rred to them; that they were representatives of Christ, and
that, hence, their mediation would, at some future period, disappear
altogether. And in order that the people might always remain fully
conscious of this; in order that they might know that they themselves
were the real bearers of the priestly dignity, they retained, even
after the institution of the Levitical priesthood, that priestly
function which formed the root and foundation of all others, viz., the
slaying of the covenant-sacrifice, of the paschal lamb, which formed
the centre of all other sacrifices, inasmuch as the latter served only
as a supplement to it. That, even under the Old Testament dispensation,
this importance of the paschal rite was duly recognized, is seen from
_Philo_, _de vita Mos._ (p. 686, Francf.): "In offering up the paschal
lamb, the office of the laymen is by no means simply to bring the
sacrificial animals to the altar, that they may be slain and offered up
by the priests; but, according to the regulations of the Law, the whole
people exercise priestly functions, inasmuch as every one in his own
behalf offers up the prescribed sacrifice."--We have thus here before
[Pg 472] us the highest completion of the comfort for the mourning
covenant-people. They are not merely to receive back their king, their
priests; nay, they are altogether to be changed into a kingly and
priestly generation. It must not be overlooked that, in substance, this
was already contained in the promise to Abraham. We have already proved
in Vol. i. p. 211, ff., that this promise to Abraham does not refer to
a great number of bodily descendants, _tales quales_, but that, on the
contrary, it refers only to such sons of Abraham as are, at the same
time, sons of God; hence, to a royal and priestly generation.--If now
we look to the fulfilment, the passage which, above all, presents
itself, is 1 Pet. ii. 9: [Greek: humeis de genos eklekton, basileion
hierateuma k.t.l.] Here that passage of Exodus is represented as a
prophecy which, in the present only, was fulfilled. Israel has now
become that which, according to its destiny, it ought always to have
been, a host of royal priests,--priests who at the same time have a
royal nature and character. That which now already exists perfectly in
the germ, shall, at some future period, come forth in full development,
according to Rev. v. 10: [Greek: kai epoiesas autous to theo hemon
basileis kai hiereis, kai basileusousin epi tes g