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faith, as exalted at the right hand of Deity, to give repentance and remission of sin. Come ye cold, ye world!y, ye careless, Protestants, and look to him who never relaxed in his doings to save, and his sufferings to redeem you.

Oh, my friends, the men of this generation are all off on a wrong tack in pursuit of man's regeneration and recovery. You are looking to political reforms for safety, but unless God is in the heart and at the root of them, they will crush you in their ruins. Look to Christ, and you will weather the storm; look to anything beneath, and the vessel of the state will rush stern foremost to irretrievable ruin. And you are looking to ecclesiastical alterations in the established churches of the land for a millenial era; but unless our clergy and our elders will look to Christ in prayer and in supplication, unless they will stand stiffer by their posts, and, like Jacob, not let the Almighty go till he bestow his blessing, their efforts will end in vanity and vexation of spirit. And, thousands round, are looking to expediency, and, as might be expected, there are found infamous coalitions between orthodox believers, and the advocates and assertors of damnable heresy: and, under this covert of expediency, the orthodox dissenting ministers of London! (alas! that their sacred character should thus be forgotten,) are found preaching alternately on Sabbath evenings with the avowed deniers of the Godhead of Jesus Christ.

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I say these things in sorrow; and the reason I allude to them, is the reason why Peter's fall is alluded to in the word of God-that you may feel and believe, that, if we look to anything but Christ our footing is insecure. well may the mariner think that he can steer his bark without looking at the compass or the Pole star, as man think that he can voyage securely onward to eternal bliss without looking to Jesus. Whatever be your high and enviable attainments in morality, and justice, and integrity, and love, whatever the *emptations you have mastered, or the virtues you have practised, you must yet look to Jesus, and to him only, for free, and undeserved mercy; for pardon gratis, for heaven gratis; and whatever be the extent of your past misdoings, whatever be the dye of the guilt which discolours any of your hearts, though it be red as crimson, and deep as scarlet, I bid you look to Jesus, and you shall be saved. I except not from the general amnesty I now proclaim the thief in his marauding forays, or the murderer on the public scaffold; "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved," is addressed, not merely to the Philippian jailer, ut to every prisoner under his charge. And from the strong need of this preached mercy I exempt not a Howard, with all his wide philanthropies, or a More, with all her merciful charities. The thief, converted at the eleventh hour, and the moral and upright citizen, must, in respect of worthiness of pardon and acceptance, stand, beside the bar of heaven, upon the same platform of unworthiness.

And, now, brethren, the language is, "Look to Jesus, and be saved:" and we believe the converse of this most solemn truth is also just: "Look not, and ye shall be condemned." The Infidel, the Socinian, the Deist, may enarge us with want of charity and love, but we care not for any charge, which may be made against our Lord and Master also. His words are, "Whosoever believeth shall be saved, and whosoever believeth not shall be damned." We deny that truth can be clothed in uncharity. Paul, so mild, so tender, so sympathizing, with stumbling believers, speaks in stern and faithful terms to them that pervert the truth. The Apostle John, whose pen was dipped in love, when he admonished his converts, summoned the awfullest terms of earth to delineate the anti

christian apostacy. Speak the truth, and uncharitableness will never find access. We fear not, therefore, to affirm with all the principles of this most Holy Book, with all the testimonies of its ablest preachers on our side, that Infidels, and Socinians cannot, as such, be saved: and, when we tell them so, we prove ourselves most charitable, most meek, most kind. These are the two alternatives: "Look to Jesus as your Prophet, Priest, and King, and be saved; look not, and be condemned."

Another year has heard its funeral knell, and its spirit has entered the mansions of eternity. You are yet spared in the land of the living, and in the place of hope. Your temporal concerns in life, have perhaps been abundantly pros perous; your means and opportunities of grace have perhaps been many: What return have you rendered to the Lord? Where the trophies of sins you have mastered? Where the proofs of love, and joy, and benevolence, and peace you have acquired? Alas! are ye not where you were a year ago, as prayerless, as graceless, as godless? And yet, (oh, the long-suffering of God,) you are not cut down as cumberers of the earth. But you are destined, some of you, not to see the close of 1834, as you have seen the close of 1833. But hear the Gospel: this very day, my friends, notwithstanding all, the Mediator is standing over the books in which are registered your multitudinous, your innumerable sins, your abused mercies, your neglected means; and if you will hear his address, “Look to me and be saved," he will expunge the record of your sins, and wash their very vestiges away in his blood, and be merciful to your sins, and your iniquí• Lies remember no more.

