nant with blood. "He took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient. And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words." When Christ established the eucharist, he made a pointed allusion to this ratification of the first covenant. took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it: for this is my blood of the New Testament," or covenant, "which is shed for many for the remission of sins." o "He The author of the epistle to the Hebrews, expressly reasons upon the correspondence between this dedication of the first covenant by Moses, not without blood, and the ratificationTM of the second covenant by Christ with his own blood.P It is an act different from the sacrifices, which were made under the Mosaic law, although connected with them by a plain analogy. Without assuming the authority of revelation, we may not be able to shew, that in this act Moses was typical of Christ; but guided by that revelation we n Exod. xxiv. 7, 8. • Matt. xxvi. 27, 28. know that he was: and certainly no other prophet ever appeared, who in this singular dedication could have been foreshadowed. III. There still remains a remarkable peculiarity, in which Moses was a living type of Christ; the regal authority with which he was invested. No one of the other prophets was king, except David; who, in many instances, himself typified the Messiah. But of Moses probably it is declared, "He was king in Jeshurun," or Israel, "when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together."' To what extent and with what precise limitations the title of king is thus ascribed to Moses, it is not material here to enquire. Nor will the conclusion be materially affected, if these words should be interpreted so as to refer, not to Moses, but to God himself. It is sufficient that Moses was invested with the kingly office, as is manifest from his whole history; that he was entrusted under God with the supreme power, with the authority of imposing and executing laws; that he was the leader of the armies of Israel, the chosen instrument for first consecrating the priests and their holy places, and the presider over their national assemblies. q Deut. xxxii. 15. L r Deut. xxxiii. 5. P If now we are to search for a prophet like unto Moses, where shall we look for one, who unites to his other high qualifications the eminent dignity of king? David alone of those prophets, who are recorded in the Old Testament, was so exalted: but David was not a lawgiver, nor a mediator, nor a priest. He knew not God face to face. He performed no miracle; he was not like Moses in all the signs and wonders which God sent him to do, nor in all that mighty hand and great terror which Moses showed in the sight of all Israel.s In Christ only, the Son and Lord of David, is the type completed in all its fulness. If Moses was king in Israel, Christ is set as a king upon the holy hill of Sion. Of him, the Messiah the Prince," was it declared long before he came upon the earth; "The government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and "from henceforth, even for ever." s Deut. xxxiv. 12. u Dan. ix. 25. with justice, These splen did assertions are not applied to Christ in the looseness of figurative expression: they are not the effusions of a poetic imagination; but the sober realities of truth. The words are lofty, for the conceptions which they convey are divine. The same testimony to the regal character of Christ, thus given by the spirit of prophecy, was borne to him while upon earth. He received, without a rebuke, the acknowledgment of Nathaniel, "Thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel." That he was Christ a king, was one of the accusations under which he suffered. And he replied, with a dignified affirmation, to the question of Pilate, demanding if he were a king." But still more emphatic are the terms in which his exaltation is expressed, since his ascension into the glories of heaven. God hath" set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come; and hath put all things under his feet." "God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name y John i. 49. a 2 Luke xxiii. 2, 3. of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth: and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the 66 glory of God the Father." Hear also the words of him, to whom was opened, in vision, some faints view of the majesty with which Christ is invested on high: “I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; saying, with saying, with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and bless ing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever." " с Before distinctions and glories such as these, the highest earthly honours vanish away. Human types are, indeed, but shadows compared with the splendid realities of such an antitype. Still, it has pleased the Almighty, e Rev. v. 11 13. b Phil. ii. 9, 10, 11. ... |