Hebrews 7

"For this Melchizedek…" Wesley's sum of the chapter: Christ, as appears from his type Melchisedec—greater than Abraham himself, from whom Levi descended—has a priesthood altogether excellent, new, firm, perpetual. The verse opens the type: king of Salem, priest of God Most High, who, who met Abraham and blessed him.

Shared with the Reformed: Melchizedek is not a camp war over historicity. Both hear a historical priest-king who blesses Abraham and thus stands over the patriarchal line. Arminian interpreters receive the blessing as superiority of order: the type points to the Son's excellent, perpetual priesthood. Hear the verse; do not turn Genesis 14 into speculation about angels or Shem. The blessing is priestly; the Son fulfills what the type sketches.

Calvin: it was no common thing that in a land full of superstition a man preserved pure worship and himself performed the priest's office. It was necessary that in him who was to be a type of the Son of God all things excellent should be found. David did not say without reason, "Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchisedec."

Melchizedek met Abraham and blessed him—historical type. Reformed reading keeps Scripture's silence and Scripture's witness: the type shadows Christ. The blessing is God's vicegerent work through a priest greater than the patriarch. Raise thoughts to the Son whose order this is.

Abraham apportioned a tenth of everything. Wesley: first, according to his name, King of righteousness; then, according to his city, King of peace. So in him, as in Christ, righteousness and peace were joined—and so they are in all that believe in him.

Pastorally: the names are not ornaments. Righteousness and peace meet in the type and in the Son, and they are joined in believers. Calvin agrees: tithe marks Abraham's confession of Melchizedek's dignity. The verse hears kingship and peace together; do not pry the names apart from the priest who blesses and receives.

Calvin: King of righteousness—not only ruling justly, but communicating the righteousness of God, partly by gratuitous reconciliation, partly by renewing us by his Spirit. King of peace: that inward peace which tranquilizes the conscience and renders it confident before God. Out of his kingdom nothing but sin reigns.

Abraham's tenth confesses a superior priest. Righteousness and peace are Christ's effectual gifts to his people, not mere titles. The type's names mirror what the Son alone truly diffuses. Tithe and name together exalt the order that will outrank Levi.

Without father, mother, or genealogy recorded; neither beginning of days nor end of life mentioned by Moses. Wesley: made like the Son of God—who is without father as to his human nature, without mother as to his divine, and without priestly pedigree. Nothing is recorded of Melchisedec's death or successor. But Christ alone does remain without death and without successor.

Shared: the silence of Scripture is the typology. Wesleyan Arminians do not invent a heavenly Melchizedek still alive as a private man; they hear resemblance to the Son who continues a priest forever. Historic reading: Moses' silence sketches eternity; the Son alone fills it.

Calvin prefers "without father" to "unknown father": the Apostle exempts Melchisedec from ordinary descent by birth as a type. It is certain he had parents; but the Apostle sets him forth as a type of Christ and allows himself to see nothing but what Scripture contains. Silence as to birth and death is as though eternity were ascribed to him; what was shadowed in Melchisedec is exhibited in Christ.

Do not fight camps over whether Melchizedek was Shem or an angel—Calvin rejects both as destroying the likeness. The comparison is an analogy, not an identity. The Son continues a priest forever; the type's recorded forever is a mirror, not a rival biography.

See how great this man was! Wesley: the most manifest proof of Melchisedec's greatness was that Abraham gave him tithes as to a priest of God and a superior—though Abraham was himself a patriarch, greater than a king, and a progenitor of many kings.

Greatness is measured by Abraham's tithe. The patriarch's honor raises Melchizedek's, and thus raises Christ's order above Levi. Hear the exclamation; do not flatten it into mere ancient custom. The spoils go to a superior priest.

Calvin: Abraham, one of the chief servants of God and a prophet, by offering tithes to Melchisedec the priest, confessed that Melchisedec excelled him in dignity. The word patriarch sets forth Abraham's honor—so that Melchisedec's superiority appears the higher.

Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth out of the spoils. What Abraham owed to God he gave to Melchisedec; by the tenth he confessed himself inferior. Then Melchisedec holds the highest place, superior to all the sons of Levi. The greatness is typological toward the Son.

Levitical priests have a commandment to take tithes from their brothers, though all are from Abraham. Wesley: the sons of Levi take tithes of their brethren sprung from Abraham as well as themselves. The Levites are greater than the people; the priests greater than the Levites; Abraham greater than the priests; Melchisedec greater than Abraham.

Both traditions agree: the law's tithe right is true, yet still within Abraham's line. Wesleyan Arminians hear the ladder of dignity climbing past Levi to Melchizedek's order—and so to Christ. The commandment does not nullify the type's superiority.

Calvin: though God granted the Levites the right of tithes and set them above the Israelites, yet they all descended from the same parent; and Abraham, father of them all, paid tithes to a priest of another race. Then all Abraham's descendants are inferior to this priest.

