There were twelve tribes of the children of Israel. Of these, the tribe of Levi was separated and consecrated to the work of the Tabernacle of the Congregation (Num. iii. 5-9; i. 49-54; viii. 28-26). But though the tribe of Levi was thus set apart to do the work of the Tabernacle of the Congregation, there was only one family of that tribe to which it appertained to offer sacrifice, being consecrated to the Priesthood. All the other "Levites" did the work of attendants or ministering servants; by guarding, by carrying, by setting up, by taking down "the Tabernacle of the Congregation" and its vessels; but to the family of Aaron alone did it appertain to offer sacrifice according to the law (Num. iii. 10; xviii. 1-7). Once more: of all the priests, there was by law only one who could be High Priest, and that was the head of the house of Aaron. Thus we read of Eleazar succeeding Aaron (Num. xx. 23-28), and of Phinehas succeeding Eleazar (judges xx. 23-28). One time Eli, another Jehoida, another Hilkiah. Paul states: "And truly there were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death: but this man he continueth ever [Christ], because he hath an unchangeable priesthood" (Heb. vii. 23, 24). But though there were so many in all, yet in each period there was only one who continued High Priest until death, unless for some weighty cause he was thrust out of the priest's office. Thus were things ordered until about the time of Christ's coming, when by wickedness and rapacity of the priests themselves, and the arbitrary interference of the Romans, great confusion was introduced, so that there were often many priests living at the same time who had been High Priests, and had by intrigue, bribery, or by violence, been dispossessed of their office. This accounts for some things which we find in the Gospels and Acts (Luke iii. 2; Acts ix. 14). But we are not dealing with these degenerate days, but of things as they were when the law was implicitly and wholly followed by God's people Israel. In those days there were never but one High Priest, and he the head and representative of the house of Aaron. He differed from the rest of the priests in his dress and office; for the High Priest alone were the garments of glory and beauty made (Exod. xxviii. 2). To give answers by Urim and Thummini (Exod. xxviii. 30); to enter into the Holiest of all once every year with the blood of the atonement (Heb. vii. 25).

Need we recall to our minds how signally Jesus the Great High Priest is hereby pictured forth? He hath made all His people "kings and priests unto god and his father", but he alone doth bear "all the glory of his father's house". He alone hath made "reconciliation for the sins of the people". As the High Priest differed from the other Priest, so doth our Great High Priest differ from the Aaronic High Priest; "For those priests were made without an oath, but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisiedec" (Heb. vii. 21). Why an oath? Neither Aaron, nor his sons, nor any of the tribe of Levi, were ever consecrated by an oath. They had ceremonies most imposing, but not an oath. God gave promises to the house of Levi, but He expressly stopped short of anything like an oath to them; not because His promise can be broken, but because this promise was conditional, and must not be confirmed by an oath, as though it constituted a perpetual engagement; but Jesus Christ is made a Priest by an oath, as it is written – as if to make it exceeding sure – "The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent." Not because God can or ever doth repent, or run back from His oath in any case, but for the confirmation of the faith of the elect in the immutability of His Word, it is expressly added: "He will not repent." By an oath which standeth fast for evermore, Christ is consecrated a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. Why an oath for Christ, and not for other priests? Because of the greater dignity of Christ above all priests; because of the eternal character of His work, because of the reliability of His Priesthood, and for the strengthening of His people's faith.

Consecration the sine qua non of Priesthood. Aaron had been brought by Moses to the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation; he had been washed at the brazen laver; he had been clothed in the garments of glory and beauty. There he stood, invested with all the insignia of his high and holy office. The breast-plate, with its twelve sparkling gems; the shoulder-pieces, with their two polished onyx stones. There also were the golden bells and the variegated pomegranates; and there was the frontlet of gold, with its inscription, "Holiness to the Lord". But he might not enter yet upon the discharge of his sacred functions; he might not offer yet burnt-offerings and whole burnt-offerings upon God's altar. He might not yet take the golden censer, and pass into the Holiest of all, with clouds of incense; he might not yet come forth with uplifted hands to bless the waiting multitude; for one thing was lacking still, and that was indispensable: it was the anointing of the holy oil (Exod. xxix. 5-7).

