divine government, and has absolutely secured such a deliverance for all whom God from the beginning had chosen to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit and the belief of the truth. He took away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. He finished transgression, He made an end of sin, He brought in an everlasting righteousness. His blood cleanseth from all sin. In Him we have redemption, eternal redemption, through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. The effect of the act of sacrifice in the case of the Jewish high priests, and of the High Priest of good things to come, respectively, is very strikingly represented in the words which follow the text:-"The blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctified to the purifying of the flesh;" and thus obtained a temporary redemption from external evils. "The blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot, purges the conscience from dead works, and qualifies and disposes to the service of the living God;" and thus obtains eternal redemption from all evils. So much for the illustration of the first great act of our Lord's sacerdotal ministry as the High Priest of good things to come, the obtaining of eternal redemption for His people by His infinitely meritorious vicarious sacrifice.

The second great act of our Lord's ministry as the High Priest of good things to come, is His entering into the holy place. When the Jewish high priest, on the great day of atonement, had finished the first part of his ministry, in obtaining redemption for the people from ceremonial guilt, by the expiation of their sins by the appointed vicarious sacrifice, he went through the outer sanctuary into the holy of holies, with the blood of atonement to present before Jehovah, the covenanted God of Israel, dwelling between the cherubim-sitting as it were on the blood-sprinkled mercy-seat as a throne of grace,-evidence that atonement had been made according to the due order; and to make intercession, if not verbally, emblematically by the offering of incense, that as the reconciled Divinity He would pardon and bless His people. The whole of what he did in the holy place, as well as the act of going into it, is pointed out by the phrase, "entering into the holy place." In like manner, Christ, as the High Priest of good things to come, the substance of these shadows, when He had finished on the cross that great

work of expiation, which embraces all He did and all He suffered from the manger to the sepulchre, entered into the true holy place, of which the inner sanctuary in the tabernacle and temple was the figure, to present there, as it were, in the immediate presence of God, the Judge of all, the evidence of the completeness of the atonement which He had made, and to follow it up by a never-ceasing interposition in behalf of His people, founded on his all-perfect, infinitely meritorious atoning sacrifice. All this is included in His entering into the holy place.

By the holy place, into which Christ as the High Priest of good things to come has entered, we are to understand the heaven of heavens,—the place where the Divinity most remarkably manifests His excellences and communicates His blessings to the unfallen and restored portions of His intelligent offspring, the elect angels and the redeemed from among men. "Christ," says the Apostle at the 24th verse, "is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." When our Lord entered into heaven, he entered in His public character as an accomplished High Priest-with His hands full of atoning blood, and incense of a sweet-smelling savour to God, having been made perfect through suffering.

His very entrance there was a proof of the perfection of His sacrifice. And additional proof of this delightful truth is to be found in the place which He occupies there, and the manner in which He is employed there. When He entered there, it was not to stand there for a short period ministering before the throne of God, and then to come forth, that He might again resume the work of expiation by sacrifice; it was to sit down for ever on the throne of God, on the right hand of His Father. It was to reign along with God; for the Lord said to our Lord, Sit on My right hand, till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool. And He must reign there till even the last of His enemies be destroyed. Power over all flesh, ay, all power in heaven and in earth, has been given Him; and all this power He employs in completing the salvation of those whom He has redeemed from their sins by His own blood, in conferring the eternal redemption which He obtained by His sacrifice. The following is the prophetic testimony respecting the exalted and beatific state of Messiah, the Priest upon His throne, when He had entered into

the holy place: "The King joys in the strength of Jehovah: in His salvation how greatly does He rejoice! HE has given Him His heart's desire, and has not withholden from Him the request of His lips. He has prevented Him with the blessings of goodness: HE has set a crown of pure gold on His head. He asked life" for Himself and His redeemed ones, the covenanted recompense of His atoning death," and HE gave it Him, even length of days for ever and ever. His glory is great in Jehovah's salvation honour and majesty has HE laid upon Him. HE has made Him most blessed for ever: HE has made Him exceeding glad with His countenance."

