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of holiness and perfection requifite to the LECT. high priesthood of the law fhould be inwardly verified and accomplished; with no blemish of nature, no defilement of fin; fanctified by an eternal confecration, and exalted to execute that office in the heaven itself, which the high priest performed yearly in the most holy place of the tabernacle. Even the clothing of the high priest was not without its fignification ; his garments were expreffive of purity, fanctity and divinity itself: they are therefore called holy garments *; and there is a reference to them in the pfalms which gives them this meaning, let thy priests be clothed with righteousness; let them be in spirit and truth what their clothing outwardly fignifies: The fine white linen worn by the priest is here applied in its emblematical capacity to spiritual sanctification; and it is thus interpreted for us in the Revelation; the fine linen is the righteousness of faints §. The sense of this is still preferved amongst us, with those who underftand it right; it being the custom for a

* Exodus xxviii. 2. + Pfalm cxxxii. 9. § Rev. xix. 8. H bride

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LECT. bride to go to her marriage in white, as a teftimony of her virgin ftate; and they who minister in the church, either to serve, or to pray, or to fing, are clothed in white linen, to fignify the purity which is proper to their calling, and fhould be found in their characters. The evangelifts in their accounts of our Saviour's transfiguration are all of them very particular as to that one circumftance, that his raiment was white as the light. This divine fplendor of his person was denoted by the splendor of the high priest's garments, which are faid to have been appointed for glory and for beauty; fuch beauty as is applied in the pfalms to its proper fenfe, the beauty of holiness. This clothing of light was

proper to an earthly high priest, only in confideration of his being a reprefentative of that divine interceffor, who was to be the glory as well as the priest of his people Ifrael.

Such dignity hath God been pleased to grant to his minifters; not for their own

* Pfalm xcvi. 9.

fakes,

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fakes, but from their relation to Jefus LECT. Christ. As the Jews fhewed all reverence to their high priest, much more ought we to ours, and to all that act in his name, for his fake and they who think meanly of the priesthood, or speak of it with contempt, as fome do of malice, and some of ignorance, fhall one day fee heaven and earth fly away from before the face of a priest.

When the name of a prieft is applied to Chrift in the new teftament, we understand the term in a figurative fenfe, and go to the law for its literal meaning; because Chrift did not ferve at the alter, nor officiate in the temple, nor was of the family of the priesthood. Whereas in truth, he was the original, and they of the law were figures of him. Had it not been for his priesthood fore-ordained of God, there never had been fuch a thing as a priest in the World. Why was one man appointed to intercede for another? Where can be the fenfe and reason of it? For why cannot that man as well intercede for himfelf?

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LECT. felf? It was to fhew that there should be

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in the fulness of time one to intercede

and that this great in

effectually for all

terceffor should be

taken from among men, like the other priests who were before him: this is the true reason why fome men in preference to others were admitted to intercede; though ftill on a level with the reft, and obliged to offer facrifices for their own fins.

In one respect we are to this day in the ftate of the Jewish people. They could not offer their own facrifices; they were to bring them to the priest and he was to offer them. So cannot we now offer up our prayers and praises to God but by Jefus Chrift; and fo the apostle applies the cafe for us; by him therefore let us offer the facrifice of praife to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. Yea and even under the law, while the earthly high priest ferved, as a shadow, to prefent the offerings of the people to God, it was understood by the prophets that he was no more than a fhadow, and that there was another divine priest to

whom

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whom the office properly belonged. For LECT. who is he that faith in the 16th pfalm,

their drink offerings of blood will I not offer nor make mention of their names within my lips? David was no prieft; and though he was a king, he could offer no facrifice either for himself or for others. The paffage refers to the impure and unsanctified offerings of the heathens who went after other gods; yet he, who refufes to offer these, must be the person whose office it is to present to God, as the common interceffor, the offerings of all men: for the speaker here is the fame as in the 10th verfe, where the fame priest faith, thou wilt not leave my foul in hell, nor fuffer thy holy one to fee corruption; which words are exprefsly faid to have been spoken of the refurrection of Chrift: as the next words are of his exaltation.-Thou wilt fhew me the path of life: in thy prefence is the fulness of joy, and at thy right hand there is pleasure for evermore: for certainly this place at the right hand of God is the place of the Son of God, which he affumed when he afcended into heaven: this was the jay which

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