The charge and portion of the priests. 1 And the LORD said unto Aaron, Thou and thy sons and thy father's house with thee shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary: and thou and thy sons with thee shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood.

en thee the charge of mine heave offerings of all the hallowed things of the children of Israel; unto thee have I given them by reason of the anointing, and to thy sons, by an ordinance for ever.

2 And thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring thou with thee, that they may be joined unto thee, and minister unto thee: but thou and thy sons with thee shall minister before the tabernacle of witness. 3 And they shall keep thy charge, and the charge of all the tabernacle: only they shall not come nigh the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar, that neither they, nor ye also, die.

4 And they shall be joined unto thee, and keep the charge of the tabernacle of the congregation, for all the service of the tabernacle: and a stranger shall not come nigh unto you.

5 And ye shall keep the charge of the sanctuary, and the charge of the altar that there be no wrath any more upon the children of Israel.

6 And I, behold, I have taken your brethren the Levites from among the children of Israel: to you they are given as a gift for the LORD, to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation. 7 Therefore thou and thy sons with thee shall keep your priest's office for every thing of the altar, and within the vail; and ye shall serve: I have given your priest's office unto you as a service of gift: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.

8 And the LORD spake unto Aaron, Behold, I also have giv

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9 This shall be thine of the most holy things, reserved from the fire: every oblation of their's, every meat offering of their's, and every sin offering of their's, and every trespass offering of their's, which they shall render unto me, shall be most holy for thee and for thy sons.

10 In the most holy place shalt thou eat it; every male shall eat it: it shall be holy unto thee.

11 And this is thine; the heave offering of their gift, with all the wave offerings of the children of Israel: I have given them unto thee, and to thy sons and to thy daughters with thee, by a statute for ever: every one that is clean in thy house shall eat of it.

12 All the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine, and of the wheat, the firstfruits of them which they shall offer unto the LORD, them have I given thee.

13 And whatsoever is first ripe in the land, which they shall bring unto the LORD, shall be thine; every one that is clean in thine house shall eat of it.

14 Every thing devoted in Israel shall be thine.

15 Every thing that openeth the matrix in all flesh, which they bring unto the LORD, whether it be of men or beasts, shall be thine: nevertheless the firstborn of man shalt thou surely redeem, and the firstling of unclean beasts shalt thou redeem.

16 And those that are to be re

deemed from a month old shalt thou redeem, according to thine estimation, for the money of five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, whichis twentygerahs. 17 But the firstling of a cow, or the firstling of a sheep, or the firstling of a goat, thou shalt not redeem; they are holy thou shalt sprinkle their blood upon the altar, and shalt burn their fat for an offering made by fire,

fora sweet savour unto the Lord. 18 And the flesh of them shall be thine, as the wave breast and as the right shoulder are thine. 19 All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer unto the LORD, have I given thee, and thy sons and thy daughters with thee, by a statute for ever: it is a covenant of salt for ever before the LORD unto thee and to thy seed with thee. LECTURE 272.

The responsibility of the Christian ministry.

If the priests and Levites enjoyed a degree of honour and authority, which made them the object of envy to their brethren, they are here warned that they had so much the more to answer for. They had to bear the iniquity of whatever duty was neglected, or offence committed, in the sacred things entrusted to their charge. This warning was most salutary, after all that had lately happened, so likely to tempt them to presume upon the manifestation of the favour of God. Nor was it less seasonable as viewed in connexion with the ample provision for their maintenance, now about to be repeated, and enlarged. The priests had indeed their own sacred office, as a most distinguished gift from God. They had some of the offerings," most holy," to be eaten only by themselves within the court of the tabernacle; others, "holy," to be shared with their children at home. They had the first fruits, and things devoted, see Deut. 26. 11, Lev. 27. 28, and the firstborn, or the price of them, and the heave offerings; all this they had by "a covenant of salt," an enduring covenant, for themselves and their children after them. But behold they were daily liable to the loss of all their blessings, and of life itself; if either they, or their brethren the Levites, failed to keep the charge committed to them. And it lay with them also to prevent others of the Israelites from intruding upon the sanctuary and the altar; that there might "be no wrath any more upon the children of Israel." All this, one would think, might make the other Israelites content to leave Aaron undisturbed in the priesthood. And might it not well warn men against rushing into the Christian ministry, for the sake of its honours or emoluments, if they would but seriously consider that they must watch for souls " as they that must give account?" Heb. 13. 17. May this thought be present with all who seek to be ordained, that they may search and see what spirit they are of! May it prevail with all pastors, in their dealings with the people, to seek not them but theirs ! See 2 Cor. 12. 14. May it move the people to give gladly of their worldly things to those who sow unto them in things spiritual! See 1 Cor. 9. 11.

