people, constrained by a divine impulse, shall say, " I am the Lord's f." Moreover, in their intercessions for the people, they are also to urge this plea with God on their behalf s. Thus are they to strengthen the connexion between God and them ; and to promote that fellowship with God, which is the end, as well as means, of all spiritual communications.]
Having thus explained the general import of the words, we shall,
II. Notice some truths contained in them —
Amidst the many profitable observations that may be deduced from the text, there are some deserving of peculiar attention :
1. The priests under the law, while they blessed the people, typically represented the office of Christ himself —
[Christ as our High- Priest performs every part of the priestly office : and it is remarkable that he was in the very act of blessing his disciples, when he was taken up from them into heaven h. Nor did he then cease, but rather began, as it were, to execute that office, which he has been fulfilling from that time to the present hour. St. Peter, preaching after- wards to a vast concourse of people, declared to them, that to bless them was the great end for which Jesus had ascended, and that he was ready, both as a Prince and a Saviour, to give them repentance and remission of sins1. Let us then conceive the Lord Jesus standing now in the midst of us, and, with uplifted hands, pronouncing the benediction in the text ; is there one amongst us that would not cordially add, " Amen, Amen ? " Nor let this be thought a vain and fanciful idea, since he has promised to be wherever two or three are gathered together in his name, and that too, for the very pur- pose which is here expressedk.]
2. Though ministers are used as instruments to convey blessings, God himself is the only author and giver of them —
[The very words, which the priests were commanded to use, directed the attention of all to God himself; nor could the frequent repetition of Jehovah's name fail to impress the most careless auditor with a conviction, that the blessing could come from God alone. Perhaps too the mystery of the Holy Trinity
f Isai. xliv. 3 — 5. s Dan. ix. 17 — 19. Jer. xiv. 9.
h Luke xxiv. 50, 51. * Acts hi. 26. and v. 31.
k Compare Matt, xviii. 20. with Exod. xx. 24.