Priesthood any pretence for Rebellion But all these pretences would not serve to make them escape the severe hand of divine justice for in an extraordinary and remarkable manner he made them suffer the just desert of their sin for they perished in their contradiction which is the next thing to be considered viz. 2. The Iudgement which was inflicted upon them for it They had provoked Heaven by their sin and disturbed the earth by their Faction and the earth as if it were moved with indignation against them trembled and shook as Iosephus saith like waves that are tossed with a mighty wind and then with a horrid noise it rends asunder and opens its mouth to swallow those in its bowels who were unfit to live upon the face of it They had been dividing the people and the earth to their amazement and ruine divides it self under their feet as though it had been designed on purpose that in their punishment themselves might feel and others see the mischief of their sin Their seditious principles seemed to have infected the ground they stood upon the earth of a sudden proves as unquiet and troublesome as they but to rebuke their madness it was only in obedience to him who made it the executioner of his wrath against them and when it had done its office it is said that the earth closed upon them and they perished from among the Congregation Thus the earth having revenged it self against the disturbers of its peace Heaven presently appears with a flaming fire taking vengeance upon the 250. men who in opposition to Aaron had usurped the Priestl office in offering incense before the Lord. Such a Fire if we believe the same Historian which far outwent the most dreadful eruptions of Aetna or Vesuvius which neither the art of man nor the power of the wind could raise which neither the burning of Woods nor Cities could parallel but such a Fire which the wrath of God alone could kindle whose light could be outdone by nothing but the heat of it Thus Heaven and Earth agree in the punishment of such disturbers of Government and God by this remarkable judgement upon them hath left it upon record to all ages that all the world may be convinced how displeasing to him the sin of faction and sedition is For God takes all this that was done against Moses and Aaron as done against himself For they are said to be gathered together against the Lord v. 11. to provoke the Lord v. 30. And the fire is said to come out from the Lord v. 35. And afterwards it is said of them This is that Dathan and Abiram who strove against Moses and against Aaron in the company of Corah when they strove against the Lord. By which we see God interprets striving against the Authority appointed by him to be a striving against himself God looks upon himself as immediately concerned in the Government of the world for by him Princes raign and they are his Vicegerents upon earth and they who resist resist not a meer appointment of the people but an Ordinance of God and they who do so shall in the mildest sense receive a severe punishment from him Let the pretences be never so popular the persons never so great and famous nay though they were of the great Council of the Nation yet we see God doth not abate of his severity upon any of these considerations This was the first formed sedition that we read of against Moses the people had been murmuring before but they wanted heads to manage them Now all things concur to a most dangerous Rebellion upon the most popular pretences of Religion and Liberty and now God takes the first opportunity of declaring his hatred of such actions that others might hear and fear and do no more so presumptuously This hath been the usual method of divine Judgements the first of the kind hath been most remarkably punished in this life that by it they may see how hateful such things are to God but if men will venture upon them notwithstanding God doth not always punish them so much in this world though he sometimes doth but reserves them without repentance to his Justice in the world to come The first man that sinned was made an example of Gods Justice The first world the first publick attempt against Heaven at Babel after the plantation of the world again the first Cities which were so generally corrupted after the flood the first breaker of the Sabbath after the Law the first offerers with strange fire the first lookers into the Ark and here the first popular Rebellion and Usurpers of the office of Priesthood God doth hereby intend to preserve the honour of his Laws he gives men warning enough by one examplary punishment and if notwithstanding that they will commit the same sin they may thank themselves if they suffer for it if not in this life yet in that to come And that good effect this Judgement had upon that people that although the next day 14000. suffered for murmuring at the destruction of these men yet we do not find that any Rebellion was raised among them afterwards upon these popular pretences of Religion and the Power of the People While their Judges continued who were Kings without the state and title of Kings they were observed with reverence and obeyed with diligence When afterwards they desired a King with all the Pomp and Grandeur which other Nations had which Samuel acquaints them with viz. the officers and Souldiers the large Revenues he must have though their King was disowned by God yet the people held firm in their obedience to him and David himself though anointed to be King persecuted by Saul and though he might have pleaded Necessity and Providence as much any ever could when Saul was strangely delivered into his hands yet we see what an opinion