them into all the truth, and to fill them with the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

(5.) Once more, in the anointing of the High-priest, we plainly read the connection between the work of Christ and the agency of the Holy Spirit. As the oil there sanctified all, so the Spirit here seals and works in all. By the power of the Spirit was the flesh of Christ conceived; with the fulness of the Spirit was he endowed at his baptism; all his works were wrought in the Spirit, and by the Spirit did he offer himself without spot to God. The Father had given the Spirit not by measure to him; and as the oil that was poured on the head of Aaron flowed down upon his garments, so is this Spirit ever ready to descend from Christ upon all who are members of his body.

The priesthood of Aaron was certainly highly honoured in being made to represent beforehand, in so many points, the eternal priesthood of Christ. But in one respect a manifest blank presents itself, which required to be met by a special corrective. As seen in the Old Testament institution, the priestly bore a distinct and easily recognised connection with the prophetical or teaching office; but none, or at least a very distant and obscure one, with the kingly. This of necessity arose from God himself being king in Israel when the priesthood was instituted; so that no nearer approximation to the ruling authority could be allowed to the members of the priesthood, than that of being expounders and revealers of the law of the divine king. Something more than this, however, was required to bring out the true character of the Eternal priesthood, especially after the time that an earthly head of the kingly function was appointed, and the priesthood became still less immediately connected with an authority to rule in the house of God. Hence, no doubt, it was that the Spirit of prophecy, in directing the expectations of the church to the coming Messiah, began then so peculiarly to supply what was lacking in the intimations of the existing type, and to make promise of him as "a priest after the order of Melchizedec" (Ps. cx.) There were in reality far more points of similitude to Christ's office in the priesthood of Aaron than in that of Melchizedec; but in one very important and prominent respect the one supplied what the other absolutely wanted-Melchizedec being at once a king and a priest, a priest upon the throne. And it was more especially to teach that

Messiah should be the same, and in this should differ from the Aaronic priesthood, that such a prediction was then given. It was virtually an assurance to the church, that the sacerdotal and regal functions, then obviously dissevered, should be united in the person of Him who was to come; and that as the power and splendour of royalty was, in his hands, to be tempered by the tenderness and compassion of the priest, the coming of his kingdom should on that account be looked for with eager expectation. The prediction was again renewed, though without any specific reference to Melchizedec, by Zechariah after the restoration (ch. vi. 13.) But while this was the main reason and design of the reference,-when the Jews of our Lord's time not only overlooked the leading point of the prediction, but entirely misconceived also the relation that the Levitical priesthood bore to Christ's work and kingdom, the author of the epistle to the Hebrews took occasion to bring out various other and subordinate points of instruction from the prophecy in the 110th Psalm, which it was also fitted to convey. These were mainly directed to the purpose of establishing the conclusion, that the priesthood of our Lord must, by that reference to Melchizedec, have been designed to supersede the priesthood of Aaron, and to be constituted after a higher model; that both in his person and his office, he was to stand pre-eminent above the most honoured of the sons of Abraham, as Melchizedec appears in the history rising above Abraham himself.

It only remains, to notice, that in virtue of the law in Christ's kingdom, by which all his people are vitally united to him, and have, in a measure, every gift and property which belongs to himself, sincere believers are priests after his order and pattern. Chosen in him before the foundation of the world, consecrated by the sprinkling of his blood on their consciences, and the unction of his Spirit, and brought near to God, they are "an holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." It is their privilege, to go nigh through him even into the holiest of all, and minister and serve before him as sons and daughters in his kingdom. And as in their Great Head, so in them the priestly calling bears relation to the prophetical office on the one hand, and to the kingly on the other. As those who are privileged to stand so high and come so near to God, they obtain the "unction which teaches them all things"-"leads them into

all the truth," makes them "children of light," and constitutes them "lights of the world." And along with this spirit of wisdom and revelation, there also rests on them the spirit of power, which renders them a "royal priesthood." Even now, in a measure, they reign as kings over the evil in their natures, and in the world around them; and when Christ's work in them is brought to its proper consummation, they shall, as kings and priests, share with him in the glories of his everlasting kingdom.

