injurious to the character of a Protestant church, and most uncharitably asperse the ministerial work of the thousands who labour in other Protestant communions, with the evident sanction and blessing of their one Master and Head, the Lord Jesus Christ. The argument of this portion of our work, that the Christian ministry is not a priesthood, while thus far satisfactory and conclusive, will yet, we trust, be seen in clearer light and accumulated strength, by the reflex bearing upon it of the priesthood of Christ; and the application of the Levitical terms not relating to him, which the New Testament contains ;the parts of our subject which remain to be discussed. PART II. CHRIST THE ONLY, BUT ALL-SUFFICIENT PRIEST OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. SECTION I. CHRIST THE ONLY PRIEST. "AND they truly"-the high priests of the Jewish church,-" were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death."* As their mortality rendered necessary a succession of individuals in the same office of high priest, so the limited nature of their powers, rendered necessary the association of others with them, to discharge the more ordinary, multifarious, and subordinate duties of the priesthood. Aaron and his sons, therefore, were consecrated to serve at the altar, and in their services their multiplying descendants were to succeed them. *Heb. vii. 23. |