he had of the person of a bad King The Lord forbid that I should do this thing against my Master the Lords Anointed to stretch forth my hand against him seeing he is the Anointed of the Lord. And lest we should think it was only his Modesty or his Policy which kept him from doing it he afterwards upon a like occasion declares it was only the sin of doing it which kept him from it For who can stretch forth his hand against the Lords Anointed and be guiltless Not as though David could not do it without the power of the Sanhedrin as it hath been pretended by the Sons of Corah in our age for he excepts none he never seizes upon him to carry him prisoner to be tryed by the Sanhedrin nor is there any foundation for any such power in the Sanhedrin over the persons of their Soveraigns It neither being contained in the grounds of its institution nor any precedent occurring in the whole story of the Bible which gives the least countenance to it Nay
difficult and unpleasing for what ever the actions of Princes are they are liable to the censures of the people Their bad actions being more publick and their good therefore suspected of design and the wiser Governours are the more jealous the people are of them For alwaies the weakest part of mankind are the most suspicious the less they understand things the more designs they imagine are laid for them and the best counsels are the soonest rejected by them So that the wisest Government can never be secure from the jealousies of the people and they that will raise a faction against it will never want a party to side with them For when could we ever have imagined a Government more likely to be free from this than that which Moses had over the people of Israel He being an extraordinary person for all the abilities of Government one bred up in the Egyptian Court and in no mean degree of honour being called the the Son of Pharaohs Daughter one of great experience in the management of affairs of great zeal for the good of his Country as appeared by the tenderness of his peoples interest in their deliverance out of Egypt one of great temper and meekness above all men of the earth one who took all imaginable care for the good establishment of Laws among them but above all these one particularly chosen by God for this end and therefore furnished with all the requisites of a good man and an excellent Prince yet for all these things a dangerous sedition is here raised against him and that upon the common grounds of such things viz. usurpation upon the peoples rights arbitrary Government and ill management of affairs Usurpation upon the peoples rights v. 4. the Faction makes a Remonstrance asserting the priviledges of the people against Moses and Aaron Ye take too much upon you seeing all the Congregation are holy every one of them and the Lord is among them Wherefore then lift you up your selves above the Congregation of the Lord As though they had said we appear only in behalf of the Fundamental Liberties of the people both Civil and Spiritual we only seek to retrench the exorbitances of power and some late innovations which have been among us if you are content to lay aside your power which is so dangerous and offensive to Gods holy people we shall then sit down in quietness for alas it is not for our selves that we seek these things what are we but the cause of Gods people is dearer to us than our lives and we shall willingly sacrifice them in so good a Cause And when Moses afterwards sends for the Sons of Eliah to come to him they peremptorily refuse all Messages of Peace and with their men of the sword mentioned v. 2. They make votes of non-Addresses and break off all Treaties with him and declare these for their reasons that he did dominando dominari as some render it exercise an arbritary and tyrannical power over the people that he was guilty of breach of the trust committed to him for he promised to bring them into a Land flowing with Milk and Honey or give them inheritance of fields and vineyards but he had not done it and instead of that only deceives the people still with fair promises and so puts out their eyes that they cannot see into the depth of his designs So that now by the ill management of his Trust the power was again devolved into the hands of the people and they ought to take account of his actions By which we see the design was under very fair and popular pretences to devest Moses of his Government and then they doubted not but such zealous Patriots as they had shewed themselves should come to have the greatest share in it but this which they most aimed at must appear least in view and only Necessity and Providence must seem to cast that upon them which was the first true motive they had to rebel against Moses and Aaron 2. The Persons who were engaged in it At first they were only some discontented Levites who murmured against Moses and Aaron because they were not preferred to the Priesthood and of these Corah was the chief R. Solomo◠observes that the reason of Corahs discontent was that Elizaphan the Son of Uzziel of the younger house to Izhar from whom Corah descended was preferred before him by Moses to be Prince over the Sons of Kohath Corah being active and busie in his discontents had the opportunity of drawing in some of the Sons of Reuben for they pitched their tents near each other both on the South side of the Tabernacle of the Congregation and these were discontented on the account of their Tribe having lost the priviledge of Promogeniture Thus what ever the pretences are how fair and popular soever in the opposition men make to Authority ambition and private discontents are