altar, as consecrated to his service, and inflamed with holy zeal and love, for the advancement of his glory in the world. In this view the Prophet Isaiah speaks of the whole Gentile world, who shall be consecrated to the Lord in the last day : " They shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the Lord out of all nations, upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lordc." (The Mincha, or meat-offering, is that which is here particularly referred to.) To the same effect St. Paul also speaks in the New Testament of this very conversion as actually begun under his ministry : " I am," says he, " the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the Gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost d." Here is not only the same mention of the meat-offering as we observed in the Prophet Isaiah, but a more distinct reference to it as accompanied with oil, and as denoting the sanctification of believers by the gift of the Holy Ghost. This, then, may be considered as marking the import of this ordinance, so far as it agreed with the common meat-offerings.]
But so far as this meat-offering was peculiar, its import was peculiar also —
[We cannot, indeed, speak with the same confidence on this part of our subject as respecting the meat-offerings in general ; because the inspired writers of the Old and New Testament are silent respecting it: yet I cannot but feel assured in my own mind, that " the green ears" are intended to denote the younger converts, who by reason of their tender age seem almost incapable of being so dedicated to the Lord. God would have such to be presented to him : and, that their supposed incapacity to serve him might be no discouragement either to them or us, they are ordered to be gathered in, that so they may be prepared for the honour that is to be conferred upon them. Additional pains are to be taken with them, in order to supply by artificial means, as it were, what nature has not yet done for them ; and to God are they to be presented, without waiting for that maturity which others at a more advanced period of life have attained. They are not to be desponding in themselves, as though it were not possible for them to find acceptance with God ; nor are they to be over- looked by others, as though it were in vain to hope that any converts should be gathered from amongst them. God would have it known, that he is alike willing to receive all ; and that
c Isai. lxvi. 20. d Rom. xv. 1(5.