e desires to confirm the Hebrew Christians
in their allegiance to Christ. We shall be better able to understand the
precise bearing of his exhortation if we compare it with the appeal
previously made to his readers in the earlier chapters of the
Epistle.[211] At the very outset he plunged into the midst of his
subject and proved that Jesus Christ is Son of God and representative
Man. The union in Christ of these two qualifications constituted Him a
great High-priest. He is able to succour the tempted; He is faithful as
a Son, Who is set over the house of God; He has experienced the bitter
humiliation of life, He is perfected as our Saviour, and has passed
through the heavens. The exhortation, based on these truths, is that we
must lay fast hold of our confidence.

Then come the big wave, the hesitation to face it, the allegory of
Melchizedek, the appeal to the prophet Jeremiah, the comparison between
the old covenant and the new. But the argument triumphs and advances.
Jesus not only is a great High-priest, but this is interpreted as
meaning that He is Priest and King, and that His priesthood and power
will never pass away. Their eternal duration involves the setting aside
of every other priesthood, the destruction of every opposing force.
Christ has entered into the true holiest place and enthroned Himself on
the mercy-seat.

This being so, the Apostle no longer urges his readers to be confident.
He now appeals to them as having confidence,[212] in virtue of the blood
of Jesus, so that they tarry not in the precincts, but enter themselves
into the holiest. The high-priest alone dared enter under the former
covenant, and he approached with fear and trembling, lest he also, like
others before him, should fall down dead in the presence of God. The
exhortation now is, not to confidence, but to sincerity.[213] Let their
confidence become more objective. They had the boasting of hope. Let
them seek the silent, unboasting assurance that is grounded on faith, on
the realisation of the invisible. Instead of believing because they
hoped, let them hope because they believed. In the earlier chapters the
exhortation rested mainly on what Jesus was as Son over God's house.
Now, however, the Apostle speaks of Him as a _great_[214] Priest over
God's house. His authority over the Church springs, not only from His
relation to God, but also from His relation to men. He is King of His
Church because He prays for it and blesses it. Throug