fills all heaven, when it is heard there, that a sinner is brought to repentance, to faith in the Lord Jesus, to holiness of heart and life.

In such a one, the servant of Christ rejoices, he sought him, and he is found. That repenting sinner shall be his joy and crown of rejoicing, in the day of the Lord Jesus. Nay, more, he shall shine at last as a bright jewel in the Saviour's crown. This is joy that shall continue through everlasting ages.

May God in his boundless mercy grant, that during the short period which I may hope to live among you, I may be enabled to keep this in view, that I seek not YOUR'S, but YOU, and may I have to rejoice that my labours are not in vain in the Lord.

SERMON XII.

HEBREWS iv. 15, 16.

FOR WE HAVE NOT AN HIGH PRIEST, WHICH CANNOT BE TOUCHED WITH THE FEELING OF OUR INFIRMITIES; BUT WAS IN ALL POINTS TEMPTED LIKE AS WE ARE, YET WITHOUT SIN. LET US THEREFORE COME BOLDLY UNTO THE THRONE OF GRACE, THAT WE MAY OBTAIN MERCY, AND FIND GRACE TO HELP IN TIME OF NEED.

THIS Epistle does not bear the name of the writer, yet the voice of antiquity, and much internal evidence, serve to satisfy us that the title given to it in our Bibles is correct, and that it was written by St. Paul; who, aware of the hatred borne to him by some of his countrymen, and the prejudices entertained against him by others, judged that it would be more favourably received if it appeared without his name. The chief object of the epistle was to shew the Hebrews or Jews, that Christianity was the completion and perfection of the Jewish religion; that if they had understood the writings of Moses and the prophets, they would have been prepared to expect exactly such a change as Christianity had produced.

One principal feature of the Levitical system

was the establishment of the office of the High Priesthood, which was confined, under the law, to the family of Aaron; while the regal power, "the sceptre," was "not to depart from Judah." This arrangement, as far as regarded the priesthood, was only temporary, because God had foretold by the Psalmist, that there should be another priest, not after the order of Aaron, but of Melchisedec, who united in himself the offices of priest and king; offices which could never be united in the same person so long as the Levitical priesthood lasted. The promise therefore of a priest for ever after the "order of Melchisedec," imported a change of the law, which took place when Christ appeared. When he took upon him the priestly office, the Aaronic priesthood passed away; the Temple was destroyed, and now for eighteen hundred years there has been no temple, no priest, no more offering for sin.

It is to this High Priest, that the Apostle refers in my text. Let us then consider

I. THE CHARACTER OF OUR HIGH PRIEST.

II. THE CONSOLATION

THEREBY

AFFORDED

US, AND THE DUTY TO WHICH WE ARE IN CON

SEQUENCE CALLED.

I. Let me call your attention to the CHARACTER OF OUR GREAT HIGH PRIEST.

In the commencement of this epistle, the inspired writer exhibits the native glories of our Lord Jesus

Christ. He sets him forth as the Son of God, by whom, in these last times, God has spoken unto us, instead of addressing us through the prophets, as in times past he had spoken to the Fathers. This Son of God, he shows us, is the same " by whom the worlds were made; who is the object of the worship of all the holy angels, and consequently ranks above them and all created beings. To him is given everlasting power and boundless authority, so that the language of the holy Psalmist is to be applied to him, "Thy throne, O God is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom." Yet he who thus ruleth over all worlds, is the very same as is here described as the high priest of his church, "the priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedec."

1

Before we enter upon the consideration of other particulars of the character of Christ, as the high priest, it will be necessary first to advert to some of the peculiar duties of the office which are referred to in the passage before us.

Particular allusion appears to be made to the service of the high priest on the great day of atonement. Every high priest," as the apostle says in the beginning of the next chapter, "taken from amongst men, is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts, and sacrifices for sins." He was accordingly to offer

Heb. i. 8. Psalm xlv. 6.

the sacrifice, which was to make the atonement. One day in the year he took the blood within the veil and sprinkled it before the Lord, and so made an atonement for the sins of the people. On Aaron and his sons in succession also did it devolve to take the scape goat, and after laying their hands upon its head, to confess over it all the sins of the people, and send it away into the wilderness, typically bearing the iniquities of Israel.

By the sacrifice which was slain and burned upon the altar, was represented Christ bearing the wrath of God for us-" suffering the just for the unjust," because "the Lord had laid upon him the iniquity of us all." By the scape goat which figuratively bore the sins of the people into the wilderness, into a land of utter forgetfulness, was represented the full and complete manner in which the Lord Jesus takes away and removes out of sight the transgressions of those who believe on him. Their sins are "blotted out," "remembered no more," "washed away," "buried in the depths of the sea,' covered as with a cloud."

But when the high priest, taking the blood of the burnt offering, went within the veil, and having there sprinkled the blood, offered his prayers and supplications on behalf of his offending people, we have another view given us of the work and office of Christ. We here see Aaron and his successors acting as mediators for Israel. They indeed dared not approach unto God without shedding of blood