not partake, because he was of the tribe of Judah. But a new order of priesthood was to arise, after the order of Melchizedec : and this was the priesthood to which Jesus was called. In all its offices it resembled the Levitical priesthood ; by which it was, in fact, shadowed forth, in all its parts.
Our blessed Lord, as our great High-priest, offered himself a sacrifice to God. He was to expiate the sins of all mankind. Not all the cattle on a thousand hills were sufficient for that. But " a body was prepared for him" for that end; a bodv " like, indeed, unto sinful flesh," but altogether " without sin." This body he offered upon the cross ; as the Apostle says, " He offijred himself without spot to God." In reference to this, the Baptist pointed him out as " The Lamb of God that should take away the sins of the world:" and even in heaven he appears " as a Lamb that has been slain," and receives the adorations of all his redeemed people, on a perfect equality with the Father : " they sing, day and night, salvation to our God, who sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb for ever and ever."
The high-priest, having offered the sacrifice, carried its blood within the vail, and there sprinkled it on the mercy-seat, and before the mercy-seat. Now, our blessed Lord was both the Sacrifice and the Priest who offered it : and having offered his own blood as an atonement upon the cross, he rose from the dead, and " entered ivith his oivn blood into the heaven of heavens," there to present it unto God in our behalf^. With that blood he sprinkles, as it were, the mercy-seat of the Most High ; and God the Father, beholding it, is pacified towards us ; or, as St. Paul expresses it, " He is reconciled towards us by the blood of the cross'."
Whilst within the vail, the high-priest covered the mercy-seat loith clouds of incense : and this also our blessed Saviour does, by his continual intercession. " He appears in the presence of God for us," as our all-prevailing Advocate and Intercessor : and by his intercessions, founded on the merit of his own sacrifice, he obtains for us all those supplies of grace and peace which our daily necessities require : for " Him the Father heareth always."
Having fulfilled these offices within the vail, the high-priest came forth, clad in all his splendid garments, to bless the peo- ple. And so will our great High-priest come forth, in his own glory, and in all the glory of his Father, to complete the blessed- ness of his redeemed people. To all of them he will say, " Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."]
h Heb. ix. 12. i Col. i. 20 — 22.