pointed out there is a corresponding line of practice deducible from these facts and doctrines; this should be powerfully urged; and urged too on the ground of the facts themselves: viz. That man had totally fallen from God, and is utterly unable to restore himself:-in his lapsed state he is not only wretched, but exposed to the bitter pains of an endless death:

-that God in His mercy has provided a ransom for his soul, for in His love He has sent His Son into the world-Him in whom dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily:-that He suffered and died in his stead—and that through this Passion and Death there is a way made to the Holiest; and that God, though infinitely just, can justify and save all them who believe in Christ as crucified for them, and risen again for their justification;—and that this is the only way in which God will save man, make him happy here, and glorious to eternity.

2. But the representatives of the Greeks which I have particularly in view, and who, above all others, affect to seek after wisdom, boldly assert that, in the gospel scheme, as we take it, there is no wisdom: it is not only foolishness, but point blank injustice and cruelty, to cause an innocent person to suffer for the guilty. However this may appear to them, God has most positively declared it in that revelation which they cannot confute. A revelation that bears His image and likeness, and the authenticity of which He is daily sealing by fulfilling those promises which have God's yea, and are Amen in Him.

The preaching of Christ, as dying, the just for the unjust, is that alone which God blesses yearly to the salvation of myriads; and this doctrine, and none other, does He ever bless to the conversion and salvation of sinners. And we, who preach Christ crucified, defy these wise Greeks to shew, that God ever blesses the preaching of the contrary doctrine. By this alone are the drunkards, liars, sabbath-breakers, unclean, dishonest, and wicked of every class, converted from the error of their ways. By this preaching, those who were pests of society, and a scandal to man, have become honest, upright, decent, orderly, industrious, holy, and useful. In preaching to the heathen, this is the only doctrine by which they are affected, enlightened, changed, civilized; and the brute or savage, changed into a man, answers the end of his being, and becomes a blessing to his fellows. If this be fool

ishness, it is that foolishness of God which is wiser than man, It is that foolishness by which men become wise unto salvation and while they learn an important creed, feel a deep and most beneficial change—a change which proves God is in the work; for neither man nor angel can cause such to differ so essentially from their former selves.

3. Several wise and benevolent Greeks, of this description, have attempted to convert the heathen, and especially the Indians of North America, by teaching them the arts of civilization. Satan, and the corrupt, untractable spirit of man, laugh all such endeavours to scorn. The savage can be civilized only by the gospel: and true religion and civilization always go hand in hand.

4. Again, such Greeks as the above, lay the utmost stress on human learning: nothing can be done without this: and, provided it be a learned ministry, no attention is paid to its usefulness. By their leave, learning neither opens the eyes of the blind, nor converts souls. Even among ministers, we do not always find that the most learned are either the most holy or the most useful. Learning is good and useful in its place, if it be used only as a handmaid to religion; but it never did, and never can, convert a soul. In this respect also, the gospel of Jesus, fully and faithfully preached, is the power and wisdom of God, to the salvation of all them that believe. Notwithstanding the contradiction of the obstinate and hardened Jews, and the ridicule of the proud and self-sufficient Greeks, we must proceed as we have done, to preach Christ crucified; as this is made, to all that obey the call, the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

Therefore, unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion, Amen.

for ever and ever.

SERMON XXVI.

DESIGN AND USE OF JEWISH SACRIFICES:-THAT OF CHRIST THE ONLY ATONEMENT.

HEBREWS, Chap. ix. 13, 14.

13. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purification of the flesh:

14. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works, to serve the living God?

THERE are certain ordinances of the Mosaic Law, to which the Apostle refers here, which should be noticed and explained, before we can see the force of his reasoning, and the truth of his conclusion.

