CHAPTER XII.

Local and visible Manifestations, Intercourse and Instructions as characterizing the primeval and Mosaic Dispensations--Local Presence of the Messenger Jehovah in the Tabernacle.

It being evident that the Messiah appeared to the patriarchs in a visible form, that they recognized him under various designations, saw him face to face, conversed with him, offered to him burnt offerings and prayers, believed in him with that faith which is unto righteousness, received from him revelations, promises, and covenants, and in all the aspects and relations in which he appeared, regarded him as their God and the God of providence and grace, their Creator, Preserver, Lawgiver, and Ruler, it is safe to conclude that this method of personal and visible manifestation and intercourse was a primary and essential characteristic of that dispensation. If the instances of such personal appearance and intercourse in which minute details are recorded, as in that to Abraham in the plain of Mamre, and that to Jacob at Peni-El, are not greatly multiplied, they are yet sufficiently numerous, considered in connection with the occasions, circumstances and expressions by which other instances are distinguished, to warrant us in supposing the frequent occurrence of like manifestations to the same individuals, and to many others of whose personal history no extended details are recorded, and many others of whom nothing, or nothing except their names, is mentioned. Moreover, when Moses wrote, such visible manifestations were familiar to the Israelites, and in his retrospective history no more required to be specially mentioned, except as incidents interwoven with, and inseparable from, the personal narratives of the past, than full details respecting sacrificial offerings, their typical references, the law of the Sabbath, and other matters, which were in like manner familiar, and constituted the essential elements of their religious system.

There is ground to conclude that this mode of manifestation was coëval with the creation; and that, if there had been no apostasy of man, He "for whom are all things, and by whom are all things," would have continued visibly and constantly present with the race on earth, as he will be after he shall have destroyed the last enemy, and obviated the consequences of the fall. At that predicted restitution, a condition of things like that which preceded the defection is to be realized; when he is to dwell with men--their God.

The New Testament clearly ascertains to us that he was personally the Creator. The style and manner in which he spoke and acted, as recorded by Moses in his account of the creation, and in his primeval intercourse with Adam, coincides in familiarity, and may be described as homogeneous, with that employed on occasions of his visible manifestations to Abraham, Jacob, and others. When he said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness," it may well be presumed that, among other things, he had reference to that visible form in which he was thenceforth frequently recognized, and in which he at length became incarnate, and will hereafter be seen by every eye.

As instances of the appropriateness of what he said to a person locally present, and speaking and acting as a man would naturally do, the following are referred to: "He _saw_ every thing that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. And on the seventh day, having ended his work, he _rested_, and blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had _rested_ from all his work which Elohim created and made." Such references to time and place imply an actor having coincident relations. Again, "He planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed, and commanded him, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." After the transgression, the same local references, and the like familiarity, and implication of his personal presence, are continued: "And they heard the voice"--according to Owen and others, the WORD--"of Jehovah Elohim, _walking_ in the garden; and Adam and his wife hid themselves from _the presence_"--literally, _the face_--"of Jehovah Elohim, amongst the trees of the garden. And Jehovah Elohim called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice, and I was afraid, and I hid myself." These passages seem to be demonstrative of the local personal presence of the Divine speaker, as clearly as of that of the guilty couple. They heard him in the garden, and to avoid meeting or being met by him, they hid themselves among the trees. This would have been to no purpose, had he not been locally, but only spiritually present. They heard him walking, and having retreated to a covert for concealment, he called to Adam; acts which, in a plain, literal narrative, imply a local personal presence.

If on this occasion, when the delinquent parties were successively arraigned and questioned, and the sentence of condemnation was pronounced in words addressed personally to each, he was locally present, the otherwise seeming paradox, that the same style and manner of address to the subtle adversary should be employed as to Adam, disappears. So the words addressed to Cain can hardly be thought to have been literally spoken, but upon the supposition that the Divine speaker was locally present, and that his presence was matter of previous and familiar recognition to Cain. A like inference may be made from the statement that Elohim came to Abimelech, and spake to him in a dream, and from his address to Jehovah, Gen. xx.; and also from the statement that Elohim came to Laban in a dream, and his mention of the fact, and of the caution he renewed to Jacob, Gen. xxxi.

