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out, lest he die. But in these flowers we may see how beautiful are the feet of such as bring glad tidings of great joy; we may hear in these golden bells, how precious is the voice which proclaims pardon for sins past, and grace to sin no more. And surely in the death denounced to him, whose sound should not be heard, there is a warning to those ministers of the Gospel, who lift not up their voice to testify to every one the truth as it is in Jesus.

The mitre, or bonnet, or turban of fine linen, to be worn on the head of the high priest, was to have on its forefront a plate of gold, with this remarkable engraving, HOLINESS TO THE LORD. This plainly signified the separation of the priest both from all ordinary employments, and much more from all manner of iniquity. It also served to shew what kind of an high priest became us, namely, One who is "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners." Heb. 7. 26. He indeed, and He alone, can really and truly bear "the iniquity of the holy things," offered as gifts by the people of the Lord. He "his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree," 1 Pet. 2. 24; and amongst them none perhaps more needing expiation than the unworthiness of our professed religious services. How deeply ought we all to feel, that a devout and thankful frame of mind is more than ever requisite, when we enter the courts of the Most High, and fall low on our knees before his footstool! How greatly do we all need to repent of the many wanderings of thought and much coldness of heart, of which we have been guilty in his house of prayer!

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Three kinds of vestment for Aaron's sons, as priests, are next mentioned, which were to be made "for glory, and for beauty." And a fourth is added, which was needful for the more strict observance of decency. These were to be worn by the high priest also. They were to be " Aaron" as well as "upon his sons,' under penalty of death, if ever they went without them into the tabernacle, or came near to minister unto the altar. What a severe penalty! But then how important was the lesson here inculcated! How needful is a due sense of decency, for the safeguard of purity in the heart! And how certainly is it true, that the pure in heart, and only they, shall be admitted to the presence of God! And in this respect, as in all the rest, it might have been manifest to the Israelites, that the holy garments of the priests had a spiritual meaning, referred to some better dispensation. For these things could make no change in the inner man. And yet without them no priest must be allowed to officiate. But does God care for garments? Or is it not faith, and obedience, and love, that He requires? There must then be another priesthood coming; another High Priest hereafter to arise, whose holiness is in Himself, and whose robes of righteousness are for beauty and for glory to all his people. This High Priest, we know, has been, and now is. May we profit by his priesthood henceforth for evermore!

Of consecrating the priests.

1 And this is the thing that thou shalt do unto them to hallow them, to minister unto me in the priest's office: Take one young bullock, and two rams without blemish,

2 And unleavened bread, and cakes unleavened tempered with oil, and wafers unleavened a nointed with oil: of wheaten flour shalt thou make them.

3 And thou shalt put them into one basket, and bring them in the basket, with the bullock and the two rams.

4 And Aaron and his sons thou shalt bring unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shalt wash them with water. 5 And thou shalt take the garments, and put upon Aaron the coat, and the robe of the ephod, and the ephod, and the breastplate, and gird him with the curious girdle of the ephod:

6 And thou shalt put the mitre upon his head, and put the holy crown upon the mitre.

7 Then shalt thou take the anointing oil, and pour it upon his head, and anoint him.

8 And thou shalt bring his sons, and put coats upon them. 9 And thou shalt gird them with girdles, Aaron and his sons, and put the bonnets on them: and the priest's office shall be their's for a perpetual statute: and thou shalt consecrate Aaron and his sons. 10 And thou shalt cause a bullock to be brought before the tabernacle of the congregation: and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the bullock.

11 And thou shalt kill the bullock before the LORD, by the

door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

12 And thou shalt take of the blood of the bullock, and put it upon the horns of the altar with thy finger, and pour all the blood beside the bottom of the altar.

13 And thou shalt take all the fat that covereth the inwards, and the caul that is above the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and burn them upon the altar.

14 But the flesh of the bullock, and his skin, and his dung, shalt thou burn with fire without the camp: it is a sin offering.

