Jesus Christ has performed the same duty, and exercised the same high function of the priestly office. He too has presented questions-questions of infinite moment and universal concernment. He too has received and communicated the glorious intimations of his heavenly Father. That all absorbing inquiry, how shall man be saved? which baffled all the combined created wisdom in the universe, he has heard answered at the throne, and proclaimed from the rivers to the ends of the earth-" Whosoever believeth and is baptized shall be saved." This world before his advent was covered with moral darkness. The nations groaned beneath the general gloom. And the few who endeavored to grope their way through it, had almost given up in despair. Reason and philosophy had spent their strength, but in vain. Darkness still covered the earth, and gross darkness the people. But when Christ came into the world, the light of heaven came with him. The voice of the Deity was in him, and spoke through him to the relief of the perplexed and the instruction of the ignorant. As he opened his saintly lips, darkness and difficulty fled; and the gentiles came to his light, and kings to the brightness of his rising.

Another important duty devolving upon the high priest as we learn from Leviticus, (chap. x.) was once a year, on the great day of expiation, to offer an atonement for the sins of the people. Those who are familiar with the sacred things, places, and rites of the Jews will easily recollect, that a particular apartment of the temple, about the centre of that magnificent edifice, was set apart for the exclusive dwelling place of the Almighty; and that there, over the ark of the testimony, and between the golden cherubim, his visible presence was manifested in the form of a bright and hovering cloud. To this sacred place which was called the holy of holies, it was the duty of the high priest, having undergone certain prescribed purifications, with his hands and garments stained with blood, to enter with fear and trembling, there to sprinkle the blood of atonement on the Mercy-seat, and thus offer up before the majesty of the most high God an expiation for the sins of the people.

The same duty of the priestly office has been performed by Jesus Christ. "Seeing that all high priests are ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices, it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer." He too has made an expiation for his people's sins.Girt in all the rich regalia of his office, covered with the blood

which flowed from his own veins, he passed into the heavens, and there offered up himself before his eternal Father as the great atonement for the transgressions of a rebel world. The whole strain of the New Testament is, that "he died for our sins according to the Scriptures"-that "he bore our sins in his own body”—and that he is "the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world."

Another prominent duty assigned to the high priest was that of passing judgment. And though there were civil judges in each city whose duty it was to exercise judicial authority in the neighboring villages, yet all weighty causes and all appeals went up to the supreme authority which was lodged for the most part in the priesthood. In the book of Deuteronomy (chap. 17.) we find an enactment to this effect: "If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within thy gates: then shalt thou arise and get thee up into the place which the Lord thy God shall choose; and thou shalt come unto the priests and Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and inquire; and they shall show thee the sentence of judgment: and thou shalt . do according to the sentence which they shall show thee." In Ezekiel (chap. xliv.) we read again of the priesthood, "and in controversy they shall stand in judgment, and they shall judge it according to my judgments." (See also 2 Chron. xix.) In cases in which questions of purity were implicated, the decision devolved upon the priests as an exclusive prerogative. As for instance in cases of disease, contamination, &c. In fact, from the entrance of the Israelites into Canaan up to the rebellion, when Saul was made king, the whole executive power of the Mosaic institutions was reposed in the high priest. Hence it was for him to pass final and decisive judgment in every case of controversy which came before him.

To Jesus Christ has been allotted similar judicial authority.— The Scriptures declare that "the Father judgeth no man; but hath committed all judgment unto the Son; and hath given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man." "God," says the apostle, "hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead."

And though Christ has not yet come to the full exercise of the judicial functions of his priestly office, the Scriptures positively assure us that the day is rapidly approximating when he will. His second coming, when every eye shall see him, clothed in the grandeur of his judicial power, is invariably spoken of as an impending event. Time on the rapid wings of her flight, is bringing us nearer and nearer the day of final reckoning. Soon shall the sheeted dead be startled from their graves by the clarion notes of the trump of God; and the melting elements, troubled heavens, and general conflagration flash upon us the awful truth, that the day of judgment has come! Soon shall the whole canopy above us, spread with one wide sheet of fire, display to our astonished race that Great High Priest, before whose dread tribunal every soul must stand, and whose solemn and irrevocable sentence fixes the wicked in everlasting despair, and the righteous in the kingdom of glory! Here then we have the christian priesthood clearly identified.Christ having complied with all the regulations respecting the priestly order, as well as having exercised all the high functions and discharged all the duties of the same; the conclusion is obvious, Christ is a priest in the Jewish conceptions of that office; and the declaration of the apostle is justified, viz. that "we have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God."

