I have thus endeavoured to explain the iminediate and primary meaning of this class of the offerings peculiar to the Levitical worship, and also their figurative or mystical import. With regard to what has been said under the second head, may we farther conjecture, without appearing to indulge the imagination improperly, that the reason why, in offerings of this description as well as in the expiatory, animals without spot or blemish were required, was to denote, that in order to render our oblations of praise and thanksgiving, as well as our other acts of religious service and obedience acceptable to God, they should be without blemish too, i. e. unadulterated by the admixture of any worldly or selfish influence; and should proceed in each instance from the individual's own deep and sincere conviction of the mercies as well of creation and providence, as of redemption? And again, that the reason why every part of these offerings was not unfrequently required to be consumed with fire upon the altar of burnt offerings, was to teach us by a significant ordinance that our sacrifice of ourselves in return for what God has done for us, should be entire and total likewise, without the least reserve in favour of any darling sin, any ruling and besetting passion?—a devotion or offering of ourselves, (as the communion service expresses it,) of our souls, and of our bodies; a sacrifice which, when

so made, will be at once reasonable and holy and lively.

But whatever may be thought of these coincidences, sufficient has been said to point out the correspondence of the Levitical with the Christian scheme of worship in this department of its rites and ceremonies, as well as in that which we before considered. If then it is next demanded, of what practical use or benefit it is to ourselves that we should know all this? we may answer, It is of great indeed. For if the Hebrew worshipper's oblation of prayer or thanksgiving was accepted by Jehovah in consideration of the animal sin offering, with which it was accompanied, shall not our sacrifices of praise or prayer meet with acceptance, when preferred to God through faith in Him, of whose precious blood-shedding the sin offering of the Law was but the shadow? The apostle, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, makes use of the following exhortation: "Having therefore, "brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by "the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, "which he hath consecrated for us, through the "veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an High Priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil con"science, and our bodies washed with pure water*:"

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x Heb. x. 19-22.

where, while he encourages his hearers to draw near to the house of God for such and such purposes of Christian worship, trusting to the efficacy of the blood of Jesus, and to the intercession of their High Priest over the house of God, it is with the implied assurance that their prayers and praises, having such a Mediator and Advocate to recommend them, could not fail to be accepted. With this apostolic injunction then, as so founded and so understood, let us by all means comply: nor, as the manner of too many is, forsake the assembling of ourselves together in the due performance and discharge of every appointed act of Christian worship and devotion. With respect to one of the instances of such worship, viz. the rendering of thanks-we read that when Pharaoh and his horsemen and his chariots were overthrown in the waves of the Red sea, the delivered Israelite sung the song of thanksgiving to his God. And when the Lord had delivered Sisera, the captain of Jabin's host, into the hands of Jael, Heber the Kenite's wife, we read that Deborah and Barak also commemorated that deliverance of the nation from their recent oppression, in a solemn hymn. The pious Psalmist too, in many an ode of praise, commemorates the wonders which Jehovah had done for his people, marvellous works in the land of Ham, and fearful things by the Red sea: when he brought forth his people with joy,

and his chosen with gladness. And shall the Christian be silent? We have mercies to celebrate, we have a deliverance to be thankful for, greater far than any the praise of which either Jew or Gentile ever sounded forth on lute or on harp, with the timbrel or with the well-tuned cymbal. For as to those instances of Jewish deliverance, what was the escape from the horrors of Egyptian bondage-what was the preservation extended to the wandering Israelite in the desert -what was the undisturbed enjoyment of their land, flowing with milk and honey, compared with those blessings which the Christian now enjoys, and which he hopes to enjoy hereafter? with regard to which latter we are told, that eye hath not seen them, nor ear heard them, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive what

they are. Let us then, as we are in justice bounden, be thankful for these things, i. e. be thankful for them publicly, by joining regularly in those forms of common worship which the wisdom and piety of our forefathers have devised for this purpose. But above all let the incense of our praise ascend to the mercy-seat on high, in the grateful odour of a life spent in conformity with the divine commandments; for, without this sacrifice of the heart, we scarcely need to be assured that the calves of our lips will prove a vain oblation.

DISCOURSE THE FIFTH.

On the Aaronical Priesthood—The typical nature of its character and functions.

IN my former Discourses I endeavoured to shew in what respects the sacrificial institutions of the Jewish law were typical of Christ. In this it shall be my business to explain in what respects his character and functions as a priest were prefigured in those of the Aaronical priesthood. For as Jesus Christ is represented to us not merely in the light of the lamb that was slain, but likewise in the capacity of the priest who presented the offering-if, as the Apostle declares a, Christ be the body of the Jewish ceremonial Law, we should expect to find something in the latter typical of Jesus Christ, in reference to the persons, as well as to the things, which the Law appointed to be considered holy.

And so in fact we do. For to begin with those provisions of the law relative to the priesthood, which may be considered to apply to Christ as one fitted to be our priest, by his spotless integrity, and by the perfect innocence of his character, it is clear, that such peculiar moral excellence on a Col. ii. 17.