Nor is there in any respect any thing improbable in the supposition that he was locally and visibly present in the likeness of man at that period, any more than at subsequent periods. On the contrary, the statement (John i. 1) that the WORD--the delegated Person who in due time assumed our nature and was visibly on earth--_was_ in the beginning, and created all things, implies that he was then recognized in his official character, which implies relations and acts of which place and visibility were indispensable conditions. Such must undoubtedly have been the case when he was seen, if not uniformly when his voice was heard. He may have been often locally present when, though heard, he was not seen. Such, with respect to Daniel's companions, was the case in his vision, chap. x. He saw one in the form of man, whose face was as the appearance of lightning, and heard his words; but the men that were with him saw not the vision. And when Paul saw his person so unequivocally as to constitute him a witness of his resurrection, the men accompanying him heard his voice, but saw him not. When it is simply said that he appeared to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, or others, and the narrative proceeds to relate what he said, and what answers were made, the language plainly implies his local personal presence, though no mention is made of his being seen. The occasions and objects of his appearance in such instances were, so far as we can judge, as important and as appropriate to such local and visible manifestations, as those in relation to which it is expressly recorded that he was seen in the likeness of man.

The primeval and Levitical dispensations were specially characterized by visible manifestations, acts, rites and events, embodying, enforcing, and illustrating the great truths which were revealed. Thus, on the part of man, the first prohibition enjoined upon Adam, besides its reference to his will, had relation to an external and visible act, and an external and visible object, the fruit of a particular tree. The ritual of worship prescribing, among other offerings, that of slaughtered animals on an altar, the observance of the Sabbath, the long list of fasts, feasts, convocations, ordinances, rites and ceremonies, and most of the injunctions and prohibitions of the moral law, had respect to outward and visible acts. And on the other hand, the Divine Lawgiver and Ruler manifested himself visibly, announced his revelations and commands in audible words, distinguished the righteous generally by outward prosperity, long life, and numerous descendants, and the wicked by opposite evils, or by special calamities and judgments manifest to public observation. By this method, the personality, the attributes and perfections, the prerogatives and rights, the holiness, faithfulness, mercy and truth of Jehovah, were not only exhibited to the view of all intelligent creatures, fallen and unfallen, but were exhibited in such relations to accountable creatures, in their various circumstances, and in their connections with laws, covenants, promises, and predictions, as to lead unmistakably to a right apprehension of them, and a right apprehension of the conduct of men in view of them; results which, so far as we can judge, could have been produced in no other way, unless by endowing creatures with omniscience, or with plenary inspiration. For, from their nature as created, finite and dependent agents, their thoughts, apprehensions and inferences are successive, and all the knowledge of external things which they acquire otherwise than by inspiration, they acquire by means of their external senses; seeing visible objects, hearing audible sounds, &c. Those to whom these divine manifestations, personal, visible, and audible, were first made, had no prototypes, precedents or analogies, to assist them in gaining right apprehensions, and deducing just conclusions, had the method of instruction been that merely of announcements, from an invisible source, of abstract propositions. But by the method actually adopted, prototypes, precedents and analogies were furnished, which, being recorded in the relations and historical connections in which they occurred and were observed, serve effectually for the instruction of those to whom similar outward and visible manifestations are not vouchsafed.

On the other hand, by the method taken, the nature, deserts, and consequences of sin were unmistakably shown, by its being embodied and publicly exhibited in visible acts and their consequences. Thus the transgression of Adam, regarded in its connection with the prohibition which had been emphatically enjoined, with his arraignment, and the sentence pronounced upon him, and with his expulsion from Eden, and the curse and blight visibly produced upon the earth on which he was doomed to toil for a subsistence, and at length to decline and die, furnished illustrations of the indescribable turpitude of his apostasy, and of the moral and physical evils that were among its just and legitimate consequences, which neither then nor now could be conveyed in an abstract statement. So the hypocrisy, envy, infidelity, and malignity of Cain, regarded in connection with the knowledge he had of the consequences of Adam's transgression, and of the laws, obligations, and duties which were binding upon him; and in connection with the remorse visibly depicted on his countenance, his expulsion from the accustomed place of worship and of intercourse with Jehovah, and the spectacle he was to exhibit as a fugitive and a vagabond, despised and shunned as an outcast, for whom the earth, in respect to his tillage of it, was specially cursed and blighted; furnished, to the view of all intelligent observers, lessons and illustrations which could in no other conceivable way have been exhibited.

The like may be observed concerning the spectacle of violence and corruption which all but universally prevailed before the deluge, and on account of which that exterminating judgment upon the race, with its visible accompaniments and its physical effects upon the earth itself and its irrational inhabitants, was, in the view of the whole universe of accountable creatures, specially and judicially inflicted. Also, concerning the notorious and awful wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the exterminating retribution visited upon them, making them a public and perpetual example. And, omitting to specify less conspicuous and individual instances to the like effect in the history of the patriarchs, or that of the treatment of the Israelites in Egypt, and its counterpart in the plagues which ensued, or any of later date, it is manifest that this method of manifestation, instruction, warning, and reproof, was characteristic of those early times.

If now, in conformity with "the unanimous opinion of the ancient Church," we consider that He who in his delegated character is, in Moses and the prophets, designated by all the Divine names and titles, and specially, among his peculiar official titles, by that of the Messenger Jehovah, "was the mediator in all the relations of God to the people," and, as expressed by Hengstenberg; from the beginning constantly filled up the infinite distance between the Creator and the creation, and was in all ages the Light of the world, and Mediator in all the relations of God to the human race, then his early method of local, personal, and visible manifestations, interpositions, and instructions, is obviously in keeping with that exhibited during his subsequent sojourn on earth, and so accordant with the nature and ends of his official character and its relations and objects, as to imply that the present dispensation is an exception, to be succeeded by one of renewed and more glorious, impressive, and instructive visibility than that of Paradise, when all his prior administrations and agencies will be completely vindicated, every eye will see him, and every tongue confess that he is Jehovah, to the glory of God the Father.

The foregoing observations may be further illustrated by reference to the tabernacle as the local residence of the Messenger Jehovah, and as in some respects typical.

The pattern of the tabernacle which was shown to Moses in the mount, was a representation to him of the person and work of the Mediator as Priest and King in human nature, which he was required to represent to the children of Israel by the visible structure which he was to erect. The _true_ tabernacle, of which this was the figure, was his human nature, in which his sacrifice, intercession, and regal glory were to be realized.

The tabernacle, with its furniture and services, signified to the worshippers the leading truths concerning the person, offices, mediation, incarnation, sacrifice, intercession, and final glory and reign of Christ. It taught these truths by means of visible signs--figures intended to serve that purpose till Christ should come, and in human nature, the true tabernacle, make atonement by shedding his own blood, and openly manifesting the way of reconciliation and access to God through him.

This way into "the holiest of all," _i. e._, heaven itself was not to be openly and completely manifested, but only as was practicable through these visible signs and teachings, during the continuance of the tabernacle erected by Moses, and afterwards placed in the first temple, as a figure of the true; but the coming of Christ in the true tabernacle, his human nature, to offer himself a sacrifice, would fulfil and make manifest the things signified in the figure. The tabernacle signified that he would become literally incarnate; but by the actual exhibition of his person in human nature, all obscurity and doubt would be removed.

The tabernacle, as a figure of his incarnate person, included, in the sanctuary within the veil, the golden altar of incense, the ark of the covenant, and the mercy-seat, which was the throne; and in the other apartment, the altar of burnt offering, the show-bread, the candlestick, &c., answering to the offices and benefits of Him who was both priest and sacrifice, altar and mercy-seat.

That they had an ark and tent answerable essentially to the tabernacle anterior to that erected in the wilderness, is implied in several passages. Thus, Exod. xxxiii., before the gifts had been received for the new structure, "Moses took _the tabernacle_ and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp; ... and as Moses entered into _the tabernacle_, the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and talked [see Heb.] with Moses." Again, Exod. xvi., on the first dispensation of manna, Aaron is directed to "Take a pot and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up _before Jehovah_, to be kept for your generations. So Aaron laid it up before the testimony, to be kept:" that is, probably, in the _tent_ or place where the Shekina dwelt, as afterwards in the tabernacle at Shiloh and Mizpeh, prior to the erection of the temple. The same thing may be implied in the words of the Philistines when the Israelites brought the ark of the covenant into their camp: "The Philistines were afraid, for they said, Elohim is come into the camp. Woe unto us!... this is _the_ Elohim that smote the Egyptians." 1 Sam. iv. As if, in the information they had received concerning the plagues of Egypt, the presence of _the_ Elohim was associated with a tent or _tabernacle_, and the ark of the covenant. That there was such a place of Divine manifestation among the Israelites during their sojourn in Egypt and at the legation of Moses, is in the highest degree probable, since the true faith and worship were preserved; and probably it was to that place that Moses, in the progress of his controversy with Pharaoh, often repaired for direction and authority. And Moses returned unto Jehovah, and said, "Adonai, wherefore," &c. Exod. v. "And Moses spake _before_ Jehovah...." "And Moses said _before_ Jehovah." vi. "And Moses went out from Pharaoh, and entreated Jehovah." viii. "And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, [perhaps from the district of the Egyptians to that of the Israelites,] and spread abroad his hands unto Jehovah." ix. The same word (Sheken or Shekina) which is employed to signify that Jehovah _dwelt_ in the pillar of cloud and of fire, and in the tabernacle between the cherubim, is employed also Gen. iii. 24, which may read, "He caused the cherubim to _dwell_ at the east of the garden of Eden," _i. e._, as in a tent or covering, a tabernacle, or column of cloud or fire.

Doubtless Moses previously understood the true doctrine concerning the person, mediation, and sacrifice of the Divine Mediator; but to qualify him to teach this doctrine and to enforce the duties connected with it, an exhibition was made to him of that Person in the form in which he was to make atonement by the sacrifice of himself. On the occasion of receiving instruction concerning the tabernacle, being called up into the mount, he, with Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders, saw the Elohe of Israel, in the likeness of the God-man, as appears from the allusion to his person, and what took place. "There was under _his feet_ as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone.... Upon the nobles he laid not _his hand_.... They saw (_the_) Elohim, and did eat and drink." They evidently saw his person in the form in which he was to execute the priestly office, and which was to be foreshown by the tabernacle. No man hath seen the Father. But Moses saw (_the_) Elohim, the Elohe of Israel, Jehovah, the Messenger, the God-man. On another occasion Jehovah came down and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and said, "With Moses will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches, and the similitude of Jehovah shall he behold." Numb. i. He appeared in the form of man to Abraham, Jacob, and others, with no accompaniment of visible glory. Isaiah saw him, the King, Jehovah Zebaoth, _seated_ on a throne; Ezekiel, in the likeness of a man on a throne, John, as the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to his feet.

After this manifestation to the leaders and elders of Israel, Moses went alone into the midst of the cloud on the mount, and remained there forty days, receiving instructions for himself and the people concerning the tabernacle. "And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering, &c.; ... and let them make me a sanctuary, that _I may dwell among them_. According to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it." This perfect model, by an imitation of which he was to represent the incarnate person and sacerdotal work of Christ, was shown to him in the mount. No doubt a visible pattern of the tabernacle and its instruments was shown to him. That it was not a mental vision, or a verbal description merely, by which he was instructed, is clearly indicated by the phraseology above quoted from Exod. xxv. 9: "According to all that I show thee;" more strictly, "According to all that I make thee to see."

Again, after a variety of directions concerning the table for the show-bread, the candlestick, and other articles of furniture, Jehovah said to Moses, "Look that thou make them after _their pattern_ which was showed thee in the mount." Exod. xxv. 40, and xxvi. 30. "Thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to _the fashion thereof_ which was showed thee in the mount." And relating to the altar of burnt offerings: "Hollow with boards shalt thou make it: as it was showed thee in the mount, so shalt thou make it." xxvii. 8. Again, at the dedication of the tabernacle it is said, "According unto the pattern which Jehovah had showed Moses, so he made the candlestick." Numb. viii. 4.

