Heb. ix. 24. Christ is not entered into the holy places made tvith hands, ivhich are the figures of the true ; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.
IT appears, at first sight, unworthy of God to appoint with such precision every the minutest cir- cumstance relating to the tabernacle and its services. Provided he were worshipped and served, it should seem a matter of no importance whether the place, wherein he was worshipped, were of such or such an exact form, or whether the ceremonies observed in his worship were exactly of such or such a kind. But God intended to prefigure every thing relating to the Messiah and his kingdom : and therefore it was necessary not only that a model of every thing should be given to Moses % but that these patterns of hea- venly things, made by Moses according to that model, should undergo a purification by the blood of carnal sacrifices, that so the heavenly things themselves, which were to be purified by the great Sacrifice, might be the more evidently prefigured ^ These types having been given, Christ accomplished them on earth in part, and is now perfecting the accom-
** Heb. viii. 5, *> ver. 28.
plishment of them in heaven ; whither he is gone, as the high-priests went into the holy of hohes, to appear before God on behalf of his people.
It is our intention to shew,
I. In what respect heaven was typified by the holy of holies — The whole edifice of the tabernacle or temple was a figure of Christ's human nature, in which the God- head dwelt ; and of the Church also, in which God resides". But the most holy place, which is also called " the tabernacle V' eminently represented heaven :
1. It was the immediate residence of the Deity — [The Shechinah, the bright cloud, which was the symbol
of the Deity, dwelt between the cherubims upon the mercy- seat ; and there God manifested himself more than in any other place on earth®. Thus also, but in an infinitely brighter manner, does he display his glory in heaven. He is indeed on earth and even in hell ; neither can the heaven of heavens contain him ; for he pervades all space. But, though he is on our right hand, we cannot see him ; nor, if we look for him on the left hand, can he be found by us*^. But in heaven he is seen face to face ; and all the heavenly hosts behold him shining forth in all the brightness of his glory.]
2. It was inaccessible, except with the blood of sacrifices —
[No person whatever was to enter into the sanctuar}', except the high-priest, nor could he, except on the great day of annual expiation ; nor even then, except with the blood of beasts, that had been offered in sacrifice to God^. Thus is there no admittance into heaven but through the blood of our great Sacrifice. Not even our great High-priest himself, when he had become the Surety and Substitute of sinners, could enter there without his own precious blood '^; and heaven itself needed, as it were, to be purified from the defilement it con- tracted through the admission of sinners into it, even as the sanctuary, with all the vessels of it, were purified from the pollutions they had contracted through the ministration of sinful man'.]
<= John ii. 19, 21. 1 Cor. iii. 16, 17. ^ ver. 3.
e Exod. XXV. 22. f Job xxiii. 8, 9.
s ver. 7. " woi without blood.'' ^ ver. 12.
i ver. 21, 23. with Lev. xvi. 10.