the true beginners of them but these must be covered over with the deepest dissimulation with most vehement Protestations to the contrary nothing must be talked of but a mighty zeal for Religion and the publick Interest So Iosephus tells us concerning Corah that while he carried on his own ambitious designs with all the arts of sedition and a popular eloquence insinuating into the peoples minds strange suggestions against Moses his Government as being a meer politick design of his to enslave the people of God and advance his own family and interest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he would seem to regard nothing but the publick good If fair pretences and glorious titles will serve to cheat the people into their own miseries and the sad effects of Rebellion they shall never want those who will enslave them for the sake of Liberty undo them for the publick good and destroy them with designs of Reformation For nothing is more popular than Rebellion in the beginning nothing less in the issue of it And the only true reason that it is ever so is from the want of wisdom and judgement in the generality of mankind who seldom see to the end of things and hardly distinguish between the names and nature of them till their own dear bought experience hath taught them the difference Sedition is of the nature and hath the inseparable properties of Sin for it is conceived with pleasure brought forth with pain and ends in death and misery Nothing enters upon the stage with a braver shew and appearance but however prosperous for a time it may continue it commonly meets with a fatal end But it is with this sin as to this world as it is with others as to the next men when they are betrayed into them are carried away and transported with the pleasing temptations not considering the unspeakable misery that follows after them So that what the Devils advantage is in order to the ruine of mens souls is the advantage of seditious persons over the
less understanding people they both tempt with an appearance of good and equally deceive them which hearken to them But as we still find that notwithstanding all the grave admonitions the sober counsels the rational discourses the perswasive arguments which are used to deter men from the practice of sin they will still be such Fools to yield to the Devils temptations against their own welfare So neither the blessings of a continued Peace nor the miseries of an intestine War neither the securitie of a settled Government nor the constant danger of Innovations will hinder men of fiery and restless spirits from raising combustions in a Nation though themselves perish in the Flames of them This we find here was the case of Corah and his company they had forgotten the groans of their captivity in Egypt and the miracles of their deliverance out of it and all the faithful services of Moses and Aaron they considered not the difficulties of Government nor the impossibility of satisfying the ambitious desires of all pretenders they regarded not that God from whom their power was derived nor the account they must give to him for their resistance of it nothing but a full Revenge upon the Government can satisfie them by leaving no means unattempted for its overthrow though themselves be consumed by the fall of it It were happy for Government if these turbulent spirits could be singled out from the rest in their first attempts but that is the usual subtilty of such men when they find themselves aimed at they run into the common herd and perswade the people that they are equally concerned with themselves in the present danger that though the pretence be only against faction and sedition the design is the slavery and oppression of the People This they manage at first by grave nods and secret whispers by deep sighs and extatick motions by far fetched discourses and Tragical stories till they find the people capable of receiving their impressions and then seem most unwilling to mention that which it was at first their design to discover By such arts as these Corah had prepared as Iosephus tells us almost the whole Camp of Israel for a popular tumult so that they were like to have stoned Moses before he was aware of it and it seems the Faction had gained a mighty interest among the people when although God so severely and remarkably punished the heads of it yet the very next day all the Congregation of the Children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron saying Te have killed the people of the Lord. What a mark of Gods people was sedition grown among them When these men were accounted Saints in spight of Heaven and Martyrs though God himself destroyed them They were men who were only sanctified by Rebellion and shewed no other fruits of their piety but disobedience to Authority But the danger had not been so great how loud soever the complaints had been if only the ruder multitude had been gained to the Favour of Corah and his party for these wanted heads to manage them and some Countenance of Authority to appear under and for this purpose they had drawn to their Faction 250 Princes of the Assembly famous in the Congregation men of Renown i. e. Members of the great Council of the Nation Whom Moses was wont to call and advise with about the publick Affairs of it such who sate in Comitiis Senatorum as Paul Fagius tells us therefore said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as were called to the great Assembly which sate in Parliament at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation which was the place where they met together These were the Heads of the Tribes and the Captains