sprinkling of the blood of Christ, by which all the spiritual and hea venly blessings of the new covenant are made sure to all the Israel of God. Here, then, we see the law of Moses truly the shadow of good things to come! Moses, the earthly mediator and sprinkler, the figure of the Great Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus The blood of the sacrifices, representing the blood of Christ, shed for many, for the remission of sins. Here, also, we see the na ture of making à covenant. On the part of heaven, mercy ratified by the sprinkling of blood; on the part of man, a public profession of faith and obedience.

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It is

In the 9th verse of this chapter, we find Moses, Nadab and Abihu, with seventy of the elders, called up to some part of the Mount, where they saw the God of Israel, and had communion on his sacrifice. This transaction is but shortly recorded, but is most interesting. Moses, the leader of the church, Nadab and Abihu, the priests, and seventy elders, corresponding with the seventy, whom the Lord separated to his service, in the days of his flesh, are admitted to a glorious vision of the God of Israel. This sight of the God of Israel, would appear to have been a visible appearance of the Son of God, anticipating his incarnation. It must have been different from the appearance in glory, which we find Moses afterwards desiring to be blessed with. It is dangerous to attempt to speak with minuteness on a subject which heaven has seen meet to describe in general terms. enough for us to know, that after the sacrifice had been offered, and the blood sprinkled at the bottom of the mountain, they were admitted to behold that Divine Person by whom all this solemn transaction should be ratified. The paved work under his feet, like sapphire-stone, or the body of heaven in its clearness, was a grand representation of the character in which they saw the God of Israel, viz. the redeemer of Israel. Isaiah says, I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand; fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel, I will help thee, saith the Lord thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel,' chap. xli. 14. The God of Israel appeared with clearness, like the body of heaven, when he died, the sacrifice of offended justice; when the Son of the Highest gave himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savour; then went the RIGHTEOUSNESS of • Zion forth as BRIGHTNESS, and the SALVATION thereof as a LAMP · THAT BURNETH,' Isaiah Ixii. 1.

In verse 10. they are called the nobles of Israel, because of the high honour to which they were exalted on this occasion. If the Bereans were noble from searching the scriptures for the truth concerning Christ, they are well entitled to the epithet, who were so highly honoured as the elders of Israel were on this occasion. Earthly nobles stand in the presence of an earthly prince; these nobles are so called because they were admitted as it were into the presence of the God of Israel. Still these nobles were but guilty sons of dust; and though permitted to behold the God of Israel in his infinite purity, yet he laid not his hand on them, but they were preserved; nay, more, they saw God, and did eat and drink.' They were highly privileged indeed, to eat and drink in the presence of the God

of Israel! Here is a grand view of Christian communion; every expression would require a volume to illustrate. We shall only add, that although we are not now called up to a mount, to the visible presence of the Lord, yet in his supper, if we are eating and drinking worthily, discerning the Lord's body, we are then called to see the God of Israel, with the paved work under his feet; we are then called to communion with God the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ, the blood of Jesus cleansing us from all sin. We may add, that all who enjoy this blessed communion, are nobles of heaven! and farther, that there is a day approaching when those who are called to the marriage supper of the lamb, will enjoy a more distinguished honour than the elders of Israel now did; or, we may rather say, they will enjoy in truth, that of which the other was only a figure.

Moses is now called up to the mountain, there to receive the law, engraven on the tables of stone, and the commandments to be taught Israel. In the 16th verse we are expressly told, that the glory of ⚫ the Lord abode on mount Sinai,' this is that glory which was the visible symbol of the Son of God; that glory which Paul says pertained to the Jews; that glory of which the brightness was manifested, when the word was made flesh; that glory which God the Father gives not to another, but which appears in all its excellency in the Son of his love. That glory covered the mount six days, and on the seventh he called to Moses from the cloud of glory. Can we here again shut our eyes to the seventh day. For the six days, Moses saw the cloud-covered mountain, but on the seventh God's voice was heard. Then also did the sight of the glory of the Lord, appear like devouring fire on the top of the mount, in the eyes of the children of Israel. Then is a seventh day at hand, when the glory of divine justice will appear like devouring fire in the eyes of all Israel. They saw Moses entering the midst of the cloud; and doubtless many who saw him thus entering, would be led to think of that time, when a greater than Moses would face the devouring fire, just ready to burst on the guilty heads of his people. This fire we shall have occasion more fully to consider, as more fully described, Deut. iv. On this chapter we have only therefore to add, that Moses was forty days and forty nights in receiving the pattern of the earthly tabernacle, an expressive figure of the period in which the greater and more perfect tabernacle shall be completed. In attending to these periods, forty is always mentioned for forty-two, as the day of entrance and the day of return are not included: thus Israel wandered forty complete years in the wilderness, the year of their exodus from Egypt, and the year of their entrance into Canaan, not being included. Forty-two, includes six periods, or six sevens ; as forty-nine does the seven sevens. The time then spent by Moses in the mount, corresponds with the six sevens or periods of the existence of the present state of things, during which the heavenly tabernacle is preparing.

