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on the Lamb of God, and consume him to spare them.'

The Lord bless what I have set before you on this subject, and lead you afresh into communion with him by faith in Jesus. Amen.

hensible Essence; so that he is "over all God, blessed for ever.

Amen.'

The temple, with its curious workmanship and sculpture, with its value and glory, with its furniture and veils, with its services and ordinances, was an exhibition of Christ's body; the perfection of which exceeds all description; the purity and holiness of it extends beyond the utmost stretch of conception.

The temple was a type and prefiguration of Christ's incarnation; it was an outward, sacred, and solemn pledge and memorial, that in the fulness of time, the everlasting covenant, which obtained between the Eternal Three, before all worlds, would be realized and carried into execution by the incarnation of Jehovah, the essential and only-begotten Son of God, who would be made flesh, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem his people who were under the law, that they might receive the adoption of

sons.

Christ, the Holy One of Israel, the Holy One of God, is stiled the Most Holy, Dan. ix, 24. in allusion to the holiest of all in the temple of Solomon. The cloud of glory which came down and filled the house, was a divine and solemn prefiguration that the Son of God would fill the temple of his humanity with all the fulness of Godhead. And, like as the glory of the Lord

in the unity of the one incomprehensible Godhead, was pleased to give an outward evidence of his personality, deity, and office, in the economy of grace, to the old testament church, by raising up a succession of prophets, who spake as they were moved by him, and who foretold the incarnation, work, and office of the God-man, Christ Jesus. The prophet Isaiah is one of them who bore testimony to the eternal acts and transactions of the incomprehensible Three, and spake out most freely, fully, clearly, and distinctly, how the everlasting counsel and covenant were to be carried into execution by God manifested in the flesh. In the words before us, he expresses himself most divinely on the subject of the birth of Christ; and with transporting joy celebrates the unspeakable gift of God's love to his church realized in the advent of his Son. That the people to whom he ministered, as a prophet, these glad tidings, might feel the mercy he relates to them, what joy would be diffused by the birth of Christ, and how some parts of Galilee would be comforted and enlivened by the presence and preaching of Messiah amongst them.

Ver, 1. "Nevertheless, the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterwards did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations." Those parts

The whole congregation uniting at the dedi cation of the temple, with one heart and one voice, in praising the Lord, expressing their faith, and thus triumphing in the prospect of the accomplishment, that God would be incarnate in the person of his Son, and put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, which would be an all-sufficient sacrifice, infinitely and everlastingly efficacious; which they were as fully assured of, as that they saw the temple with their bodily eyes, and beheld the cloud of glory which rested on it, and filled it, and the fire which came from heaven consuming the sacrifice, may shew us what unity there is in the hearts and affections of true believers, and how it is expressed in heaven. There all the redeemed of the Lord "Sing a new song to him that sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever." Because all the communicable blessings and. glories of Godhead will flow into their minds through the incarnation and sacrifice of the worthy Lamb, throughout eternity,

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I will conclude with a quotation from Mr. Romaine, The dedication of the temple was a great feast they looked forward by faith to God incarnate as the completion of all their hopes; and when they saw the fire fall and burn up the offering, but spare the offerer, they knew that the divine wrath would fall

on the Lamb of God, and consume him to spare them.'

The Lord bless what I have set before you on this subject, and lead you afresh into communion with him by faith in Jesus. Amen.

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