of thousands and the men of the greatest Fame and Authority among the People whom Moses assembled together for advice and counsel as often as he saw just occasion for it And as far as I can find were distinct from the great Sanhedrin which seemed to be rather a constant Court of Iudicature which sate to receive Appeals from Inferiour Courts and to determine such difficult causes which were reserved peculiarly for it as about Apostasy of a whole Tribe the case of false Prophets and the like But these 250 men did far exceed the whole number of the Sanhedrin and the Heads of the Tribes and the Elders of Israel were summoned together upon any very weighty occasion by Moses both before and after the institution of the Sanhedrin And now since the Faction had gained so great strength by the accession of so great a number of the most leading men among the People we may expect they should soon declare their intentions and publish the grounds of their entring into such a combination against Moses 3. Which is the next thing to be spoken to viz. the colours and pretences under which these persons sought to justifie the proceedings of the Faction Which were these two 1. The asserting the Rights and Liberties of the people in opposition to the Government of Moses 2. The freeing themselves from the encroachments upon their spiritual Priviledges which were made by the Usurpations of Aaron and the Priesthood 1. The asserting the Rights and Liberties of the people in opposition to the Government of Moses Is it a small thing say they that thou hast brought us up out of a Land that floweth with Milk and Honey to kill us in the wilderness except thou make thy self altogether a Prince over us And before their charge was that Moses and Aaron took too much upon them in lifting up themselves above the Congregation of the Lord. Which Iosephus more at large explains telling us that the great accusation of Moses was that out of his ambition and affectation of Power he had taken upon himself the Government of the people without their consent that he made use of his pretence of Familiarity with God only for a Politick end that by this means he debarred the people of that Liberty which God had given them and no man ought to take from them that they were all a Free-born people and equally the Children of Abraham and therefore there was no reason they should depend upon the will of a single Person who by his Politick Arts had brought them to the greatest necessities that he might rule them the better Wherefore Corah as though he had been already President of a High-Court of Iustice upon Moses their King determines that it was necessary for the Common-wealth that such enemies to the Publick Interest should be discovered and punished lest if they be let alone in their Usurpations of Power they declare themselves open enemies when it will be too late to oppose them There were then two great Principles among them by which they thought to defend themselves 1. That Liberty and a right to Power is so inherent in the People that it cannot be taken
and condemn their Soveraign And if Corah Dathan and Abiram had succeeded in their Rebellion against Moses no doubt they would have been called the Keepers of the Liberties of Israel It makes all Government dangerous to the persons in whom it is considering the unavoidable infirmities of it and the readiness of people to misconstrue the actions of their Princes and their incapacity to judge of them it not being fit that the reasons of all counsels of Princes should be divulged by Proclamations So that there can be nothing wanting to make Princes miserable but that the people want Power to make them so And the supposition of this principle will unavoidably keep up a constant jealousie between the Prince and his people for if he knows their minds he will think it reasonable to secure himself by all means against their Power and endeavour to keep them as unable to resist as may be whereby all mutual confidence between a Prince and his People will be destroyed and there can be no such way to bring in an arbitrary Government into a Nation as that which such men pretend to be the only means to keep it out Besides this must necessarily engage a Nation in endless disputes about the forfeiture of Power into whose hands it falls whether into the people in common or some persons particularly chosen by the people for that purpose for in an established Government according to their principles the King himself is the true representative of the people others may be chosen for some particular purposes as proposing Laws c. but these cannot pretend by vertue of that choice to have the full power of the people and withal whatever they do against the consent of the people is unlawful and their power is forfeited by attempting it But on the other side what mighty danger can there be in supposing the persons of Princes to be so sacred that no sons of violence ought to come near to hurt them Have not all the ancient Kingdoms and Empires of the world flourished under the supposition of an unaccountable power in Princes That hath been thought by those who did not own a derivation of their power from God but a just security to their persons considering the hazards and the care of Government which they undergo Have not the people who have been most jealous of their Liberties been fain to have recour'e to an unaccountable power as their last refuge in case of their greatest necessities I mean the Romans in their Dictators And if it were thought not only reasonable but necessary then ought it not to be preserved inviolable where the same Laws do give it by which