15 Thou shalt also take one ram; and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the ram.

16 And thou shalt slay the ram, and thou shalt take his blood, and sprinkle it round about upon the altar.

17 And thou shalt cut the ram in pieces, and wash the inwards of him, and his legs, and put them unto his pieces, and unto his head. 18 And thou shalt burn the whole ram upon the altar: it is a burnt offering unto the LORD: it is a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto the LORD.

19 And thou shalt take the other ram; and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the ram.

20 Then shalt thou kill the ram, and take of his blood, and put it upon the tip of the right ear of Aaron, and upon the tip of the right ear of his sons, and upon the thumb of their right-hand, and upon the great toe of their right foot, and sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about.

21 And thou shalt take of the blood that is upon the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it upon Aaron, and upon his garments, and upon his sons, and upon the garments of his sons with him and he shall be hallowed, and his garments, and his sons, and his sons' garments with him. 22 Also thou shalt take of the ram the fat and the rump, and the fat that covereth the inwards, and the caul above the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and the right shoulder; for it is a ram of consecration:

23 And one loaf of bread, and one cake of oiled bread, and one wafer out of the basket of the unleavened bread that is before the LORD:

24 And thou shalt put all in the hands of Aaron, and in the hands of his sons; and shalt wave them for a wave offering before the LORD.

25 And thou shalt receive them of their hands, and burn them upon the altar for a burnt offering, for a sweet savour before the LORD: it is an offering made by fire unto the LORD. LECTURE 160. Spiritual priesthood.

The fulfilment of this ceremonial is to be found chiefly in our Saviour Jesus Christ, the Messiah, or Anointed One; who was clothed with the holy garments of his own faithfulness and truth, sanctified not by the blood of rams and bullocks, and made perfect not by the death of others, but by Himself suffering death on the cross. See Heb. 2. 10. But further we have here an intimation, that the ministers of the Gospel must also be set apart with care and solemn ceremony, for the holy office to which they are ordained. How powerful must have been the impression, made by the sacrifices and solemnities here described, on Aaron, and his sons, and their successors! How desirable is it still, owing to the infirmity of man, the frailty of the earthen vessels, by which it has pleased God to dispense the treasures of the Gospel, how desirable that an outward ceremonial, of a solemn and impressive kind, should be adopted, whenever men are set apart for the work of the ministry! And there is yet one other important application of these rites, enjoined at the consecrating of the priesthood. All believers are spiritually priests. All have to offer up spiritual sacrifice. See i Pet. 2. 5. All must be washed in the laver of regeneration, anointed with the grace of the Holy Ghost, clothed with the beauty of holiness, and sanctified, both in body and soul, by the application of the blood of Christ, through faith, unto salvation. Sprinkled with his precious blood shedding, having their consciences cleansed from dead works to serve the living God, and holding in their hands the word of truth, for the daily bread of their hungry souls, they are then allowed to draw nigh as priests unto God, and are reckoned to glorify Him by the service of their lives.

God grant that we may serve Him, according to his will, in submission to those who are set over us in the Lord, and with entire trust in the merits and mediation of our Saviour, Jesus Christ!

O. T. VOL. 1. PART I.

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The morning and evening sacrifice. with fire: it shall not be eaten, because it is holy.

Of consecrating the priests. 26 And thou shalt take the breast of the ram of Aaron's consecration, and wave it for a wave offering before the LORD: and it shall be thy part.

27 And thou shalt sanctify the breast of the wave offering, and the shoulder of the heave offering, which is waved, and which is heaved up, of the ram of the consecration, even of that which is for Aaron, and of that which is for his sons:

28 And it shall be Aaron's and his sons' by a statute for ever from the children of Israel: for it is an heave offering: and it shall be an heave offering from the children of Israel of the sacrifice of their peace offerings, even their heave offering unto the LORD.

29 And the holy garments of Aaron shall be his sons' after him, to be anointed therein, and to be consecrated in them.

30 And that son that is priest in his stead shall put them on seven days, when he cometh into the tabernacle of the congregation to minister in the holy place.