Brothers tithe to Levi by law; Abraham tithed to Melchizedek beyond that law. The Levites' particular right over their brethren does not lift them above Melchizedek. The comparison is already tilting the whole tribe downward under the type of the Son.

This man, without Levitical descent, received tithes from Abraham, and has blessed him who has the promises. Wesley: he who is not from the Levites blessed—another proof of superiority—even him that had the promises, so highly favoured of God.

Both traditions agree: blessing plus tithe equals clear rank. The man of promise is blessed by the greater priest. The promises do not make Abraham too great to be under Melchizedek; they make Melchizedek's greatness shine. The type blesses; the Son fulfills.

Calvin: the Apostle assumes that the less is blessed by the greater; Melchisedec blessed Abraham; therefore Abraham was the less. To strengthen the argument he raises Abraham's dignity—he had the promises, first of the holy race with the covenant of eternal life—yet this was no hindrance to submitting to Melchisedec's priesthood.

Shared: descent is not from Levi; tithes and blessing still stand. Abraham's preeminence makes Melchizedek's place the more singular. Two acts—suffering himself to be blessed, and offering tithes—place the patriarch under the type that points to Christ.

Beyond dispute: the lesser is blessed by the superior. Wesley: the less is blessed authoritatively of the greater.

Shared axiom for both camps. Arminians take the principle as settled: Melchizedek's blessing places him over Abraham, and therefore Christ's order over Levi. No Melchizedek historicity war is needed here—only the undisputed rule of blessing. Hear the verdict; let Levi yield.

Calvin: this blessing is a solemn praying by one invested with high office—a symbol of greater authority, as Isaac blessed Jacob, or the priest blessed the people as God's legate. The priest's blessing, while a divine work, is evidence of higher honor; Melchisedec, blessing Abraham, assumed a higher dignity according to his right as priest.

Inferior blessed by superior—beyond dispute. Reformed reading roots the axiom in priestly office, not private courtesy. The type's blessing is God's; Abraham is surpassed; the Son's priesthood inherits that superiority.

Here, in the Levitical priesthood, mortal men receive tithes; there, in Melchizedek’s case, one receives them of whom it is testified that he lives. Wesley: he is not spoken of as one that died for another to succeed him, but is represented only as living—no mention of birth or death.

On this both agree: mortality marks Levi; living testimony marks the type. Scripture's witness of life sketches the Son who truly lives forever as priest. Do not claim Melchizedek the private man still walks among us; claim Christ who alone remains without death and successor.

Calvin: silence respecting death is evidence of life as to Melchisedec the type. We are not to conclude that the man who met Abraham is yet alive—that childish thought applies to the Son of God whom he represented. The dignity of Melchisedec's priesthood was perpetual; the Levites' temporary, because they die.

Mortal priests versus "he lives." Tithes to dying men signaled an office that would end; tithes to the living type signal perpetuity that the posterior Mosaic law cannot cancel. The Son lives; his priesthood does not pass.

One might even say Levi, who receives tithes, has paid tithes through Abraham. Wesley: even Levi, who received tithes—not in person, but in his successors—as it were paid tithes in the person of Abraham.

Levi is in Abraham when the tithe is paid. The accent falls on the whole priestly tribe subordinated in the patriarch. The argument is corporate and typological, not a quarrel over Melchizedek's DNA. Greater priesthood than Levi is already on the table.

Calvin: he advances farther—Levi himself, then in the loins of Abraham, was not exempt; Abraham, by paying tithes, made himself and his posterity inferior to Melchisedec's priesthood. Judah's seed in Abraham is not a counter-proof against Christ, who is exempt by peculiar privilege as David's Lord, and Melchisedec is type of Christ, not his rival.

Levi paid through Abraham. Reformed reading closes the escape: the tribe that collects tithes already paid them in the patriarch to a greater order. The type and the Son are not set in opposition; subordination of Levi stands.

For Levi was yet in the body of his father when Melchizedek met him. The meeting includes the unborn tribe. Wesley's chain holds: Melchisedec greater than Abraham, Abraham greater than Levi's line—therefore Christ's Melchizedek priesthood is greater than Aaron's.

Both camps agree the type outranks Levi via Abraham. Historic hearing: loins-language is covenantal solidarity, not modern genetics. Better priesthood than Levi; the Son resembling Melchizedek continues forever.

Calvin's five particulars complete the comparison: name, seat of kingdom, perpetuity of life, right to tithes, and benediction—not a quarrel over bread and wine as the chief likeness. Levi in Abraham's loins when Melchizedek met him seals the tribe's inferiority.

Agreed on both sides: the unit ends with Levi under the type. What Moses records is enough; Christ fulfills the forever-priest. Greater than Abraham; Levi tithed in Abraham; type of the Son. Keep the camps together on this foundation before the change of law in the next range.