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not after the order of Aaron. First, because his priesthood was of a peculiar and superior nature to the Levitical, for it was wholly confined to his own person, who might on that account be said to be σε without father and without mother;" and blessed Abraham, the progenitor of Levi, And, without all contradiction, the less is blessed of the better.*" And in this respect we may justly say of the high priest of our profession, in the words of the prophet, "Who shall declare his generation?" "For it is evident," as the apostle tells us, "that our Lord sprang out of Judah." And this circumstance points out to us the second reason why Christ was called after the order of Melchisedek, for he hereby united the two different characters of priest and king, and was not so much by interpretation, as in strict propriety of speech, King of Righteousness and King of Peace. Which union of the regal and priestly character was predicted and pointed out in those remarkable words of the prophet Zechariah, c. vi. 12; " Behold the man whose name is the Branch, and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord: even he shall build the temple of the Lord, and shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne, and he shall be a Priest upon his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both," i. e. between the regal and sacerdotal office. And it may not be altogether unworthy of remark, that our word king is probably borrowed from the original word, (, Cohen,) here rendered, priest.

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And now the holy psalmist, by the discerning spirit of prophecy, looking up to Jesus, who, as a faithful High Priest, offered himself to God, and, having spoiled principalities and powers, triumphed over them on the cross, celebrates this glorious victory over Sin and Satan, in expressions which most probably allude to the conquest of the Israelites over the Egyptians: "The Lord, at thy right hand, shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath." These words are manifestly,

Is blessed of the better, Heb. vii. 7. "Intellige benedictione, non vulgari, quo modo benedicunt æquales æqualibus, et minores majoribus, &c. sed solenni, sive ex officio, vel ritu sacerdotali, ut supra, v. 2. Vide Num. vi. 23, &c." Estius.

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as Gejcrus observes, an apostrophe to God, the Father, and are spoken of God, the Son, as is evident from v. 1;* and seem plainly to allude to the entire overthrow of Pharaoh and all his host, as the following words may more fully shew; "He shall judge among the Heathen :" or rather, as Rivetus, He shall judge, i. e. condemn, the nations.‡ "He shall fill (the places) with the dead bodies." Here is a manifest deficiency in the original, to supply which the Chaldee reads &¬n, " he shall fill the earth with the dead bodies;", which certainly affords a very good sense. But I think that bishop Hare's reading is the most probable; for, instead of supposing, with Buxtorf, &c. that is. written for П, or that it has the same signification of valleys, he proposes to supply n, which gives this sense," He shall fill the valleys with the dead bodies.” · And could we possibly have a more beautiful description of the destruction of the Egyptians in the Red Sea, as recorded, Exod. xiv. 21 30? And if, instead of rendering the next words, « He shall wound the heads over many countries," we translate them, more literally, "He shall wound the head over the great country," i. e. Egypt;|| we shall have a manifest reference to another passage of the psalmist, cxxxv. 9, where, speaking of this subject, he delivers himself in nearly the same words: "Who sent tokens and wonders into the midst of thee, O Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his servants.”. For, that the overthrow of the devil and his angels was typified and pre

And, if we read with one antient MS. 8 mm, it will be still more striking, and the defect of the metre will be supplied, “O Jehovah, the Lord, &c."

↑ "Supra Christum ut regem et sacerdotem descripserat; hîc et v. 6, 7, ut fortem ducem depingit; cujus tamen victoriæ sunt spirituales, &c." Muis.

$ “ồ judicare hîc generatim sumitur, pro regere, sive pro toto regno et gubernatione, (cujus duæ sunt partes, improbos punire, et bonos remunerari;) sicut Jud. iii. 10, et iv, 4. Sed mallem sumere pro una parte, nempe damnatione et pœna improborum, (ut Gen. xv. 14,) ut et præcedentia et sequentia suadent." Rivetus. And it is observable that that passage, Gen. xv. 14, relates to the destruction of Pharaoh; which was foretold by God, to Abraham, four hundred years. before it happened, as the preceding verses shew.

Or, by the transposition of one letter, an for 27, "over the land of Rahab;" i. e. Egypt.. See the quotation following from Isai. li. 9; and, for many other significations of this passage, my Notes on the Psalms, &c.

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figured by the destruction of Pharoah and his host, will appear from a passage of the prophet Isaiah, c. li. 9, which is, as it were, a comment upon this under consideration: Awake! awake! put on strength, O arm of the Lord! Awake! as in the antient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, i, e. Egypt, and wounded the dragon, i. e. Pharaoh ?"