We come then in the second place to consider the peculiarities in Christ's priestly character. It doubtless has struck the most of you already, that Paul here calls the Savior "a great High Priest."— We have heretofore had occasion to contemplate the personal dignity, and the apostolic dignity of Christ. As to his superior priestly greatness, there are many particulars which yet claim attention. Among these we may enumerate the order of his priesthood-its duration-the dignity and sufficiency of his sacrifice the efficacy and universality of his mediation-the wisdom of his judicial decisions, &c. But as these are points which will be more amply developed as we proceed in the Epistle, I will here pass them over with this simple notice.

It is further affirmed of the priesthood of Christ, that it is a heavenly priesthood. "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens." The Jews had enumerated a great variety of heavens. According to them the dwelling-place

of God was above the firmament, or in the third heaven. Through this firmament, or inferior heaven, Jesus passed when he ascended to take his seat "at the right hand of the majesty on high." The high priest under the law went in out of the people's sight into the sacred chamber, where the signals of the Divine presence were manifested, and there offered the expiation for the sins of Israel.— So our high Priest has passed within the veil which separates between us and heaven, into the immediate presence of God, in the holiest of all, there to atone for the guilty penitent, and to administer pardon and salvation to the spiritual Israel. He is a heavenly priest-heavenly in his origin-heavenly in the nature of his dispensations--and heavenly in the place in which he operates.

The text further declares Christ to be a sinless priest. "Though in all points tempted like as we, yet without sin." Various and full is the testimony which we have upon this point. Inspired apostles, jealous and despiteful Jews, and incredulous heathen have all without discrepancy deposed the same thing. Though he lived for many years in a wicked world, subject to all the evil influences of the world, and tried by all the temptations which beset human life; not the slightest traces of wrong were discernable in all his actions or his words. He was "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners." His piety was uniform and complete; his performance of the duties which he owed to mankind was equally perfect; and his prudence, integrity, benevolence, and disinterestedness were all unparalleled and unimpeachable. The traitor who betrayed him, confessed that he had "betrayed innocent blood." The timid judge who consigned him to the cross declared "I find no fault in this man." Levitical priests were all men, with natures depraved as other men, and had need to offer sacrifices for themselves. But our High Priest is without sin; and hence he is able also to assist and save sinners who put their trust in him.

Christ Jesus was moreover a compassionate and sympathising high priest. "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmity, but was in all points tempted like as we are." Unlike the Jewish priests who were hard-hearted, and apparently insensible to the troubles and distresses of those around them, he is merciful and kind. The Jewish priests were prohibited by their law from indulging in grief even at the misfortunes or death of relations. There was no sort of sym

pathy between them and the people. But our High Priest is not thus cold and unfeeling. He can be touched with the feeling of our infirmity. Having endured similar temptations to those which assail his followers, he knows our frailties and our weaknesses.He knows what it is to suffer. He too has passed through the fiery ordeal of this world's tribulations. He too has toiled, and prayed, and wept, and agonized, and died. He knows how to feel for those who are struggling after him against the winds and tide of this troublesome world. He understands our sorrows and our grief; and "like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." Yes, my brethren, Jesus feels for us in our perplexities and troubles. His bowels of compassion stir with tenderness as he sees us encompassed with temptation and danger, or weighed down with adversity. Before the throne he ever stands in the overflowings of his pity and his love interceding for us. He rejoices with us in every victorious step we gain; and weeps with us over every folly and every fall. His friendly hand is ever extended to support us and to lead us; and all the kind sympathies of his nature combine to draw us to himself. A truly precious High Priest is ours!.

We come now to consider finally, the encouragements given by the apostle in the text in virtue of the Savior's priesthood. "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God; let us hold fast our profession."Here is the first encouragement. This applied with much greater force to the Jewish converts to christianity, whom Paul wished to preserve from apostacy, than to us. The Jewish christians in apostolic times were placed in very unfavorable circumstances. They were beset and harassed on every side by those who contended for the Levitical observances as essential to the salvation of the soul. All their natural feelings and prejudices also ran in that direction. Often were they severely tried with the vexed and vexing questions of those Jewish teachers. Hence their faith was unstable. Sometimes they were ready to give up, and many did apostatize. The apostle in this epistle comes to the help of such, he hurls back the ill-founded and sophistical objections of the Rabbies and the Doctors, and tells his brethren in the Gospel now to hold fast their profession. As though he had said, "I have now fairly answered. those Judaizing casuists who have seen fit to charge us with the