bloom, were deposited in the same most Holy place (Heb. ix. 4), symbols of other mysteries which were to be progressively developed, even the Holy Scriptures and the true priesthood, which were both necessary for the perfection of the Church; the first of which has been exalted by Protestants to the despising of the latter, and the second of which has been exalted by the Romanists to the despising of the former. Things are not emblems or types of persons, but of other things, or of abstractions; thus the white outward curtain of the Tabernacle, circumcision, brazen altar, laver, golden altar, candlestick, bread, ark, cherubim, are not emblems of persons, but of righteous conduct-baptism, sacrifice, washing, intercession, light, food, love, and ministry respectively. These latter things are eternal realities; the emblems may be employed to represent them or not, but the things cannot cease to exist : righteous conduct must be maintained by every Christian, and by the whole Church collectively, whether a white curtain be shewn as its emblem or not. Every man must be brought into covenant with God or he cannot enter into the kingdom of Heaven, whether circumcision or baptism be the instrument of it. The death of Christ is the only one, full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world, whether it be memorialised by the death of a lamb

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on a brazen altar, or by bread and wine. The material objects ordained of old by God as emblems of eternal truths were all dependent upon the priesthood of the house of Levi; and when that priesthood was superseded by the priesthood of Melchizedek, the Apostle Paul teaches us that another altar, which is another sacrifice, was the necessary consequence, and on that sacrifice a different constitution or body of outward and visible things. For in the former case the priesthood was confined to a single family; now any member of the congregation might be separated to the office: of old there was but one only spot where sacrifice could be made; now sacrifice can be offered any where: formerly the privileges were confined to the descendants of Abraham; now every human being is invited by the commission, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." Some external rites were, however, continued, such as baptism, but a new signification given to it, and it was made sacramental: that is, it was made the means of conveying the thing of which it was the emblem. Tithes were not peculiar to the house of Levi, and were transferred to those who should discharge the priestly office after the order of Melchizedek. One day in seven was still to be kept holy to the Lord; but the last day of the week was changed for the first.

The event which necessitated all these changes, was not only the death of the Son of God, but the resurrection from the dead, and the seating at the right hand of the Majesty on High of our nature in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth, and the giving of the Holy Ghost. In the Lord Jesus was seen God and Man in one person; but in all the members of Christ, in all who had been baptized into His name, in all the individuals who compose His Church, is to be manifested the Person of God the Holy Ghost: not as in the person of Jesus Christ by the taking of the Manhood into the Godhead, but by dwelling in men as a distinct person; so that in the Lord Jesus Christ alone is God Incarnate, although in all the members of His body, the Church, does God the Holy Ghost dwell. The wonderful, transcendent, and all-important gift of the Holy Ghost to men, is in order to transform them into the image of Christ. Christ is the great exemplar to which all men are to be conformed. With Christ alone is God well pleased; all, therefore, who seek to please God must do so by being conformed to Christ, not only in outward conduct, but in judgment and intelligence of His ways, and in such an affection of heart for those ways above all others, as sincerely to rejoice at every circumstance, however otherwise distressing, which does conform them to that image. Now as the Son of God did only act in the great work

of man's salvation and of the world's redemption through mortal flesh, through the will, the judgment, the affections, and the capacities of man, so the Holy Ghost does only act through the wills, judgments, affections, and capacities of men. But the second person of the Ever-blessed Trinity dwelt wholly in the individual Jesus Christ, to whom the Holy Ghost was given without measure, and in Him dwells all the fulness of God. The Holy Ghost, however, does not dwell in all His fulness in any one member of the body of Christ, but in different measures, and for different ends in different persons; and therefore, unless all the members are so united together as that each can supply to the manifestation of the fulness of the Holy Ghost, the part which is lacking in the other members, there is not a perfect manifested presence of the Holy Ghost: and hence we see that the unity of all the members is not merely a theory, or a comely thing, or a fitting thing, or an appropriate thing, or a thing that ought to be, but it is the essential sine quá non of the Christian Church as the body of Christ, and the manifester of God in the person of the Holy Ghost. "For," says the Apostle, we being many members in one body, and all members have not the same office, so we being many are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another."

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Thus, then, the manifestation by the Church to

the world of that which God is now doing for man must be twofold: firstly, the manifestation of that which He is working through the various gifts and distributions of the Holy Spirit in men; and secondly, the manifestation of the things or abstractions which are to be brought home, and made concrete and practical realities, by the ministration of the first.

With regard to these gifts and distributions of the Holy Ghost, the Apostle informs us that Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone of His Church, apostles and prophets are the next foundation to Him in the spiritual building: that is, that in the building and government of His Church the two ministries which are next in order to Himself are those of apostleship and prophecy. The Apostle Paul tells the Ephesians that they are "of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone" (Eph. ii. 20), it being the office of the prophet to bring light by which the obscure parts of the Scripture may be understood and interpreted as it is written, "the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men as it is now revealed unto the holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit" (Eph. iii. 4, 5) and as we learn, both from Holy Scripture and from ecclesiastical tradition, it is also the office