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principal scenes of my mission. In that year the sceptre may be considered as having departed from Judah, for the son of Herod was deposed by the Roman Emperor; but the Levitical Priesthood still continued in the tribe of Levi.

It was our Lord's custom to attend the worship of the Synagogue, and join in its service. Luke iv. 16, Jo. vi. 59. In the Temple he "daily taught the people," Matt. xxvi. 55, &c. Luke xx. 1, and disputed with the unbelieving Scribes and Pharisees; but in all this he deviated not from the accustomed service, nor gave occasion of offence, for "the chief Priests and the "Scribes, and the chief of the people sought to destroy him, ❝ and could not find what they might do." Luke xix. 47, 48; and therefore though" all were astonished," yet it was only at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth." Matt. xiii. 54. Luke iv. 22.

The public reading of the Scriptures made a part of the Synagogue service, though it does not appear to have been enjoined by Moses; but our Lord readily yielded to this ordinance, as he found it established,—Luke iv. 17, and see xiii. 10; and his example was followed by his successors the Apostles. Col. iv. 16.

He shewed, too, such zeal for the honour of the Temple, that on his first celebration of the Passover there, finding that a custom which Moses himself had instituted-Deut. xiv. 24-26-had been greatly abused, he considered the sacred place as profaned by it, and drove out all the traffickers therein, Jo. ii. 13—17; and when in the last year of his ministry he found the practice revived, he acted with still greater energy, exclaiming indignantly, " ye have made this house of prayer" -"a den of thieves." Matt. xxi. 13; and he would not then even "suffer that any man should carry any vessel through "the Temple." Mark xi. 16. In these transactions our Lord refers to the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah, that this house should be called " the house of prayer for all people;" and, through the prophet Malachi, he allows this Temple to be his own," the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his

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'Temple." Mal. iii. 1. His conduct on these occasions was so remarkable, that it satisfied his disciples of the fulfilment of the prophecy of David,-" the zeal of thine house hath eaten "me up." Ps. lxix. 9. Jo. ii. 17. Rom. xv. 3.

He appeared in the Temple on another remarkable occasion, the feast of tabernacles," in the last day of the feast," Jo. vii. 37, 40, and was recognized as the prophet that should come; and again at the feast of the dedication of the Temple, instituted by the Maccabees. His conduct in private agreed with this. When" he went out into a mountain to pray, and "continued all night," Luke vi. 12, it is probable this was in one of the Jewish Proseuchas, or oratories, which were common in Judea: one of which is also meant, Acts xvi. 13, by the place" where prayer was wont to be made."

Our Lord recognized the authority of the Priesthood; for when he healed the lepers he commanded them to go, and shew themselves to the Priest, and make the offering appointed by Moses. Matt. viii. 4, &c. Lev. xiv. 2-11. And although the office of the High Priest had been now so much degraded, yet our Lord acknowledged its existence and authority, by commanding his disciples to observe the directions of those who yet" sat in Moses's seat." Matt. xxiii. 2, 3. When he was himself adjured by the High Priest, he gave him an answer, though he had been silent to the questions of King Herod, and Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor. The High Priest, too, even to this time, had the gift of prophecy. Jo, xi, 51.

Nor did our Lord make any alteration in the Jewish form of public worship; for not only he himself attended the Synagogue service, going "about all the cities and villages,

teaching in their Synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom," Matt. ix. 35; forming no new church or society in opposition thereto, but the Apostles, after his ascension, did so likewise, being "continually, and daily in the Temple," -Luke xxiv. 53. Acts v. 42-at the usual hours of prayer, iii. 1, taking part in the service," and preaching the word of "God in the Synagogues of the Jews." Acts xiii. 5.

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They, also, like their Master, were cautious of innovating on the public forms of worship, and did not therefore celebrate the Eucharist in the Temple, but from house to house,—Acts ii. 42, 46,-because in that, though an old ceremony, as the feast of the Passover, a material change had been expressly made by our Lord himself. It is worthy of note, that St. Paul, the extraordinary Apostle appointed by our Lord, also attended the Sabbath-day service of the Synagogue, and preached therein-Acts xiii. 14, 15, 42, 44-and that although he was on a certain occasion carried away by a holy zeal, or by inspiration, to denounce the High Priest, yet he recovered himself, and acknowledged the sanctity of the yet existing office, by quoting from the law, "Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler "of thy people." Acts xxiii. 5. This was near thirty years after our Lord's crucifixion; although, long ere this, a congregation of Christians termed "the Church," had been formed both at Jerusalem, Acts viii. 1; at Antioch, xiii. 1; and throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, ix. 31.

