A continuation of the exposition of the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the…

It may be said in opposition hereunto, that the Lord Christ dyed also, and that no less truly and really than did Aaron or any Priest of his Order. Wherefore it will not hence follow that he had any more an uninterrupted Priesthood than they had.

It may be said in opposition hereunto, that the Lord Christ dyed also, and that no less truely and really than did Aaron or any Priest of his Order. Wherefore it will not hence follow that he had any more an uninterrupted Priesthood than they had.

Some say the Apostle here considers the Priesthood of Christ only after his Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven, after which he dyes no more, death hath no more power over him. And if we will believe the Socinians, then he first began to be a Priest. This Figment I have fully confuted elsewhere. And there is no ground in the Context, on which we may conjecture that the Apostle intends the Administration of his Priesthood in Heaven only, although he intend that also. For he speaks of his Priesthood as typed by that of Melchizedek, which as we have proved before, respected the whole of his Office.

Some say the Apostle here considers the Priesthood of Christ only after his Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven, after which he dyes no more, death hath no more power over him. And if we will believe the Socinians, then he first began to be a Priest. This Figment I have fully confuted elsewhere. And there is no ground in the Context, on which we may conjecture that the Apostle intends the Administration of his Priesthood in Heaven only, although he intend that also. For he speaks of his Priesthood as typed by that of Melchisedec, which as we have proved before, respected the whole of his Office.

I say therefore that although Christ dyed, yet he was not forbid by death to abide in his Office as they were. He died as a Priest, they died from being Priests. He died as a Priest, because he was also to be a Sacrifice. But he abode and continued not only vested with his Office, but in the execution of it in the state of death. Through the indissolubleness of his Person, his soul and body still subsisting in the Person of the Son of God, he was a capable subject of his Office. And his being in the state of the dead belonged unto the Administration of his Office, no less than his Death it self. So that from the first moment of his being a Priest he abode so always without interruption or intermission. This is the meaning of [Greek or Hebrew], He in his own Person abideth. Nor doth the Apostle say, that he did not dye, but only that he abideth always.