BRIEF PRELIMINARY NOTICE OF THE KINGDOM.

(Continued)

AMENDMENT OF THE OLD COVENANT OF THE KINGDOM.

Here then is a change in the Levitical arrangements, and not an abolition of them. The “service” will be amended, not abolished. In the service under the Mosaic Covenant there were “ divers washings;” but in the service under the New Covenant of the kingdom “washings” are omitted; for in the Ezekiel Temple there is no Laver, or brazen sea provided. But sacrifices remain; for eight tables are appointed to be set up in the entry of the north gate on which the lowest class of the priests are to slay them for the people. Paul therefore did not mean that the Levitical service was absolutely and finally discontinued—that it should be revived no more; but that it should be amended to adapt it to the new circumstances created by the sacrifice and high priesthood of Jesus, which was to supersede the priesthood of Aaron.

If we be asked the reason for the conclusion that Paul meant amendment, and not final discontinuance of the Levitical service, we reply, that it is found in the phrase “until the time of reformation” used by him. His words are mechri kairou diorthoseos. The Levitical service continued unchanged for forty years after the proclamation of “reformation” by Jesus; so that the kairos or definite time for discontinuance was not at his preaching, or even the rending of the temple vail. The Mosaic service was not “imposed until the time of metanoia,” which is the word signifying the “reformation” preached. Metanoeite “repent ye,” said Jesus. No; it was “imposed until the time of diorthosis,” which is not “repentance,” but emendation, amendment; from diorthoo to correct, or make right. The subject of the diorthosis is the Mosaic Covenant, not the disposition of men. The Mosaic Constitution must be amended to make way for a new order of priesthood, and a service which shall show forth the perfection of its character. The work of amendment in regard to its foundation was laid in the death and resurrection of Jesus. It then became necessary to gather out of Judah sons for Zadok, and the Prince. “Behold I and the children whom God has given me are for signs and wonders in Israel.”—Isaiah 8: 18; Hebrews 2: 13. These children being separated to Jesus from the tribe of Levi and the nation for the purposes to be accomplished through them at “the restitution of all things,” nothing remained for that epoch, but to give the Mosaic constitution a thorough shaking. This is called shaking the heaven, and was the fulfilment of the prophecy by Haggai—Haggai 2: 6 reproduced by Paul in his epistle to the Hebrews. —Hebrews 12: 26-27. “Yet once, it is a little while, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will shake the heavens and the earth.” The “little while” was 587 years from the delivery of the prediction; and about ten years from the date of the epistle. It was the last time the nation of Israel and the constitution of their kingdom were to be shaken. Their commonwealth was to be shaken that “the things made,” or constituted, by the Mosaic Covenant, which were incompatible with the rights of the Lord Jesus founded upon “the word of the oath”—Hebrews 7: 21, 28, might be “removed;” and that “those things which” were in harmony with that word, and which “cannot be shaken might remain.” This then was the first stage of the “emendation,” or as the Gentiles would say of “the amendment of the constitution.”

The next work in the carrying out the purpose of emendation is thus expressed in Haggai—“I will shake the sea and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come; and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts.” When this was spoken the temple was in ruins, the foundation only being laid. The people then returned from Babylon said, “The time has not come that the Lord’s house should be built”—Haggai 1: 2, 4, 9; that is, the 70 years that it was to lie waste from the time its destruction are not yet accomplished, 66 years only having elapsed. But Haggai was sent to them to stir them up to the work, and in four years after, even in the sixth year of the reign of Darius, it was finished. —Ezra 6: 15. When therefore Haggai said, “this house shall be filled with glory” he did not refer to the temple to stand upon the same site which is described by Ezekiel, into which “the glory of the God of Israel,” even the Son of Man in the glory of the Father, “shall come from the way of the east,” and cause the neighbouring earth itself to shine. —Ezekiel 43: 1. This is the only interpretation the prophecy will admit of; for when Jesus came, he was neither “the desire of all nations,” notwithstanding the fanciful gloss upon Virgil’s Pollio, nor was he in glory. The glory of the God of Israel left the temple when the Chaldees were about to destroy it; and it will not return until Jesus shall sit upon his throne and bear the glory in the era of “the regeneration.”