And this is the apostolic testimony: Christ having become dead in the flesh, "the just in the room of the unjust, has been quickened in the Spirit, and is gone into heaven; and is at the right hand of God, angels, and authorities, and powers being subject to Him: able to save to the uttermost all coming to God by Him, for ever; seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them." In the intercession which, as "the High Priest of good things to come," He makes in the true holy place, there is nothing humiliating. His intercession, and His mediatorial power and dominion, are but two phases of the same glorious object. The great primary truth contained in both these representations of our Lord's present state is, 'that it is in consequence of His expressed will that every exertion of divine power, directly or indirectly connected with the salvation of men, whether in the production of external event or the putting forth of inward influence, is made.'

Into this glorious state and place," Christ, the High Priest of good things to come," is said by the Apostle to have "entered by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, that is not of this building." What is the meaning of this? By this tabernacle some pious and judicious interpreters have understood our Lord's human nature, in which as in a tabernacle He dwelt among us, and in which He performed His sacrificial functions as a High Priest; and they have explained the phrase, entered by this tabernacle, as if it were equivalent to-entered in through means of, in consequence of, services performed in this tabernacle. No doubt this is truth; but we much doubt if it is the truth here stated. That the entrance was the result of sacrifice offered, is stated in the second clause: "not by the blood of calves or

goats, but by His own blood." The allusion does not here seem to be to the priest entering into the holiest of all in consequence of what he did in the holy place-for the sacrifice was offered, not there, but on the altar of burnt-offering, before the first tabernacle; but to his passing through the holy place—the holy place being the only way to the holiest-bearing the atoning blood into the holy of holies. Nowhere in this Epistle is the human nature of Christ represented as emblematized by the outer tabernacle, though in one place it has been supposed, I think erroneously, to be emblematized by the rail which divided the holy place from the holiest of all. The meaning of the inspired writer may, I apprehend, be thus correctly represented:-Our Lord offered His sacrifice on the earth, as the Jewish high priests did theirs before the tabernacle; and having offered His sacrifice on the earth, He passed through the visible heavens into the heaven of heavens, as they passed through the holy place into the holiest of all, the emblem of heaven. He entered into the holy place through the visible heavens, which are represented in the Old Testament Scriptures as the tabernacle of Jehovah, His antechamber, as earth is His outer court,-an ante-chamber replete with manifestations of beauty and grandeur, suitable to the entrance into the presence-chamber of the great King, the Lord of hosts a tabernacle certainly incomparably greater, more magnificent, and more perfect, more highly finished than the Mosaic tabernacle, with all its curious embroidery and costly ornaments—a tabernacle formed immediately by the hand of God, "who in the beginning stretched out the heavens alone— stretched them out as a curtain, and spread them out as a tent to dwell in."

This tabernacle through which our Lord passed is said to be "not of this building," or of this creation or establishment. The words are plainly intended to complete the implied antithesis between the High Priest of good things to come and the Jewish high priests. They offered animal sacrifices; He offered Himself. They obtained temporal, temporary redemption; He obtained spiritual, eternal redemption. They entered into the holy of holies made with hands, on earth; He entered into the celestial sanctuary created by God, in heaven. They entered into that material, earthly holy place, through a tabernacle, suited to it, framed in the same way, forming a part of the same constitution or build

ing; He entered into the heaven of heavens, which Jehovah had formed for His own dwelling-place-the adytum of His temple-through the visible heavens, which He too had formed as a glorious vestibule to the presence-chamber of His majesty.

The following is the inspired history of the glorious event to which the Apostle refers :-Having "showed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, He," on a day never to be forgotten on earth or in heaven, "led forth His disciples as far as to Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them : and it came to pass, as He blessed them, He was parted from them—He was taken up; a cloud received Him out of their sight and carried Him up into heaven. And while they looked stedfastly up towards heaven, as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up to heaven? This same Jesus that is taken up to heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven."

What took place when, far beyond the sight of mortal eye and hearing of mortal ear, He entered into the holy place in the temple above, the sacred history does not tell us. But the Spirit of prophecy, which is the witness of Jesus, does. "God-God with us-is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet." "The chariots of God are twenty thousand, thousands of angels. The Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place." "The Son of man came to the Ancient of days, and they brought Him near before Him; and there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." "The Lord said to my Lord, Sit on My right hand, till I have made Thine enemies Thy footstool. The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek." We cannot doubt that the whole of the attendant cherubim in the heavenly holy of holies, if not awed into reverent silence, poured forth their choicest melodies when the perfected High Priest of good things to come sat down on the burning throne, sprinkled with His own blood, on the right hand of Him who lives and reigns for ever and ever. "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.