as to have worshipped false gods in conjunction with him but here we have the very consummation of apostasy, the very completion of revolt. Nor is their revolt confined to mere words, to bare expressions of defiance. To strike an earthly sovereign has ever been esteemed one of the greatest outrages against majesty; and the records of the whole world afford but very few instances of a king being put to death, with all the formality of legal mockery, by his rebellious subjects. But, in the case of the divine sovereign of Israel, blows were added to insult, and murder to blows. His claim of royalty exposed him to derision he was crowned with thorns, and greeted with Hail! king of the Jews. His regal title was contemptuously nailed upon his cross: and, even while he was expiring in the midst of unutterable torments, the chief priests and scribes and elders, true to their purpose, insulted him to the last with express reference to this very title: "He saved "others; himself he cannot save: if he be the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, "and we will believe him: he trusted in God, let him "deliver him now if he will have him; for he said, "I am the Son of God." If the whole of this awful transaction be not the completion of revolt

Matt. xxvii. 42, 43.

foretold

foretold by Daniel, it is difficult to conceive what else can have been intended by the Holy Spirit*.

(2.) The second particular is the perfecting of the sin-offerings.

All the offerings for sin under the Levitical dispensation were merely typical of the one great sinoffering of the Lamb of God. They were imperfect shadows of the true expiatory sacrifice, and possessed no inherent virtue or intrinsic merit. The only perfect and effectual sin-offering was the Messiah, who was appointed in the councils of God for this very purpose from the foundation of the world. When he came and devoted himself a willing victim to death, the shadowy sacrifices under the Law were perfected, and their intent was at once fully explained and accomplished. The author of the epistle to the Hebrews affords us the best commentary on this particular. "There is verily," says he, a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. "For the Law made nothing perfect, but the bring "ing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw

nigh unto God. They truly were many priests, "because they were not suffered to continue by rea

The climax of the revolt, from its first breaking out to its completion, is accurately described by our Lord himself in the parable of the householder and the vineyard. See Matt. xxi. $3-45.

" son

son of death: but this man, because he continueth

ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood.-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 offer"ed up himself. The priests went always into the "first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of "God: but into the second went the high-priest " alone once every year, not without blood, which "be offered for himself and for the errors of the "people. The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made mani

fest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing which was a figure for the time then "present, in which were offered both gifts and sa→ "crifices, that could not make him that did the ser» "vice perfect as pertaining to the conscience; which

stood only in meats and drinks, and divers wash

ings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them "until the time of reformation. But Christ being 66 come, an high-priest of good things to come, by

a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made "with hands, that is to say, not of this building; "neither by the blood of bulls and calves, but by "his own blood, he entered in once into the holy "place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. "For, if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the "ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sancti"fieth

1

"fieth to the purifying of the flesh; how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the "eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God,

46

purge your consciences from dead works to serve "the living God?-Almost all things are by the "Law purged with blood; and without shedding " of blood there is no remission. It was therefore necessary, that the patterns of things in the hea"vens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves, with better sacrifices "than these. For Christ is not entered into the

"

holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. of God for us. Nor yet "that he should offer himself often, as the high"priest entereth into the holy place every year with "blood of others: for then must he often have suf"fered since the foundation of the world: but now "once in the end of the world hath he appeared to "put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And, as "it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this "the judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear "the sins of many; and unto them that look for "him shall he appear the second time without sin "unto salvation. For the Law, having a shadow "of good things to come and not the very image of "the things, can never with those sacrifices which

comers thereunto perfect. For then, would they

"not have ceased to be offered? because that the "worshippers once purged should have had no (c more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices "there is a remembrance again made of sins every

year. For it is not possible, that the blood of "bulls and of goats should take away sins. Where

fore, when he cometh into the world, he saith, "Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a "body hast thou prepared me; in burnt offerings ' and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure: 'Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the "book it is written of me) to do thy will, O God. Above, when he said, Sacrifice and offering and "burnt offerings and offerings for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein (which are "offered by the Law); then said he, Lo, I come to "do thy will, O God. He taketh He taketh away the first that he may establish the second. establish the second. By the which "will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every

66

CT

priest standeth daily ministering and offering "oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never "take away sins but this man, after he had offer"ed one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down on the

right hand of God-For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified-Now, where remission of sins is, there is no more offer66 ing