retained in the Holy of Holies, the sanctuary that represented the religion.

But, like the sanctuaries, when the reality came, the emblem passed away. The death of the Messiah had accomplished the victory, by which the gates of Paradise were to be opened to mankind; and, abolishing the law of works, (the fatal tree by which Paradise was lost,) and offering immortality (the tree of life) freely to all, replaced the whole human race, (who shall accept the terms of redemption,) in a state of higher security than that of their first father,—a state to enjoy the celestial Paradise for ever, without fear of a fall.

Aaron's" rod that budded" was laid up "before the ark," probably as an emblem of the connexion of the Jewish High Priest with the Messiah. The shape of the ark itself may have been appointed, like its name, in reference to that earlier fabric in which the Church, and with it the religion of the promise, was transmitted from the ante-diluvian world, to spread through the future. It has been already observed, that the plan of the tabernacle, and all that it contained, was totally unmingled with human invention. "Thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof, that was showed thee in the mount." The whole construction and its contents were essential to the typical purpose; and all was, therefore, made according to the pattern" commanded by HIM who had ordained the

realization of the type; that type itself being equivalent at once to a pledge and a prophecy.

The value of those topics is not merely in their curiosity; in the learning which has been so long devoted to them; or in their illustration of the habits and history of the most extraordinary of all nations. But, in their evidence of unintermitting design, of a providential plan, beginning at the earliest ages, and continued, without the breaking of a link, to the last. The most important of all the results of Scriptural investigation must be, its result upon the individual mind, in its establishment of a personal conviction that the Scriptures are true; that their doctrines are the actual dictates of Heaven; and that, in listening to them as the hourly guides of life, and receiving their warnings and promises as facts undeniable, we are acting upon grounds of the most perfect security. This conviction (miracle apart,) cannot be obtained without the exertion of our reason; and even the influence of the Divine Spirit is undoubtedly much more frequently applied to the clearance of our reason, than to the relief of its labours,—much more to the enabling it to exert its natural powers freely in the discovery of truths, for which such force and variety of evidence is prepared, than to supplying it with unsought conclusions, and warming the heart without enlightening the understanding. In the mutual relation of the two sanctuaries, we see a work

whose extent, fulness, and accuracy, compel us to acknowledge it as the work, not of man, but of God,-a bond established between the two inspired religions: one commencing with the dawn of civilization in the world after the deluge; and the other extending to the last hours which shall pass over the head of mankind: Judæism, a duration of nearly 2000 years; Christianity, already nearly as old, and destined to a career, of which the limit is beyond knowledge. In the ark of the covenant, we see another bond, established still farther back, reaching from the fall to the consummation of Judæism; and this bond not a mere invention of human ingenuity, attempting to embody traditions in things; but declared, point by point, to be " after the pattern" shown by God. And this emblem not a vague and general representation; but a direct, exact, and minute compilation of parts, all expressive, and all combining in the expression of one object, -the restoration of mankind by the death of the Redeemer. It is to be remarked, also, that this emblem was framed nearly 1500 years before the event; that, in all probability, its meaning was as little comprehended by the Jews in general, as its fabric was seen; that the first rational attempt ever made to explain it, was made by the Great Apostle; and that being thus "hard to be understood," as it must have been, by the Jew, and perfectly comprehensible as it is by the Christian,

it was chiefly intended to invigorate our conviction, through the medium of our knowledge.

It is true that, from the moment of the original promise to Adam, Paradise was virtually re-opened. The declaration that the promised Son should bruise the serpent's head, was an immediate revoking of that death, which would otherwise have been instant and final. Thenceforth, if man perished, it must be by his refusal of the terms of immortality. The spiritual Paradise was freely entered by all who came purified by that supreme sacrifice, through whose efficacy, remote as its actual completion was, they solicited reconciliation. But the emblem of the closed Paradise was retained, -for an evidence of the ruin, the ark of the testimony; and, for an equal evidence of the reconciliation, the ark of the covenant. With the actual sacrifice of the Messiah, the use of the emblem, in both prospect and retrospect, was at

an end.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE SABBATH.

THE renewal of the Sabbath was one of the leading ordinances of the Mosaic law. The opinions on the subject, widely as they diverge, are reducible to the three questions:-Was the Sabbath observed previously to the time of Moses? Was the day then appointed the literal seventh day in succession from the day hallowed in Paradise? Was the change adopted in the Apostolic age binding upon posterity ?-Abandoning the cumbrous and contradictory references to human judgment', we must look for the only safe solution to the Scriptures.

The first declaration to Moses involving the appointment of a Sabbath, is simply a promise of the manna:-"Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day, they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as

'Heylin, &c.