that better country; and the high priest, whose own blood purifies or makes sincere the profession of those, who by the spirit of faithfulness transform themselves into the image of Jesus Christ, sent and anointed on such a commission, and who was faithful to him who appointed.. him, him who sent and anointed him; apply practically and effectually to your advantage the faithfulness you have seen in him; be faithful in your place or department, as a part of God's house or household, as Moses was faithful in his place or department as a part of the whole house of God.

I name Moses with yourselves purposely, as occupying a place or department in the house or household of God, because as a prophet, angel, or messenger of God, you are disposed to exalt him above, or at least to give him parallel dignity with Christ. "There has not been," said Christ, "a greater than John; and yet," added he, "the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than him." Therefore Moses, a part or servant of God's house or household, like all the other prophets or angels, is at least as much inferior as yourselves to the anointed Saviour, being honored in the sight of God only as a part of his house or household.

I call your profound attention then to Christ... For Moses has as little claim to rank with Christ, as the house with the builder who con

structed it. Every house is constructed by... some one, and it was as a part or pillar of the house that Moses was faithful; we must therefore not look to him, but to some other as the builder of the house, but God is the builder of all.

I might here add, that though God, the original Saviour, is he who builds all up into one church, one house; yet Christ, the anionted Saviour, accredited by him fully as his representative on earth, is through him and for him, the master-builder of the edifice.

But I will arrive at the same conclusion by a different argument. Every house is built by some one, I repeat, and Moses was faithful in the house or household of God as part of it, as a servant, in the whole house of God, to testify what should be said to him by a master, or charged upon him as a servant; but Christ is .. faithful, not as part of the house or household, or as a servant, but as the son of him who built it. Christ, I say, is faithful as a son over his Father's house, that is, as heir of all, over his own house; whose house we are, if, confident in him, and exulting in his superiority over all those whom our nation dignifies with the title of angels, relying on our strength as his house, his building, we hold fast to our heavenly calling, to our triumphant hope of immortality

even to the last. Christ, I repeat, is faithful over his Father's house or household, that is, as just explained, over his own household the faithful. So entire between him and the Father is the unity of will and act, as far as respects the faithful, or the house of God, that in allusion to them, that is, in allusion to the faithful, Christ said, "all mine are thine, and thine are mine."

Seeing then that our Leader is so much .. superior to Moses, and that our calling out of captivity is not like that of Moses to an earthly, but to an heavenly inheritance, apply effectually to your own case what the holy spirit said by the mouth of the Psalmist,

to-day if ye should hear his voice"-apply it to your own case this day-for in Christ ye have heard his voice-apply these words of the spirit; "harden not your hearts as did your fathers, when they, at a memorable period, bitterly provoked me in the wilderness, where .. they made trial and proof of me, and where they saw my works forty years; therefore, I .. was incensed with that generation, and said, their error is always wilful, it is the error of their hearts, they have not known my ways: wilfully ignorant of my ways, my long-suffering, their hearts are become impenetrable to my goodness, and their ears deaf to my voice

so I swore in my wrath, never shall they enter .. into my rest."

Apply this day these words of the spirit to.. yourselves. See, brethren, that there be not in any one of you a wicked heart of faithlessness, that is, a wilful faithlessness of spirit, standing off from the living God, wilfully deaf to his voice. But exhort one another every day,.. even unto that (the just recited exhortation) by which each is called this day, that is, even to the full effect of that calling-it is urgent. Our calling, which answers to the just recited words of the holy spirit, admits of no delay; our calling, which I have before mentioned as pointing not to a temporary rest, or establishment in this earth, but to a rest, to an inheritance eternal in the heavens is a calling which, corresponding with the words of the holy spirit just recited, the language being "this day," is most urgent: exhort one another this day, every day, lest, by the deceitful and silent approaches of sin, a hardness of heart steal imperceptibly upon you.

We must never on this earth, so deceitful is the operation of sin, consider our salvation as safe. For our participation of Christ, that is,.. our salvation as sons of God, is conditional on our preserving firm unto the end the beginning of that which made us sons, that is, the

spirit of faithfulness into which we have been baptized or pledged, the filial spirit which was in Christ, that faithful spirit which was the substance of, or which realized our pledge.

This serious truth, namely, that they who.. hear the voice of God inviting them to his promised rest, if they harden, through want of mutual exhortation, their hearts and provoke him bitterly, will never reach that promised rest, will not ultimately be partakers of Christ; this serious truth is contained in the recited language of the Psalmist, in his saying: "to day, if ye should hear his voice, make not your hearts hard and insensible, as at the memorable period of bitter provocation."

Some indeed who heard his voice did bitterly.. provoke him, but it will be objected, not all that came came out of Egypt through Moses: Joshua and Caleb were exceptions. But, I.. ask, (and my present argument remains equally strong, for Joshua and Caleb did enter, not indeed into the eternal rest of God, but they did enter into the promised land,) with whom was he offended forty years? Not with Joshua and Caleb; was it not with those who sinned, whose carcasses fell in the desart? And to whom but.. to the disobedient did he swear, that they should not enter into his rest? We see then that.. they could not enter on account of their faithlessness.