The shaking of the heavens and the earth, as we have said, refers to “the end of all things”—1 Peter 4: 7 constituted by the Old Covenant; but the shaking of the sea and dry land, to the kingdoms of the Gentiles, and is thus explained: “I will overthrow the Throne of Kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen, &c. In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, and will make thee as a signet; for I have chosen thee, saith the Lord of hosts.”—Haggai 2: 22. This period of overthrow is “the time of trouble such as there never was since there was a nation to that same time,” when Michael shall stand up, the Great Prince who standeth for the Israelites, and who at that time shall be delivered, even all that shall be found written among the living in Jerusalem. —Daniel 12: 1; Isaiah 4: 3. This is the era of the resurrection of “the heirs” of “the kingdom which cannot be moved.” Michael (Mi-who cha-like, el God) the great power of God, even Jesus, the great Prince of Israel, appears at this crisis “to subdue all things to himself,” and to complete the work of emendation. He smites the image of Nebuchadnezzar upon its feet—Daniel 2: 34, and grinds its fragments to powder—Matthew 21: 44. He brings the king of the north, who is Head over an extensive region, (rosh al-eretz ravbah) to his end—Daniel 11: 45; Psalm 110: 6. He causes Gog to fall upon the mountains of Israel— Ezekiel 39: 4; and expels the Gentiles out of his land—Psalm 10: 16, that they may tread his holy city under foot no more. Having made the nations lick the dust like a serpent—Micah 7: 16-17, and bound their power as with a mighty chain—Revelation 20: 1-3, he proceeds in the building again of the tabernacle of David, and in the setting up of its ruins—that is, in the restoring again of the kingdom of God to Israel, or in “the restitution of all things” belonging to the Mosaic law, compatible with his exercise of the functions of High Priest in Israel. When this work is accomplished the diorthosis or emendation will be complete.

If the Mosaic Covenant of the kingdom had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second—Hebrews 8: 7. The priesthood of the Mosaic was changeable, passing from father to son. This was deemed by the Lord a very important defect, which must therefore be amended. He determined therefore that the priesthood should be changed—that it should no longer “be left to other people;” but should be unchangeable in the hands of Messiah and the saints, or Zadok and his sons. But this purpose could not be carried into effect so long as the Mosaic constitution of the kingdom continued in force; for this restricted the priesthood to the tribe of Levi, and made no provision for a priest of the tribe of Judah. Now Jehovah purposed that the High Priesthood of the nation should be changed from the tribe of Levi and the family of Aaron, to the tribe of Judah and the family of David. Hence this change of the priesthood being determined, there was decreed of necessity a change also of the law—Hebrews 7: 12. As Christ’s priesthood was not authorised by the Mosaic Covenant, something was necessary on which to found it. This necessity was provided for in the Word of the Oath which runs thus—“I have sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedec.” This oath was uttered by Jehovah upwards of 500 years after the Law was given from Sinai; and constitutes the right of David’s son to the priesthood of the kingdom; as the oath sworn to David also entitles his son to its throne for ever. The grand peculiarity, then, of the New Constitution of the kingdom over the Old is, the union of the High priesthood and kingly office in one person, of the tribe of Judah and family of David unchangeably, or for ever. Under the Mosaic, the priesthood and royalty of the kingdom were separate, and restricted to two distinct families and tribes—the priesthood, to Levi and Aaron; the royalty, to Judah and David. But this will be amended, and the Lord Jesus, in whose veins once flowed the blood of Levi, Aaron, * Judah and David, will unite in himself the kingly and priestly offices, when he sits and rules upon his throne and bears the glory.

* (Luke 1: 5, 36. Elizabeth and Mary were cousins; and Elizabeth a daughter of Aaron; their mothers were sisters. Hence Mary’s blood was Aaronic from her mother, and Davidic from her father Heli. Jesus therefore partook of both maternally.)

Well, Jesus of Nazareth was manifested to Israel as son of God at his baptism. It was clearly proved that he was the Christ, and therefore entitled to the things defined in the word of the oaths to himself and his father David. But “he was made under the law”—Galatians 4: 4, to which he yielded a perfect obedience in all things. He never entered the Court of the Priests, nor the Holy Place; nor attempted to do service at the altar. Being of the tribe of Judah, the Law forbid him to advance beyond the Court of the Israelites, or to minister in holy things. So long as the Mosaic law continued in practical operation, and he inhabited the land, he must have remained among the people. Had Israel continued in their country under the law to this day, and Jesus had remained with them until now, and they had been willing to acknowledge him, and submit to his government, he would not have ascended the throne until the constitution was dedicated and amended: “for,” says Paul, in view of this condition of affairs, “If he were on earth, he should not be a Priest, seeing that there are Priests that offer gifts according to the law”—Hebrews 8: 4. The emendation of the covenant must have been preceded by its dedication. This could only be accomplished by the death of the mediatorial testator; for no testament or covenant is of force while the testator liveth—Hebrews 9: 16-17. Jehovah is the testator, but being incapable of death, his will, or covenant, was ordained in the hand of a mediator, who became Jehovah’s substitutionary testator. As Jesus, the Heir of God, was to inherit under the New, or amended, Covenant having root in the promises, his death was necessitated; for the covenant in which his rights were vested was of no force till he died and rose again. His death was therefore the dedication of the covenant in his blood; as he himself said, “This cup is the New Covenant in my blood which is shed for many for the remission of sins”—Matthew 26: 26; Luke 22: 20—and to show the connexion between the covenant and the kingdom, said, “I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall come.” But when he came to life again after this dedication, he could not even then inherit the kingdom. The Mosaic Covenant must have been changed; an emendation, however, to which the party in power would by no means consent, as the amendment would have put them all out of the government. Pilate, and Herod, Caiaphas and the Council must have surrendered their offices into the hands of Jesus, who would have promoted in their place his own disciples and friends. But they would not hear of such a thing; therefore it remained only for Jesus to absent himself, and to abolish the kingdom until the time appointed in the wisdom of the Father for its restitution to Israel under a better, more permanent, and perfect order of things.