men have any right to challenge any power at all Neither doth this give Princes the liberty to do what they list for the Laws by which they Govern do fence in the rights and properties of men and Princes do find so great conveniency ease and security in their Government by Law that the sense of that will keep them far better within the compass of Laws than the Peoples holding a Rod over them which the best Princes are like to suffer the most by and bad will but grow desperate by it Good Princes will never need such a curb because their oaths and promises their love and tenderness towards their people the sense they have of a Power infinitely greater than theirs to which they must give an account of all their actions will make them govern as the Fathers of their Country and bad Princes will never value it but will endeavour by all possible means to secure themselves against it So that no inconveniency can be possibly so great on the supposition of this unaccountable Power in Soveraign Princes taking it in the general and meerly on the account of reason as the unavoidable mischiefs of that Hypothests which places all power originally in the people and notwithstanding all oaths and bonds whatsoever to obedience gives them the liberty to resume it when they please which will always be when that Spirit of Faction and Sedition shall prevail among them which ruled here in Corah and his company 2. Another pretence for this Rebellion of Corah was the freeing themselves from the encroachments upon their spiritual priviledges which were made by the usurpations of Aaron and the Priesthood This served for a very popular pretence for they knew no reason that one Tribe should engross so much of the wealth of the Nation to themselves and have nothing to do but to attend the service of God for it What say they are not all the Lords people holy Why may not then all they offer up incense to the Lord as well as the Sons of Aaron How many publick uses might those Revenues serve for which are now to maintain Aaron and all the sons of Levi But if there must be some to attend the service of God why may not the meanest of the people serve for that purpose those who can be serviceable for nothing else Why must there be an order of Priesthood distinct from that of Levites why a High-Priest above all the Priests what is there in all their office which one of the common people may not do as well as they cannot they slay the sacrifices and offer incense and do all other parts of the Priestly office So that at last they make all this to be a Politick design of Moses only to advance his own Family by making his Brother High-Priest and to have all the Priests and Levites at his devotion to keep the people the better in awe This hath always been the quarrel at Religion by those who seldom pretend to it but with a design to destroy it For who would ever have minded the constant attendance at the Temple if no encouragements had been given to those who were imployed in it Or is not Religion apt enough to be despised of it self by men of prophane minds unless it be rendred more mean and contemptible by the Poverty of those who are devoted to it Shall not God be allowed the priviledge of every Master of a Family to appoint the ranks and orders of his own servants and to take care they be provided for as becomes those who wait upon him What a dishonour had this been to the true God when those who worshipped false Gods thought nothing too great for those who were imployed in the service of them But never any yet cryed but he that had a mind to betray his Master to what purpose is all this waste Let God be honoured as he ought to be let Religion come in for its share among all the things which deserve encouragement and those who are imployed in the offices of it enjoy but what God and Reason and the Laws of their Country give them and then we shall see it was nothing but the discontent and faction of Corah and his company which made any encroachment of Aaron and the
several passages of Scripture utterly overthrow it for how could Solomon have said Where the word of a King is there is power and who may say unto him what dost thou If by the constitution of their Government the Sanhedrin might have controlled him in what he said or did But have not several of the modern Iews said so Granting that some have yet so they have spoken many unreasonable and foolish things besides but yet none of these have said that it was in the power of the Sanhedrin to depose their Kings or put them to death all that they say is that in the cases expressed by the Law if the Kings do transgress the Sanhedrin had the power of inflicting the penalty of scourging which yet they deny to have had any infamy in it among them But did not David transgress the Law in his murder and adultery did not Solomon in the multitude of his wives and Idolatry yet where do we read that the Sanhedrin ever took cognisance of these things And the more ancient Iews do say that the King was not to be judged as is plain in the Text of the Misna however the Expositors have taken a liberty to contradict it but as far as we can find without any foundation of reason and R. Ieremiah in Nachmanides saith expresly That no creature may judge the King but the holy and blessed God alone But we have an Authority far greater than his viz. of Davids in this case who after he hath denied that any man can stretch forth his hand against the Lords Anointed and be guiltless In the very next words he submits the judgement of him only to God himself saying As the Lord liveth the Lord shall smite him or his day shall come to die or he shall descend