THE BLOOD OF CHRIST SPEAKING BETTER THINGS THAN

THE BLOOD OF SAUL.

REV. A. BRANDRAM, A. M.

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST, SAVOY, FEBRUARY 23, 1834.

"Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain upon you, nor fields of offerings: for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil."-2 SAMUEL, i. 21

THESE words form a part of that song of lamentation which David composed after that Saul, and Jonathan his son, had fallen in battle with the Philistines. The death of Saul was in the eyes of David an exceedingly grievous event; an event in connexion with which he considered that no small degree of guilt had been incurred; because Saul was the Lord's anointed: and so grievous, and so guiltful, if we may use such an expression, was that event in the eyes of David, that in this solemn lamentation he imprecates divine vengeance even upon the very place where the foul deed had been perpetrated; he prays, that henceforth on these mountains of Gilboa there might be neither dew nor rain nor fields of offering. Now one great use of the histories that we meet with in the Old Testament, and a legitimate use of them, is that of drawing from them illustrations of important truths and doctrines that are submitted to our notice, whether in the Old or in the New Testaments. Such a use of many of those histories we find having the sanction of inspiration itself; such a reference is made to many of those histories by the writers of the New Testament; and such a use, I conceive, we may make, even of some of those passages for which we have no such authority, provided that when we so use them we do it with humility, with sobriety of mind, and guided by those general principles with which the Scriptures furnish us, in the examples that they have given us of a like application of Old Testament histories.

Now I conceive that we have a like example in another passage of Old Testament history, which is brought forward by St. Paul in the epistle of the Hebrews, in illustration of an important New Testament doctrine. The passage to which I allude is to be found in the fourth of Genesis, where we have recorded the account of the death of Abel; a deed in which there was an enormity of guilt. We find it said of that deed, that Abel's blood cried from the ground for vengeance upon Cain; the Apostle, in the twelfth of the epistle to the Hebrews, referring to that event says, that those who believe in Christ are come unto "the blood of sprinkling, which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel." In the murder of Abel there was an enormity of guilt, and there was a cry for vengeance; in the death of Christ there was indeed an enormity of guilt, far surpassing that which is to be found in the case of Abel, but the result is widely different; his blood crieth not for vengeance, but for mercy.

Now I conceive that we may, in like manner, draw improvement from the

passage now before us. We may take occasion from it to illustrate the enormity of that sin of which those were guilty who embrued their hands in our Saviour's blood; and we may take occasion to draw a like contrast with that which the Apostle has drawn in the case of Abel; and we may dwell with delight upon the encouraging fact, that while the blood of Saul that was thus shed called for vengeance on the very spot where it was shed, the blood of Christ calls for nothing but blessings, the very opposite of these curses.

Let us then proceed, first, to consider, THE ENORMITY OF GUILT CONTRACTED BY THOSE WHO SHED THE SAVIOUR'S BLOOD, AS THAT GUILT MAY BE ILLUSTRATED BY THE ENORMITY OF THE GUILt of the Death OF SAUL. What was the principal circumstance upon which David dwelt, but that Saul was the Lord's anointed? Saul had been called of God in a very remarkable manner to be king over Israel; he had been set apart in a very solemn manner to that high and responsible office; and it was known unto all that were round about him, both far and near, that he was in a pre-eminent sense, in those days, "the Lord's anointed,” and his person therefore accounted to have been holy and sacred; and the sin of touching a person thus sacred was necessarily of no small amount. But if it be said of Saul, that he was the Lord's anointed, how much more may it be said of Christ, whose very name-Messiah, signifies the Anointed, or the Christ of God. And shall we not, when dwelling upon this point, profitably call to remembrance the many infallible proofs that he gave while he lived and dwelt among us men, that he was the Lord's anointed? May we not refer, not only to the remarkable events connected with his work in the days of his infancy, but more especially to those wonderful works which he wrought, because God was with him, to that anointing of the Holy Ghost by which he was distinguished, and by the power of which he thus displayed these wonderful works in the midst of the children of Israel? May we not profitably refer to the evidences that are afforded to us by his spotless character, by his boundless benevolence, by all those evident tokens of goodness which shone forth with so much clearness and with so much majesty in him? It was indeed manifest to every unprejudiced mind, by the whole course of our Saviour's history, that he was indeed the Lord's Anointed-the Son of God.

