mifes, and Jehovah ftands engaged to be

their Elahim as well as his.

18. The Propitiatory, or Mercy-feat.
Rom. iii. 25; Heb. ix. 5.

BY

Y comparing these two places together, we will easily perceive, that the Apostle means to tell us, that what the mercy-feat was in the tabernacle and temple, that Jefus Chrift is in the true and heavenly temple. Jehovah Elahim dwelt between, or inhabited, the cherubims of glory, which fhadowed the mercy-feat; for fo they did with their wings touching one another. And thus our Lord tells us, that he is in the Father, and the Father in him; and that in Christ, as his reft, the Father is well pleafed. His dwelling in the cherubims was the fcnfible fign of his dwelling among the Ifraelites, and being their Elahim. His dwelling in Chrift is incomparably more so to us, when he hath given his only begotten Son, and by him united himself to this order of creatures. They who receive him as he is given, can have no doubt of God's dwelling with men

upon earth, and that Jehovah is their Elahim.

But the title given by the Apostle, both to the type and to the antitype, carries fomething farther in it; not only the truth of the thing, but the reason of it. Ιλαςήριον, which is the original term in both the passages referred to, is more than . The first is a propitiatory, the laft is propitiation, the fruit or effect of it. This may perhaps be the reason why, in Rom. iii. 25. (where Ixashpov, inftead of a propitiatory, is rendered a propitiation), our tranflators have inserted the fupplement to be, which would have been needlefs had they kept by the native import of the original word. A propitiatory is that which makes the propitiation; for that is the fame thing as making one propitious or gracious, who either had reafon to be offended, or from whom there was no reafon to expect fuch favours.

One needs no more but to read the history of the old Ifraelites, to be affured, that they had no reason to expect fuch extraordinary favours as were fetured for them in the promife made to Abraham. And they must be ftrangers indeed to what obviously appears to be the ftate of mankind, who do not find incomparably lefs 3 A 2

reafon

reafon to expect fuch favours as the grant made to Jefus Chrift in their behalf; the grant, not only of the pardon of fin, but of eternal life, with all the perfection, glory, and happiness, which attend it. That the great creator and fovereign of the universe should be thus propitious, and fhew fuch favours to fuch creatures, requires fuch a foundation to make it confiftent with perfect wifdom, the highest reason, as none but he who is poffeffed of it, could either find, or lay: and firm and ftrong it must not only have been, but appeared to men to be, which had the whole weight of the firmest faith and hope in God to bear.

The affurance which Jehovah gave to ancient Ifrael of being their Elahim, by fixing his throne, a throne of grace, among them, even on this curfory view, appears to have been very great. But if we may suppose, that they understood at the fame time what was reprefented by the ark, with the law in it, covered with the mercy-feat, and cherubims of glory, which were but figures for the time then prefent, and fhadows of heavenly things, they muft have had the fame views which we have now, of the

new

new head of mankind, defigned from e-
ternity the great priest-interceffor, the
furety of the everlasting covenant or grant
of eternal life. In him, the promised feed,
they would find the great propitiatory,
the true foundation and mean of convey-
ance of all that favour and grace they re-
ceived, or hoped to receive, from the hand
of God; and must have seen, that the only
way in which they or we can believe that
God is, or will be, propitious, is faith, or
a believing dependence on his blood; by
the fhedding of which, he finished the
work that was given him to do, fulfilled
the terms of the grant made to him, and
made over the fame kingdom by his te-
ftament to all who would receive it from
his hand, and hold it in his right.

T

19. Reconciliation.

HE direct and immediate, and, I may say, the neceffary, fruit and effect of a propitiatory, is propitiation. And when God has fet forth his ever-bleffed Son a propitiatory, it gives a firm and fure foundation for the ftrongeft confidence,

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that (it is not, I think, proper to say, he will be propitious, but that) he certainly is propitious; that is, as he proclaimed his name to Mofes, "Jehovah Elahim, gracious and merciful, long-fuffering, flow to wrath, and of great patience, forgiving iniquity, tranfgreffion, and fin.” That this is a just account of the divine nature, and which we may call his very effence, appears abundantly from this fingle confideration, that, of his own proper motion, without any external motive, he provided and established the great propitiatory. And as that was established from eternity in the unchangeable counfels of the Elahim, from the fame æra we must date his being propitious. So that there never was a time when he could be called an enemy to mankind; though they had deferved to be treated as enemies, because they were really fo to him; enemies in their minds through wicked works.

God indeed is faid to be " angry with "the wicked every day," and to have “ re"vealed his wrath from heaven against all "ungodliness and unrighteoufnefs of men." But a father may be angry, very angry, with his children, and fhew his wrath by punishing