But besides this more special emblematic meaning of those arrangements for secrecy and concealment by which the ancient tabernacle and temple were characterized, we are justified in ascribing to them a more general sense by the words of the text, which represent the ancient Holy of Holies as the type and emblem of the Heaven of Heavens. Viewed in this light, they remind us that even, as of old, Jehovah said, "I will dwell in the thick darkness;" and therefore fenced about his secret place with all appliances and means of mystery against the light of the piercing day, and the contemplation of mortal curiosity; so in the Heaven of Heavens,-the loftiest and inmost shrine of this vast universe," the Blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords," is described as "dwelling in light which no man can approach unto," so that no man hath seen him, neither can see him, but, through the condensed and concentred glory which he has

"Drawn round about him like a radiant shrine,
Dark with excess of light his skirts appear,
Yet dazzle heaven, that brightest seraphim

Approach not, but with both wings veil their eyes."

And while it is probably more than a mere poetic fiction which we thus indulge, when we suppose that even that sensible effulgence by which there is every reason to suppose that, in that sublimest region of the universe where what the Bible calls the throne of God has been erected, "the Father of

Lights" reveals his peculiar presence, is such that no created vision can gaze upon it face to face, and not be blasted with the glories beaming from his brow,— it is almost unnecessary to remark, with what a preeminent emphasis it may be called to us the inaccessible light, placed where we are in this dim and distant region of creation, with ten thousand orbs of space, each spangled with innumerable worlds, like so many veils emblazed with embroidery of gold and flaming gems, interposed between us and the world of glory. Far, far beyond the farthest reach of yonder firmament, the sphere of the pale moon,-or of the royal sun, or of the remotest star, whose light for sixty centuries has been travelling the void immensity, and only now has burst upon our view,— resides in glory the manifested presence and power of the Supreme. For into that highest and holiest heaven we are assured that no one ever hath ascended, save he, the Son of Man, who before descended thence "into the lower parts of the earth;" and ere he could regain his native seat, "ascended up," as the apostle tells us with his matchless strength and splendour of expression, "far above all heavens;" or, to use another of his phrases, "passed through the heavens,"-through all the embroidered curtains of the Heaven of Heavens, until he took his illustrious place amidst the central effulgence of the unapproachable light, at the right hand of the Eternal Majesty.-It is thus, my

brethren, that the analogy subsists between the Holy of Holies and the Heaven of Heavens, even in respect of the physical concealment which, in the one and in the other, invested the seat of God's peculiar presence,-the throne of his manifested glory. But we are not to leave this part of the subject without recollecting that, in either case, the secrecy, the physical secrecy, in which he made and makes his holy habitation, was and is but the intimation and suggesting symbol of that moral mystery which envelopes him at once as the Sovereign Essence and as the Sovereign Lord of all,—which veils from mortal comprehension his being, his perfection, his counsels, and his ways. It is intended to excite and to deepen our wonder and our worship in the recollection how sublimely he is hidden in respect of any thing approaching to the full intelligence of these, from the most profound investigation, the most laborious research, the most subtle penetration of his creatures. "For who can by searching find out God, who can find out the Almighty unto perfection ?" To understand the nature of his being, to measure the extent of his attributes, to fathom the deep things of his word,-to penetrate the reasons of his determinations,-to trace the mystery of his procedure,-where is the human, where the created intellect that shall undertake the great, the hopeless task? For "no man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in

the bosom of the Father," he only can declare him, -he and the Spirit who "searcheth all things, even the deep things of God." By these, indeed, the Incarnate Only-Begotten and the communicated Spirit of the Highest, so much of God has been revealed to man as is necessary to guide us to himself,-to be the basis of favourable intercourse,-an object of holy contemplation,-a source of devout emotion,the principle of a religion worthy of himself, the All-Perfect God, and suitable for us his fallen but immortal creatures. Yet, after all the disclosures he has been pleased to make of himself and of his government, with what profound humility and conscious feebleness of understanding must we not exclaim, "Lo, these are parts of his ways, but how little a portion of him do we, can we know! The thunder of his power and of his glory who can comprehend!" Yea, even when long millenniums shall have rolled away, through which, amidst the radiance of the beatific vision, we have been beholding the beauty of the Lord, and inquiring in his temple, still to all eternity will the idea of God remain an abyss never to be fathomed,—a mystery never to be penetrated. Retired into the depths of his own being,— hidden in the recesses of his own perfection,-invested with the august impenetrable shade of his own infinity, he will for evermore remain in solitary, unsurmountable, unimaginable grandeur,-a Veiled and Curtained Presence,-the Unknown, the Invisible

God, the Incomprehensible and Everlasting All, whose dwelling-place is Mystery. "Verily, thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour!" "He holdeth back the face of his throne,-he spreadeth his cloud upon it,-he maketh darkness his secret place, his pavilion round about him dark waters and thick clouds of the sky."

Fourthly, The ancient Holy of Holies bears a striking analogy to the Heaven of Heavens, in that the office performed by the Jewish high-priest in the former was a most significant emblem, was the intended prefiguration of the function to be discharged in the latter, by Jesus the Anointed Priest of our profession.

This is the point of resemblance between "the holy places made with hands" and the tabernacle which not man but the Lord himself hath pitched, on which the apostle principally dwells in the chapter now before us; and it is so fully and distinctly brought out there, that we the less regret our inability at present to illustrate it with much minuteness of detail. You recollect that, according to the Mosaic institution, there was one day in the year when the awful recess of the tabernacle where the cloud of excellent glory dwelt enshrined between the cherubim,-impervious at every other time to mortal foot,-impenetrable to mortal eye, admitted into its dim sacrosanctity a single consecrated visitant. On the great anniversary day of atonement, the ceremo nial of which you will find fully described in the 16th