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with the linen coat; secondly, with the robe of the ephod; thirdly, with the ephod; fourthly, with the mitre, to which he fastened the plate of gold. The fine linen coat was wrought with checker work. This garment was bound or girt round the body with the girdle which belonged to it, this was made of fine linen, of the same with the coat; it was wrought with blue, purple, and scarlet; it was embroidered or wrought with checker work, like the coat. This girdle was a long sash of linen, which went many times round the body, over the paps, and downward, partly to keep warm, and partly to strengthen the back in the performance of those services which were to be attended to in the sanctuary. Over this was put the robe of the ephod, it was so called because the ephod did gird and keep it tight to the body of the high priest; it had no sleeves as the checkered coat had, but it was made of two main pieces, one whereof hung before him, the other behind him; the collar of this ephod was like the collar of an habergeon, or surplice, whole, and to be put over his head just as a surplice is, and from the collar downwards the pieces were parted, and his arms came out between them; at the lower end of each of these pieces were thirtysix little bells with clappers, and pomegranates of needle-work between every bell. The bells were seventy-two in all. This robe was of the colour of the heaven over our heads, or sky

liver out sundry commands to his servant Moses, who was to make them known to the church and people of Israel.

As Jehovah Jesus appeared to Moses at Horeb in a flame of fire in a bramble bush, and spake out of it to him, and who went before him and the people of Israel in a pillar of cloud and of fire, and spake out of it to him when he gave forth his divine commands; so in the same cloud he descended on mount Horeb, and pronounced the moral law; and when the tabernacle was erected, he descended in the same cloud, and rested on or over the tabernacle, and dwelt in a resplendent part of it, in the holy of holies, between the cherubim, and out of it the Lord spake and delivered to Moses, by an audible voice, what is recorded in this and the following chapters.

The cherubims were the most sacred pieces of furniture in the tabernacle and temple. These sacred emblems were, without dispute, a sensible exhibition of divine glory, which Ezekiel saw in vision, and which he knew to be the cherubims. In, or between them, was the throne of God, the throne of grace, the symbolical representation of his dwelling with men. From thence he gave his oracles and responses to those who consulted

bim.

No doubt, the cherubims set up at the east of the garden of Eden, were of the same kind with

those that the prophet Ezekiel saw, and were designed to answer the same purpose with the model of them in the tabernacle and temple, which appears to have been so well known in Moses's time, that the workmen made them without any direction, except that they were to be beaten out of the same piece of gold whereof the propitiatory, or mercy-seat, was made.

How long the exhibition of the divine glory in the cherubims set up at the east of Eden was continued, one cannot say, but it is most probable the copies of them were made, and kept by the ancient believers, hence their figure and uses were so well known, that Moses only receives a command to make them.

As the tabernacle represented Christ's body, so the sacrifices were memorials of his bloodshedding and death.

Out of the tabernacle, from the mercy-seat between the cherubims, in the holy of holies, the Lord spake to Moses, concerning the ordinances of sacrifices and services, which it was his will and good pleasure that his church, under the old testament dispensation, should attend unto. This chapter informs us, that the Lord called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle, saying, "Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, if any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord, ye shall offer your offering of the cattle, even of the herd and

of the flock." It was the Lord alone who could prescribe the offerings he would be pleased with; as they were wholly of his appointment, so they were most exactly suited to express and answer the particular end designed. The lambs and sheep, the bulls and goats, the doves and pigeons, the meat and drink-offerings, the burnt-offerings, the sin-offerings, the peace-offerings, the trespass-offerings, the anniversary-offerings, the freewill-offerings, the consecrations, the sacrifices and services on the great day of atonement, were all most divinely and properly significant and expressive of Christ, and his complete and all-sufficient sacrifice.

It was Jehovah Jesus who spake to Moses. out of the tabernacle. The voice came from the holy of holies, from between the cherubims, who covered the mercy-seat. This pointed out God as reconciled upon the view and consideration of the propitiation Christ was to make by the offering of himself in the fulness of time. God speaks to his church by his Son; he, as Mediator, is the Father's way to us, and our way of access to him.

Moses was a type of Christ. He received all God's commands concerning divine ordinances; and Christ received the whole of his office, and the commands and ordinances he was to deliver to his church, as the great Head and

Mediator thereof, from his Father. The Lord speaking to Moses, verse 3, says, "If his offering be a burnt-offering of the herd, let him offer it a male without blemish: he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord." The burnt-offering was so called because it was wholly consumed by fire. It was very expres sive of the wrath of God, comparable to fire falling on Christ, our surety, who was made a curse for us. The sacrifices were all of them to be without blemish, to point out the purity of our Lord's person and oblation. The sacrifice mentioned in the text before us was to be a male, pointing out Messiah's sex; it was to be a voluntary offering. The will of the offerer was to be in it. This shewed how the will of Christ would be in the whole of his mediatorial and sacrificial work; it was the good pleasure of his will; his very heart and soul were in it, to become a sin offering for his people; it was to be offered before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to shew that Christ's sacrifice was of the Lord's ordaining, the one public atonement for the whole church of God.

Verse 4. "And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt-offering: and it shall be accepted for him, to make an atonement for him.” The offerer laying his hand on the head of the

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