JEWS AND GENTILES IN RELATION TO THE NEW COVENANT

AND THE BLOOD THEREOF.

We come now to the consideration of the difficulty seemingly involved in Paul’s doctrine when regarded in the light of Ezekiel’s testimony. Jesus is now the High Priest of God, and the only one that exists, or will ever exist in relation to man. He has had no rival since the Mosaic Covenant “vanished away.” He is God’s high priest for those, both Jews and Gentiles, who have been reconciled to God through his name—that is, who believe God’s promises concerning the kingdom, and the things concerning Jesus, and have been united to his name by baptism. This is equivalent to saying, who have been reconciled through the belief and obedience of the gospel of the kingdom—through the obedience of faith. Of the things concerning Jesus are the things pertaining to his divine sonship, his spotless and unblemished character, his sacrificial death and resurrection, &c., constituting him God’s Lamb, holy and without blemish, having neither spot, nor wrinkle, or any such thing, of his own free will once offered to bear the sins of many. Thus he was at once the sacrifice and the priest; for “he offered up himself; as he said, “I lay down my life for the sheep. Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it up again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. This commandment have I received of my Father.”—Hebrews 7: 27; John 10: 15, 17-18. Being thus the Lamb slain, he resumed his life, and entered into the presence of God before whom he stands as the blood-sprinkled Ark of the Covenant—Revelation 11: 19, in whom is deposited the Law hereafter to go forth from Zion, and the life of his sheep—Colossians 3: 3, whose sins he bears away—Hebrews 9: 28; and thus they are sanctified by the dedicated covenant through the once offering of his body: so that “by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified”—Hebrews 10: 10, 14.

Now these sanctified ones are a purified people, whose “hearts,” or minds and dispositions, have been “purified by faith”—Acts 15: 9—faith in the promises of God, and in “the blood of sprinkling which speaks better things than the blood of Abel.” The blood of Jesus is the blood of sprinkling which gushed forth from his side as “an offering” or purification “for sin.” The poor in spirit and the meek, the honest and good hearts, that by faith appreciate the virtue of this sprinkled blood, and have become the subjects of repentance and remission in his name, are said to be “sprinkled from an evil conscience,” and to have “washed the body with pure water”—Hebrews 10: 22. They are “the children of the promise,” or covenant; because in becoming Christ’s they have believed the promises, and been purified by “the blood of the covenant.” As yet they walk by faith in the things believed, and not by sight. Faith, which is “the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things unseen,” is the mirror which reflects the things of the approaching future, and presents them to the believer’s mind as though he were beholding, and personally in the presence of, the very things themselves. Hence, it is said to such, “Ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the City of the living God, to Jerusalem the heavenly, and to myriads of angels, to a general convocation even to an assembly of first-borns enrolled for the heavens (en ouranois) and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the just made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the New Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling which speaks better things than that of Abel”—Hebrews 12: 22—ye are come by faith to these things, which at present ye do dimly contemplate; but which ye shall see no longer as through a glass darkly, but face to face in the presence of the Lord.

Now these, whose hearts are sprinkled and their bodies washed, are the only people on the earth since the entrance of Jesus into the presence of God, for whom he officiates as “High Priest over the House of God”—Hebrews 10: 21; 3: 6. They are “God’s temple,” “the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man”—Hebrews 8: 2. For forty years this temple coexisted with that in Jerusalem; but since the destruction of the latter it is the only temple of God upon the earth, where gifts and offerings, called “spiritual sacrifices”—1 Peter 2: 5, 9, are offered acceptably to his name. They become acceptable in being presented through Jesus Christ. They who do the worship (and they are all the faithful) enter into this holy place, or heavenly, which as a whole they constitute, with the sprinkled blood of the covenant upon their hearts. Purified once through faith in the blood sprinkled covenant of promise, hereafter to become the law of the kingdom, there is in their case no more sacrifice for sin; “for by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” Yet, though thus sanctified, they continue to offer spiritual sacrifices. All this is worshipping the Father in spirit and in truth; which is the only service acceptable to him while his kingdom is in ruins, and prostrate at the feet of the Gentiles.

