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My coveand I gave. feared me,

knowledge of the mysteries of life. See Mal. ii. 4-7. "And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the Lord of hosts. nant was with him of life and peace; them to him for the fear wherewith he and was afraid before my name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace, and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity. For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts." Compare this passage from the prophet with Num. xxv. 12, 13. "Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace: and he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel." Without any more quotations, we may clearly see that the stewardship of the legal priesthood consisted in being in possession of a covenant

of life and peace, in preserving the divine knowledge

of this life and peace, and in communicating it to the people, turning them from iniquity, and in making atonement for their sins. This covenant of life and peace, was such, because it was a figure of a better covenant, mentioned Heb. viii. 6. "But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises." "The priesthood of the law had power to make an atonement for sin in a figurative sense, for the high priest, under the first covenant, was an eminent representative of the great apostle and High Priest

of our christian profession; the sacrifices for sin, under the law, were representations of him who was made a sin offering for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. St. Paul, speaking of those priests, says, "Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things." Again, Heb. v. 1, 2. "For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins; who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmities." Chap. iv. 15. "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." Thus we see that the priesthood under the law, being a shadow of the priesthood of Christ, was, in the hands of those high priests, a stewardship, like as the ministry of the gospel was in the hauds of the apostles of the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world. And it is in reference to this first priesthood that the apostles are called "priests unto God and the Lamb."

Having this clear view of the stewardship in which the high priests stood, it is easy to see how the services of that shadowy dispensation ought to have been improved to introduce those stewards and the people, to the everlasting habitation of that covenant which was represented by the first. But the high priest, under the law, is represented by a steward who was accused to his lord in the similitude of having wasted his lord's money. This accusation has the following support. See in the 2d of Malachi, succeeding the former quota

"But ye

tion from that chapter. Verses 8, 9, 10. are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the Lord of hosts. Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law." See in the 10th verse, the query with which the prophet opposes their partiality. "Have we not all one Father? hath not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?" Jer. xxiii. 11, 12. For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in mine house have I found their wickedness, saith the Lord. Wherefore their Wherefore their ways shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness; they shall be driven on, and fall therein, for I will bring evil upon them, even the years of their visitation, saith the Lord." Compare this with Mat. xxi. 12, 13. "And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of money. changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them, it is written, my house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves."

2d. The dissolution of the legal priesthood is signified by the parable recorded in the 18th verse of this 16th of St. Luke. This will appear evident if we consider the thread of discourse into which this parable was introduced. Observe the 16th and 17th verses, by which the parable and its true application may be understood. "The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man pres

seth into it. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail." To show the propriety of what he stated in this testimony eoncerning the law, its fulfilment, and of its infallibility, Jesus makes use of the following parable: "Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband, committeth adultery." The reader may now turn an eye to the notes, where this parable is particularly applied. What seems necessary now to consider is, how this law was fulfilled, and as a dispensation, put away. See Mat. v. 17, 18. "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."

It was with reference to the fulfilment of the rites of the law that Jesus was baptized of John, the account of which we have in Mat. iii. 13, 14, 15. "Then came Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. But John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering, said unto him, suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him." The prophet in the 40th Psalm points to our subject in very plain and expressive terms, see verses 6, 7, 8.Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened; burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within

my heart."

St. Paul applies this scripture to

Christ in such a way as to make the subject under consideration evidently clear.

sins.

See Heb. x. 4-10. blood of bulls and Wherefore, when saith, sacrifice and a body hast thou

"For

"For it is not possible that the of goats should take away sins. he cometh into the world, he offering thou wouldest not, but prepared me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure: then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to do thy will, O God. Above, when he said, sacrifice, and offering, and burnt offerings, and offerings for sin, thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; (which are offered by the law ;) then said he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." See also chap. vii. 18, 19. there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before, for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God." This apostle has expressed the same thing in a similitude like the one in the 16th of Luke. See Rom. vii. 1—4. “Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth: but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then, if while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead,

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