V. 23.— It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. Thus we see it was necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens, for the ordinances of the Mosaic dispensation were no more, should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves were better sacrifices than these. The whole of the Mosaic dispensation was a shadow of good things to come. The covenant and all its ordinances was a parable for the time then present. The moral law, even the ten commandments, were uttered in the hearing of all Israel by God himself, and were written on tables of stone, intimating their perpetual obligation. Thus the unchangeableness of God was the foundation of the covenant into which God brought the children of Israel. Hence it is frequently called the covenant, and the ark in which the tables were kept was called the ark of the covenant or of the testimony, because they testified the peculiar relation into which Israel were brought by the covenant. The people, not being able to endure that which was commanded, besought that God would not speak to them any more; accordingly, after the ratification of the covenant with the blood of bulls and of goats, God delivered to Moses the statutes and judgments, and the sacrifices and purifications which Israel was to observe. That the whole system was figurative, appears, 1st. From its being delivered to one nation, although all nations are made of one blood, and with God there is no respect of persons. 2d. Their obedience was required from the consideration of the peculiar relation in which God stood towards them, and of the temporal deliverance vouchsafed to them. “ I am the Lord thy God, that brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, therefore thou shalt have no other gods before me." 3d. From God, whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, commanding the tabernacle to be erected as the royal tent, in which he represented himself as dwelling in the character of the King of Israel in the midst of the people, from which he directed all their movements by the pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night. 4th. From the sacrifices which were enjoined, which could not possibly take away sin, and were offered from year to year continually, thus bringing sin to remembrance, at once testifying the necessity of atonement, and showing the inadequacy of the legal sacrifices, by their constant repetition. 5th. From the purifications, which only sanctified to the purifying of the flesh, removing ceremonial uncleanness. 6th. From the system of religion enjoined being evidently local. All the males in Israel were required to appear three times in the year at a particular place, which might be suitable for one nation, but was impracticable as an universal system. 7th. From all the promises and threatenings, and the inheritance bestowed on Israel being carnal and earthly, Levit. 26:, Deuteronomy 28 :, Exodus 3:8. The necessity of which the Apostle speaks arose— 1st. From the design of God to exhibit a pattern of that heavenly and eternal kingdom which it was his purpose to establish, in order to keep up the expectation of the appearance of the great King. 2d. Of separating the family from which he was to spring from all other nations; thus manifesting his faithfulness, in the fulfilment of his promise to Abraham, of affording a demonstration of the truth of the Gospel, for which so great preparations were made and so exact a pattern prepared; and, finally, of illustrating all the great doctrines of the Gospel, from their being embodied and placed before us in a tangible form. But, considered in themselves, these were all weak and beggarly elements, having no glory by reason of the glory that excelleth. By heavenly things we are not to understand literally things in the heavens, but those spiritual and eternal things revealed without a vail under the new and better covenant, ratified with the blood of the Son of God, which reveals a complete atonement for sin, consequently not to be repeated. During the old and introductory dispensation, while all the perfection of the Divine character was revealed, Jehovah appeared as the God of one nation, but this was only to make way for that glorious system by which all the families of the earth are invited to the enjoyment of an eternal inheritance by faith in Christ. It is true that the religion of Jesus has been corrupted by blending the institutions of the new with those of the old dispensation, but by means of the Gospel, which we possess unadulterated in the Scriptures of truth, the kingdom of the man of sin shall be destroyed, and the Church of Christ, extended over all nations, shall appear fair as the sun, clear as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners.