multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strewed them in the way. And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest." Is it not evident, that the people, who had not yet become blinded by the misrepresentations of their chiefs, saw the true signs of the Messiah in the deportment and character of Jesus, and could not help applying the writings of their Prophets to the events which were transacting before their eyes?-"The works that I do in my Father's name," said he, "they bear witness of me."

II. The Second great office assigned to the promised Messiah was, that he should be a Priest.

Of this the whole Levitical priesthood was a type and shadow, but the prediction which declares it in words is to be met with in the Book of Psalms. "The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec." St. Paul, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, has considered this subject at length, and there he runs a parallel between the High Priests under the Law, and Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant, in doing which he brings forward the prophecy of David, which I have just quoted, and shows in what manner it was fulfilled in Jesus. Melchisedec was priest of the most high God as well as King of Salem. The word, Melchisedec, signifies righteousness; and Salem,

the name of his city, peace; but what renders him more particularly remarkable, is, that the Scriptures give no account of his birth or descent, who his parents were, when he was born or when he died; but his history drops in, as it were, incidentally, and breaks off as abruptly as it began. Hence the Apostle says of him, "This Melchisedec, King of Salem, first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace; without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually." By which he means, that nothing being recorded of his private life, no historical sketch of his pedigree to tell us of his family, and no dates affixed to the beginning or ending of his course, he is like one who is still going on, and in this he resembles the Son of God, who had no natural origin, but was from all eternity, and can have no end, because he had no beginning, and who, consequently, realises the figure of Melchisedec by being a priest for ever. It is a remarkable circumstance in our Lord's sacerdotal character, that he was not born of the tribe of Levi, to which the order of the Jewish priesthood was strictly limited, but of the tribe of Judah. This leads the Apostle to observe, that nothing could be more plain than that the Jewish economy of worship was to cease by the order of succession being broken, and transferred to the descendant of a tribe quite different to the original appointment, and, consequently, that it

could not be either perfect or lasting. "If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the Law,) what farther need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the Law."

Now, that our blessed Lord fulfilled the office of High Priest of our profession is proved from the following events of his life. He prayed for his apostles, his disciples, and all the faithful in all ages of the world. He offered himself to the Father as a victim of propitiation. He died for the sins of his people, taking them publicly upon himself. His death was his own voluntary act. In all this he followed the office of the High Priest, whose duty it was to pray for others; to present to God the animal intended to be slaughtered, to put the sins of the people upon it, and then to slay it, in testimony of their own acknowledged devotedness to death, and that this sacrifice was a substitution of life for life. Our Lord afterwards went up into heaven, into the presence of God, there to show the memorial of his suffering in the very body in which it was undergone, and to intercede for sinners with the Father of all, and procure pardon and peace, in exact accordance with the actions of the High Priest, who, on who, on the great day of annual atonement, drawing aside the vail which guarded

the symbolical residence of the Divinity, entered

into the most holy place, and tendered the blood of the victim on the altar there, in humble adoration and intercession for transgressors. His superiority to the Jewish priests is thus powerfully stated: "Christ being come an High Priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for

us."

III. The Third office assigned to the Messiah was that of a King.

The Prophets abound with descriptions of Messiah's reign, ascribing to him unrivalled splendour and renown, the conquest of all his enemies, the unlimited extension of his empire, and peace, gladness, and prosperity, as the result of his achievements. Solomon, who was the temporal prince of peace, and under whose reign the Jews extended their dominion from the Mediterranean Sea to the river Euphrates, embracing the chief kingdoms of the world at that time, was an illustrious type of him. Isaiah styles him, "The Prince of Peace;" and Daniel calls him, "Messiah, the Prince."

Of the expectations of the people with respect to the monarchical power of Christ, we have various proofs in the life of Jesus, showing that they believed him to be the promised King of Israel, and that they were ready to pay him princely

king by force.

honours. At one time they wanted to make him a At another they hailed him with the very title bestowed on Sovereignty, "saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord." His disciples spoke but the common sentiment of the Jews respecting the regal office of Messiah when two of them requested to sit, the one on his right hand and the other on his left in his kingdom; and when, after his resurrection, they said to him, "Wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" But his own avowal of the character shows his assumption of it, whilst it defines the only sense in which it was ever meant that he should assume it, that is, spiritually. It is well known that he was brought to trial by the Jews before a Roman officer for treasonable designs against the existing government which was Roman. They accused him as a pestilent fellow, a mover of sedition, one who was stirring up the people to revolt, saying that he himself was Christ, a king. Pilate, the officer, examined him minutely on this charge, and put it to him as a plain question, to say, whether he were a king or not. Jesus admitted that he was a king;"Thou sayest it;" that is, thou speakest that which I am. But then he goes on to vindicate himself from any disloyalty to Cæsar, by declaring, “My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence." If, therefore, Christ's kingdom was not of this world, it must be a spiritual