XI. SRR M. like Adam, he was immediately created by the Hands of God; but because he has no Father or Mother named among the reft of the Patriarchs, whofe Genealogies are recorded in the Book of God. And it is a common Thing, even amongst prophane Writers, to fay of any Perfons who came to be eminent, but whose Stock or Lineage was not known, or at least was obfcure; that they were Men of no Family, or of no Parents. Thus Pliny, for Inftance, fpeaking of two of the Kings of Rome, fays, that one of them, meaning Ancus, had no Father, and that the other, meaning Servius, had no Mother. In like Manner the Lineage or Progenitors of Melchifedec, his Ancestors or Family not being registered in Holy Writ, therefore he is faid in this Epistle to the Hebrews to have been without Father, without Mother, and without Genealogy. So alfo he is faid to have no Beginning of Days, because the Time of his Birth is no where fet down; nor End of Life, becaufe neither the Time of his Death, nor the Succeffion of any after him, either in his priestly or kingly Office, is any where mentioned: But being made like unto * Plin. Ep. 108. Vide etiam Crell. in Heb. vii. 3. and Outram. de Sacrif. L. I. c. 4. the XI. the Son of God, he is faid to abide a Prieft SERM. continually: i.e. being defigned in the Intentions of Providence to be a Figure of Chrift, his Priesthood very probably endured as long as the Knowledge or Worfhip of the true God remained amongst the People over whom he prefided. And these are the Circumstances which chiefly diftinguished the Priesthood of Melchifedec from the Priesthood of Aaron among the Jews; which is the II. SECOND Thing I proposed to speak to. The Jewish Priests kept their Genealogies very exact. They knew their Families, and their feveral Branches: And when one High Priest died, they immediately elected the next in Blood to fucceed him. The Levitical Priefts were all, to a Man, of the House of Aaron, and Aaron himself of the Tribe of Levi; to which Tribe alone God was pleased to confine all boly Offices, as he did the regal to the Tribe of Judah. But of Melchifedec, the holy Penman fays, that he was without Defcent, or, as the Greek Word fignifies, without Genealogy: i.e. as the fixth Verse explains it, his Defcent, or Pedigree, was not counted from the Tribe of Levi. He was SER M. was a Prieft long before Levi was born: The XI. first Prieft (fo called) we ever read of: and Order, or regular Succeffion of Priefts any But a fecond Difference between the Melchifedecian and Aaronick Priesthood confifted in the Manner of their Worship and Bleffings: For whereas the Priesthood of Aaron confifted principally in the making or offering material Oblations and bloody Sacrifices of Bulls, and Calves, XI. Calves, and Goats, and the like, for thofe in SER M. whose Behalf they officiated and prayed; we read of no fuch Sacrifices or Offerings made by Melchifedec: But his Priesthood was performed in the pronouncing of an authoritative Bleffing only. This Melchifedec, King of Salem, Prieft of the Moft High God, when be met Abraham returning from the Slaughter of the Kings, blessed HIM, chap. vii. 1. He blessed him, and faid, Blessed be Abraham of the Moft High God, Poffeffor of Heaven and Earth: And bleed be the Most High God, which hath delivered thine Enemies into thy Hand, Gen. xiv. 19, 20. And from this Inftance too it evidently appears, that he confined not his Bleffings to one People alone, as the Jewish Priesthood was known to do; but extended them univerfally, and conferred them on all that were Acknowledgers and Worshippers of the true God. For Abraham was of a different Country from his own. And yet when Abraham had fubdued the Kings, Enemies very probably to the Faith and Worship of the true God; Melchifedec met him, refreshed him, and bleffed him. Dignity and Authority was he, as to confer Bleffings on the Father of the Faithful, even on him that had the Promifes, from whom 2 Of fo high God's X1. SER M. God's peculiar People were to spring, and in whofe Seed all the Nations of the Earth were to be blessed. Even this Man was blessed by Melchifedec: And without all Contradiction, the lefs is bleffed of the better, Heb. vii. 7. And therefore confider how great he was, by whom even the Patriarch Abraham was bleffed, and to whom he gave the Tenth of his Spoils, ver. 4. A third material Circumftance in which his Priesthood differed from the Aaronical Priesthood, was it's being figuratively a perpetual or eternal Priesthood. We read of none to whom he fucceeded, nor of any that afterwards fucceeded HIM; of none that went before, or came after him, in his Priesthood. But as he was the firft, fo was he the only one that performed or executed that kind of Priesthood. Being made like unto the Son of God, he abideth a Prieft continually, ver. 3. i. e. In the Pfalm where he is compared with the Meffias or Christ, he is reprefented as a continual Prieft. For the Lord hath fworn (faith David) and will not repent : Thou, i. e. Chrift, the Son of the Most High God, art a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchifedec, Pf. cx. 4. In which Place, though it is not said in exprefs Words that Melchifedec |
