I pray may be without sin (Eph. iv. 26.) I shall this day, perhaps, in the opinion of some, say strong things; but I must deliver the warning which loyalty to Christ, love of country, love of truth, and love to souls compel me to do. May God give his blessing!

I shall endeavour to show you, from this text, first, who is THE TRUE PRIEST, Christ Jesus; and even "He glorified not himself to be made an high priest:" and secondly, who are THE FALSE PRIESTS of every ecclesiastical denomination-Greek, Roman, or Anglican-who take "this honour" unto themselves, and who are, most certainly, "not called of God, as was Aaron." Thou, O my God and Saviour, art a priest for ever; and there is none beside thee!

I.

"Thou standest in the holy place,

As now for guilty sinners slain,
The blood of sprinkling speaks and prays
All prevalent for helpless man:
Thy blood is still our ransom found,
And speaks salvation all around."

"Consider the Apostle and High-Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus," THE TRUE PRIEST, the " great High Priest" between man and God, (Heb. iii. and iv.) He is great in his divine nature. "Thou art my Son—God of God, Light of Light. "This day have I begotten theeI have begotten thee from eternity, which, by its unalterable permanency of duration, is one continued, unsuccessive day." (Wesley on Heb. i. 5.) "For it pleased the Father that in him ('his dear son') should all fullness dwell. .all the fulness of the Godhead

bodily." (Col. i. and ii.) "The Word was made flesh": "and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John i.)

He is great in his sinless and perfect humanity. "For such an high priest became us who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins and then for the people's for this he did once, when he offered up himself." (Heb. vii.)

He is great in the fulness of his mercy and love to a perishing and ruined world; for his vicarious atonement (through personal faith therein) is the one, eternal, predestined means devised by God, whereby his banished should not

be for ever expelled from him, (2 Sam. xiv.) as all those will be who "neglect so great salvation." (Heb. ii.)

"Oh, how he loves!"

"He left his Father's throne above;
(So free, so infinite his grace!)
Emptied himself of all but love,

And bled for Adam's helpless race:
'Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For, O my God, it found out me!"

"Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved
them unto the end......A new commandment I give unto
you that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that
ye also love one another." (John xiii.) * "For we have
not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feel-
ing of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like
as we are, yet without sin." "Now of the things which
we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an High
Priest, who is set on the right hand of the Majesty in the
heavens." (Heb. viii.) "Let us therefore come boldly to
the THRONE OF GRACE, that we may
obtain mercy,
and find
grace to help in time of need." (Heb. iv.)

* "When shall this be?" incredulously asks one who knows Chris tianity only on the outside, and who is unacquainted with the inner harmony on all the grand doctrines of the faith which is maintained among all true Christians, or with the God-wrought yearning affection towards each other which is felt by all sincere Christians of every denomination. I will not except even the Roman Catholic denomination.

"Behold how good a thing it is to dwell in peace;
How pleasing to OUR KING, this fruit of righteousness ;
When brethren all in one agree

Who knows the joys of unity!

"Where unity takes place, the joys of heaven we prove;
This is the gospel grace, the unction from above,
The Spirit on all believers shed,

Descending swift from Christ our Head.

"Where unity is found, the sweet anointing grace
Extends to all around, and consecrates the place :
To every waiting soul it comes,
And fills it with divine perfumes.

"Jesus, our great High Priest, for us the gift received;
For us and all the rest who have in him believed:
Forth from our Head the blessing goes

And all his seamless coat o'erflows."

He is great by reason of the everlasting efficacy of his sacrifice: "Every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool." (Heb. x.) God's Son, "when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." (Heb. i.) How utterly out of harmony with the sublime music of these glorious truths is the officious, pretentious, presumptuous intermeddling between the human conscience and its God of a self-styled succession of priests! There is no such succession, for the simple reason that our Lord has never ceased to be a priest; and therefore can have neither successor nor vicar. pretence to such an office is an invasion of the prerogative of the Son of God, and an insult to his omnipresent energy and everlasting power "to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him." Thou, O once-despised Jesus, art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec !

The

"Seeing then that we have a great high-priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.'

"How happy every child of grace, who knows his sins forgiven, This earth he cries is not my place, I seek my place in heaven.

