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NOTE TO THE ARTICLE ON THE REST THAT REMAINETH TO THE PEOPLE OF GOD."

AFTER the early part of this Number was printed, our attention was directed by a friend to a dissertation" on the primitive, the Jewish, and the Christian Sabbath,", in a volume of "Six Sermons," &c., by Professor Lee. Had we seen this before our first article, "On the Rest for the People of God," was finished, we should have referred to it, as coinciding with many of our own views of the Sabbath. The learned Professor argues, as we have done, that "the primitive Sabbath was not abrogated, but only the day of its observance changed" (p. 99); that the change was made in commemoration of the Passover, and before the giving of the Law: "To-morrow,' it is said, ' is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord' (Ex. xvi. 23), at a period occurring a considerable time before the Israelites had come to mount Sinai. I do not cite this, however,” adds the Professor, "to shew that this was the Sabbath-day of the Patriarchs-I believe it was not-but only to prove that the Sabbath-day was recognised before the Law had been given by Moses" (p. 95). Treating of the institution of the Passover, he says (p. 96), "A day was, therefore, here [Exod. xii. 14] set apart, for the first time, for this particular act. We are told in the next verse, that seven days, apparently following this, are then to be kept in like manner....and it should seem that this feast [of unleavened bread] should begin and end with the Sabbath-day....a whole week appointed, including a Sabbath at each of its extremes....Let it be observed, the particular day, its following week, and recurring Sabbath, are pointedly marked....I do not believe, however, that this Sabbath-day happened on that appropriated for the observance of the Patriarchs, for the following reasons." These reasons are, the pointed and strong language used on the fall of the double portion of manna; the impropriety of supposing that the night of the Passover was the commencement of the Sabbath, or the ensuing day of hasty flight from Egypt, themselves laden with kneading troughs, &c. and baking unleavened cakes, when but a short time after an Israelite was commanded to be stoned only for gathering sticks on the Sabbath-day.

Professor Lee also argues for the double character of the Sabbath :-an universal character, binding upon all mankind; and a local character, binding upon the Jews only, and abrogated in this its legal sense at the introduction of Christianity, the reality typified by all the ceremonies of the Law; but binding in its patriarchal character upon all mankind till the end of the world. "It is indeed truly remarkable, that our Lord's resurrection should give additional sanctity to this day; and, further, that with this, not only should a door of faith be opened to the Gentiles, but that it should be put so entirely on the footing which it had in the days of the Patriarchs." (p. 103).

Some of the notes also agree with what we have written, and are themselves important. See, for instance, the note on p. 98; that on p. 100, on the observance of a seventh day among the Heathen, which the Professor establishes by numerous references to classic authors. "Some of these passages," he adds, "identify themselves, beyond all doubt, with the original institution of the Sabbath (Gen. ii. 2, 3); and the last shews, what indeed innumerable other testimonies may be cited to shew, that this Sabbath was by the Heathen dedicated to their supreme deity, the Sun, and was the same with our Sunday." See likewise the note on the following page (101), where he observes, "If it be replied, that the observance of the Sabbath among the Jews was not ceremonial, and therefore could not necessarily cease with the ceremonial observances generally; I answer: I have no objection to this statement. My argument is this: if the day was once changed, and then fixed to memorialize the Exodus, merely with reference to the Jews as a peculiar people; upon a new system's coming in, or rather upon the old one's being restored, in which their peculiarity confessedly ceased, the change in the observance of this day could have been intended only as temporary."

129

JESUS THE HEAD OVER ALL THINGS TO HIS CHURCH.

(Concluded from vol. iii. p. 368.)