CHAP. XXV.--We are now to enter on the consideration of that remarkable and glorious pattern of the earthly tabernacle which God

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In

gave to Moses on the Mount; a pattern highly entitled to attention, for, says Paul, they were patterns of things in the heavens.' examining this part of the Mosaic revelation, we are not to think of it as merely a description of that tabernacle, of which not one pin or cord remains, but we are to follow Moses as conducting us to the hea venly holy place, there to examine a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building.

The structure of the DIVINE TABERNACLE is highly worthy of our consideration, as being the centre of all the Old Testament ceremonies, which were celebrated in it, or connected in it. God, who in six days created the universe, employed forty days in exhibiting to Moses this pattern of the NEW CREATION; because it was a work infinitely more wonderful. Moses, who occupies but one single chapter to describe the creation of the world, fills nearly sixty in narrating the materials and construction of the tabernacle; thus intimating, how much the subject was entitled to our attention, as unfolding to our view the unsearchable riches of the grace of God towards us in Christ Jesus our Lord. On this account we find that the ta bernacle was much valued by the Old Testament saints, Psalm xxiii. 6. xxvii. 4. xlii. 2. and lxxxiv. throughout. How much is the subject entitled to our attention, when we have such an infallible key to it as the scriptures of the New Testament, particularly in Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews. He opens up the spiritual meaning of many parts of the worldly sanctuary; of others he could not speak particularly, Heb. ix. 5.; but plainly insinuates that those he had not explained were instituted for similar purposes, and merited the most particular investigation.

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It is absurd to imagine that those parts of the tabernacle only, which are mentioned by Paul, contain a spiritual mystery; for Paul himself assures us that all those ordinances, which are denominated the law, contained a shadow of good things to come, of which shadow Christ was the body, Col. ii. 17. Heb. x. 1.: and speaking of this tabernacle, he declares it to have been a pattern of a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,' Heb. ix. 9. 11.; and again, verses 21, 22, 23, 24. he says, that the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry were patterns of things in the heavens.' It is impossible that any, who have a proper view of the wisdom of God in the scriptures, can suppose that the institutions expounded in the New Testament, which are comparatively few, are those only in which the truths of the gospel were taught, and that the others were given in vain ;-for, in vain they were given, if they respect not the pearl of great price, which only could stamp a value on them when first delivered, or at this day: Nay, were we even to suppose that their signification is impenetrable, to us they were given in vain. Eternal thanksgivings are due to the Divine Goodness, that in these figures we have such a fund of instruction concerning the heavenly temple, and those things which eye hath not seen. With such valuable patterns of expounding the Old Testament in our hands, as the writings of the Apostles, we should not only attend to those particulars which they have illustrated, but applying the same golden key

to the others, open up, as far as we are able, the invaluable store of excellent knowledge which this repository of God contains: and al though we may not, perhaps, be able to elucidate every minute ar ticle, or demonstrate clearly the mind of the Holy Ghost in every vessel of the sanctuary, we will not materially err, if we follow the Apostles, in considering the whole ceremonies of the law of Moses, as forming one great body; or as a plan, representing Christ and the church and the more attentively we examine the various parts of this plan, in this manner, the more striking will be the display of the wisdom and power of God unto salvation.

We may now proceed to consider the particulars enumerated in this 25th chapter. The tabernacle was to be composed of the freewill offerings of the people; and what they were to offer for this service is enumerated from the 3d to the 7th verse. Many things are worthy of notice as to these materials. They were of many kinds not only gold, silver, and precious stones, but brass, wood, hair, skins, &c.; and however various they were in value, quality, or kind, they were all necessary, not only for completing, but for beautifying the dwelling-place of the God of Israel. They were wrought with the skill of cunning workmen, such as Bezaleel, who was filled with the spirit to work up, unite, and complete the one tabernacle. So when the heavenly tabernacle shall be finished, the skill of the true Bezaleel, Jesus Christ, the rearer of the heavenly house, will be manifested, in uniting Jew and Greek, Barbarian, Scythian, bond and free, great and small, rich and poor, wise and foolish, into the glorious building, the habitation of God.

our sins.

