fabric. Though the "Holiest of all" is "above the cloudy heights," within the manifested glory which rests upon the Holy hill; the "Holy place," is the sanctuary which occupies the hill of Zion, as it were, separated from "the Most Holy by a veil or curtain. But that veil, we are instructed, is "the flesh of the Redeemer"-the flesh of the Redeemer rent to pieces. We learn from this something of the mystery of Christ'-the 'minister of this better tabernacle.' First he appears in the earthly places of his church, and then, through his death and resurrection, enters into the heavenly: and thus all believers, being made partakers in his death and resurrection, and being by him raised up at the last day in spiritual bodies, shall with him be placed in "the Holiest of all," upon the very throne, as it were, of the Son of God, corresponding to the cherubim of glory, "the church of the first born written in heaven." Under the dispensation of the New Covenant, before Israel as a people is brought within its courts-while the preached word, "with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven," is gathering the elect remnants, the Christian believer's entrance into the kingdom of God is thus portrayed: Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way, which he has consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an High Priest over the house of God: let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith," &c. This is the "so great salvation" that now awaits every believing Jew and Gentile; but the salvation of the natural seed of Israel, and of the remnants of the nations whom the Lord will spare at the great day, is of a different character-it" enters" not " into that within the veil." The church upon earth restored with every blessing, and crowned with everlasting joy and mercy, is still composed of men in the flesh. For the forgiveness of sins, they are indeed partakers of the redemption which is through the vicarious sacrifice of the death of Christ, "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world," and partakers also of a gift of his Spirit to abide with them for ever; to write his holy law upon their hearts, and to preserve them in his fear; yet they are not conformed to the death of Christ, nor made meet partakers with his saints in light, "through that mighty working which the Father wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places," &c. The church of the restored Jerusalem, therefore, enters not within the veil; but is only placed as a candlestick before it, in the outer sanctuary; lighted up, indeed, with the sevenfold Spirit of God, and blessed abundantly with every bounty of his providence, to preside over and to bless the renovated earth, to be "the glory of all lands." And inasmuch as the veil is the flesh of Christ, we must not count them as forming parts of the mystical Body of the incarnate Word, they are not "flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone:" they are not "planted in the likeness of his death," nor appear "in the likeness of his resurrection," they still "bear the image of the earthly;" they are, however, re stored from the effects of the fall, pardoned, reconciled, and their hearts circumcised to love the Lord their God. Accordingly, we have no intimation that the sacramental sign of our baptism into the death and resurrection of Christ, ever forms part of the mysteries of their worship; or that of our mystical eating of the flesh of Christ and drinking of his blood, to the intent that Christ may dwell in us and we in him, that we may be one with Christ and Christ one with us. They ate of the Paschal Lamb indeed, and it appears from Ezekiel they will eat of it still; they are still a holy people to the Lord among the nations of the redeemed upon earth." High above all nations which he hath made in praise, in name, and in honour; that thou mayest be a holy people to the Lord thy God, as he has spoken." Deut. xviii. 19. SECTION THE TWELFTH. ISRAEL AT THE HEAD OF THE NATIONS OF THE NEW EARTH. The religious worship of the restored Israelites very different from the solemnities of the Christian Church-Circumcision-Animal sacrifice -Sabbath and appointed feasts—The redeemed world blessed through Zion-Pilgrimages to the Holy City-Egypt and Assyria taken into intimate union with Canaan in Messiah's kingdom-Tyre-Many nations joined to the Lord in that day. In turning our attention to the situation and character of this holy nation in the world to come, which is established for ever on the earth, and made its joy, and a praise among all nations, we cannot but remark that their style of worship, as prefigured in the last chapters of Ezekiel, and alluded to in other scriptures, is more resembling the former service of the tabernacle, than the solemnities of the Christian worship: its chief feature is, as in ancient times, the sacrificed victim: not now, indeed, a type of the future, but a memorial of the past: when "they shall have looked upon him whom they have pierced." There is a priesthood of the sons of Zadoc, with their attendant Levites to keep the charge of the house in its "latter glory," but there is no high priest in the house itself; no veiled part of the sanctuary below; nor any day of atonement that he should enter once a year into the Holiest of all. He, whom the high priest typified, and all that was shadowed by the Holy of Holies in the former temple, are now, as was before observed, in the invisible and heavenly places, in that Jerusalem which is above, in that glorious aerial city, "in the light of which" the "nations of the redeemed" are said to "walk." Their weekly sabbath continues to be sanctified on the earth below; nor need this surprise us, as "the sabbath was made for man” in paradise. The new moon also is mentioned: xlv. 17, &c-"Thus saith the Lord God; The gate of the inner court that looketh towards the east, shall be shut the six working days; but on the sabbath it shall be opened, and in the day of the new moon it shall be opened." The sabbath, as before, is to be hallowed with additional sacrifice. The first day of the first month, is mentioned as a solemn season "for reconciling the house of Israel" for "cleansing the sanctuary." On the seventh day of the month also "for every one that erreth, and for him that is simple: so shall ye reconcile the house.” On the fourteenth day of the first month, is to be the feast of the passover, as in former times, with the seven days of unleavened bread. Lastly, "the feast of the seven days," the feast of tabernacles, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. Still, therefore, it is considered beneficial to the spiritual interest of man upon earth, that there should be cer * Chap. xlv. 25. |