Ps. lxxxiv. 9 he looks upon his people here, and is reminded of all his appointments on their behalf in Christ. Hence, all things are for both Christ and his church, 2 Cor. iv. 15, and Col. i. 16, and the eventual declaration of Jehovah's grace will be, You only have I known of all the families of the earth. Amos iii. 2. Therefore have I sought you, chastened you, humbled you, blessed you, kept you, made you as a burning lamp to shed my light abroad, replenished you with my Spirit, and meetened you for my kingdom: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me. Isa. xliv. 21. To be thus remembered, and thus regarded, will constitute the honour and felicity of God's dear children, when the loftiest titles and the noblest distinctions of earth are crumbled into nothingness and lost in forgetfulness. In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory, Isa. xlv. 25: and when they shall stand fixed and determined in the full realization of the Gospel-hope, they will appear as trophied monuments of mercy in the house of God, everlastingly to perpetuate the memory of that great goodness which could stoop so low in order to exalt us sinners of the human kind to such a height of glory and felicity. Rev. iii. 12. O give thanks unto the God of gods—who remembered us in our low estate,-for his mercy endureth for ever. Ps. cxxxvi. 2, 23.

For, 10, and finally, The ordinance was to endure throughout the generations of Israel, by a statute for ever. The expression for ever is not always to be taken in an absolute manner, as meaning endless perpetuity or duration it must sometimes be limited to a definite, although a lengthened period. The context will usually determine which import is intended. The spirit of a

command, however, may continue where the letter thereof has been annulled. Thus, the replenishment of the golden candlestick with pure oil-olive, continued in its type through all the Levitical state: in its spiritual appliance, it is still enjoyed, and through everlasting ages do we believe there will be fresh manifestations of Godhead power and glory to the intelligence and the admiration of our redeemed capacities. Increased light will but enable us to comprehend the more. A purer vision will take in more extensive prospects. Hearts divested totally of all remains of human selfishness, will become more and more replete with God and God's eternal interests. What, indeed, we shall be, has not yet appeared: but when we see Himeven the altogether Lovely-we shall be like unto him. 1 John iii. 1, 2. Commensurate with his humiliation, will doubtless be Messiah's exaltation. Isa. lii. 14, 15. Now, the Father giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him; consequently he can immeasurably bless his ransomed people. And this he most assuredly will do, according to the import of his own high-priestly prayer. See John iii. 34, and xvii. 22. Thus, in some sort, shall we possess the glory of the Lord himself, and for ever will the lamp of the heavenly tabernacle burn to relume the universe with its joyous radiancy. The city will need no other candle, neither light of the sun nor of the moon to lighten it; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever. Rev. xxii. 5. Meanwhile,

Thou, CELESTIAL LIGHT,

Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers
Irradiate; there plant eyes; all mists from thence
Purge and disperse, as day dispels the night.

CHAPTER VIII.

The Priesthood.

TOUCHING THE PRIEST: NOTE I. THE CONSECRATION OF HIS PERSON: 1. BY WATER: 2. BY OIL: 3. BY BLOOD. II. THE DUTIES OF HIS OFFICE: 1. To ATONE: 2. To INTERCEDE: AND 3. To BLESS.

EXODUS XXX. 30.

And thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them; that they may minister unto me in the priest's office.

THE sceptical philosopher asks, with much apparent modesty and pretended self-renunciation, How a Being of such ineffable perfections as the Creator of all things must necessarily be, can demean himself to be concerned about a world so inconsiderable as this, and with creatures so feeble and unworthy as ourselves? It may suffice to reply, that with Him who inhabits eternity and fills immensity, nothing can, strictly speaking, be either great or small; and if it please the supreme and only Lord to exhibit the moral grandeur of his character and government upon a spot so little as earth, and in a period so brief as time, and that in order to the recovery of a rebellious province of his extensive empire

to his own paternal sway, and to obediential love in his creatures; who are we that we should question its propriety, and not rather avail ourselves of every possible appliance to become at one with him again? Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say unto him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands? Isa. xlv. 9. To adore is the disposition of a creature unfallen or saved: to cavil is the symptom of a will still in rebellion against the Creator and his sovereign rule.

It surely argues infinite beneficence in God that he should graciously condescend to appoint a priesthood of mediation between himself and his offending creatures. Sacrifices, we know, were offered immediately upon the Fall. We also learn from the earliest records of the world that a Priest of the most high God exercised his vocation in the days of Abraham. Gen. xiv. 18. With modifications, varying according to existing circumstances, the priesthood was re-enacted under the Law. It is still continued under the Gospel, and will be finally consummated in its gracious purposes in the prevalent and triumphant kingdom of the great King-priest, our adorable Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

:

Two orders or kinds of priests only have obtained from the beginning the one meeting its representative in Melchisedec; the other in Aaron. Each has its peculiar and distinguishing characteristics. Hence, we might denominate the Aaronic priesthood, a sacrificing priesthood; or, the priesthood of mediation as divested of all worldly splendour: whereas, the priesthood of Melchisedec was the priesthood of government; or, the visible exhibition of kingly power in unison with priestly intercession. It

is the latter of the two particularly that St. Paul so fully and emphatically dilates upon in his Epistle to the Hebrews. The order of Aaron was subordinate and intercalary to that of Melchisedec. It is a priest upon his throne, that is to embody the Melchisedecan type : and this our Saviour will be at his appearing and his kingdom. 2 Tim. iv. 1. It is vain to say that Jesus Christ already reigns and executes the functions of a kingly-priest: He does not do so in the sense intended by the Spirit in the sacred Scripture. Hear, for instance, the holy Prophet Zechariah: Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The Branch : and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord: even he shall build the temple of the Lord: and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both,-namely, between Zerubbabel, the governor, and Joshua, the priest, as prefiguring conjointly the man whose mystical name is, The Branch, and upon whom will devolve the glory of a priestly royalty. Zech. vi. 12, 13. Hereon we observe: first, The temple of the Lord is not yet rebuilt: secondly, The throne of the house of David is not yet set up: thirdly, The glory of an undivided empire Christ does not bear: for, Satan is at large, and now we see not yet all things put under him, Heb. ii. 8; and consequently it farther follows that Jesus is not yet that sovereign Lord which in the counsels of eternity he is ordained to be. Indeed, the kingly power was totally detached from the priestly office under the Law, and Uzziah, king of Judah, for venturing to approach the incense-altar with intent to minister thereat, was driven from the precincts of the temple a leper white