31 And thou shalt take the ram of the consecration, and seethe his flesh in the holy place.

32 And Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram, and the bread that is in the basket, by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

33 And they shall eat those things wherewith the atonement was made, to consecrate and to sanctify them: but a stranger shall not eat thereof, because they are holy. 34 And if ought of the flesh of the consecrations, or of the bread, remain unto the morning, then thou shalt burn the remainder

35 And thus shalt thou do unto Aaron, and to his sons, according to all things which I have commanded thee: seven days shalt thou consecrate them. 36 And thou shalt offer every day a bullock for a sin offering for atonement: and thou shalt cleanse the altar, when thou hast made an atonement for it, and thou shalt anoint it, to sanctify it.

37 Seven days thou shalt make an atonement for the altar, and sanctify it; and it shall be an altar most holy: whatsoever toucheth the altar shall be holy.

38 Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar; two lambs of the first year day by day continually.

29 The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning; and the other lamb thou shalt offer at even :

40 And with the one lamb a tenth deal of flour mingled with the fourth part of an hin of beaten oil; and the fourth part of an hin of wine for a drink offering.

41 And the other lamb thou shalt offer at even, and shalt do thereto according to the meat offering of the morning, and according to the drink offering thereof, for a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto the LORD.

42 This shall be a continual burnt

offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD: where I will meet you, to speak there unto thee.

43 And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory.

44 And I will sanctify the taber

nacle of the congregation, and the altar: I will sanctify also both Aaron and his sons, to minister to me in the priest's office.

their God.

46 And they shall know that I am the LORD their God, that brought them forth out of the land of E45 And I will dwell among the gypt, that I may dwell among children of Israel, and will be them: I am the LORD their God. LECTURE 161.

Morning and evening devotion.

We know, from our Lord's own words, that the lifting up of the serpent by Moses in the wilderness was a type of the lifting up of Christ upon the cross. Hence we may think it probable that the heave offering related to the same subject; that the crucifixion was pointed out by heaving or lifting up the appointed portion of the sacrifice. Nay some have supposed, that the waving and heaving, here mentioned together, refer to the shape of the cross itself; to wave meaning to move to and fro, from one side to the other, as to heave means to lift upwards. When indeed we consider, how needful it was to prepare the minds of the Israelites, for such a sight as the crucifying of their King, we shall expect, rather than not, to find among their ceremonies some such type as this, of that ignominious punishment, by which the Messiah was in the end to be cut off. Nor ought we to wonder that He Himself, and the things which were to befal Him, were foreshadowed in the ceremonial law, by such a great variety of figures. No one thing, no nor all these put together, could be sufficient to express the whole amount of the redemption He has wrought, or the marvellous means by which He brought it to pass. At once the High Priest, and the Sacrifice, He answered also to the burnt offering, and heave offering, and wave offering, by which the High Priest was consecrated, and to the sin offering, and ointment, by which the altar was sanctified, and to the lamb offered thereon each morning and evening continually. He was "the end of the law," and of all things in the law, "for righteousness,' to every one that should believe. Rom. 10. 4. Looking then to Jesus as "the author and finisher of our faith," Heb. 12. 2, let us learn from the daily sacrifice here appointed, to be constant in our devotions, every morning and evening of our lives; pleading before the throne of God the blood of Christ, as of a lamb without spot; and praying that He will be pleased, for his dear Son's sake, to meet us, and speak unto us, and dwell with us, and be our God.

O God, our heavenly Father, we come before Thee acknowledging our own unworthiness, and entirely relying on the atonement for sin, made once for all by Christ. Remember, we pray Thee, thy promise of old. And do Thou, O blessed Saviour, meet us here also, where two or three are gathered together in thy name. Make our home thy dwelling, our hearts thine altar! And there let us present unto Thee our inmost affections, to be acceptable through Thee to God!

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