13. THE material church or tabernacle was, as we have seen, so fashioned, that Moses, passing through the court and the sanctuary into the holy of holies, and looking upon the ark, did, in a figure, pass through the whole of the dispensations of the church, and had set out before him the four offices of the Lord Jesus. The visible church, or nation of the Jews, was so ordered that it did, as we have shewn, set forth at one view the same fulness and the like offices. If we enter further into the same examination, as applied to the ministrations of the Lord's house, and the sacrifices themselves, we shall find the same testimony preserved also among them.

a. The visible offices in the ministrations were,-1. The Levites, taken by the Lord in lieu of the first-born, aiding the priests in their offices, and occupying the outer court; 2. The priests, bringing the offerings of the people and putting them in order, as well as making them in a fit state for the Lord's acceptance; 3. The high priest, permitted to come into the presence of the Lord, and to bring in the blood of atonement, and to obtain by the offering of incense the Lord's blessing unto the people; and 4. The Lord's presence, hearing, answering, receiving, and blessing; the end as well as origin of the whole ministration. These typify, 1. Christ the Levite, the firstling set apart unto the Lord; 2. Christ the Priest, the minister of the true sanctuary; 3. Christ the High Priest, or Priest-King, the Melchisedec; and 4. Christ the Beginning and the End, put in order under God, that God all in all may be manifested.

b. In the sacrifices there were four great orders or divisions: 1. The trespass offering; 2. The sin offering; 3. The peace offering; and 4. The whole burnt-offering. The whole burnt-offering is set out first, because it is the completed offering an offering brought by the people, slain and put in order by the priest, purified by fire, and accepted by the Lord; is, in itself, an epitome of the whole work of Christ,-taking a body of flesh, offering himself up unto death, raised again by the Spirit, and ascending up with acceptance unto the Lord. The whole burnt offering was alone the atonement for the whole man; the peace offering was a thanksgiving for the Lord's blessing; the sin offering was an offering for forgiveness of sins committed; and the trespass offering for those of an higher kind. Shadowing the Resurrection dispensation in the whole burnt-offering; the Millennial in the peace offering; the Gentile in the sin offering; and the Jewish in that for trespass.

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c. In the selection of animals for sacrifices, there was also a marked distinction. The goat was offered without any meat offering or drink offering; the lamb had a meat offering of a tenth, and a drink offering of a fourth part; the ram had for its meat offering two-tenths, and a third for its drink offering; and the bullock had for its meat offering three-tenths, and for its drink offering a half-part. On every one of their feasts these four animals were offered, and they are mentioned always in the following order: 1. the bullock; 2. the ram; 3. the lamb; and 4. the goat. And this, it is conceived, for the same reason that the whole burnt sacrifice is set before the other sacrifices: that the bullock is the head of this order of manifestation. The type thus given, is in correspondence with all the others which we have examined.

d. Concerning the national order of the Jewish people, we may say a few words. Considered as a church under the Lord, we have examined it already; and, properly speaking, it was, as constituted in the wilderness, a church embodying all the power and purposes of a nation. But after a time, as the Lord's providence led to greater separation between the ruler, and the people, and the chief in the Lord's sanctuary, the Jewish people grew more and more into that distinction, which in modern states is made between church polity and state polity; until in process of time, first under Saul, and then under David and the continuing race of kings, the civil head became altogether distinct from the Head of the church, who was the Lord himself. Then had the Jews a civil state and an ecclesiastical state : and they then perfected the four great divisions, which are now found in European states, of 1. regal state; 2. ecclesiastical state; 3. civil state; and 4. military state. If, after seeing their progress, we look back again to their state in the wilderness, we shall find the elements from which these grew into perfect form; and by comparing this national constitution with the constitution of the church in its divisions of, 1. the Lord, its head; 2. the high priest; 3. the priests; and 4. the Levites, we shall find an analogy fully entitled to notice and consideration.

14. After such a manner as this did the Lord reveal himself during the Jewish dispensation, in the form, the ordinances, and the service of the tabernacle; in the order of the people, and in the constitution of the nation; speaking by outward and visible things and ceremonies, permanently and continuously; setting a testimony in the midst of the people, and fashioning their daily acts, so that they should outwardly and visibly acknowledge the testimony, and witness themselves for the same truth. His truth was sounded in their ears by the reading of the Law. It was present to their eyes in the daily and other periodical ordi

nances. They were themselves workers in it, in their service and their feasts. And what more could the Lord do for them? Glory be to him for his mercies, He gave them further witness in his continual providence toward them, in his continual overruling of all their actions, and in his visitations for judgment and for deliverance in the midst of them.

