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Were the men of Israel sinners and rebels against their God? So we are all. All have sinned; all have broken their allegiance to their Creator and Sovereign, and gone over to His and their enemy. When we read of the repeated transgressions of Israel, with the mercies and the judgments of heaven fresh in their memories, nay, even before their eyes, we are amazed and confounded, and almost tempted to disbelieve the accounts of such horrible perverseness and ingratitude. But conscience sleepeth all this while, and we stand in need of a Nathan to tell each of us, 'Thou art the man;' for who amongst us has not experienced the mercies of God, and who has not abused them? Who has not trembled at His judgments, and who has not forgotten them again? Who in the hour of sickness and sorrow has not made vows and resolutions of amendment, and who in the day of health and gladness has not broken those vows and resolutions? Alas! my brethren, our own hearts, if we do but consult them, must tell us that the history of Israel is true, and that we all have in us, derived from our common father, Adam, a portion of the same rebellious spirit which was in them. Are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles-that is, all the world,-'that they are all under sin;' as it is written in the scriptures of truth, There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood: destruction and misery are in their ways: and the way of peace have they not known there is no fear of God before their eyes. . . . All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.' Such is the scripture account of fallen man; such are the works of which the world hath been full from the beginning, and is likely to continue so unto the end. Mankind, therefore, resemble the people of Israel in their sins. Let us next examine whether they do not likewise in their punishment.

Did Korah, Dathan and Abiram, with all their company, go down into the pit? Did a fire come forth from the Lord and consume the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense? And did a raging pestilence sweep off the murmurers by thousands? What are we taught by all this, but the same lesson concerning which the apostle teaches us in words that 'the wages of sin is death,' and that 'death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.' Forfeiture of life and inheritance necessarily follow the transgression. In Adam all died; all became mortal in their bodies, and subjected to the sentence of natural death. And not only so, but the souls of men were deprived by sin of communication with God, who is the fountain of spiritual life; and both soul and body were in danger of eternal death. When, therefore, we

behold the camp of Israel in the wilderness, visited by the divine judgments; when we see some going down alive into the dreadful pit; others burned up in a moment by fire from heaven; and a pestilence threatening to consume the rest; when we look around, and view in every part of the picture the dying and the dead, do we not at once acknowledge the original from which it is drawn, and discern in it the too, too faithful portrait of a fallen world, full of misery and death, because full of sin and rebellion.

But what? Must we then indeed perish? Must we all perish? 'Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will He be favourable no more? Is His mercy clean gone for ever? doth His promise fail for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath He in anger shut up His tender mercies?' Is the plague begun among the people, and is there no person who can stay it? Oh, not so; blessed be our gracious God! there is yet hope of comfort, health and salvation. Turn your eyes once more to the instructive picture, and there view the Intercessor making atonement and saving the remnant of His people. Destruction was not the end for which God formed man. For God made not death. He created man to be immortal, and made him an image of His own eternity. Through envy of the devil came death into the world, and still, as at the first, they alone who hold of his side do find it.' The covenant of works being broken by transgression, the covenant of grace immediately succeeded in its room. This was the remedy provided against sin and death, and the blessed means of reconciliation foreordained by the Divine Persons, before the foundation of the world; that the sinner, who had no righteousness of his own to plead in arrest of judgment, upon the new terms of this act of grace, might again find acceptance and life, through the divine satisfaction and intercession of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was consecrated to be our High Priest, and ordained to perform an office, in attempting which every high priest, taken from among men, must else have failed. He had no need to offer sacrifice for His own sins, since He had none; but, being Himself all righteous, was perfectly qualified to save others. Nor was His priesthood to pass from one to another, or to have an end like that of Aaron, but it was eternal and unchangeable, as the Son of God who exercised it. Such was our High Priest, who perceived that, on account of man's transgression, wrath was gone forth from the presence of the Lord; and that the plague was begun among the people. And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no Intercessor. Therefore He arrayed Himself in the holy garments of glory and beauty; He put on a breastplate of righteousness, and a robe of inviolable sanctity, and He was clad over all with zeal as a cloke. He was anointed with the oil of gladness, with the Holy Ghost, and with power, and on His head was a crown of salvation and glory. Thus adorned and fitted for the work, He put on, for incense, the merits of His sufferings. He ran into the midst of God's people as a mediator, interposing

Himself between the parties at variance, in order to reconcile them. He met the burning wrath and turned it aside from all believers. He stood, and stands now, between the dead and the living; between those who, by opposing His method of salvation, will die in their sins, and those who, living and believing in Him, shall never die eternally. He is at the right hand of God, ever making intercession for us. And so the plague is stayed. A stop is put to the progress of everlasting destruction. The fiery sword cannot reach, nor shall the second death have any power over such as accept the atonement which He hath made for them, and thankfully receive the benefits of His all-prevailing intercession. 'There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.'

