My God and My Country

Sunday Sermon (Part two) 
On Psalm 110:4

How Christ may be said to be of the order of Melchizedek

There is a likeness or similitude between them in their names and titles Melchizedek's name by interpretation, is, King of righteousness and well agrees with Christ, who loves righteousness and hates iniquity : who is a king that reigns in righteousness, who sits upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment, and with justice. The scepter of his kingdom is a scepter of righteousness, and bis throne is established thereby: be is king of saints, and all bis ways are just and true; all his regal administrations are according to justice and truth ; for righteousness is the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. As also he may well be called King of righteousness, because he is the author of one, he has wrought out and brought in an everlasting one, which is commensurate to the requirements of the law ; and therefore sufficient for all those, for whom he effected it; this is called the righteousness of God; not that it is the essential righteousness of God, but it is a righteousness, which Christ, who is God as well as man, has wrought out for all his people : for be who knew no sin, was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of Cod in him ; to this righteousness of his should we submit, on this should we depend, and in it desire to be found living and dying, and then we shall not be found naked. Likewise Melchizedek's title is King of Salem, which by interpretation is, King of peace; which may well be applied to the Lord Jesus Christ, whose title in Isaiah is The prince of peace; his kingdom is a kingdom of peace, his government and his peace are of equal duration ; as there will be no end of the one, so neither will there be of the other : in his days shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth : which was fulfilled in Solomon, who herein was an eminent type of Christ, and to whom those words are principally to be referred, as the Jews themselves acknowledge. Also he may be so called, because that he is both the author and giver of peace ; he has made peace between God and sinners, a lasting and an inviolable one : he has been at great pain and charges to obtain it, it has cost him his precious blood ; he hath made peace by the blood of his cross ; the tidings of which are brought unto us in the gospel and therefore that is called the gospel of peace; he is also the giver of all the inward, spiritual, conscience-peace, which saints enjoy: as He himself said (See John 14:27) “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you”; thus is Christ not only king of righteousness, but king of peace; as he is the author of the one, so he is of the other from him alone must we expect them both.

Additionally, there is a likeness or similitude between Christ and Mekhizedek, in the account that is given of him in Hebrews 7:3 without father, without mother, without descent; having neither beginning of days, nor end of life', not but that Melchizedek had both a father and mother, and likewise descent and beginning of days, and end of life, yet the scripture gives us no account who were his father and mother, nor of what stock he descended ; neither when he was born, nor when he died : and these things are on purpose concealed from us, that he might be a proper type of Christ. The Syriac renders it thus, " neither whose «' father nor mother are written in the genealogies ; neither the beginning of his " days, nor the end of his life8;" and another learned f interpreter thus, " of an unknown father, and of an unknown mother, the original of whose " stock cannot be declared;" now this may be referred both to the person and priesthood of Christ.

He is said to be without father; this is true of Christ, as man; for as God he has a Father; God is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: and frequent intimations did he give of this to the Jews for which, more than once, they took up stones to stone him : as such he made his application to God in his agonies in the garden, and as such he commended his Spirit to him, when ready to expire on the cross; and also ascended to him as his God and our God, as his Father and our Father: but as man he had no father; for Joseph was only his supposed, and not his real father ; and herein lies the wonderful and astonishing mystery of the incarnation, which was so long prophesied of by Isaiah, Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and pall call his name Immanuel1: and therefore when the tidings hereof were brought to the virgin, it is no wonder that she made the reply she did, how shall this be, seeing I know not a man ? But the answer which the angel returned unto her, was entirely satisfactory, The holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee; therefore that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. In Christ's incarnation, as there was a surprising display of God's grace, so there was was an astonishing instance of his power; it was not after the ordinary way of generation ; he was without father. He is said to be without mother; this is true of Christ as God; as man, he had a mother, but no father, as God, he has a father, but no mother: he was from all eternity begotten by the father, in a way ineffable and unspeakable to us ; the modus of his generation who can tell ? We are not to entertain any carnal conceptions of Christ's generation, nor compare it with that of ours, nor any other creature's; for he is without mother; it is true, the virgin Mary is sometimes called by the ancients the mother of God"; but this is said by reason of the hypostatical union of the two natures in one person, upon the account of which sometimes what is proper to one nature is ascribed to the other.