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still, and in his appeal to the Jews at Antioch, expressly declares, that redemption by Christ, authenticated by his rising from the dead, was the promise. "The promise which was made unto the Fathers, God hath fulfilled the same to us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again'.'

1 Acts xiii. 32, &c.

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE TABERNACLE.

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THE Construction of the tabernacle occupies a singularly large share of the Divine communication in the Book of Exodus; and its conformity to the Divine idea was additionally provided for by a model shown to Moses in the Mount. cause of this extraordinary care must be looked for in more than the visible importance of the little temple of the tribes. The value of places where the people may assemble for public worship without disturbance from external things, is easily conceived. But the tabernacle was not for the reception of the people. In the external area, 150 feet long by 75 broad, all that could belong to popular worship was performed. There stood the brazen laver and the great altar of burntofferings. The tabernacle in the centre was closed to all but the priesthood.

It would be endless to enumerate, and impossible to reconcile, the variety of opinions which have existed relative to the Mosaic tabernacle.

By some authorities it is supposed to have been borrowed from the idol caverns and dark shrines of Egypt-a conjecture totally inconsistent with the abhorrence of the whole Mosaic Polity for paganism, and especially for the paganism of a country which still had too strong a hold on the minds of a sensual people. By others it is conceived to represent heaven. By others the Holy Place is regarded as the emblem of this world, and the Holy of Holies as that of the world to come 1.

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1 This idea is founded on translating the words “ μikov”—a "mundane sanctuary." Our common version is, a 'worldly sanctuary;" both equally in direct contradiction to the context. But the entire passage offers an instructive example of the utter emptiness of verbal criticism. Wetstein and Bishop Middleton contend for "mundane" as the meaning of

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KOOμLKOV." Wakefield pronounces it "furniture." A whole host insist that it implies "magnificent:" others that it means "earthly and degraded:" some that Kooμikov must be the substantive; others that ayiov; others that neither. Bishop Middleton asserts, that to sustain our translation the article is essential. Others, equally determined, assert, that no article at all is necessary; and that, if it were, the Bishop has fixed his favourite article on the wrong word: others settle the controversy by denying the existence of the word itself in Greek.

Yet, shrinking from this "confusion worse confounded;" the common custom of all language tells us, that the adjective, by usage, can acquire the force of the substantive. What would those critics make of "the true sublime," or of the similar phrases in all tongues. But the battle extends to the "ршrn," which forms the distinction of the two sanctuaries, but which a crowd

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Perfectly possible as it is, that there may be some solemn likeness between things in earth and things in heaven (a likeness, however, which must be neither fitted nor intended for our faculties)-still,

of those authorities pronounce to mean, "the original earthly tabernacle," as contrasted with the "heavenly." The whole passage, however, is perfectly clear to common apprehensions. St. Paul, insisting upon the superior ministry of Christ, says of the two sanctuaries-" The first (the outer) sanctuary, had an established worship and sacred furniture. For this was the plan of the tabernacle. There was the outer sanctuary (the anterior, own,) which had the lamps, and the table, and the show bread, which (sanctuary) is called the Holy. But within the second veil was the sanctuary, which is called the Holy of Holies, which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant, wherein were the golden pot of manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant."

Kuinoel, Grotius,

Even the censer generates a controversy. &c. conceive that it did not remain in the sanctuary; others that it did, but was annually superseded by another; others, that it was never left behind; others, that it was no censer at all, but an altar. The whole difficulty arising from overlooking the obvious fact, that the Holy of Holies, though entered but once a year for the solemnities of sacrifice, must, like every other part of the tabernacle, have been kept in repair, cleaned, and set in order for the service, by the servants of the Temple. The censer might thus have remained during the year within the veil, which was its proper place; but might have been brought out on the eve of the great ceremony for the use of the High Priest, which was its proper purpose. We know that in the marches of the tribes in the wilderness, the whole tabernacle was entered, taken to pieces, and put together by the Levite attendants, as it happened to be necessary.

none of the theories hitherto proposed relieve the difficulties which naturally arise out of the subject. Why there should have been two sanctuaries, and no more?-Why, while the outer sanctuary was open to the daily services of the several priesthood, the inner was closed to all but the High Priest, and to him on all days but one in the year, and that the day of national Atonement? Why, while the outer sanctuary was adorned with golden table and lamp, golden urns, and the furniture of a royal banquet, the inner contained but the censer and ark of the covenant?-Why the veil of the inner sanctuary was totally rent on the day of the crucifixion?Why both the sanctuaries ceased to exist soon after, and have never been restored?

St. Paul's declarations of the office of our Lord, as the Minister of a "better covenant," form the ground of the theory now proposed, and which seems to offer a plain solution to all those difficulties. This theory, with respect to the two sanctuaries, is, that they represented the Jewish and Christian dispensations; and, with respect to the ark of the covenant,-that it represented Paradise.

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First, as to the two sanctuaries. Until the appointed time of Christianity, Judaism was to be the authorized religion; the Holy Place, its representative, was therefore to continue open. Christianity was practically non-existent ;

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