This most solemn form of utterance is seldom used in Scripture. It occurs also when God sware to Abraham, that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed (Gen. xxii. 16–18):—To the rebellious Israelites, that they should not enter into His rest (Deut. i. 34, 35):—To Moses, that he should not go into Canaan (Deut. iv. 21):—To David, that his seed should endure for ever, and his throne unto all generations (Ps. lxxxix. 3, 4). It is treated in Heb. vii. 20–22 as exhibiting the superior authority and character of Christ as a High Priest, in comparison with the priesthood of Levi: “For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath; . . . and by so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.” And again, in ver. 28: “For the Law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the Law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore.” It is also treated (Heb. vi. 16–19) as expressing the absolutely unalterable counsel of God: “Men verily swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife; wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath; that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.” That hope which is as an _anchor_ to the soul, both sure and steadfast. The office of _an apostle_ (or special messenger, or messenger with special tidings), viewed separately, has nothing of the _priest_; but the offices of teacher of the law, mediator, and priest were combined in the Levitical priesthood; and they were perfectly blended in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Nevertheless the doctrine of the priesthood of Christ could not be much developed or declared until the abolition of the priests of Levi by the termination of that first covenant, when Jesus declared, “It is finished,” and “gave up the ghost,” and “the veil of the Temple was rent in twain”—indicating that the approach to the Divine Presence was opened to all. During the patriarchal ages, the head of the family or house appears to have combined in himself the patriarch and priest. Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, offered sacrifices as well as Abel, though the recorded instances are few, and only on very remarkable occasions; such as the coming out of the ark, the call of Abram, the sacrifice of Isaac, the covenant to Jacob. But we read that it was the constant practice of Job; for, after giving an account of the burnt-offerings offered for each of his sons after their days of feasting, it is added, “thus did Job continually” (Job i. 5); and such was no doubt the practice of other patriarchs.