Hence, in the Christian priesthood, as well as in the Jewish, every thing in the first instance depends upon the condition of the person. It is not the offering that makes the priest, but the priest that makes the offering. He only, who has attained to a state of peace and fellowship with God, who has been regenerated by divine grace, and brought to a personal interest in the blessings of Christ's salvation, is in as fit condition for presenting to God the spiritual sacrifices of the New Testament. For what are these sacrifices? They are the fruits of grace, yielded by a soul that has become truly alive to God; and simply consist in a person's willing and active consecration of himself, through the varied exercises of love, to God and his fellow-men. It is only, therefore, in so far as he is already a subject of grace, standing on the ground of Christ's perfected redemption, and replenished with the life-giving influences of the Holy Spirit, that his good deeds possess the character of sacrifices, acceptable to God. They are, otherwise, but dead works, of no account in the sight of heaven, because presented by unclean hands, the offerings of persons unsanctified; and even though formally right, they still rank among the things of which God declares, that he has not required them at men's hands. (Isa. i, 12; Hag. ii. 10–13.)

But those, on the other hand, who are in the spiritual condition now described, have freedom of access for themselves and their offerings to God; and let no man spoil them of their privilege. Chosen, as they are, in Christ, and constituted in him a royal priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices, to interpose any others as priests between them and Christ, were to traverse the order of God, and subvert the arrangements of his house. It were to block up anew the path into the Holiest, which Christ has laid fully open. It were to degrade those whom he has called to glory and virtue, to dishonour and deny Christ himself, the living root

out of which his people grow, in whose life they live, and in whose acceptance they are accepted. A priesthood, in the strict and proper sense, apart from what belongs to believers as such, can have no place in the church of the New Testament; and the institution of a distinct priestly order, such as exists in the Greek and Roman communities, is an unlawful usurpation, proceeding from the spirit of error and of antichrist. In such a kingdom as Christ's, where every real member is a priest, there can be room only for ministerial functions necessary for the maintenance of order and the general good. But as regards fellowship with heaven, there can be no essential difference, since all have access to God by faith, through the grace wherein they stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

SECTION FOURTH.

THE DIVISION OF THE TABERNACLE INTO TWO APARTMENTS-THE FORECOURT WITH ITS LAVER AND ALTAR OF SACRIFICE-THE FUNDAMENTAL IDEA OF SACRIFICE BY BLOOD, AND THE IMPORT OF THE THREE MAIN POINTS CONNECTED WITH IT, VIZ. THE CHOICE OF THE VICTIMS, THE IMPOSITION OF HANDS, AND THE SPRINKLING OF THE BLOOD.

In the preceding chapter, we have considered the tabernacle and its officiating priesthood only in a general point of view, with reference simply to the great design of the one, and the distinctive character and privileges of the other. But we must now descend more into particulars; and endeavour to ascertain what was the precise import of its several parts, and of the services in connection with these, which the priests were appointed to discharge. It is here so important to have a sure foundation laid, and the landmarks well fixed for future explanations, that we must in the present section confine our attention to what may be called a general survey of the particulars, the relation which one part bore to another, and the connection in which the whole stood to the most essential part of the Old Testament worship-the rite of sacrifice. This will, of course, lead us to inquire into the exact nature of a sacrifice, and the import of the actions connected with it-those, especially, of the imposition of hands on the victim, and the sprinkling of its shed blood.

1. We look first to the tabernacle itself, which, though one habitation, is presented to our view as divided into two compartments. By a richly embroidered curtain or veil, suspended from top to bottom, the innermost portion, consisting of ten cubits square, was cut off from the outer; and was designated "the Most Holy Place," while the other was simply called "the Sanctuary," or the Holy Place. Why should such a division have