of him. All men are in a state of forfeiture, sold under sin, and captives of Satan out of which condition, they are "not redeemed with silver and gold, as common captives, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spots;" that is, as the Hebrews were in Egypt by the blood of the passover. The frame of mind in which we are to celebrate the Christian passover, is described to us in terms borrowed from the Jewish: this feast we are to keep with "the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth";" free from all impure mixtures of worldly affections, pharisaical pride, hypocrisy, and false doctrine. To which those other descriptive ceremonies may be added, of having "our loins girded, our shoes on our feet, and our staves in our hands';" in the garb and posture of pilgrims, soon to depart from the Egypt of this world. Some other forms with which sacrifices were offered are of great account, and will explain to us the sense of many passages not otherwise to be understood. Christ as our Substitute, is said to have borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; and the Lord is said to have "laid on Him the iniquities of us all." According to the form prescribed in the law, when a sacrifice was brought to the priest, it was the custom for the sinner, "or the congregation at large'," as the occasion might require, to lay their hands upon the head of the victim, and confess their sins upon it, which the innocent animal about to die was to bear for them; and the sins so transferred from the sinner to the offering were to be done away. This shews us what was meant by the prophet, when he said, "the 1 Pet. i. 18, 19. h 1 Cor. v. 8. i Exod. xii. 11. k Isaiah liii. 4, 6. 1 The elders of the congregation, (see Lev. iv. 15,) or the high-priest in the name of the congregation, (see Lev. xvi. 24.) Lord hath laid on Him the iniquities of us all;" that is, He hath laid upon the head of Christ, as upon a devoted sacrifice, the sins of all mankind. In the case of what was called the scape-goat", the animal, with this burden of sin upon his head, was turned loose into a wilderness, into "a land not inhabited," no more to be seen of men with allusion to which it is said in the Psalms, "as far as the east is from the west, so far hath He set our sins from us "," no more to be remembered or heard of to our condemnation. There seems to be another reference to the same in those words of Jer. 1. 20, "the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found." On one particular occasion the congregation were commanded to lay their hands upon the head of the guilty person, before m Lev. xvi. 22. n Psalm ciii. 12. he was carried out to execution: which ceremony explains what is said of those for whom no atonement was to be accepted, that they should "bear their iniquity;" they should suffer for it themselves and be their own sacrifice. So again, where it is said, "his blood shall be upon his head"," it means, that the person in this case should be answerable for the guilt of his own death. And when the Jews blasphemously cried out, "His blood be on us, and on our children"," they meant, that whatever sin there might be in putting Jesus to death, they would venture to have the guilt of it laid upon the heads of themselves and their posterity, and atone for it in their own persons; which they have accordingly, by the just judgment of God, been doing ever since. This laying of sin upon the head of a sacrifice, gives us a farther understanding of what happened to Christ • Joshua ii. 19. P Matt. xxvii. 25. of my in His passion, when the | the putting on curse of our sins was hands"." crushed with heavy and merciless hands upon His head, in the form of a crown of thorns; under which afflicting burden He was duly prepared as an Offering for sin. Hence also we see the meaning of a like form which has a contrary intention: for as the curse of guilt was laid on the head of a sacrifice; so blessings of every kind are conveyed by the laying of hands on the heads of the persons who are appointed to receive them. Thus our Saviour took the little children into His arms, and when He blessed them He "laid His hands upon them :" thus also the sick were restored to the blessings of health; and thus the ministers of God receive their commission, with the gifts necessary to the exercise of it: "Stir up the gift of God," saith Paul to Timothy, "which is in thee by than the heavens "." Such When Christ is said to be a Priest, we must understand the word in a new sense; for certainly He was not a priest in a literal sense, neither could He officiate according to the forms of the law, because He was not of that tribe to which the priesthood pertained. He is therefore called a Priest "after the order of Melchisedec"," whose priesthood was prior and superior to that of the Levitical order, and carried with it the administration of "bread and wine'," after the form of the gospel itself. Yet still we must go to the Levitical law, for the nature of the office, and the proper character of our High-Priest. "Such an High-Priest became us," saith the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, "Who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher q Mark x. 16. r 2 Tim. i. 6. 8 Psalm cx. 4; Heb. v. 6, 7. u Heb. vii. 26. an high-priest as the law had in all respects, according to the letter; such ought we to have in the spirit; One in whom all the outward signs of holiness and perfection requisite to the high-priesthood of the law should be inwardly verified and accomplished; with no blemish of nature, no defilement of sin; sanctified by an eternal consecration, and exalted to execute that office in the heaven itself, which the high- | priest performed yearly in the most holy place of the tabernacle. Even the clothing of the high-priest was not without its signification; his garments were expressive of purity, sanctity, and divinity itself: they are therefore called "holy garments x;" and there is a reference to them in the Psalms which gives them this meaning, "let Thy priests be clothed with righteousness;" let them be in spirit and truth what their clothing outwardly x Exod. xxviii, 2. signifies: the fine white linen worn by the priest is here applied in its emblematical capacity to spiritual sanctification; and it is thus interpreted for us in "the fine the Revelation; linen is the righteousness of saints." The sense of this is still preserved amongst us, with those who understand it right; it being the custom for a bride to go to her marriage in white, as a testimony of her virgin state; and they who minister in the Church, either to serve, or to pray, or to sing, are clothed in white linen, to signify the purity which is proper to their calling, and should be found in their characters. The Evangelists in their accounts of our Saviour's transfiguration are all of them very particular as to that one circumstance, that "His raiment was white as the light." This divine splendour of His person, was denoted by the splendour of the high y Psalm cxxxii. 9. a Matt. xvii. 2; Mark ix. 3; Luke ix. 29. priest's garments, which are said to have been appointed "for glory and for beauty b;" such beauty as is applied in the Psalms to its proper sense, "the beauty of holiness"." This clothing of light was proper to an earthly high-priest, only in consideration of his being a representative of that divine Intercessor, who was to be "the Gloryd" as well as the Priest of His people Israel. Such dignity hath God been pleased to grant to His ministers; not for their own sakes, but from their relation to Jesus Christ. As the Jews shewed all reverence to their highpriest, much more ought we to ours, and to all that act in His name, for His sake and they who think meanly of the priesthood, or speak of it with contempt, as some do of malice, and some of ignorance, shall one day see heaven and earth fly away from before the face of a priest. priest is applied to Christ in the New Testament, we understand the term in a figurative sense, and go to the law for its literal meaning; because Christ did not serve at the altar, nor officiate in the temple, nor was of the family of the priesthood. Whereas in truth, He was the original, and they of the law were figures of Him. Had it not been for His priesthood fore-ordained of God, there never had been such a thing as a priest in the world. Why was one man appointed to intercede for another? Where can be the sense and reason of it? For why cannot that man as well intercede for himself? It was to shew that there should be in the fulness of time One to intercede effectually for all and that this great Intercessor should be "taken from among men," like the other priests who were before Him: this is the true reason why some men in preference to others were admitted to intercede ; d Luke ii. 32. e Heb. v. 1. When the name of a b Exod. xxviii. 2. • Psalm xcvi. 9. : |