This phraseology, accompanied as it is by minute verbal descriptions of the several objects, still refers to something more definite; a form, model, pattern, which he was strictly to imitate. The purposes to be answered required perfect accuracy in the copy. And hence the apostle, Heb. viii. 5, alluding to this scene, says: "Moses was admonished of God, when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount."

This construction is confirmed by a portion of subsequent history. When Solomon was about "to build an house for the sanctuary," David, instructed by Divine inspiration in respect to the forms of different parts of the edifice, caused patterns or models thereof to be constructed for the guidance of his son. "Then David gave to Solomon the pattern of the porch, and of the houses thereof, and of the treasuries thereof, and of the upper chambers thereof, and of the place of the mercy-seat; and the pattern of all that he had by the Spirit, of the courts of the house of Jehovah, and of all the chambers round about, of the treasuries of the house of Elohim, and of the treasuries of the dedicated things." 1 Chron. xxviii. In these services no discretion was left either to Moses or to Solomon. The things to be made were to be made in exact imitation of the patterns furnished.

If we suppose that Moses beheld the person of the Mediator in the likeness of man, and at the same time beheld the model of the tabernacle and its furniture, by a copy of which he was visibly to prefigure and represent the human nature and the official works of Christ, then the structure erected by him, with the throne, the altar, and all the instruments and rites of the Levitical service, will appear in the highest degree fitted to instruct the people in the great truths concerning his kingly and priestly offices. His consecration of the most holy apartment as his dwelling-place, answerable, as the place of his intercession and of his mediatorial throne to that in which he was to appear after his incarnation and ascension, will be intelligible; and the fact that there he reigned as King, dictated laws, and administered the Theocracy, and that he was on subsequent occasions soon in connection with the visible form and accompaniments of the tabernacle, by Isaiah, Ezekiel, and others, and lastly by John after his ascension, will appear consistent with all that is made known to us of his mediatorial agency and visible manifestations under the primeval, patriarchal, and Mosaic dispensations. During those dispensations he as truly officiated as Mediator as after the full realization of what the tabernacle prefigured; exercised the offices of Prophet, Priest, and King, and dwelt personally in the holy place of the tabernacle after that was prepared, till he formally forsook and withdrew from it, prior to the destruction of the first temple. His office and relations, as civil head and ruler of the nation, implied his personal presence. That, as their civil ruler, he was King in the same sense as other kingly rulers, appears from what is said when, through unbelief and desire of a leader and judge who should be always visible, they sinfully demanded a king from among themselves, like the kings of other nations: "Ye said, A king shall reign over us, when Jehovah your Elohe was your king." 1 Sam. xii. 13.

From the oracle, the cover of the mercy-seat in the holy place within the veil, as one ever present, he spoke to Moses, dictated the laws which are recorded after the erection of the tabernacle, and gave responses to the high priest on special occasions, whenever appealed to, not only during the ministry of Moses, but afterwards. And it is to be noticed that, as there were during the earlier dispensations certain localities appropriated to Divine worship, where altars were erected to Jehovah and typical sacrifices offered, and Divine manifestations and revelations were vouchsafed; so, after the tabernacle was set up, and also after it was transferred to the temple, it was the place resorted to for oracular responses as well as for sacrifices of burnt offering. On the occasion of the war with Benjamin, "the children of Israel, and all the people, went up and came unto the house of Elohim, and wept, and sat there _before_ Jehovah, and fasted that day until even, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before Jehovah. And the children of Israel inquired of Jehovah, (for the ark of the covenant of [_the_] Elohim was there in those days, and Phinehas the son of Aaron stood before it in those days,) saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle? &c.... And Jehovah said, Go up," &c. Judges xx. Thence, in the days of Eli, Jehovah spoke to Samuel 1 Sam. iii. See also Joshua vii. 6; 1 Chron. xxi. 30; 2 Sam. xxii. 7; Psalm xviii. 6; xxvii. 4; Isaiah lxvi. 6.