a. He called them in Egypt: and by his judgments upon Pharaoh, and by the hardness of Pharaoh's heart until he had slain all his first-born, he set before them the utter obduracy of their own hearts, and the necessity of a death in the flesh unto the destruction of the rebellious pride and lust of the flesh. By the Paschal Lamb he set before them the truth, that by blood must the Lord's people be redeemed. Thus setting out before their eyes in Pharaoh, what would come to pass among themselves, and giving a prophetic picture of the whole Jewish dispensation.

b. He led them through the Red Sea, and preserved them for the appointed time in the wilderness ;-shewing again that the pride and lust of the flesh must be swallowed up, and sink like lead in the mighty waters, before God's children can be set free from its cruel bondage; teaching them in the barren and deathbetokening wilderness, that it is God who alone can give life; and that he does, in the gift of the heavenly manna, and by water from the rock, provide and give heed to the thirst of his people. And again, by his cutting off all the people who came up through the Red Sea (except his faithful witnesses) before they arrived at the promised land, he shewed them the danger and sin of unbelief; throughout the whole prophesying of the Gentile dispensation, in which the people of God would through baptism be brought into the wilderness, having the promise of a glorious inheritance, and be fed in the midst of suffering and privation, and death itself, by the heavenly manna and the outpouring of the Holy Ghost; still, alas! in the end to be all, but an election, cast off for unbelief, according to the word, “when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?”

c. The Lord brought the next generation into the promised land, and with a high hand established them in it; as also with fearful judgments from time to time delivered them from their oppressors. He raised up David and Solomon over them to reign in glory, and make them the joy of the whole earth;testifying by this, with what fearful judgments the Lord will avenge his elect, who cry unto him; and unto what glory he will exalt his King, the Lord of Hosts, when he shall give him the inheritance promised-the kingdom of all the nations of the earth in the Millennial dispensation. But as, after all this, because their hearts turned again to lying vanities, and forgot the Lord their God, and gave themselves up to their own heart's

lusts, following false spirits and the devices of devils, the Lord poured out upon them his destructive wrath, sending them as a dead branch out of their land into the furnace of the heathen nations. He thus spoke to them of the great apostasy in the latter day of the Millennial reign, when they shall have given themselves up to the deceits of Satan, let loose for the last time among them.

d. After this the Lord had mercy again upon them. He raised up his Cyrus for their restoration: he brought them up again from their hiding places, and the joy of the whole earth came in the midst of them. But, alas! he came for judgment, and the day was ripe for judgment: they whose names were written in the book of life, entered into life; but they who were judged according to their works, were cast into the furnace of fire. (The Jews were cast out, the Gentiles brought in). Thus has the Lord testified to them by his providence concerning the Resurrection dispensation.

e. Thus did the Lord's providence speak from the beginning to the end of their dispensation: and besides this, the Lord from time to time testified of the same things in subordinate and occasional events; and in the lives and acts of certain of his servants, as Moses, Aaron, David, and Solomon. He gave them also, by the Judges and by the Prophets, as well deliverances and blessings as warnings and rebukes, that no manner of testimony might be wanting, but in the midst of their unbelief, the grace, long-suffering, and mercy of the Lord might be seen and acknowledged.

15. Upon a review of the whole tenor of what has been said, our conclusion is, That God, having determined to manifest himself, and make known his glory, did create all things by the Word, the predestinately risen God-Man, and did make all things to consort or stand together in him: That the method in which all things are made to stand together in Christ the Word, is by putting them in order in, and in relation to, the church, over which Christ is made the Head: That in the church, thus the mystical body of the Lord Jesus, when the same church shall be perfected in the glory of the resurrection under Christ its Head, God, in his Trinity of Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, will be manifested dwelling in the Head; and as in the Head so shining gloriously forth in all the members, filling and pervading every part, and in the one complete whole blazing forth like the sun, the all-glorious Majesty of the infinite and eternal Triune God-the All in all of every thing.

16. That, this glorious consummation, God ordained to bring about through creation, death, and new creation: and this in order that He, the eternal God, might be manifestly above and apart from all creation being; with which, by any other method, he

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