V. On the Foundation of the visible Christian Church, and the progressive Establishment of the Christian Hierarchy.

THIS reverence for the Temple service, and for the existing Priesthood, together with our Lord's conduct in laying the platform of the threefold Christian order amongst the first acts of his ministry, evidently prove that no essential change in the economy of the Church was about to take place; but that on the approaching destruction of the Temple-the tearing asunder of the vail, and the breaking down the partition wall between Jew and Gentile, -the Levitical Priesthood was to cease as to its typical nature only; and that in all its essentials, -as an order separated for the due performance of the sacred worship of the sanctuary,-it was to be succeeded and replaced by the Christian hierarchy.

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When the Mosaic dispensation was announced, and the great barriers between the clergy and laity were placed, never afterwards to be thrown down, the whole scheme settled in the divine council for the restoration of lost man, with a service, at first typical, and then commemorative, was communicated by God to Moses, as his servant. This is referred to by St. Paul, as the words spoken by the divine mouth,-" For see (saith he,) that thou make all things according to the pattern "shewed to thee in the Mount." Heb. viii. 5, and therefore it seems to be, that Christ, who was from the beginning" the "Head of his Church," the builder of his own house-Heb. iii, -still proceeded according to this pattern. In establishing his Church, therefore, on earth, by his own personal authority, our Lord did not infringe on the Aaronical Priesthood, while that retained an appearance of efficiency; diminished, indeed, as it was, having long declined in independence and purity,-the type becoming weaker as "the times of refreshing" approached.

The Christian and Jewish Churches, then, do not essentially differ,-they are but different appearances of the Church of Christ, existing from the foundation of the world, and planted on earth, for the purpose of human redemption. The Jewish dispensation was the infancy of the Christian, and the Christian is the full growth and perfection of the Jewish; Isaiah prophesied of the Gentiles, "I will take of them for "Priests and for Levites, saith the Lord." lxvi. 21. Justin Martyr says, the law is the gospel predicted,-the gospel is the law fulfilled ;-and therefore notwithstanding the changes from a typical and formal, to a real and spiritual, service, many of the old materials remain. Thus baptism was substituted for circumcision, without which no one should yet be admitted into the Church;-the ceremony of the Eucharist was ordained in lieu of that of the Passover ;-the Christian Sabbath made a change in the day, but did not abrogate the Jewish Sabbath ;-the Lord's Prayer was constructed on forms of devotion in use in the Jewish Church ;-and although Christ freed his Church from the ceremonial bondage with

which it was enslaved, yet the essential parts of the ministerial offices still remained, and the threefold order in the Priesthood retained the form, while it realized the types, of the hierarchy laid down in indelible characters in the original plan of the Church.

Our Lord has an evident reference to this, when he declares that the Apostles shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel, as the twelve parts of the Christian Church; and the numbers of the redeemed that are sealed, are mentioned as belonging to the families of the Jewish patriarchs. St. Paul speaks of the Gentile converts being grafted into the Jewish Church: and the city of the Christian Church in heaven, is called "the New Jerusalem." Rev. iii. 12. xxi. 2. Gal. iv. 26.

On this ground only can we understand the often quoted declaration of him who was peculiarly the Apostle of the Gentiles, "that no man taketh this honour unto himself, but "he that was called of God, as was Aaron;" for how could he, of all others, have thus adduced the call to the Levitical Priesthood, had he not regarded the Jewish and Christian Churches, not as two different dispensations, but as a continuation of the single Church of God, in which salvation was to be announced by those acting under the divine institution— men lawfully ordained—invested with the only legitimate commission, and with privileges and powers to be transmitted and perpetuated till "all should come in the unity of the faith,”"unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." Eph. iv. 13. Indeed in the epistles of St. Paul,-particularly those to Timothy, and Titus, and that to the Hebrews, the most important information as to the order and government of the Church, and the inviolability and sacred characters of the Christian ministry, may be discovered, though incidentally: for it must be considered, that the Apostles exhibited generally by their actions what was capable of explanation by these -the external order of the Church, and of the Priesthood;— while their writings were devoted to those subjects-the

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