Aaron's sons also had been brought to the door of the tabernacle. They, too, had been plunged into the cleansing stream; they, too, had been clothed in priestly attire, and the tabernacle, in which they were to minister, had been reared and furnished. There, in the court, stood the altar of brass, prepared for atoning sacrifice; there the laver and his foot, filled with water for frequent ablution; and there, within the holy place, was the table of shewbread, ready to receive its twelve loaves; there the golden candlestick with its sevenfold lamps; and there the golden altar, waiting for the fragrant fumes of sweetest incense. Draw the veil aside, penetrate into the Holiest of all: there stood the ark with its covering mercy-seat, and its cherubim of gold. And yet Aaron and his sons may not minister – altars and laver, table and candlestick, ark and mercy-seat, and cherubim alike, must remain unemployed, untouched – for one thing is lacking yet, and that one thing is indispensable. Priests, tabernacle and furniture, must be anointed with holy oil (Exod. xxx. 26-30; xl. 14, 15). The anointing could not be concealed, its fragrance was so great that it proclaimed itself. Myrrh, and cinnamon, and calamus, and cassia, in large abundance were, with all the art of the inspired apothecary, conjoined with pure olive oil in that holy ointment (Exod. xxx. 23-25). It was with such that God said to Moses: "And thou shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may minister unto Me in the priest's office" (Exod. xxx. 30). There can be no question that all this was significant. Our Lord said of Moses: "He wrote of me" (John v. 46), and if the knobs, poles and cords of the tabernacle speak of Christ, how much more shall the anointing of the priests? For all have their first, proper and full signification and accomplishment in the Person of Jesus Christ. That the Lord Jesus Christ was anointed, and how, is declared in Isa. lxi. 1: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me." His unction consisted principally in the communication of the Spirit unto Him, for He proves that the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him, because He was annointed; and this gives the general rule that the anointing with oil under the Old Testament did prefigure and represent the effusion of the Spirit under the New Testament, which now answers all the ends of these typical institutions. Hence the Gospel in opposition unto them all, in the letter, outwardly, visibly and materially, is called the "ministration of the Spirit " (2 Cor. iii. 6-8).

So is the unction of Christ expressed: "The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom, of understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord" (Isa. xi. 2). He is filled with the Spirit by the Father; that is, with all the gifts and graces of the Spirit necessary for all the work He came to do. That precious ointment, composed of so many sweet and excellent ingredients, wherewith the Levitical priest was anointed, was a type of those excellent graces of the Great High Priest, whereby He was qualified for the exercise of His offices.

As the Spirit espoused the human nature to the divine, so He espoused all His gifts and graces to the human. As the body was conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, so His soul was beautified and adorned by the graces of the Holy Ghost, whereby He became "fairer than the children of men, and grace was poured into his lips" (Ps. xlv. 2), furnished with all things necessary to work out redemption, and free from the penalty of sin all His elect people. The subject of these gifts was the rational soul of Christ. The human nature only was anointed with the Spirit; the divine nature, being infinite, could receive no increase of gifts, it having a fulness of perfection by eternal generation. Yet though the divine nature stood in no need of those gifts, it did capacitate the humanity of Christ for greater receipts by reason of its union with it than any other creature was capable of. We must not think that the divine nature was instead of a soul to the body of Christ. He had a rational soul; for since the whole nature of man was corrupted, both soul and body, the whole nature of man was to be restored. He could not have suffered in a body, without a soul, the wrath due to our souls as well as our bodies, had He only had a body. He had not taken the human nature; only the meanest and worst part of man, not that which constitutes the man. Unless He had been God and man in one person, His blood could not have been called "the blood of God", and unless He had a soul and body, an entire nature, His blood could not have been the blood of man. "Though He be God and man, yet He is not two, but one Christ: one, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking the manhood unto God: one altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person."

The unction of Christ consisted in the full communication of the Spirit unto Him "not by measure". Inferior priests were only sprinkled with anointing oil, mixed with the "blood" of the "ram of consecration", intimating that the Spirit was poured out without measure (because of his infinitude) upon Jesus; but in measure (because they are vessels of small capacity) upon His people. Blood for atonement was also necessary for them, as well as oil for consecration. Thus was Christ "anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows" (Psa. xlv. 8), but it was for His fellows. But though the anointing of Christ was essentially one entire work, yet so that it was carried on by several degrees and distinctions of time. He was anointed by the Spirit in His incarnation in the womb (Luke i. 35). He was so at His baptism and entrance into His public ministry, when He was anointed to preach the gospel (Isa. lxi. 1). "The Spirit of God descended like a dove, and lighted upon him" (Matt. iii. 16). The first part of His unction more peculiarly respected a fulness of the grace, the latter of the gifts, of the Spirit. He was peculiarly anointed unto His death and sacrifice in the divine act of His whereby He "sanctified Himself " thereunto (John xvii. 19). He was so at His ascension, when He received of the Father the promise of the Spirit, pouring Him forth on His disciples (Acts ii. 33). And in this latter instance He was "anointed with the oil of gladness", which includes His glorious exaltation also. Now, although there be an inconceivable difference and distance between the unction of Christ and that of believers, yet is His the only rule of interpretation of theirs as to the kind of it. Believers have their unction immediately from Christ: " Ye have an unction from the Holy One"; and it is His Spirit which believers do receive (Eph. iii. 16; Phil. i. 19). It is therefore manifest that the anointing of believers consisted in the communication of the Holy Spirit unto them from, and by, Jesus Christ. Our unction is the communication of the Holy Spirit, and nothing else.

