through his poverty, might be made rich." As their friend, he laid down his life for them; and notwithstanding their frailty, destitution, and ingratitude, having assumed their nature, he is not ashamed to call them his brethren. His elevation in their nature, regards, as its first and special object, a provision for their supply and security; and for this purpose it hath pleased the Father, that in him should all fulness dwell. The Father, with whom, and by whose appointment he intercedes, regards both his person and his work with love, such as can dwell only in him who is the fountain of love, and can never be comprehended by those who only receive and communicate from the stream. By the work which he performs for us, the most profound princples of his Father's government are developed in brightness and glory, for the contemplation and admiration of the intelligent universe; and the dearest, because the most gracious purposes of his heart, receive their accomplishment. In his person, there is the concentration of all divine perfections, with all created excellence. Through him, God manifests himself to his creatures, links himself with them, and pours the richest streams of blessings for their enjoyment. But for his atonement and intercession; his spotless sacrifice, purposed or actually offered; his fragrant censer, anticipated or actually presenting,no favour could have been shown to any of our guilty race, in any age of the world. The prophetic, or retrospective history, of every descending and diverging

family and tribe of fallen Adam, could have been written only in lamentation, and mourning, and woe. No covenant of peace with the earth, or with man upon it, could have been made. No altar, with its bleeding victim, showing to the guilty how mercy might be obtained, could have been reared upon the ground, which, for man's sin, was accursed. No preacher of righteousness could have called the wicked to forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and to return to the Lord, who would have mercy upon him, and to God, who would abundantly pardon. No tabernacle of worship could have been constructed, no priest could have been consecrated, to show by significant emblems, how the guilt of sin would at length be removed, and a way be opened into the secret place of communion with the Most High. No bright and cheering ray of prophetic promise could have dispelled the gloom of captivity and sorrow, by opening to the eye the dawn of a better and a brighter day. No angelic choir could have visited the plains of Bethlehem with glad tidings of great joy; and have ravished the listening ear with the harmony of celestial music, to the song, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, and good will towards men." ministry of reconciliation could have caught the substance and the spirit of the song, and have made, as Judea with the trumpet of the jubilee, the wide earth to reverberate, and become joyful with the sound. No bright prospect of millennial peace, and liberty, and

No

glory, could have been spread before the eye, to relieve the heart which is burdened on account of the follies and the vices, the yoke of civil tyranny, and galling slavery, and gloomy superstition, and foul and bloody idolatry, under which the mass of the human race are still bowed down, and fettered, and oppressed. No foretaste of joy unspeakable, could have cheered under wasting labour, and unmerited reproach. No anticipation of the public vindication and glory of the resurrection morn, could have rendered joyful and triumphant the hour of nature's dissolution, and the surrender of the body to the darkness and corruption of the grave. For every sweet ingredient in the daily cup of life; for every source of consolation and hope in the hour of death; for every thing which can conspire to render immortality an object of desire; a life of glory, unclouded in its brightness, as well as unlimitable in its duration; we are indebted to the oblation and the intercession of our great High Priest. Blessed are they, who, emancipated from the fetters of sensual and superstitious bondage, have entered, by the new and living way which Christ has opened, into the holiest of all; "who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us; which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the vail; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an High Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec." Let the proclamation of spiritual liberty go forth, and all the dwellers

upon earth arise, accept the freedom which the gospel gives; and, walking in the truth, have fellowship with God by him, who represents their nature in his presence, and ever lives, the interceding Priest, and powerful Advocate, of all who seek salvation in his name.

II. The Priest who intercedes, perfectly comprehends the wants of all those who come to God by him.

When the High Priest went into the holiest place of the temple, as the representative of the Jewish people, besides the moral imperfection which attached to him, arising from the inherent defilement of his nature, and which required the blood of a sin offering to remove; there was also a natural imperfection, arising from the limitation of human powers and faculties, and which rendered his service rather an emblematic, than an actual representation of the people before God. On the breastplate which he wore, there was room only for the collective designations of the tribes, not for the multitudinous names of the individuals, which in the respective tribes were included; and in the comprehension of his mind and heart, there was room only for the general and public concerns of the multitude; not for the personal and private affairs of the individuals of which the multitude was composed.

Now, whoevever would adequately and perfectly represent others before the eye of the omniscient God, must see and understand their cases respectively, as

they are seen and understood hy him; must comprehend the whole of their circumstances, interests and wants, in all the multiplicity of their bearings, and the magnitude of their entire combination. This however no mere man can do, in reference to any others of his fellow-men. He is not competent to its performance, were it required but for one individual; and were that the individual with whom he is most intimately acquainted, in whose welfare he is most deeply interested, and whose character he has most constantly studied. No man can know the heart of another as God does; can comprehend the whole case and interests of a creature which is born in sin, which stains every day of its life with transgression, which is accountable to a righteous tribunal, and is the responsible heir of an immortal existence. No man indeed perfectly knows himself, all the aspects of his character, all the bearings of his interests, all the accumulation of his wants, as they appear before God.

In this view of the case, how imperfect must have been Aaron's representation of the Jewish people! The mass of those who assembled on the day of atonement, in the dense and multitudinous concourse, could have but an imperfect view of the person of their priest, and of the rites which in their presence he discharged. And when his eye looked around upon the people, it was but a general impression of their multitude which he could receive, and but a feeble conception of their collected wants which he could form.