refer to more than one object at once, to prefigure in the same language events shortly to take place, and others which are to happen it may be many ages afterwards. Rather we may say that this is the usual method of prophecy; it being indeed so ordered by the great Disposer of events, that the things first contemplated were themselves a kind of prophetic type of the things ultimately pointed out.

Now it appears from this passage, thus viewed, as well as from the last two chapters of this book, that a fresh division of the land was proposed, answerable no doubt to the altered circumstances, in which the several tribes would have stood, had they all returned to Judea. Such a fresh allotment of the land might be needful to prevent the risk of disputes as to the boundaries of property, on the return of a whole people to their country after an absence of seventy years and more. And in connexion with other changes appointed in this vision, relating to the ritual of public worship, it might be meant to prepare the Jews for understanding, that their religious and civil institutions, though revealed from heaven, were not, as they fondly imagined, intended to last to the end of time.

The new division of the land, as far as here set forth, provided first a portion for an oblation unto the Lord, to be consecrated as his perpetually. In this was to stand the temple, as previously described, and the remainder was to serve for the residence, and in part for the support, of the priests and Levites. Next a portion is allotted for the city, large enough for its site and suburbs, and for the supply of such things needful for the use of its inhabitants as could not well be brought from a greater distance. And on each side of these two allotments there was to be a portion for the prince, that he might have the less occasion or pretext for laying oppressive burdens on the people. "And the rest of the land shall they give to the house of Israel according to their tribes.' See ch. 47. 13. 48. 1. The dimensions of the several portions cannot now be known with certainty, because the word denoting the admeasurement is left out in the Hebrew Scriptures, where the word "reeds" is supplied in our translation. But the point most worthy of our observation is the principle on which this allotment proceeds. Well would it be if in the settlements established by Christians, they never failed to allot a portion for God's house and for his ministers, as well as for the city, the people, and the prince. Well would it be, if that which has been once thus allotted to the uses of religion, were ever after treated as most holy. Here the vision is plain for all to understand. And here, as in all other matters affecting the well being of mankind, we shall never fail to find the right principles of action, if we seek them in the word of God.

Ordinances for the prince, and for his offerings.

9 Thus saith the Lord GOD; in all solemnities of the house Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel: remove violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice, take away your exactions from my people, saith the Lord GOD.

shall he do the like in the feast of the seven days, according to the sin offering, according to

the burnt offering, and according to the meat offering, and according to the oil.

LECTURE 1356.

Princes and their subjects dealt with alike in Scripture. Holy scripture deals with all men faithfully alike. And strongly as it enjoins on the multitude conscientious submission to "the powers that be," Rom. 13. 1, it no less forcibly inculcates on kings, and all who are in authority, a conscientious regard for the welfare of their subjects. "Thus saith the Lord God, Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel: remove violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice, take away your exactions from my people, saith the Lord God." How solemnly are the future princes of the land here charged to be content with their allotted portion; see ver. 7, 8; how strongly are they warned against the sins most easily besetting them, oppression, and exaction, and partiality in judgment! Closely connected with the due administration of justice is the maintenance of a fixed standard for weights and measures. And not only would justice between man and man depend upon the observance of these statutes, but the offerings due to God are here prescribed by measure, weight, and reckoning. And the regulations are so connected as to lead us to suppose, that God thereby graciously designed, to secure the more effectually this great point of honest dealing to his people.

As princes are told in Scripture of their duties, and their sins, no less plainly than other men, they are also taught in the inspired volume the same means of reconciliation unto God. The same sin offering is shewn to be indispensable for both. And in this vision there is an ordinance of singular propriety, to teach them their common interest in the one atonement efficacious for all. The people of the land are directed to give the "oblation for the prince in Israel." And immediately afterwards it is said to be "the prince's part," "to prepare the sin offering, and the meat offering, and the burnt offering, and the peace offering, to make reconciliation for the house of Israel." What an effectual security for mutual good will, such good offices of mutual intercession! What little risk would there be of tyranny in rulers, or of rebellion in their subjects, nay of the least oppression on the one part, or of so much as a murmur on the other, if both were used to intercede with God in earnest for each other as well as for themselves, and both accustomed to look for pardon and peace only to the merits of their Saviour!

Ordinances for the prince and for the people in worship.

