been fulfilled previous to any good works, and good works follow their
fulfillment, as we shall see.

But, that we may have a wider view of that grace which our inner man
has in Christ, we must know that in the Old Testament God sanctified to
Himself every first-born male. The birthright was of great value, giving
a superiority over the rest by the double honour of priesthood and
kingship. For the first-born brother was priest and lord of all the
rest.

Under this figure was foreshown Christ, the true and only First-born of
God the Father and of the Virgin Mary, and a true King and Priest, not
in a fleshly and earthly sense. For His kingdom is not of this world; it
is in heavenly and spiritual things that He reigns and acts as Priest;
and these are righteousness, truth, wisdom, peace, salvation, etc.
Not but that all things, even those of earth and hell, are subject to
Him--for otherwise how could He defend and save us from them?--but it is
not in these, nor by these, that His kingdom stands.

So, too, His priesthood does not consist in the outward display of
vestments and gestures, as did the human priesthood of Aaron and our
ecclesiastical priesthood at this day, but in spiritual things, wherein,
in His invisible office, He intercedes for us with God in heaven, and
there offers Himself, and performs all the duties of a priest, as Paul
describes Him to the Hebrews under the figure of Melchizedek. Nor does
He only pray and intercede for us; He also teaches us inwardly in the
spirit with the living teachings of His Spirit. Now these are the two
special offices of a priest, as is figured to us in the case of fleshly
priests by visible prayers and sermons.