And can anything then, my brethren, prevent our accepting this atonement, and thankfully receiving the benefits of this intercession ? Can anything induce us, when the bountiful hand of mercy hath filled and holdeth out the cup of salvation, to dash it untasted from us? Nothing can, but an utter ignorance of our sin and of our danger? Could a dying Israelite have been prevailed upon, think you, to reject the atonement and intercession of Aaron ? No, surely. Only see how hope revives in their countenances, and joy sparkles in their eyes, all turned and fixed upon him in the execution of his priestly office. And why? Because they were sensible of their wretched and perilous state, they needed not to be told that they were expiring by the pestilence. They knew it, they felt it; they were looking wistfully around them for help and deliverance, ready with eagerness and impatience, with gratitude and thankfulness, to snatch at it, and embrace it, the moment it should appear. Oh, why are not we so? Why do we hear of the atonement and intercession of the holy Jesus, with so much cold indifference? Why, but because we see not, we know not, we feel not the want of them. And yet what is there within us, or without us, that doth not teach and show it us? To tell you that the world is full of sorrow is no news; to tell you that the world is full of sin is, I presume, no news. And from what would you desire to be delivered, if not from sin and sorrow? To tell you that a sentence of death is passed upon the bodies of men; and that, without redemp tion, a sentence of condemnation will be passed upon their souls and bodies too, this likewise is no news to any one of you. Daily experience proves the first, and the scripture asserts the second. And from what would you wish to be saved, if not from death and condemnation? Or what, in point of wretchedness and horror, was the camp of Israel with the pestilence in the midst of it, if compared to such a world as this? Go, thou who art tempted to reject, or to neglect, the salvation of Christ-go to the bed of sickness, and undraw the curtains of affliction; ask him who lies racked with pain, and trembling at the thoughts of the wrath to come, what his opinion is concerning the doctrine of the atonement; and observe how the name of a Saviour and Intercessor puts comfort and gladness into his sorrowful and affrighted soul, at a time when the

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treasures and the crowns of eastern kings would be utterly contemned, as equally vain, worthless and unprofitable, with the dust of the earth. Then reflect that such, one day, must be thy state; and in that state, such infallibly will be thy thoughts and sensations. And did the cares and pleasures of the world suffer living men to think and feel as dying men do, the intercession of Christ would be regarded and accepted by Christians, as that of Aaron once was by Israel. Now, indeed, the sentiments of men on this great point may be different, because their passions and their prejudices are different; but we shall all think alike upon the subject, when passion shall cease, and prejudice be no more, at the hour of death and in the day of judgment. In that last and concerning day, the scene on which we have been meditating shall be again exhibited, in its most awful and tremendous accomplishment. Instead of the earthly pit opening its mouth to swallow up Korah and his company, the infernal pit of everlasting destruction shall disclose its bottomless depth, to receive alive into it the great adversary, and all that have taken part with him against God and Christ. Instead of fire from the presence of the Lord, to consume the two hundred and fifty that offered incense, Behold the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be as stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up, and leave them neither root nor branch.' Instead of the pestilence to destroy fourteen thousand of His murmuring people, the inexhaustible floods of almighty vengeance, heaped up for ages, shall be poured out, to drown rebellious spirits in irresistible perdition. Then, when the heavens shall melt with fervent heat all around, the fiery gulf rolling beneath, and the earth upon which we stand, sinking down into the flames, then what a sight will it be, to behold our blessed Aaron, our great Mediator, standing up, and interposing His merits between the dead and the living; between those who, disbelieving, have murmured against Him, and those who, believing, have served and obeyed Him. Then tremble, thou wretch who hast blasphemed, or slighted the intercession of Jesus. But rejoice greatly, O faithful soul, whose trust hath ever been in Him; thy salvation is sure, and the day of thy redemption is come; rejoice, and shout aloud for joy; join the chorus of angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect, the ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, whom the well-beloved John heard saying, 'Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.' And with them let 'every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them,' exalt their voices and proclaim, Blessing and honour, and glory, and power to Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.' Amen.

GEORGE HORNE, Bishop of Norwich. (Died 1792.)

Second Sunday after Easter (Morning).

THE CHRISTIAN MISSION.

Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you as My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you. And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.'-JOHN XX. 21-23.

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HESE words come immediately after those about which I spoke to you last Sunday; and from the latter part of St John's account of what was said and done, when Jesus showed Himself to the assembled body of His disciples on the day of His rising from the dead. The former part of the account we have considered already. We saw how the disciples, having lost their beloved Lord and Master, were gathered together with their doors shut for fear of the Jews; and how, while they were thus sitting, with their minds divided by opposite feelings, sorrow and penitence, and shame, and fear, and hope, and love, the Master whom they thought they had lost, whom they had seen laid in the grave, and for the loss of whom they were sorrowing, came and stood in the midst of them. We heard the gracious salutation with which He cheered and comforted them, 'Peace be unto you.' We saw how, when He had thus spoken to them, He showed them His hands and His side, to convince them that He was indeed the Master whom they had seen nailed to the cross, and how the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Moreover, we saw that what the Saviour said and did on that day, was not said and done solely to the disciples who were then in His presence; but that what He said and did to them, He had said and done ever since, and still at this day says and does to all who believe in Him; not just in the same manner, it may be, nor just in the same sense, but still in such a manner and such a sense as to come home to their hearts. We saw how the loss, for which the disciples were sorrowing, is one which befalls all Christians, far too often even at this day; how they likewise, while they continue in the frailties and infirmities of the flesh, often lose their Saviour, being drawn away from Him and cut off from Him by the world, so that He is as it were dead to them; and how, at such seasons, it behoves them to seek Him again in the congregation of His people, with the doors of their hearts closed to shut out those temptations by which they had been robbed of their Lord. We further saw how, to those who thus seek Him, Christ still comes, and ever will come, and greets them with the same gracious and comfortable salutation, 'Peace be unto you;' and how, to assure them of this peace-to assure them that He is indeed their Saviour

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