into battel and perish He thought it sufficient to leave the judgement of those things to God whose power over Princes he knew was enough if well considered by them to keep them in awe We have now dispatched the first consideration of the words of the Text as they relate to the fact of Corah and his company 2. We ought now to enquire whether the Christian Doctrine hath made any alteration in these things or whether that gives any greater encouragement to faction and sedition than the Law did when it is masked under a pretence of zeal for Religion and Liberty But it is so far from it that what God then declared to be displeasing to him by such remarkable judgements hath been now more fully manifested by frequent precepts and vehement exhortations by the most weighty arguments and the constant practice of the first and the best of Christians and by the black character which is set upon those who under a pretence of Christian Liberty did despise dominion and speak evil of dignities and follow Corah in his Rebellion however they may please themselves with greater light than former ages had in this matter they are said to be such for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever It would take up too much time to examine the frivolous evasions and ridiculous distinctions by which they would make the case of the Primitive Christians in not resisting Authority so much different from theirs who have not only done it but in spight of Christianity have pleaded for it Either they said they wanted strength or courage or the countenance of the Senate or did not understand their own Liberty when all their obedience was only due to those precepts of the Gospel which make it so great a part of Christianity to be subject to Principalities and Powers and which the Teachers of the Gospel had particularly given them in charge to put the people in mind of And happy had it been for us if this Doctrine had been more sincerely preached and duly practised in this Nation for we should then never have seen those sad times which we can now no otherwise think of than of the devouring Fire and raging Pestilence i. e. of such dreadful judgements which we have smarted so much by that we heartily pray we may never feel them again For then fears and jealousies began our miseries and the curse so often denounced against Meroz fell upon the whole Nation When the Sons of Corah managed their own ambitious designs against Moses and Aaron the King and the Church under the same pretences of Religion and Liberty And when the pretence of Religion was broken into Schisms and Liberty into oppression of the people it pleased God out of his secret and unsearchable judgements to suffer the Sons of Violence to prevail against the Lords Anointed and then they would know no difference between his being conquered and guilty They could find no way to justifie their former wickedness but by adding more The consciousness of their own guilt and the fears of the punishment due to it made them unquiet and thoughtful as long as his life and presence did upbraid them with the one and made them fearful of the other And when they found the greatness and constancy of his mind the firmness of his Piety the zeal he had for the true interest of the people would not suffer him to betray his Trust for the saving of his life they charge him with their own guilt and make him suffer because they had deserved to do it And as if it had not been enough to have abused the names of Religion and Liberty before they resolve to make the very name of Iustice to suffer together with their King by calling that infamous company who condemned their Soveraign A High Court of Iustice which trampled under foot the Laws both of God and men But lest the world should imagine they had any shame left in their sins they make the people witnesses of his Murther and pretend the Power of the People for doing that which they did detest and abhor Thus fell our Royal Martyr a sacrifice to the fury of unreasonable men who either were so blind as not to see his worth or rather so bad as to hate him for it And as God gave once to the people of the Iews a King in his Anger being provoked to it by their sins we have cause to say that upon the same account he took away one of the best of Kings from us in his wrath But blessed be that God who in the midst of judgement was pleased to remember mercy in the miraculous preservation and glorious restauration of our Gratious Soveraign let us have a care then of abusing the mercies of so great a deliverance to quite other ends than God intended it for lest he be provoked to say to us as he did of old to the Iews But if ye shall still do wickedly ye shall be consumed both ye and your King And if we look on this as a dreadful judgement let us endeavour to prevent it by a timely and sincere reformation of
