positive and indisputable. Messiah, the son of David, is a priest-a priest appointed by God -appointed with an oath-and after the order of Melchisedec.

It is perfectly apparent that the apostle by this quotation proved all he undertook to prove, and something more; for he not only established the fact that Messiah must be a priest, but fixed the order of his priesthood. And alas! it is not the order of Aaron, but the order of Melchisedec. How is a Jew to endure this! We may condemn antiquity; nothing is more easy, nothing requires less knowledge or virtue; but to judge the ancients is another affair. The man who would do this must expunge from his mind the knowledge, habits, and sentiments of his own age. He must make himself a cotemporary with the pannels; must see with their eyes, must adopt their habits, must communicate with them in all their impressions, and motives, and feelings. How was a Jew, I ask again, to be told that God, wholly overlooking the divine priesthood of Levi, had gone back to Melchisedec, who was not even of the seed of Abraham, and taken his priesthood as a more noble pattern for the priesthood of Messiah? Say not, the evidence was such as to compel belief. In real life, motives have as

much, if not more, to do with our principles, than evidence. And, in the present case, though the evidence was strong on the one side; the motives were on the other. Paul saw the peril of his situation, as the advocate of divine truth. He saw arrayed against him an host of prejudices inherent in the blood of Israelites, and consecrated into religious principles, by zeal for their ecclesiastical establishment. He knew that where national pride is concerned, where the confidence of old opinions is to be encountered, where the strongest of human principles-religious vanity-is to be humbled, the triumph of truth is scarcely possible; because, in such circumstances, men, so far from candidly weighing evidence, have already pre-judged the question.

A man honest though weak, may tell the truth, but in general, like the prophecies of Cassandra, it will do no good. It belongs to wisdom to give practical effect to truth. Paul was wise. His great apprehension was that his countrymen would spurn the question, and refuse to admit to discussion the idea of a priesthood different from Aaron's.* His object is to com

* Note. General addresses to large bodies of men are always to be understood with those limitations which the knowledge of real life suggests. It would be too much to suspect the whole

pel them to investigate that question. And, to accomplish his purpose, in a strain of terror, sufficient to make the hair stand on our heads, and that has shook with dread the consciences of Christians from that day to this, he demonstrates that an error on this subject is perdition. They must, therefore, they must, at the peril of their souls, examine whether Jesus has not a priesthood, totally different in nature and efficacy, from the priesthood of Aaron. This is his sole object from the 11th verse of the 5th chapter to the end of the 6th. A more consummate piece of oratorial address, was not penned since man first dipt pen in ink. shows us the man who knows human nature:

It

body of Jewish Christians of doubting the priesthood of Messiah: of those who doubted, some must have carried their objections farther than others; and a great variety of causes must have operated on the minds of the different parties. There were turbulent schismatics—there were hypocritical professors-very ignorant and very weak believers, affected by doubts of different kinds, among the Jewish Christians: and, therefore, although the apostle's arguments establish the truth equally to all; it would be unjust to give an equally extensive application to his inuendoes. Besides, we cannot suppose the apostle indifferent to the fate of the unconverted Jews: and as all these, particularly the priests, would be clamorous against the idea of a priesthood different from that of Aaron, it is morally certain that the apostle would have some regard to their conversion, in his treatment of his subject: or, supposing him to have little hopes of their conversion, he must have been solicitous to stop their mouths.

and is fully worthy of Paul, or rather, I should say, of the Spirit by whom he was instructed. Let us attend to the workings of the apostle's mind: it is necessary to our purpose to do so.

He commences, by telling them that he had many things to say of priest Melchisedec, as a type of priest Messiah; but adds, with magnanimous and prepossessing candour, that they were such poor proficients in Christian knowledge, SO "unskilful in the word of righteousness," that nothing but the "first principles of the oracles of God," such as faith, repentance, and future judgment, (those initiatory principles, the knowledge of which was exacted of converts previous to baptism,) and that imposition of hands, which conferred the Holy Ghost, could be offered to them with any great prospect of advantage. He tells them they are "babes," who "have need of milk," or the simplest elementary truths; not full grown men, who are capable of digesting the "strong meat," which God has provided, in the enlarged and general

views of gospel doctrine. However, in the face of all these discouragments, he avows his determination to use his utmost effort to carry them on to perfection-to that state of Christian maturity, in which they would be capable of enjoying the full consolation of their holy faith.

He then places before them the tremendous danger to which they would expose their souls, if they should neglect to second him, by giving this subject a serious examination, and adopting a correct decision. He reminds them of the example of some, who, like them, had passed the threshold of the Christian church; but neglecting to advance, and beginning to doubt, had fallen into a course of backsliding, which had terminated in the most deplorable apostacy. Of such apostates he draws a most horrific picture. The privileges which those unhappy persons had enjoyed, and the attainments to which they had arrived, are enumerated in slow detail. They had been "enlightened" in the doctrine of salvation by Jesus: they had “tasted of the heavenly gift," and been "made partakers. of the Holy Ghost," having received him after the day of Pentecost, not as a spirit of sanctification, which was enjoyed under the law; but as a spirit of gospel illumination, which was received, not by "the law," but by "the hearing of faith."* They had "tasted the good word of God," having been convinced of the truth of the gospel, and induced to adopt its profession; and "the powers of the world to come," or the miraculous powers of Messiah's earthly kingdom.

*Gal. iii. 2.