Now if we look into the history of Saul, we shall find, that there are many circumstances which greatly diminish the enormity of guilt connected with his death; and then turning to the history of our blessed Saviour we shall find the like variety of circumstances, all tending to heighten that guilt. It may be said of Saul, that he richly deserved that death, that untimely death, with which he met. It is recorded of Saul, that he had on more than one occasion rejected the Lord, reject the authority of that God who had caused him to be anointed king over Israel. Moreover, it appears from the history of Saul, that he had been a murderer in intention and in purpose, if not in deed, as it respected David; on more than one occasion he had, in the bitterness of his wrath and in his malice, sought the life of David; though he had not been permitted in the providence of God, to accomplish his deadly purpose. What shall we say, therefore, in contrast, with reference to our blessed Saviour? He glorified and adorned the doctrines of his heavenly Father, by the most unreserved, entire, and continued obedience; so that the great adversary of man when he came to search and to sift him, could find nothing in him; yea, his very accusers had nothing that they could allege or prove against him, when they had arraigned him And how remarkable was his own character for benevolence and for good

will to man? How did he shew himself, on a variety of occasions, the friend of man, and bent upon promoting man's real happiness, and advancing his best interests? If we turn again to the history of Saul, we shall find David dwelt upon the disgrace connected with his death, as adding bitterness to the event-that he had been slain by the hands of the Philistines, the sworn enemies of the Children of Israel. If we turn to the history of our blessed Saviour we shall find that there were still more embittered circumstances in his history, which made his cup even still more cruel: we find he fell by the hands of the Romans; that his fall was accompanied by many previous acts of indignity that were done to him. How was he reviled? How was he taunted with the execrations and the malice which men poured forth? How at the very moment when he ought to have called forth the sympathies of all who pretended in the slightest degree to kindness of feeling, at the moment when he hung upon the cross, how were those indignities repeated? How were all the dishonours that men could heap upon him poured out in the most abundant measure?

If we turn again to the history of Saul, we shall find a variety of other particulars, all lessening the enormity of the guilt; and we shall find the contrast again heighten the guilt of our Saviour's death. In the history of Saul we find it recorded, that in the hour and in the day of his distress, instead of having recourse to God, instead of seeking divine direction, instead of seeking comfort from on high, he resorted to the Witch of Endor, thereby shewing that he no longer trusted in God, but in that which was expressly forbidden of God, that against which God had by his law denounced the severest punishment upon those who should be guilty of it. It was the withdrawing the trust from God, and the placing that trust on forbidden objects. If we look at that history of Saul, we shall find, that in the very article of death, when he was reduced to the greatest straits and necessities, his concern was not how he should appear in the sight of God, but what man would think of him; he could not hear the idea of falling by the hands of the uncircumcised Philistines, and therefore he added to his other sins, the grievous sin of suicide. It is true, that in the passage now before us, in this song of lamentation, David writes upon the information the Amalekite had brought to him, who pretended that he had himself been the occasion of his death, according to Saul's request; but he only invented this tale in order to secure to himself a reward, as he supposed, at the hands of David. But Saul had been more careful about his own reputation, more careful about the world's esteem than about God, and the judgment that he might form concerning him. If we turn to the history of our Saviour, and especially to the closing parts of that history, we shall find them marked, in a very high and in a very singular degree, by acts of the most unreserved dependence upon God, and we shall find him exercising the most unreserved submission to his Father's will; "Nevertheless," said he, "not my will, but thine be done the cup that my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?" We shall find that our Saviour in this solemn moment was distinguished by calmness, as well as by resignation; all the horrors of the scene were present to his mind before they actually occurred; but did he shrink back? Did he decline the bitter cup? Did he not in all the most dignified calmness go forward tr meet his adversaries, and to receive the stroke of death at their hands? An. when he was thus tried, how did his loveliness beam forth with greater an with greater brightness? Though he was reviled, yet he blessed; he returne not railing for railing, nor cursing for cursing, but contrariwise blessing

VOL. I

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