Selected quad for the lemma: order_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
order_n	aaron_n	according_a	priesthood_n	608	4	10.2709	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30350	Four discourses delivered to the clergy of the Diocess of Sarum ... by the Right Reverend Father in God, Gilbert, Lord Bishop of Sarum.	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1694 (1694)	Wing B5793; ESTC R202023	160,531	125

we see clear Characters in that Psalm to shew us that the Iews did so expound it Since those words the Heathen shall fear the Name of the Lord and all the Kings of the Earth his Glory and when the Lord shall build up Sion he shall appear in his Glory together with several passages that follow could not according to the Cabbala of the Iews be understood of any thing but of the Messias and of the Divine Shechinah that was to rest upon him and so according to this all the other parts of the Psalm were also applicable to him If St. Paul argues that the Promise was not made to Seeds but to the Seed of Abraham which seems a bad inference since Seed tho' in the singular is yet of a plural signification this may perhaps be bad Greek unless some corrupt form of Speech had made Seed stand for Son but tho' the Greek is not pure yet the Sense is true and the Argument in it self is good St. Paul's design being to let them see that their being the Seed of Abraham alone was not enough to assure them of the favour of God It was not to all Abraham's Posterity that the Promise was made since neither Ishmael nor Keturah's Children were comprehended within it But it belonged only to Isaac and in that contracting the Promise to one an emblem was given of the Messias in whom singly the blessing of that Covenant was to center and was not to be spread into the whole Nation that descended from him So that what fault soever we may find with the Greek the Sense is true and the Application is useful and we do not know but such a form of Speech might have been then used in common discourse It is certain that the Apostles had no Rhetorick and often their Grammar is not exact But this instead of making against their Writings does really make for them since it shews that they us'd no enticing Words nor laboured Periods no lively Figures nor studied Sentences all was natural without Art or Study which shewed that they knew they needed no borrowed help to support a Cause in which they were sure Heaven would interpose and promote its own concerns and the veneration with which their Writings were received and in which they were held shews that there was somewhat else than the Skill or Eloquence the Persuasives or Arguings of the Authors that begat and maintained their Reputation If we find here and there a Passage that we know not well what to make of this is the fate of all Books that were writ at a great distance from us The Customs and Manners of Men change strangely in a course of many Ages and all Speech especially that which is figurative and dark has such relation to these that if in a Book full of many plain useful and excellent Theories and Rules some Passages come in amongst them which we plainly see relate to some Practice or Opinion of which we are not sufficiently informed such as the being baptised for the dead having power on the head because of the Angels or the like This is nothing but what occurs to us in all ancient Books and what we easily bear with in all other Writings even of a much later Antiquity Weare therefore to make the best use we can of that which we do understand and to let those other places lie till we can find out their true meaning That of Christ's going in the Spirit to Preach to the Spirits now in Prison is perhaps one of these unless we believe that by Prison is to be meant according to the use of that word and others like it in the Septuagint the darkned state of the Gentile World who were shut up in Idolatry as in a Prison or in Chains under the power of the God of this World In this sense there is nothing easier to be apprehended than that period which imports only that Christ by vertue of the Holy Ghost that he had poured out upon his Apostles was calling the Gentile World out of their Ignorance and Idolatry And as in the days of Noah those who were disobedient perished in the Flood while there was an Ark prepared for those who would go into it So says he our rising out of the Waters that being the last piece of the Baptismal Ceremony as it was then practised and being the representation of our rising again with Christ was that which now saves us In all this the sence is clear and good tho the manner of the expression be a little dark The way of all the Easterns even to this day in all their discourses being obscure and involv'd where a great deal is supposed to be already understood we are not to wonder if we should find some parts of the New Testament writ in that strain As for that of Melchisedeck as the words lie they seem to be a riddle indeed but with a little observation we will find that passage concerning him in the Epistle to the Hebrews to be as plain as any thing can be The design of a great part of this Epistle is to shew that the Messias was to be a Priest and was to offer up a Sacrifice but not to be of the Family of Aaron since he was to spring out of the Tribe of Iudah nor to be a Priest after that Order or according to the Rules of that Institution but according to the Psalm to be a Priest after the Order of Melchisedeck Now the Rules or Order of the Aaronical Priesthood were that every Priest was to be descended from that Line to be born of a Mother that had not been a Widow or Divorced and this gave him who was thus received a right to transmit his Priesthood to his descendants in a Genealogy derived from him These Priests were also tied to their Turns in attending on the Temple which were called their Days in which they were admitted to serve at Thirty which was therefore the Age of the beginning of their days and at Fifty they were dismissed and were no more bound to attend than if they had been naturally dead so this was the end of their Life as to their Priesthood Now in opposition to this Melchisedeck was a Priest without Father and Mother that is He was immediately called to it of God and it did not devolve on him by descent nor was he to derive this in a Genealogy to his Posterity He came ●ot on to an attendance on the service of God at such an Age nor went he out at another but was a Priest of God for ever that is of a long continuance according to the common use of that word which only imports a constancy in any thing Melchisedeck was a Priest for term of Life which answers the signification of the word but was a Type of him that in the strictest sense was to be a Priest of God for ever Thus if we conster that verse by a reverse which is very