The first article to be framed of these materials, is the ark of the covenant, described verses 10-16. It was, without doubt, the most remarkable figure of Him that was to come, in all the worldly sanctuary. Its materials, form, use, situation and name, all pointed to that Blessed One, who is the glory of his people Israel; on whom the mercy-seat, the propitiation rests; for he is the propitiation for The ark within the vail, in the tabernacle, the Apostles understood the proper meaning of, when they declared The Word ' was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld HIS GLORY, THE GLORY as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.' As the centre of all the worship of Israel, it was to be prepared in the first place, before any other vessel, Exod. xxv. 10. Indeed the tabernacle was pitched for the very purpose of receiving the ark, Exod. xxvi. 33. xl. 21. until the temple, its proper station, was built. 'As for me,' says David, I had in my heart to build an HOUSE of REST for the ark of the covenant of the Lord,' &c. 1 Chron. xxviii. 2. To this the remarkable language of the cxxxii. psalm points. In the tabernacle removed from place to place, the ark represented the Holy One of Israel, and his church, in this state of pilgrimage; and when it was brought into the earthly house of rest, amidst the shoutings and triumphant rejoicings of all Israel, there was a glorious figure of the ascension of the Son of Man to glory. Be lifted up, ye everlasting gates, to receive the King of Glory,' Psalm. xxvi. The ark was the peculiar sanctifier

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of the holiest of all; Solomon says, All the places are holy, where' unto the ark of God hath come,' 2 Chron. viii. 11. The men of Ashdod, Gath and Ekron, were taught to know the holiness of the ark of God, 1 Sam. v. 6-12.; and Uzzah died for touching it with his unhallowed hands, 2 Sam. vi. 7.

The ark was eminently the throne of God; see Jer. xvii. 12. Ezek. xliii. 7. There the God of Israel took up his seat, Levit. xvi. 2. Exod. xxv. 2; and there Moses, the man of God, was honoured to speak face to face, as a man doth with his friend. This was what Paul calls the THRONE OF GRACE, Heb. iv. 14, 15, 16. There the king of Israel sat enthroned, dispensing grace to the guilty, from his seat of mercy; thus Paul says, Grace reigns through 'righteousness,' &c. Nothing could give a grander view of the manner in which grace flows to the guilty, than the glorious appearance of the cloud on the mercy-seat, as the emblem of Him, in whom all the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily, seated on his heavenly throne in Zion, hearing the prayer of the destitute, and saving alive the souls of the poor and needy.

From the 17th to the 20th verse, we have a description of the cherubim of glory, which overshadowed the mercy-seat. The celebrated Mr Hutchinson has given birth to not a little controversy on this subject, by introducing the idea, that the cherubim which overshadowed the mercy-seat; those which were wrought in the curtains of the holy place, and sculptured on the walls of the temple; those described by Ezekiel, and the living creatures particularly mentioned by John in the Apocalypse, are all of the same kind, and intended to point forth the trinity, in connection with the human nature. We are decidedly of opinion, that scripture warrants us to say these opinions are founded on important mistakes. We feel confident to maintain, that the heads of animals were never used to represent the godhead; and that the grossest absurdity unavoidably connects itself with the idea, that when the four living creatures, mentioned Rev. v. are described as falling down and worshipping the Lamb, we are to think of these four living creatures as the godhead in connection with the human nature.

the

We shall confine our remarks at present, however, to the cherubim described in the passage before us. The simplest derivation of the word cherub, is from rechub, a chariot. Agreeably to this, we read, Psalm xviii. 11. that He rode upon a cherub ;' in like manner, cherubims in Solomon's temple are called a chariot, 1 Chron. xxviii. 18. But the most explicit text on this subject, we have Psalm lxviii. 17. The chariot of God is twenty thousand thousand of angels; the Lord was among them on Sinai, as in the holy place.' Many parts of scripture mention the descent of the God of Israel on Sinai among his angels; and thus, the law was given on that mount by their disposition, as represented to us by his appearance in the holy place, when he is said to dwell between the cherubims.' Now, these cherubims, 1st, overshadowed the mercy-seat with their wings; and, 2d, their faces were directed to the mercy-seat. In both these parpiculars, we are led to a very grand view of their office, ministration,