upon the altar. Who can contemplate this, and not see in it the temptations, conflicts, and agonies of the Son of God? We cannot but recognise in these things, him, " who was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities ;" who himself tells us, that " He was the true bread, of which whosoever ate, should live for ever."
In the close of the chapter we are told, that, notwithstand- ing the first-fruits, ivhen offered as the first-fruits, might not be burnt upon the altar c, yet, if offered as a meat-offering, they would be accepted d ; and that in that case the ears must be dried by the fire, and the corn be beaten out, to be used instead of flour. The mystery in either case was the same : the excellency of Christ was marked in the quality of the corn, and his sufferings in the disposal of it.]
The next thing that calls for our attention is,
"The oil"—
[Though the sacrifice of Christ is the foundation of all our hopes, yet it will not avail for our final acceptance with God, unless we be " renewed in the spirit of our minds," and be rendered " meet for the heavenly inheritance." But to effect this, is the work of the Holy Spirit, by whose gracious opera- tions alone we can " mortify the deeds of the body," and attain the divine image on our souls. Hence, in approaching God with their meat-offering, they were to mingle oil with the flour, or to anoint it with oil, after having previously made it into a cake. We do not deny but that this part of the ordinance might represent, in some respect, the endowments of Christ, who was anointed to his work, and fitted for it, by a superabundant measure of the Holy Ghost e : but, as it seems designed more particularly to mark the sanctification of our souls, we the ra- ther confine it to that sense. And in this we have the sanction of two inspired persons, a Prophet, and an Apostle, both of whom refer to the mincha as expressive of this very idea. Isaiah, speaking of the conversion of the Gentiles in the latter days, says, " Men shall bring them for an offering (a mincha) unto the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering (a mincha) in a clean vessel into the house of the Lordf." And St. Paul, speaking of that event as actually fulfilled under his ministry, goes yet further into the explanation of it, and says, that the sanctification of then* souls by the Holy Ghost cor- responded with the unction wherewith that offering was anointed : " I am," says he, " the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost%."
c ver. 12. (1 ver. 14 — 16. e Luke iv. 18. and John in. 34.
f Isai. lxvi. 20. « Rom. xv. 16.