SERMON. XVII.

CHRIST THE HIGH-PRIEST.

(Lincoln's Inn, 6th Sunday after Trinity, July 23, 1854.)

HEBREWS V. 1-10.

'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 unto 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, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; called of God an high-priest, after the order of Melchisedec.'

EVERY reader has perceived that two priesthoods are spoken of in this passage, and in the Epistle to which it belongs; one is designated by the name of Aaron; one, by the name of Melchisedec. But it should be observed, that in the case of the two priesthoods, as in

the case of the two Covenants, of which I spoke last Whitsunday, we are told, first of what is common to them both; then of the points which distinguish them.

I. Having spoken, at the end of the last chapter, of Jesus as the High-priest who had passed into the heaven; who was touched with the feeling of men's infirmities; who had been in all points tempted like as men were, yet without sin; through whom they might draw nigh to God with full assurance of faith; the writer proceeds to declare the characteristics which must meet in the priest, those which belong to the very nature and essence of his office. 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 sin. There is great carefulness and elaboration in this definition. Each clause, and each member of each clause, has been weighed and stands out distinctly. Where there is any vagueness the vagueness is suggestive; we see why there could not be greater accuracy without a further and higher explanation; we are led on towards that explanation.

The Jew would feel instantly, the words of his Law being his instructors,-that he must learn what was implied in the existence of the priests generally, from that which was true of Aaron the high-priest. He must not ascend to him from those who belonged to his race and progeny; he must understand them from what was first declared of him. The high-priest, there

fore, forms the subject of the definition; of him it is said that he is taken from among men; He must be one of the race; he must not be above it, if by above is meant estranged from it—having interests of his own or a character of his own, which keep him at a distance from any of its members. And this because he is ordained for men. He is to act for his people, he is

to represent them. Every sentence in the books of Exodus or Leviticus, which treats of the functions of Aaron, assumes this to be the case. He bears the names of the twelve tribes upon his breast-plate; each man who comes to the door of the tabernacle claims that he should speak and act for him. He was to speak and act for the nation, and for the individuals who composed it in various capacities. Even the leper who was separated from the congregation, who proclaimed himself unclean, had a right to demand the inspection and help of the priest. But however various, however earthly, some of those duties might seem to be, they all imported that he was ordained for men in things pertaining to God. His existence presumed the existence of an Invisible Being with whom men had to do: presumed that this Being was not separate from men, but was governing all, even the vulgarest events of their lives. The priest stood forth before his countrymen as a continual witness of this truth. If God was not; if He was a great way off; if He was only an ultimate postulate, a Hercules' Pillar of the universe; not a living, acting, working Being;

not one seeking to keep up an intercourse with His creatures; then the priest meant nothing. His name and position were a lie; he had no business in the world, and the world had no business with him. Still there is a phrase necessary to denote him, which is perplexing, and which is intended to perplex us. He is ordained, or set up. Who ordains, or sets him up? How does he come among a people, or gain any authority over them? Do they establish him? Does a mere law or decree of one age or another establish him? Whence, then, proceeds the decree? How does it distinguish its object? Whence arises the obligation to obey it? These questions must not be answered for a while. It is the very design of the Epistle to make the Jewish Christian pause and consider whether he knew the answer to them, and how it might be arrived at. In the meantime the writer proceeds to a point in his description about which there could be no hesitation. The high-priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.' This, all would admit, was his principal, his characteristic, function; whatever else he did must find its explanation in this. The men from whom he was taken, the men for whom he stood, required that he should present their gifts and their sin-offerings to Him from whom they believed their good things came; to Him against whom they believed they had sinned. If he was God's priest, if the office was not a dream, it was not only man who demanded the gifts

and the sacrifices. God demanded them; God appointed them. Again, whatever was his functionwhatever special act he had to do-there was a condition or character presupposed in that work; presupposed in all that had been said of his being taken from men— of his speaking for men,—of his presenting offerings for the sins of men. He must have the capacity of sympathising with them. He must know what they are wanting, suffering, seeking for. This sympathy cannot be limited to the wise, to those who know the right and the wrong, to those who have an apprehension of the Divine Will. It cannot be limited to the well-behaved, the respectable, the orderly. It must be emphatically with those that are ignorant and out of the way. And it cannot be obtained at second hand; not through the condescension and tenderness which a being exempt from peril may feel for those who are exposed to it. The only security for the kind of compassion which his service demands from him, is that he himself is compassed with infirmity; that he knows the evil, inwardly, intimately, which other men suffer for, and need to be loosed from.

By reason hereof,' the writer goes on, he ought, as for the people, so for himself, to offer for sins. The sacrifice is not something which has to do with them and not with him. It has not more to do with them than with him. On the contrary, the sacrifice for the nation can only be presented by a man who is one of