Quest. Could He not have suffered without His so suffering? Would not His dying only of a natural death have served the turn?
Answ. No, in nowise. [1]. The sins for which He suffered called for the torments of Hell; the conditions upon which He died did call for the torments of Hell; for Christ did not die the death of a saint, but the death of a sinner, of a cursed and damned sinner; because He stood in their room, the law to which He was subjected called for the torments of Hell; the nature of God's justice could not bate Him anything; the death which He was to suffer had not lost its sting; all these being put together do irresistibly declare unto us that He, as a sacrifice, did suffer the torments of Hell (Gal 3:13). But, 2. Had He not died and suffered the cursed death, the covenant had been made void, and His Suretyship would have been forfeited, and, besides this, the world damned in the flames of Hell-fire; therefore, His being a sacrifice was one part of the covenant; for the terms of the covenant were that He should spill His blood. O blessed Jesus! O blessed grace! (Zech 9:10,11).
Quest. But why, then, is His death so slighted by some?
Answ. Because they are enemies to Him, either through ignorance or presumption, either for want of knowledge or out of malice, for indeed did they love or believe Him, they could not choose but break and bleed at heart to consider and to think of Him (Zech 12:10,11.)
Christ the High Priest of the New Covenant.
FOURTH, [A fourth office of Christ under the new covenant is His priestly]. Thus, passing this, I shall now speak something to Christ's priestly office. But, if any, I should think that I spin my thread too long in distinguishing His priestly office from His being a sacrifice, the supposing that for Christ to be a priest and a sacrifice is all one and the same thing. It may be it is, because they have not thought on this so well as they should—namely, that as He was a sacrifice He was passive, that is, led or had away as a lamb to His sufferings (Isaiah 53); but as a priest He was active—that is, He did willingly and freely give up His Body to be a sacrifice. "He hath given His life a ransom for many." This consideration being with some weight and clearness on my spirit, I was and am caused to lay them down in two particular heads.
And therefore I would speak something to is this, that as there were priests under the first covenant, so there is a Priest under this, belonging to this new covenant, a High Priest, the Chief Priest; as it is clear where it is said, We "having a high priest over the house of God" (Heb 3:1; 5:5,10; 7:24-26; 8:1, 4; 10:21).
Now the things that I shall treat upon are these—First, I shall show you the qualifications required of a priest under the Law; Second, his office; and, Third, how Jesus Christ did according to what was signified by those under the law; I say, how He did answer the types, and where He went beyond them.
[THE NEW COVENANT FREE AND UNCHANGEABLE, WHO ARE UNDER IT, AND THEIR PRIVILEGES.]
First, For his qualifications:—
1. They must be called thereto of God—"No man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as Aaron" (Heb 5:4). Now Aaron's being called of God to be a priest signifies that Jesus Christ is a Priest of God's appointment, such ais one that God hath chosen, likes of, and hath set on work—"Called of God a High Priest," etc. (Heb 5:10).
2. The priests under the law must be men, complete, not deformed—"Speak unto Aaron," saith God to Moses, "saying, Whosoever he be of thy seed in their generations that hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God. For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach; a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or anything superfluous, or a man that is broken-footed, or broken-handed, or crook-back, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken; no man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire; he that hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God" (Lev 21:17-21). What doth all this signify but that indicate (1.) He must not be lame to signify he must not go haltingly about the work of our salvation. (2.) He must not be blind, to signify that he must not go ignorantly to work, but he must be quick to understand the things of God. (3.) He must not be scabbed, to signify that the priest must not be corrupt of filthy in his office. (4.) In a word, he must be complete to signify to us that Jesus Christ was to be, and is, most complete and perfect in things on God about His second covenant.