I. The sacrificial offerings of bulls and goats.

II. What is called the ordinance of the red heifer.

I. When God chose the Israelites to be a peculiar people, and to make them depositaries of His laws, which contained a revelation of His will; and, at least, a typical representation of what was in His determination, necessary to be done, in order to save the souls of men; He instituted living sacrifices of various kinds, which were to be of clean animals of a certain age and the most perfect of their respective kinds; and being brought by the offerer, to the altar or place of sacrifice, who after confessing his sins, his hands being laid on the head of the victim, he delivered them to the priests, who slew

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and poured out the life-blood before the Lord, and sprinkling part of it on the altar; the act was considered an atonement for the sin of the owner; and shewed, that as he had forfeited his life, by having sinned against God, the merciful Judge had accepted the life of the animal instead of his; and that, by the sprinkling of a part of the blood upon himself, he should consider himself dedicated to God, and he should afterwards walk in newness of life; having due respect to all the commandments of His Creator.

The most usual victims were the cow, the goat, and the sheep, with their young-calfs, kids, and lambs. These three kinds may be considered as comprised here under the general terms of bulls, or calfs, and goats: though in many instances, the kid, the lamb, and the steer, are mentioned as the proper victims in specified cases.

II. The ordinance of the red heifer was both singular and curious; and was intended, no doubt, to typify the sacrifice of our blessed Lord; and was probably chosen in opposition to an idolatrous superstition of the Egyptians. In this ordinance several curious particulars may be observed,—

1. Though males were generally preferred for sacrifice, yet here a female is ordered, in opposition to the Egyptian superstition, which held cows sacred; for they actually worshipped their great goddess Isis, under this form.

2. It was a red heifer; for red bulls were, by the Egyptians, sacrificed to appease the evil demon Typhon, worshipped among them.

3. This heifer was to be without spot, not only being sound, and without any natural blemish, but without any mixture of colour; for, among the Egyptians, if there were a single hair either white or black found on the animal, the sacrifice was marred. The spot in the Text may refer to the colour, the blemish to any bodily imperfection in the animal.

4. It was to be one on which never yoke came. Because any animal which had been used for any common purpose was by universal consent, deemed unworthy and improper to be offered in sacrifice to God; for not only the Hebrews, but the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, forbade the sacrifice of any kine that had been used for agricultural purposes. The Egyptians borrowed their notions of sacrifice from the Patri

archs; the Greeks from them; the Romans from the Greeks: but the Hebrews had theirs immediately from God. No wonder, therefore, that there is a striking similarity in the religious rites of all those nations.

5. The heifer was to be slain, and her blood sprinkled seven times before the tabernacle by the priest.

6. The body, with all the intestines and their contents, the skin, blood, &c. were to be reduced to ashes, and while burning, cedar-wood, hyssop, and scarlet, were to be thrown into the flame.

7. These ashes were to be carefully collected, and kept in a clean place, at a distance from the camp, for general use.

8. If any person had contracted any legal uncleanness, by touching the dead, or touching a person who had been murdered, or a human bone, or a grave, some of these ashes were to be mixed with water, and sprinkled on the unclean person; who, after having been thus sprinkled, and his clothes and body afterwards washed, was considered as clean ;-might not only mingle with society at large, but was fit to take part in any religious ordinance.

9. The water in which those ashes were mixed, was called the water of purifying; and as the ashes were carefully preserved, there was always at hand a mode of purifying the unclean; and the preparation itself appears to have been looked on as a concentration of the essential properties of the red heifer, considered, as it should be, a real sin-offering: and to this mode of purifying, the people might continually resort, with comparatively little expense, little trouble, and almost no loss of time:--and as there were many things by which legal pollution might be contracted, it was necessary to have always at hand, in all their dwellings, a mode of purifying at once conve nient and unexpensive. And we learn from the Text, that these ashes, mingled with water, and sprinkled on the unclean, and which sanctified to the purification of the flesh, were intended to typify the Blood of Christ, which purges the conscience from dead works, to serve the living God: for, as without this sprinkling with the water of the sin-offering, the Levites were not fit to serve God in the wilderness; so, with out the sprinkling of the Blood of Christ, no conscience can be purged from dead works to serve the living God. See the whole ordinance concerning the red heifer, Numb. xix. 1—22.