It has pleased Divine Wisdom to constitute oil as a frequent emblem of the Holy Spirit. All was useless without the anointing oil. So in the New Dispensation, without the Holy Spirit of Christ, all religion is but a vain pretence. "If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ", what is he? "he is none of his." He may have vast learning, profound genius, exemplary character, domestic amiability, punctilious honour, large-hearted philanthropy, generous impulse, religious emotion, but all these together will not stand in the stead of the "unction from the Holy One"; and "ye know all things", that is, all things requisite and necessary for our salvation. "The same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you" (1 John ii. 27). To counterfeit the holy anointing oil was death (Exod. xxx. 33). With what rapture of vision did they behold the high priest fully anointed with the holy oil, so as, according to the Psalmist, to "run down upon his beard, even Aaron's beard, and to the skirts of his clothing" (Ps. cxxxiii. 2); prefiguring so beautifully our Great High Priest and the unction we have from Him, which flows to the weakest and meanest of His elect, who, like the skirts of Aaron's garments, trail in the dust and ashes of unworthiness. It is the property of oil to penetrate, to soften. Doth not the Spirit of our God enter into the inmost soul? Doth He not take away the heart of stone, and give a heart of flesh? It is in the nature of oil to heal and cure; the good Samaritan pours in oil and wine. The Holy Spirit heals the broken in heart and binds up their wounds. Oil was used of old to supple and invigorate the limbs, and it is that Christ by His Spirit strengthens His people with might in the inner man. Oil, we are told, maketh the face of man to shine (Ps. civ. 15), but what is that to "the joy and peace in believing", to the abounding hope which is wrought in the souls of God's elect by the Holy Ghost given unto them? (Rom. xv. 13.) There is a fragrance in this unction from the Holy One which, like the aromatic oil bestowed upon Aaron, perfumes as well as gladdens the soul. It is not only acceptable to the Most High in itself, as coming from Him, but it renders the persons on whom it is poured "an offering of a sweet-smelling savour" through Christ Jesus.

The XVIIth Article defines the elect as those who are "called according to God's purpose by His Spirit working in due season"; "and such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ, mortifying the works of the flesh, and their earthly members, and drawing up their mind to high and heavenly things"; "for by one Spirit are we all baptised into one body, […] and have been all made to drink into one Spirit" (1 Cor. xii. 13).

And this is indispensable for us, as much as the anointing oil was for Aaron and his sons. It was indispensable for Christ, or He could not have been called Christ, Messiah, Anointed; all of which have the same meaning. True, it may be, that we were "chosen" of the Father "before the foundation of the world". True, it may be, that we were redeemed "of the Son from the curse of the law", yet we shall remain "aliens", "strangers", "outcasts", until the Spirit, by His effectual call, calls us in grace. There were two particulars respecting the anointing oil, of which I have not as yet made mention, which may aid us by the same anointing to discern whether we are the subjects of it. First, the high priest, upon whose head the holy anointing oil was poured, might not defile himself by contact with any dead body, even though it were the body of his father or of his mother (Lev. xxi. 10-12). Surely there is a word of admonition here for the people of God to "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption" (Eph. iv. 30) – the grieving is not in the sense in which we can be grieved, for He is God; not in the sense of sorrow or disappointment, but rather in the sense of offence; the idea is a comparative one, and might be translated: "Offend not." Grieve Him not by turning back to "dead works" from serving the living and true God. Grieve Him not, even though father and mother take umbrage at thy course, for remember Matt. x. 37. You may be stigmatised. It is the appointed lot of the loyal servants of Jehovah to be reviled, but they will not really suffer loss. For notice, secondly, that even in matters of this life the anointed priests were specially cared for. You will find that provision was made for their temporal necessities by referring to Lev. vii. 34-36. And think you, that the provision made for the "royal Priesthood" shall be less bountiful?

One item more. The holy anointing oil was never poured out upon the flesh of a stranger (Exod. xxx. 32). Even so did the Lord Himself declare concerning the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, that the world cannot receive Him (John xiv. 17). It is for His elect and blood-bought people, of whom very many feel as if they were but the trailing skirts of Aaron's garments; "for thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones" (Isa. lvii. 15). "Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen." (Eph. iii. 20, 21.)

[This is No. 3 of these most vital messages. No. 4, entitled "The Offering of Sacrifice of our High Priest", will follow. – A.N.]

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