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had been revealed, but the Gospel was proclaimed by the Son of God. The one was the Gospel veiled in shadows, the other was the law ushered into perfect light. Both, proceeding from HIM "with whom is no variableness nor shadow of a turning," were adapted to man's different stages of improvement: the one, like the sun arising in mists over the eastern mountains, was suited to the dawn of society; the other, like its meridian splendor, dispelling every shadow which obscured the world, was fitted to them who were "called out of darkness into his marvellous light." For then had the predicted time arrived that "priests and Levites should be taken from all nations," that the sons of the stranger "should join themselves to the Lord to serve him, to love the name of the

urged against the Pentateuch, from Numb. xiii. 3. has produced a similar assertion from the sacred text. He understands to refer to the answers which he returned from God, and quotes the Sepher Yuchasin, where Ezra is called responsor similis Mosi." The common use of the root, both in Hebrew and Chaldee, substantiate his criticism, which derives a considerable illustration from the use ofic in Arabic.

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* Isaiah lxvi. 18, 19. 21.

Lord, and be his servants, and that his house should become a house of

prayer to all people *." For the ordinances enacted during the darkness of the world had ceased, and were rendered impossible of minute performance: the Jew was disjoined from the legal observance of his festivals by the destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersion of the nation. No stone was left to that temple which once contained the worshippers assembled from every part, no high priest remained to offer sacrifices or perform expiations-the holy city was in ruins, the sceptre had departed from Judah, Zion was desolated, and Jerusalem trodden under the feet of the Gentiles. Heaven had put its seal to the close of this economy, in the judgments poured on the people in its wrath, and when apostate Julian would have rebuilt the temple, it interposed to prevent him, because its services had expired, and the Gospel had been preached to the nations. For, the law which was given by Moses had ceded to the grace and truth which came by Jesus

* Isaiah lvi. 6, 7.

+ Ammianus Marcellinus, 1. xxiii.

Christ; and on those who had been wanderers in the night, and walking in darkness and the shadow of death, had that true light begun to shine which was ordained to be the salvation of all the ends of the earth.

SERMON III*.

ON THE OFFICE OF MELCHISEDek.

HEBREWS V. 10 part of 11.

Called of God an High Priest after the order of Melchisedek, of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered.

ALTHOUGH We have already cursorily noticed the origin and typical structure of the Mosaic law, we are induced, by the comparison instituted by St. Paul between the priesthoods of Melchisedek and our Saviour, and by their asserted superiority over the Aaronical, to retrace our steps, for the sake of inquiring into the nature of the sacred office which he discharged, before we proceed to a consideration of the introduction of the Gospel. But, in this analysis of Scripture and tradition, of truth and of uncertainty, we must not only exa

* Preached December 11, 1825.

mine the sacerdotal dignity with which he was invested, but the rank which he maintained as an individual, because this distinction will be found necessary to elicit the real sense of many parts of the comparison which the Apostle drew between the character and offices of him and our Saviour. The book of Genesis has furnished us with but a scanty apparatus for a critical research into this subject, and the subsidiary information which we derive from the state of religion in the times in which he flourished, remains alone as the test by which we may try the other documents which have survived to us.

Since then, on a review of the earlier parts of Genesis, we find a strong probability supporting the idea that the right of priesthood was, at this epoch, vested in the first-born, and that the senior member of each family exercised the supreme jurisdiction * over his descendants, both in civil

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"Thus is it the custom and ordinance of the world,

That the Father has power over the Son."

Firdausi's Sháhaámeh.

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