Now, the tabernacle was erected expressly to be the dwelling-place of Jehovah as Mediator, "Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them." Exod. xxv. 28, "Thou shalt put the mercy-seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shall put the testimony that I shall give thee. And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel." xxv. 21, 22. "There I will meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory.... And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God, and they shall know that I am Jehovah their Elohe, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them." xxix. 43, 45, 46. The tabernacle in the wilderness had its station in the midst of the camps; from the precincts of which all lepers were to be excluded, "that they defile not their camps in the midst whereof I dwell." Numb. v. 3. So no satisfaction might be taken for the life of a murderer in the land of Canaan; for blood defiled the land, and it could not be cleansed "but by the blood of him that shed it. Defile not therefore the land which ye shall inhabit, wherein I dwell: for I Jehovah dwell among the children of Israel." Numb. xxxv. 34. Accordingly we read that "the glory of Jehovah filled the tabernacle.... The cloud of Jehovah was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys." Exod. xl. 34, 38.

All this phraseology plainly indicates the local presence of the Personal Word; as plainly as the records of his visible presence on any occasions. Various other scriptures confirm this. When king David said to Nathan, "See now, I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains," Nathan was directed to "Go and tell David, Thus saith Jehovah, Shalt thou build me an house to dwell in? Whereas I have not _dwelt in any house_ since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day; but have _walked in a tent and in a tabernacle_." To this follow allusions to his dealings with David, and promises concerning the future. "Then went king David in [_i. e._ into the tabernacle] and sat _before Jehovah_, ... and made acknowledgments, thanksgivings, and prayers to Jehovah Zebaoth, the Elohe of Israel." 2 Sam, vii.

It is thus manifest that the tabernacle was intended as the residence of the official Person, and with reference to his official works; and being a figure of his human nature, he dwelt in it, and exercised his prophetic, regal, and priestly offices in it, as he was to do afterwards when literally incarnate. If it represented his human nature, then doubtless he dwelt in it and if he dwelt in it in any sense answerable to his subsequent dwelling in the human nature, then he dwelt in it locally and personally. The services performed there accordingly imply and confirm this view. There was a shedding of blood, the blood of the covenant, which has flowed in every age, through which remission of sin was granted. See Levit. xvii. 2; Heb. ix. 22.

No atonement could be made but by sacrificial blood-shedding; and if the shedding and sprinkling of blood in the tabernacle service prefigured the true atonement, then it referred to the incarnate Word; and if he was in any manner in the holy place, he must have dwelt there in the person and likeness in which he appeared when visible. If any Divine Person was present in the tabernacle, it must have been the Mediator in his official capacity. For to suppose it to have been the Father, is to suppose that in the Levitical services there was in the minds of the worshippers no recognition of the Mediator.

Accordingly, when he visibly appeared incarnate among men, he spoke of the temple as representing his body. "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.... But he spake of the temple of his body." John ii. 19, 21. And John, describing the Messiah as he appeared visibly incarnate, says the WORD was God--was in the beginning--created all things. "The WORD became flesh and dwelt [literally, tabernacled] among us, and we beheld his glory." John i. See also the Epistle to the Hebrews, especially chap. viii-x., where the Mosaic tabernacle of witness, as it is called in Numbers and Acts vii., is in all its essential characteristics and objects contrasted with the person and office-work of Christ as he appeared incarnate,--"a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, [his human nature,] which the Lord pitched and not man,"--in fulfilment of the things signified and prefigured in the tabernacle of witness, "which was a figure for the time then present." "But Christ being come, ... by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, ... by his own blood entered once into the holy place, [heaven as prefigured by the holy of holies within the veil,] having obtained eternal redemption for us;" _i. e._, by the offering of his own blood as an atoning sacrifice for sin, as prefigured by the sacrificial shedding of blood in the Levitical service and the patriarchal worship. "He entered not, when he offered himself a sacrifice, into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself. Nor yet did he offer himself often, as the high priest entered into the holy place every year with blood of others, but now once at the end of the Levitical economy, he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." After he had once offered himself a sacrifice for sin, he ascended, and "sat down on the right hand of God, thenceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Having therefore boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living [life-giving] way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith."

The foregoing observations and references show, in some degree, how Moses and his inspired successors wrote of the Messiah.