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Tithes given to the Levites, and the tenth of them to the priests.

20 And the LORD spake unto Aaron, Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land, neither shalt thou have any part among them: I am thy part and thine inheritance among the children of Israel.

21 And, behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance, for their service which they serve, even the service of the tabernacle of the congregation.

22 Neither must the children of Israel henceforth come nigh the tabernacle of the congregation, lest they bear sin, and die.

23 But the Levites shall do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they shall bear their iniquity: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations, that among the children of Israel they have no inheritance.

24 But the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer as an heave offering unto the LORD, I have given to the Levites to inherit: therefore I have said unto them, Among the children of Israel they shall have no inherit

the tithes which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then ye shall offer up an heave offering of it for the LORD, even a tenth part of the tithe.

27 And this your heave offering shall be reckoned unto you, as though it were the corn of the threshingfloor, and as the fulness of the winepress. also shall offer an 28 Thus ye heave offering unto the LORD of all your tithes, which ye receive of the children of Israel; and ye shall give thereof the LORD'S heave offering to Aaron the priest.

29 Out of all your gifts ye shall offer every heave offering of the LORD, of all the best thereof, even the hallowed part thereof out of it.

30 Therefore thou shalt say unto them, When ye have heaved the best thereof from it, then it shall be counted unto the Levites as the increase of the threshingfloor, and as the increase of the winepress.

31 And shall eat it in every ye place, ye and your households: for it is your reward for your service in the tabernacle of the congregation.

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32 And shall bear no sin by reason of it, when ye have heaved from it the best of it: neither shall ye pollute the holy things of the children of Israel, lest ye die.

LECTURE 273.

How they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel. The provision for the maintenance of the priests consisted partly in their share of offerings rendered to the Lord. And it is to be supposed that they often shared these portions with the Levites, who assisted in the work of offering. But besides these and other occasional means of maintenance, God gave to the whole tribe of Levi the tenth of the produce of all the land of Israel.

It was

to be theirs, having been first offered to God, and then given them by Him; for He was their inheritance; and they were to have no other. And out of the tithes a tenth part, and that the very best, was to be again offered as a heave offering to the Lord, and given by the Levites, "to Aaron the priest," to him and all the high priests after him, for the support of themselves and of the priests in general. Until this tenth of the tithes had been set apart, the Levites might not eat their portion. Nor until the tithes had been set apart for the Levites could the people make use of theirs. In the ample feast to which the Lord had invited all, He would have those to be first helped who sat the nearest to Himself. In the good land which He had promised to give them, He would be Himself an ample inheritance to that tribe, which He forbade to partake of any other.

The duties of the priests and Levites, though very different from those of Christian ministers, were like them in this respect, that they were not usually consistent with profitable attention to a worldly calling. Neither party could well wait on their ministry, and at the same time earn their livelihood as labourers or artificers, dealers, or merchantmen. Both must be supplied with house, food, and raiment, out of the labours of those for whose good they minister, out of their wages, or profits, or possessions. Now of all these possessions there is none comparable to the natural fertility of the earth; that power which works alike by night and day, which multiplies for our use the seed committed to it, some thirty fold, some sixty fold, some an hundred fold. This power of productiveness, altogether inscrutable to man, is most signally the gift of Him, who said at the beginning, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself." Gen. 1. 11. Out of this He endowed the ministers of his ancient church. Out of this same fertile power of the soil, our forefathers in the church of Christ endowed the ministers of the Gospel. That which God ordained must have been good and wise, nay best and wisest, for the Israelites, in the land of Canaan. And though the laws of the Levitical priesthood are no longer in force, they still teach us both whence we may best derive due maintenance for the ministers of religion, and the duty of providing it abundantly. For thus St. Paul argues from the provision which the Law made for them which ministered about holy things: "Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel." 1 Cor. 9. 14. We indeed are not bound in this matter, any more than in many others, by the letter of the Mosaic Law. Christians are free to adopt other means besides tithes, so they be but sufficient, for the support of the ministers of Christ. But so much the more are they bound to watch, that they use not this their liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, by using it as an occasion of covetousness.

O. T. VOL. 1. PART II.

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The water of separation.