1 Thus saith the Lord GOD; The gate of the inner court that looketh toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the sabbath it shall be opened, and in the day of the new moon it shall be opened.

2 And the prince shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate without, and shall stand by the post of the gate, and the priests shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate: then he shall go forth; but the gate shall not be shut until the evening. 3 Likewise the people of the land shall worship at the door of this gate before the LORD in the sabbaths and in the new moons. 4 And the burnt offering that the prince shall offer unto the LORD in the sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish, and a ram without blemish.

5 And the meat offering shall be an ephah for a ram, and the meat offering for the lambs as he shall be able to give, and an hin of oil to an ephah.

6 And in the day of the new moon it shall be a young bullock without blemish, and six lambs, and a ram: they shall be without blemish.

7 And he shall prepare a meat offering, an ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, and for the lambs according as his hand shall attain unto, and an hin of oil to an ephah.

8 And when the prince shall enter, he shall go in by the way of the porch of that gate, and he shall go forth by the way thereof. 9 But when the people of the land shall come before the LORD in the solemn feasts, he that

go

entereth in by the way of the
north gate to worship shall
out by the way of the south
gate; and he that entereth by
the way of the south gate shall
go forth by the way of the
north gate he shall not return
by the way of the gate whereby
he came in, but shall go forth
over against it.

10 And the prince in the midst of them, when they go in, shall go in; and when they go forth, shall go forth.

11 And in the feasts and in the solemnities the meat offering shall be an ephah to a bullock, and an ephah to a ram, and to the lambs as he is able to give, and an hin of oil to an ephah.

12 Now when the prince shall prepare a voluntary burnt offering or peace offerings voluntarily unto the LORD, one shall then open him the gate that looketh toward the east, and he shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, as he did on the sabbath day: then he shall go forth; and after his going forth one shall shut the gate. 13 Thou shalt daily prepare a burnt offering unto the LORD of a lamb of the first year without blemish: thou shalt prepare it every morning.

14 And thou shalt prepare a meat offering for it every morning, the sixth part of an ephah, and the third part of an hin of oil, to temper with the fine flour; a meat offering continually by a perpetual ordinance unto the LORD.

15 Thus shall they prepare the lamb, and the meat offering, and the oil, every morning for a continual burnt offering.

LECTURE 1357.

What distinctions are allowable between men, and what not. In these ordinances for the worship of the prince and of the people, we find that the prince has a distinct gate by which to enter into the temple, and a distinct place in which to stand when there, and distinct sacrifices to prepare and offer. And yet when directions are given for the coming in and going out of the people, it is added, " And the prince in the midst of them, when they go in, shall go in; and when they go forth, shall go forth." So that they were to worship together at the same time in one united congregation. The distinctions were therefore merely for the sake of order; and they may suggest to us what kind of distinctions are now allowable amongst different ranks in the same congregation. Where all must have some place, it is well for each to have his own. This tends to prevent confusion, and it may also cut off some occasion for wandering of thought. Where different places are higher and lower, better and worse, it is well for those who are the chief in rank to have the highest and the best. This is well at least for those whose rank is low, lest otherwise they be tempted to proud thoughts, where all are alike bound to exercise humility. But more than this is not well for any. More distinction between high and low, rich and poor, than thus arises from the necessity of the case, is bad for all, and worst for those who are thus unduly raised, in the house of God, above their fellows.

The direction that the people should not return by the gate at which they entered is evidently meant to prevent confusion in the throng. Some indeed think it intended to obviate the risk of turning their backs upon the house of God. But this they must do in either case, on walking out of it. Besides if this had been the intent of this regulation, it would never have been permitted to the prince to go forth as here directed, by the same gate as that by which he entered in. Distinctions between men, amongst each other, are upheld and sanctioned in the word of God. But in a question of reverence toward God in man, there is no distinction allowable, between the most mighty potentate of the earth, and the most lowly of his vassals. Both are sinners. Both came into the world tainted with the same corruption of nature, liable to the same sentence of wrath, and alike wholly incapable of escaping it, by any power or worthiness of their own. when they draw nigh unto God to pray unto Him for his grace, or to praise Him for his goodness in bestowing it, through the sacrifice of his blessed Son, both owe the like measure of respect, namely, all that man can do to manifest the most submissive veneration towards the majesty of the almighty God.

And