and then may you rest in believing hope of your HighPriest's return, invested now with all authority and power, to put you and his whole redeemed family into the entire possession of all that God has covenanted to give his people, and so to exalt you to a free participation of his own eternal kingdom and dominion. Dan. vii. 13, 14, 27. Heirs of God, you shall be joint heirs with Christ, Rom. viii. 17, and the glory given to your Lord shall devolve on you. John xvii. 24. Oh for grace to realize the hope and to rejoice therein! He which testifieth these things saith, Surely, I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. We will dwell on Calvary's mountain, Where the flocks of Zion feed ; Oft resort unto the fountain, Open'd when the Lord did bleed, Thence deriving Grace, and life, and holiness, There with trimmed lamps we'll tarry, Lo! the Bridegroom draweth nigh. On that day of consummation, May we then before thee stand! DISCOURSE X. THE INCENSE-ALTAR. EXODUS XXx. 1. Thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon. I BELIEVE it was Martin Luther who said, that during his lengthened and frequent perusal of the holy Scriptures, he had found the Bible to resemble a large widespreading fruit-tree, whose numerous branches are thickly loaded with delicious fruit-fruit at once pleasant to the eye and sweet to the taste; in gathering which we are sometimes inclined to think, when looking at the large supply we have obtained, Now we have got all that can be got: see our replenished baskets! what treasures of golden fruit! But in surveying the tree again, we discover still another branch or a twig bending beneath its luxuriant load, which had escaped our observation before, and whose fruit, perhaps, is even richer and more beautiful than that already plucked. Thus it is with the word of God: it is impossible to enumerate its doctrines, precepts, prohibitions, and examples of good and ill, or ever fully to exhaust its stores of wisdom. The more we study, the greater do its excellences appear, The richer our experience of its worth, the higher does our admiration of its beauties rise. This illustration strikingly applies to the subject now brought particularly before us. The altar of burntoffering has already been discussed: the altar of incense now solicits our attention. Certain specialties will be found common unto both: for example, the wood; the conformation; the horns; the crown, the rings, and staves; and yet these things consist with a diversity of circumstances truly remarkable and edifying. If now, therefore, we have already gathered some pleasant fruit off Luther's imagined tree, let us turn again and see if we cannot find some more on still more extended boughs of the goodly plant; and some, perhaps, that shall amply remunerate our search, and make the precious Word still sweeter to our taste. Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts. Jer. xv. 16. A participation of Jehovah's name, is the best preparation for the enjoyment of his word. Affinities naturally affect their kind. There were but two altars used in the tabernacle or temple-worship: the one called the altar of burnt-offering, and the other the altar of incense. Ex. xxx. 27, and xl. 10. To these in combination the Psalmist refers, when he avows his willingness to make the altars of God his refuge, as the sparrow finds a house for herself, and the swallow a nest for her young. Ps. lxxxiv. 3. An atonement for sin, betokened by the brazenaltar, and an intercession founded thereupon, represented by the altar of incense, can alone avail for safety from impending or apprehended displeasure, and quiet the alarms of an awakened conscience: in other words, L there must be a slaughtered Lamb and a mediating Priest, in order to pacify the fears and to encourage the hopes of a guilty, convicted, self-condemned sinner. The notion commonly entertained that criminals found security in resorting to the brazen altar, and that the life of the accused was held sacred soon-soever as the horns of the altar were grasped by him, appears to receive no countenance from Scripture. Joab fled thither; but there did he die: Adonijah also laid hold on the horns of the altar: but although spared in his life for a season, he was first restrained in his liberty, and shortly afterward slain. 1 Kings i. and ii. Hence we perceive that a vicarious sacrifice, either in type or in anti-type, does not avail for pardon without a believing appropriation of its merit: and, moreover, that no safety will be found for the offender, even in the death of Jesus Christ, unless his intercession be confided in. In fine, we stand before the Lord simply as we are accepted in the Beloved. Eph. i. 6. Truly, therefore, does the holy Prophet declare, In the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel; first, as the atoning Priest, and afterwards as the prevailing Intercessor. Jer. iii. 23. That the golden altar, with its fuming incense, was an eminent type of our Saviour's high-priestly intercession, is clear from the testimony of St. John in Rev. viii. 3. The holy Apostle had seen seven angels standing before the throne of God, to whom, as representative of the fulness of evangelical ministry in the one catholic or universal church, were entrusted seven trumpets; which trumpets, in their several periods, should mark the occurring events of God's Providence until the end of time or the resurrection of the just. Another angel, distinct from the foregoing, and doubtless the Angel pre-eminently of Jehovah's Presence, Isa. lxiii. 9, came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. Here the position of the altar, namely, before the throne, answering to the altar of incense before the seat of mercy in the tabernacle; the burning incense; and the service of the priest in the holy place, all lead our contemplations to Jesus Christ as offering the prayers of all his people, perfumed with the much incense of his own most precious and eternal merit, unto the Father. No marvel that the prayers of creatures vile and unworthy even as ourselves, should come up with gracious acceptance before God out of such an Angel-intercessor's hands: for, Him the Father heareth alway. John xi. 42. These blessed truths, however, will become still more manifest in our further consideration of the golden altar, and to this we will now particularly revert. In accordance with the injunction given to him in our text, Moses put the golden altar in the tent of the congregation before the vail; and he burnt sweet incense thereon; as the Lord commanded Moses. Ex. xl. 26, 27. We propose to notice in succession, I. The altar itself; II. The incense burnt thereupon; And III. The two conjoined. I. Respecting the altar of incense itself, we observe, it was composed of shittim-wood and gold. The wood of the altar of burnt-offering entered into the composition of the altar of incense; because the humanity of Jesus Christ, under all the modifications of its earthly |