But this worship in spirit and in truth, expressed in confession of the hope, —Hebrews 10: 23 (Homologia tes elpidos, confession of the hope, and not “profession of our faith,” as in the king’s version.) & Romans 10: 9-10— &c. praise, and prayer; in baptism; and in eating and drinking of the symbols on the table of the Lord, is the unburdensome privilege of those only who through faith in the Covenant and its blood have become “heirs of the kingdom.” When this is set up in Palestine, the service is changed in form, but not in principle; and from social becomes national. In the national service, the higher priesthood, which consists of Jesus and the “children God has given him,” all immortal by resurrection or transformation, though they offer the fat and the blood, it is for the people and not for themselves. They need no more sacrifice for sin; but being “priests unto God”—Revelation 5: 10, there needs must be something for them to offer on account of the worshippers for whom they officiate. The New Covenant, which we now accept as a matter of faith and hope, has not yet been made with the House of Judah and Israel. If it had, they would now be a united nation in Palestine. It will be made with them when they are grafted into their own olive and not before. At the engrafting, there will be a great national celebration, called “a delivering of the Covenant”—Ezekiel 20: 37—be-masoreth ha-berith—A delivering of the New Covenant from Zion—Micah 4: 2, with a glorious, but not such a terrible, display of power as when the Covenant was delivered from Sinai. The nation, or Twelve Tribes, having been brought at length to acknowledge Jesus as High Priest and king, are received into favor; and being under the New Covenant, as in former years they were under the Old, Jehovah becomes merciful to their unrighteousness, and proclaims everlasting oblivion of all their past individual and national offences by virtue of the royal blood of the Covenant, the preciousness of which they then perceive and appreciate. This amnesty, however, benefits that generation only to which the Covenant is delivered and by which it is accepted. It affects not the generations of Israel’s rebellious dead; they are the “cut off from the people.”

Now, the question remains, when thus reconciled to God through the blood of his Son, is the nation to have a religious service or worship; and if they are, what is to be its principle, and what its form? No one who understands the Bible would affirm, that the Twelve Tribes of Israel were to live in their own land under the New Covenant for 1000 years without any national religious worship. To affirm this would be to say in effect, that God had prepared a Royal Priesthood for his kingdom, but had provided no service for them to perform. This is inadmissible for a moment. There will be a service under the New Covenant as there was under the Old. Its principle will be memorial, not typical; even the extension of the principle upon which is now celebrated the death and resurrection of Jesus. Hence, the “reconciliation” will be a memorial reconciliation made perfect by the blood of the Covenant which institutes it. The reconciliation of the Old Covenant was typical and imperfect; because the dedication blood, being merely that of bulls and goats could not perfect the conscience in taking away of sins. When the Prince under the New Covenant “prepares for himself, and for all the people of the land a bullock for a sin-offering—Ezekiel 45: 22, it is memorial of his own sacrifice of himself, and memorial of the reconciliation which the people enjoy through the blood of the Covenant with which, through faith in it, their hearts will be sprinkled then, as the true believers are at present.

Such is the principle of the amended “service which pertains to the Israelites”—Romans 9: 4. The form thereof is detailed in Ezekiel more at large than we can present it here. It is a service not of spiritual sacrifices, but of bloody sacrifices of spiritual significance. The lower order of the priesthood, mortal Levites, slay them for the people, and pass the fat and blood from the tables at the north gate to the Altar, where they are burned and sprinkled by the higher or immortal priests, “the seed of Zadok,” before the Lord. The past sins of the nation having been amnestied at the delivering of the Covenant, there is thenceforth no more remembrance of sins once a year. The old Mosaic annual atonement on the tenth day of the seventh month, at which the tribes were to “afflict their souls,” is not revived under the New Covenant. It will form no part of the service then. It was one of those things made, or appointed, that was removed when the Lord shook the Mosaic heaven by the Roman power. There will be no Laver of water between the Temple and the Altar for the seed of Zadok to wash themselves before they enter the temple. These washings and carnal ordinances are also abolished; for those who approach the altar and enter in, are like their Prince, holy and undefiled, being devoid of evil in the flesh.

Much more might be said upon these interesting and important matters, but we must at present refrain. Knowing the ignorance that prevails upon the subject here exhibited, we did not feel at liberty to answer our beloved sister’s letter in fewer words. We have endeavoured to unfold what has been revealed as the best exhibition of the agreement between the prophets and the apostles. The reader being now, therefore, in possession of the premises, will be able to draw many more conclusions for himself than at present occur, or can be conveniently reported at this time.

EDITOR.