The reader will observe, that the breast-plate was in a manner covered with the precious stones, set in gold, to the perfect number of TWELVE. There was to be a fulness of stone; none to be wanting; none redundant: the absolute specification of number and place rendered all defects and irregularities impracticable.

They were enjoined to be stones of memorial or record for Israel before Jehovah; and the names of the twelve tribes were therefore deeply engraven, each stone for a tribe, upon them. The high-priest always carried this plate upon his breast, fastened as prescribed in Exod. xxviii. in the ministration of his office within the sanctuary.

But the great glory of the breast-plate under the law was the URIM and THUMMIM, literally lights and perfections, both as to signification and use. Omitting the several opinions which have arisen upon this subject, the USE appears evidently to have been spiritual, under the immediate direction of God. It was the sacred oracle of the Most High, which gave answers and instructions, according to the prayers of his people through a Mediator. The materials and construction of the breastplate, being all of earthly substances, could never accomplish by any supposed inherent principle, (like the talismans of old) a purpose so prophetic and sublime. I have no difficulty in believing, that it was the HOLY SPIRIT alone, who gave forth responses, either by the Bath Kol, or gentle voice, as some suppose; or, as others conceive, by some particular manifestation of light upon the letters of the stones; or perhaps some

gracious irradiation upon the mind of the high-priest, who carried them upon his bosom before the Lord.*

In a lower sense also, these precious stones were named Urim and Thummim; because intended to SIGNIFY God's chosen people. True believers are lights in the Lord; and they are also perfections in him, considered

* Under the second temple, this oracular communication was wholly discontinued; for though the Jews made a breast-plate of the nearest resemblance possible to the former one, which was, with the ark and other sacred utensils, taken or destroyed at the captivity; yet no answer was given, or pretended to be given, by its means. This may fairly be construed into a proof, that the true Urim and Thummim were purely spiritual, and that nothing analogous to matter, as some have supposed, was contained within the breast-plate, which could be consulted for directions. In like manner, the Shecinah, or holy presence of Jehovah, dwelt or inhabited (not sate between, as it is rendered) the Cherubim over the ark of the covenant. The intention of both types evidently was to declare, that, through the great High-Priest of our profession, we are to receive the Spirit of truth to guide us, and that by him also we are privileged to have finally an access to Jehovah in the holiest of all.

It may here be also observed, that a surreptitious book, entitled Urim and Thummim, was published in a former century by a Jew at Amsterdam, for the attention, probably, of his own people, but pretended to have been written during the time of the second temple, in order to supply the place of the oracle by the Urim and Thummim, lost at the destruction of the first temple, with other sacred utensils. According to WOLFIUS, (Biblioth. Hebr. vol. iv. 1039.) it is a poor and stupid attempt to divine by a cabalistical arrangement of the first letters of the names, engraved upon the twelve stones of the primitive breast-plate; and it is only noticed here to observe, that, when men are judicially left of God, as the Jews now are, they are capable of adopting the greatest absurdities for truth, and of turning what was intended for spiritual welfare and instruction into the grossest perversions,

in their number, beauty, lustre, or arrangement. The Holy Oracle, the DIVINE SPIRIT, is with them and in them. To these, through their union with Christ the Mediator, he gives forth answers of peace when they ask in prayer, making his own word to become the true Bath Kol, and real voice; not of sound, but by the holy illumination of their understandings in the use of it, that they may know the things of God, which that word records. Among these, therefore, he may be said to reside; and to these only he gives forth his truth with grace and power, the effect of which is felt in their hearts, and seen in their lives.

The high-priest also carried upon his shoulders the names, equally divided, of the twelve tribes of Israel, engraved upon two other precious stones.This was to show, that as the people of Christ, the true High-Priest, were near his heart, signified by the names upon the breast-plate; so their government, burden, &c. denoted by the other, rested upon his shoulders, who is as mighty to save, as he is merciful to redeem.

The spiritual idea, therefore, of the whole appears to be this; that the stones signify the people of God; that they are elect and precious; that they come forth and stand according to his appointment of place and order; that the Holy Spirit is with them and among them, from age to age, teaching and directing them into all truth by his word and ordinances; that they are borne upon the heart and shoulders of the true High-Priest Christ Jesus before the throne of God; loved with an everlasting love, and supported by a perpetual care; that they reflect the glorious rays of him their Sun of Righteous

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ness; and that finally they shall be with him in his holy sanctuary for ever and ever.

This leads us further to consider, in a few words, the fitness of the type to the anti-type; or agreement of the figurative representation, by natural things, with the spiritual things or purposes intended by them.

Truly precious stones are generally pellucid or transparent, and readily admit the rays of light, as they are poured forth from the sun, without which they do not and cannot exhibit their beauty. So the stones of God's sanctuary, (Lam. iv. 1.) all real believers, are sincere in their spirits, more or less clear in the knowledge and enjoyment of the truth, proportionally to their respective measures of faith, and borrow all their splendor from the SUN of Righteousness, who has risen upon them with healing in his beams. They have no light of their own, and can only display a truly vivid and beautiful lustre, as they are irradiated by him. The more they have of this glory from Christ, the more luminous are they in their minds, the more lively in their affections, and with a warmer glow return his own rays in life and activity.

The stones, carried by the high-priest, were numbered and exact. There were no odd stones; not one unpolished, or unnamed. So the living stones, which these prefigure, are all chosen of God and precious, each one fitted to his place in the beauty of holiness, without any vacancy, defect, or contingency.-Add to this; the stones upon the breast-plate were all set in gold; and so are God's jewels established in righteousness, which gold is used to denote in the scriptures.

The

The stones upon the breast-plate, though all precious, were of different colours, with some gradations of worth and excellency. The least transparent were placed upon the lowest range. Colours, it is well known, are not inherent in any earthly substances, but are formed by the refraction of the various rays of the sun, and exhibit diversely the several beams of its varied, yet undivided, light, The distinctions also of the several colours upon the breast-plate, heightened the beauty of the whole.The same variety holds good in the stones, which God hath laid in Zion with fair colours. (Isa. liv. 11.) Believers are all precious in his sight; but they have, more or less among themselves, a variety of distinct graces, with considerable degrees of difference, Though they all agree in refracting light from Christ; yet they do not all refract the same rays, nor the same proportion of light and beauty. Some are, in certain degrees, obscured with error, or with so much grossness as to render them less vivid or transparent; but they still retain such a measure of light and grace as to distinguish them from those impervious masses of stone, which stand for the rest of the world. In all these diversities, however, there is this unity, that it is the same God, who, in every proportion of good, worketh all in all. Thus says the apostle: To one is given the word of wisdom; to another, of knowledge; to another, faith; to another, discerning of spirits; &c. but these and all other excellencies are wrought by one and the same power; to the whole and to every member of the church it is grace given, and not by any means a virtue distinct from divine impression, or inherent in themselves. They can show no