of the sacred edifice. When the caliph Omar took Jerusalem, the spot had been abandoned by the Christians. Seid Eben Batrik, an Arabian historian, relates, that the caliph applied to the patriarch Sophronius, and inquired of him vestige of any priesthood, which could boast its original appointment to be from God, remains, to rival the office, or obstruct the work, which belongs exclusively to Christ. The people, (his own people,) who rejected him when he came to them, have nothing left, which they can substitute in his stead. They are without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, (that part of the priest's dress which distinguished him from all other men, and is therefore here employed to designate his office,) and without teraphim. The vital and essential principles of the Jewish religion,—that religion which poured such copious streams of light and joy into the breast of David, and of those who, with accordant hearts and voices, responded to the symphonies, or united in the chorus of his psalms,-are transfused into the Christian system, are embodied in the person and work of him who is our atoning sacri what would be the most proper place at Jerusalem for building a mosque. Sophronius conducted him to the ruins of Solomon's temple. The caliph Abd-el-Malek made additions to the buildings, and enclosed the rock with walls. His successor, the caliph El-Oulid, contributed still more to the embellishment of El-Sakhara, and covered it with a dome of copper, gilt, taken from a church at Balbec. The crusaders converted this temple of Mahommed into a Christian sanctuary, but Saladin restored it to its original use.”—Modern Traveller, vol. i. p. 93. |