never in Scripture mentioned as distinct from his Kingly but is comprehended under it and the great difference between them is that one is of a larger extension than the other is the Kingly Office extending to punishing and the Priestly only to expiation This is the substance of what Crellius more at large discourseth upon this subject Wherein he asserts these things 1. That the Priestly Office of Christ doth not in reference to the expiation of sins respect God but us his Intercession and Oblation wherein he makes the sacerdotal function of Christ to consist being the exercise of his power for the good of his People 2. That Christ did offer up no Sacrifice of expiation to God upon Earth because the mactation had no reference to expiation any other than as a preparation for it and Christ not yet being constituted a High-Priest till after his Resurrection from the dead Against these two assertions I shall direct my following discourse by proving 1. That the Priestly Office of Christ had a primary respect to God and not to us 2. That Christ did exercise this Priestly Office in the Oblation of himself to God upon the Cross. 1. That the Priestly Office of Christ had a primary respect to God and not to us which appears from the first Institution of a High-Priest mentioned by the Apostle Hebr. 5. 1. 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 Id est saith Crellius elsewhere ut procuret peragat ea quae ad colendum ac propitiandum numen pertinent i. e. That he may perform the things which appertain to the worshipping and propitiating God We desire no more but that the propiating God may as immediately be said to respect him as the worshipping of God doth or let Crellius tell us what sense the propitiating God will bear if all that the High-Priest had to do did immediately respect the people nay he saith not long after That it was the chief Office of a High-Priest to plead the cause of sinners with God and to take care that they may find him kind and propitious and not angry or displeased In what sense God was said to be moved by the Expiatory Sacrifices is not here our business to discuss it is sufficient for our purpose that they were instituted with a respect to God so as to procure his favour and divert his wrath In which sense the Priest is so often in the Levitical Law said by the offering up of Sacrifices to expiate the sins of the people But Crellius saith This ought not so to be understood as though God by Expiatory Sacrifices were diverted from his anger and inclined to pardon which is a plain contradiction not only to the words of the law but to the instances that are recorded therein as when Aaron was bid in the time of the Plague to make an Atonement for the people for there is wrath gone out from the Lord and he stood between the living and the dead and the plague was stayed Was not Gods anger then diverted here by the making this Atonement The like instance we read in Davids time that by the offering burnt-offerings c. the Lord was intreated for the Land and the plague was stayed from Israel By which nothing can be more plain than that the primary intention of such Sacrifices and consequently of the Office of the Priest who offered them did immediately respect the Atoning God But yet Crellius urgeth This cannot be said of all or of the most proper Expiatory Sacrifices but we see it said of more than the meer Sacrifices for sin as appointed by the Law viz. of burnt-offerings and peace-offerings and incense in the examples mentioned So that these Levitical Sacrifices did all respect the atoning God although in some particular cases different Sacrifices were to be offered for it is said the burnt-offering was to make atonement for them as well as the sin and trespass-offerings excepting those sacrifices which were instituted in acknowledgement of Gods Soveraignty over them and presence among them as the daily Sacrifices the meat and drink offerings or such as were meerly occasional c. Thus it is said that Aaron and his sons were appointed to make an Atonement for Israel So that as Grotius observes out of Philo The High-Priest was a Mediator between God and man by whom men might propitiate God and God dispense his favours to men But the means whereby he did procure favoursto men was by atoning God by the Sacrifices which he was by his Office to offer to him We are now to consider how far this holds in reference to Christ for whose sake the Apostle brings in these words and surely would not have mentioned this as the primary Office of a High-Priest in order to the proving Christ to be our High-Priest after a more excellent manner than the Aaronical was unless he had agreed with him in the nature of his Office and exceeded him in the manner of performance For the Apostle both proves that he was a true and proper and not a bare Metaphorical High-Priest and that in such a capacity he very far exceeded the Priests after the order of Aaron But how could that possibly be if he failed in the primary Office of a High-Priest viz. In offering up gifts and sacrifices to God If his Office as High-Priest did primarily respect men when the Office of the Aaronical Priest did respect God To avoid this Crellius makes these words to be only an allusion to the Legal Priesthood and some kind of similitude between Christ and the Aaronical Priests but it is such a kind of allusion that the Apostle designs to prove Christ to be an High-Priest by it and which is of the greatest force he proves the necessity of Christs having somewhat to offer from hence For every High-Priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer This is that which he looks at as the peculiar and distinguishing character of a High-Priest for interceding for others and having compassion upon them might be done by others besides the High-Priest but this was that without which he could not make good his name what order soever he were of If Christ then had no proper sacrifice to offer up to God to what purpose doth the Apostle so industriously set himself to prove that he is our High-Priest when he must needs fail in the main thing according to his own assertion How easie had it been for the Iews to have answered all the Apostles Arguments concerning the Priesthood of Christ if he had been such a Priest and made no other Oblation than Crellius allows him When the Apostle proves against the Iews that there was no necessity that they should still retain