2. The argument of the book. It contains τάξιν ἱερατικὴν, the Ecclesiastical Agenda, and the Law of the High Priests. However many syllables, just so many Sacraments of Christ and of the holiness of believers does it have.
This book instructs concerning the types of Sacrifices, concerning pollutions and contagion, concerning the general expiation of sins, concerning lawful and criminal sexual intercourse and the punishment incest, concerning holiness, and things similar to these. He sprinkles in certain things concerning polity: but the handing on of the sacred rites takes up almost every page, so that the book might be called the Law of the High Priests, and τάξιν ἱερατικὴν, the Ecclesiastical Agenda. It is evident from this, how fitting it is that Priests be holy, learned, and whole. Finally, all the mysteries of the Gospel, although wrapped up in types, the very Priesthood and Sacrifice of Christ, the whole of redemption, and all the virtues of Christ and the duties of believers, who are represented as offering themselves to God,[1] as giving themselves completely to God’s service, and as abstaining from the defilements of sin, are related. So that Saint Jerome with good reason said, the individual syllables of Leviticus breathe out heavenly Sacraments.[2]
[1] See Romans 12:1.
[2] Epistola LIII, section 8.
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