in the flesh, “is set down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens :” THERE, ever-living, to make intercession for us, HE abideth a Priest for ever * after the similitude of Melchisedek.

17 y do not

* The words in Ps. cxth. p necessarily imply after the order of Melchisedek. Aben Ezra's interpretation is by, ad morem, or sicut, which. is in unison with the Syriac version. St. Paul certainly did not imply any order, because in Heb. vii. 15. it is written, κατὰ τὴν ὁμοιότητα ; and τάξις was used, as an equivalent expression, perpetually by the Hellenists. Callimachus, in his hymn to Jupiter, v. 80. adopts the word in this sense, and Boysenius, in Symbolis Criticis, insists that this is its interpretation in this place. In Classical Greek, as well as in Hellenistic, having examples, that τάξις may express ὁμοιότης, we can therefore be in no doubt, that Christ was declared a high priest, (not after the order, but) after the similitude of Melchisedek. Cf. 2 Macc. ix. 18. Hence, Justin Martyr in Tryphonem, p. 251. says, διὰ τὴν ἀπιςίαν ὑμῶν ἀρχιερέα αὐτὸν κατὰ τὴν τάξιν Μελχισεδὲκ εἶναι ἐδήλωσε τουτέστιν ὃν τρόπον ὁ Μελχισεδὲκ ἱερεὺς Ὑψίσοῦ ὑπὸ Μωσέως ἀναγέγραπται γεγενῆσθαι, καὶ οὗτος τῶν ἐν ἀκροβυστίᾳ ἱερεὺς ἦν, καὶ τὸν ἐν περιτόμῆ δεκάτας αὐτῷ προσενέγκαντα ̓Αβραὰμ εὐλόγησεν, οὕτως τὸν αἰώνιον αὐτοῦ ἱερέα καὶ Κύριον ὑπὸ τοῦ ἀγία πνεύματος καλοῦμενον ὁ Θεὸς τῶν ἐν ἀκρος βυστία γενήσεσθαι ἐδήλω, καὶ τοῦς ἐν περιτομή προσί οντας αὐτῷ.

SERMON IV*.

ON THE HISTORY AND OFFICE OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST.

MATT. iii. 11.

I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.

THE mission of the Baptist, after the long cessation of prophecy, at a time when the degraded state of religion and the encroachments of the Roman power were sufficient indications that the prediction of Jacob was on the eve of its accomplishment, must have forcibly arrested the attention of those who had studied the law and the prophets with reference to the promised salvation of Israel. The criteria

* Preached December 18, 1825.

which the Sacred Volume had unfolded, were so strongly marked, that when, in that eventful condition of the nation, John appeared as the herald of the Messiah, assuming the garb of the ancient prophets, and practising the severe austerities of the ascetic, they could not (it would be imagined) but have discerned in his appearance the æra of the revival of prophecy, and the peculiar characteristics of the predicted Messenger of the new covenant. The long association of ideas connected with the retirement of institutors or reformers * of religion could not have failed to prepossess the public mind in his favor, and to have induced many to scrutinize the doctrines which he delivered, when they bore in mind the seclusion which he sought before the assumption of his office, like Moses and Elijah, under circumstances not absolutely dissimilar. But, those who may have iden

The Nosairis initiate their members into the mysteries of their religion, when they have attained fifteen years: they are then taken among the mountains for forty days, and secluded from society, during which space, they are instructed in the principles of the sect. After which they acquire the right of wearing the turban, which is the sign of their initia tion.-Journal Asiatique, Sept. 1824.

tified him with "the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the e way of the Lord, make his paths straight," must have hailed his ministry as a pledge of the ap proaching kingdom of God.

Yet, so vague were the opinions of many, that when our Saviour had already appeared, in the character of the Messiah, some of the Jews (Matt. xvi. 14.) mistook HIM for his "Whom do men præcursor.

say that I the Son of man am? And they said, some say that thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, some Jeremias, or one of the Prophets." Those who adopted the latter opinion were evidently adherents of the Pharisaic school, which imagined that at the advent of the promised Saviour *, Jeremiah and several of the Prophets should return to life; and wild as were many of their speculations, still some few were founded on fact: thus, the resurrection of

* Josephi Antiq. 1. xviii. 2. Among the many Jewish notions on this subject, the most popular was, that Jeremiah and Elijah would purify the people; but they attributed to the Messiah alone, the right and power of baptizing them, and of forming a new religious society by means of baptism, as Lightfoot and others have copiously shewn.

which the Sacred Volume had unfolded,

were so strongly marked, that when, in that eventful condition of the nation, John appeared as the herald of the Messiah, assuming the garb of the ancient prophets, and practising the severe austerities of the ascetic, they could not (it would be imagined) but have discerned in his appearance the æra of the revival of prophecy, and the peculiar characteristics of the predicted Messenger of the new covenant. The long association of ideas connected with the retirement of institutors or reformers * of religion could not have failed to prepossess the public mind in his favor, and to have induced many to scrutinize the doctrines which he delivered, when they bore in mind the seclusion which he sought before the assumption of his office, like Moses and Elijah, under circumstances not absolutely dissimilar. But, those who may have iden

The Nosairis initiate their members into the mysteries of their religion, when they have attained fifteen years: they are then taken among the mountains for forty days, and secluded from society, during which space, they are instructed in the principles of the sect. After which they acquire the right of wearing the turban, which is the sign of their initiation.-Journal Asiatique, Sept. 1824.