Then the holy psalmist closes all by joining together the two opposite characters of a suffering and triumphant Messiah; "He shall drink of the brook in the way, therefore shall he lift up the head; or, as one very antient MS. and the Syr. with our reading-psalms, his head, which the context requires upon which words we cannot have a shorter or a better paraphrase than the two following passages; the one, of the prophet Isaiah, speaking of Christ to come, c. iii. 10: "Yet it

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Archbishop.Secker gives up this verse as inexplicable, and the commentators put two oppo site constructions upon the, first sentence of it. "Descriptio est bellatoris alacris, qui, dum hostes. persequitur, non quærit diversoria aut cauponas, ut vino se refoveat, sed aquâ contentus est, quam obiter et raptim sumit, ex quovis quem repperit, non fluio tantùm, sed et torrente; et ro bibere de torrente, potest proverbialiter victoriam exprimere, ut Esa. xxxvii. 25." Grotius, &c. " Sensus est multas cruces et ærumnas in via (i. e. in yita curriculo) hausit Christus. Per torrentem, passi-, onum Christi multitudo et acerbitas denotatur, simul tamen et brevitas. Exaltare caput alicujus est, tristem (qualis capite demisso incedit, Thren. ii. 18,) et præ dolore dejectum reddere lætum, ut Ps. iii. 4. Et hæc capitis exaltatio præsupponit demissionem, significatam bibitione torrentis in via; ut hic agnoscamus Messiæ exinanitionem et exaltationem.", Glassius, &c. But, as Christ is foretold, in the Old Testament, under the threefold capacity of Prophet, Priest, and King, which he himself most probably alludes to in those emphatical words, Joh. xiv. 6, "I am the way," 】 denoting his priestly office, "and the truth," respecting his prophetical function, "and the life," marking out his regal character; and as he had been described, in the former part of the psalm,” as a Priest and Kings may not the words under consideration relate to his prophetical function, in allusion to what his great forerunner, Elijah the prophet, did, who, in a literal sense, drank of the brook Cherith, and afterwards went up by a whirlwind into heaven: and that, as Moses was a type of Christ, in a more especial manner, as a lawgiter, (see Episcopius, Limborch, BishopTM Sherlock, &c.) Elijah was a type of Christ as a prophet, I think may be inferred from that singular* transaction, our Lord's transfiguration, at which were present Moses and Elias, talking with him; "Moses, legis promulgator, Elias, prophetarum nobilissimus; quos etiam in 40 dierum jejunio ex-1 presserat, in hoc adsunt, ut ostendant, quod Lucas indicat, perpessiones Christi, tum legis ritibus figuratas, tum prophetarum oraculis prædictas." And, as Brugensis observes farther, "Hoe colloquinm est consensus legis et prophetarum cum Jesu et Evangelio, quo scirent non esse novam Jesu religionem."

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pleased the Lord to bruise him, he hath put him to grief; when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shalk prosper in his hand:" the other of Christ as come, in the epistle to the Hebrews, c. xii. 2: "Who, for the joy that was sct before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." Wherefore, let us comfort one another with these words, and rest assured, that, if we suffer with him, we shall be also glorified together: "for, if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them, also, which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him;" when the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with a voice of the archangel, and with the trump, of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. And, in this confidence, let us take care to work out this great salvation, which he hath wrought for us, with fear and trembling. We must consider ourselves as the disciples of him who died for sin, and, therefore, we must die to it, that, when he shall appear the second time, we may be found without sin unto salvation, and be worthy to follow the Lamb that was slain, but now liveth again and is alive for evermore, to the heavenly Jérusalem with this song of triumph in our mouths: Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle." And thanks be to God, who hath given us the victory over death and the grave through our Lord Jesus Christ.

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SERMON

ON

JOHN, xx. 6, 7.

JOHN, xx. 6, 7.

Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie; and the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.

THE resurrection of Christ being the chief corner-stone* on which the Christian's faith is built, it must be laid on so firm and sure a foundation that nothing can possibly shake or undermine it: for, if Christ be not risen, all the other articles of our belief are vain and useless. And it is very observable, that the certainty of this fact is

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"In angulis præcipua vis est, quâ ædificia sustinentur, ut ad Matt. xxi. 42, diximus.” Grotius.

↑ "Id ideo quia hoc præcipue argumento usi erant apostoli, ut evincerent verum esse Christi dogma, quod Deus eum, si falsa docuisset, non resuscitasset e mortuis. Vide Act. i. 22, &c. Grotius.

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