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

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.

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 alwaies without interruption or intermission. This is the meaning of 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, He in his own Person abideth. Nor doth the Apostle say, that he did not dye, but only that he abideth alwaies.

3. It followeth from hence, that he hath an unchangeable Priesthood. A Priesthood ¹subject to no change or alteration: that cannot pass away. But [Greek or Hebrew], is sacerdotium successivum, per successionem ab uno alteri traditum. Such a Priesthood as which when one hath attained, it abideth not with him but he delivereth over unto another, as Aaron did his unto Eleazar his Son, or it falls unto another by some Right or Law of Succession: A Priesthood that goes from hand to hand. [Greek or Hebrew] is a Priesthood that doth not pass from one unto another. And this the Apostle seems directly to intend, as is evident from the Antithesis. The Priests after the Order of Aaron were many, and that by reason of death. Wherefore it was necessary that their Priesthood should pass from one to another by Succession. So that when one received it, he that went before him ceased to be a Priest. And so it was, either the Predecessors were taken off by death, or on any other just occasion as it was in the case of Abiathar, who was put from the Priests Office by Solomon,