4. Not children —
[Persons under twenty years of age were not deemed strong enough for war, and therefore were passed over. But who shall say at what age our responsibility to God begins ? Who shall assign the limit at which God will " wink at," or condemn, the transgressions of his law ? Surely this were pre- sumptuous and dangerous ground : let not any of you dare to stand upon it. If the services of a Samuel or a Timothy can be acceptable to God, the iniquities of childhood may be pro- voking. The tax required from you is not burthensome to any : seek not therefore, nor desire, an exemption from it. It is your heart, and not your property, that God requires : pre- sent it to him as purchased by the blood of his dear Son, and you shall be numbered amongst his people to all eternity.]
cm.
Exod. xxx. 25 — 31. Thou shalt make an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary ': it shall be an holy anointing oil. And thou shalt anoint the tabernacle of the congregation thereivith, and the ark of the testimony, and the table and all his vessels, and the candle- stick and his vessels, and the altar of incense, and the altar of burnt-offering with all his vessels, and the laver and his foot. And thou shalt sanctify them, that they may be most holy : tvhatsoever toucheth them shall be holy. And thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may minister unto me in the priest's office. And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, This shall be an holy anointing oil unto me throughout your generations.
OF the Ceremonial Law in general we may say, it was intended to shadow forth the Lord Jesus Christ in the whole of his work and offices. The Epistle to the Hebrews admirably illustrates it in this peculiar view, shewing with minuteness and precision the scope and object of it as relating to him, and as ful- filled in him. To his priesthood, in particular, the ordinance which we here read of more especially referred ; for in the fortieth chapter, where the words of my text are again almost literally repeated, it is said, " Their anointing shall surely be an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations3."
a Exod. xl. 10— 15.