"To that Jerusalem above with singing I repair;

*

While in the flesh, my hope and love, my heart and soul are there:

There my exalted Saviour stands, my merciful High Priest,
And still extends his wounded hands to take me to his breast.

"What is there here to court my stay,

Or hold me back from home,

While angels beckon me away,
And Jesus bids me come ?"

Let us now see, first, in what the office of a priest consists, Three things pertained to the office of the iepes (hiereus) or sacrificing priest-atonement, intercession, blessing.

1st. Atonement; or the offering of a bloody sacrifice as a substitution for the forfeited life of the sinner, to procure remission of his sins: "and without shedding of blood is no remission." (Heb. ix. 22.) "For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things per

taining to God that he may offer both gifts (e.g. unleavened cakes and wafers, Lev. vii.) and sacrifices for sins" (as the young bullock and the goats, mentioned in Lev. xvi., and especially the paschal lamb, Exod. xii.) "For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for the soul." (Lev. xvii. 11.) But by whose blood is atonement made? Not by "the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood" Christ Jesus "entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us!"

The necessity for atonement lies deep in the consciousness of sin in man, especially when his conscience is enlightened with the revealed truth of God applied by the Holy Spirit to the mind; by whom man is led to see the awfulness of each single transgression, as a breach of God's majestic law; and for which transgression, except he be reconciled to God, he feels he shall be lost for ever! All nations have had such a consciousness, in a greater or less degree; and almost every nation has had its priestsDruidical, Egyptian, Hindu, Greek, Roman-to offer sacrifices to propitiate the gods. All this bears witness to the need of an atonement which they felt. Happy are we if we have felt this need; mourned our sins; trembled; wept; confessed them to God; and sought his favour through Jesus Christ alone. "Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted."

Now see how Jesus fulfils this part of the office of true priesthood which he sustains; namely, by laying down his life as a substitution for the forfeited lives of all transgressors. "The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep." "He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." He, "through the eternal Spirit offered himself (being both Victim and Priest) without spot to God," that his blood might "purge your conscience from dead works," (i. e. both works which are in some sense good, and which yet are dead, if they do not spring from living faith in Jesus and from love to Jesus; and still more, all evil works, which are corrupt and dead in themselves, and the desert of which is "the second death" (Rev. xx. 14); but this precious, atoning blood purges the conscience of every one that believes that he may "serve the living God" (Heb. ix. 14); who hath made him to be

sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him" (2 Cor. v.); "Being
justified freely by his grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath SET FORTH
to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to de-
clare his righteousness for the remission of sins that
are past, through the forbearance of God; (O how great
has that forbearance been!) to declare, I say, at this time
his righteousness, that he might be JUST and THE JUSTIFIER
of him that believeth in Jesus:" (Rom. iii.): Who his
own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that
we being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness:
by whose stripes ye were healed." (1 Pet. ii.)
"He was
wounded for our transgressions......he is brought as a
lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers
is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. for the trans-
gression of my people was he stricken." (Isai. liii.) Thus
was the "Eunuch of great authority under Candace,
queen of the Ethiopians" reading in his chariot, when
Philip, of whom he asked the meaning of the prophecy
began at the same scripture, and preached unto him JESUS.
(Acts viii.) In heaven they sung a new song to the LAMB
who stood in the midst of the throne, saying, "Thou wast
slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of
every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and
hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we
shall reign on the earth." (Rev. v.) O glorious Lord
Jesus!-

"Thy offering still continues new:
Thy vesture keeps its bloody hue;

Thou stand'st the ever-slaughtered Lamb;
Thy priesthood still remains the same;
Thy years, O God! can never fail ;

Thy goodness is unchangeable."

The Scripture is full of this teaching. It interpenetrates all other teaching. Not John the Baptist alone, but Moses and the Prophets, the evangelists and the apostles cry, with united voice, "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world!" If Jesus takes it away, then it is not imputed to us, (Rom. iv. 3-8.) it shall no more be found, (see Micah vii. 18-20); its condemnation in thy soul and its power over thy life are both removed from thee, whosoever thou art, that now believest in Jesus