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no man can resist. Vice | godliness. For we may lay

is strong, and nature is weak. The gospel prescribes a way of life that would starve people, and take away all their comfort. Therefore when all things are considered, nothing is to be done, but to give up the cause, and go back to the opinions and ways of the children of this world.

If I may give you my own sentiment, I do not suppose there is a sin upon earth more hateful to God, than this of undervaluing His promises, distrusting His protection, and making unjust representations either of His religion itself, or of the rewards of it; as if His service were hard, or the end of it not worth attaining. This I can tell you, that such people are often made more miserable, and suffer worse agitations of mind from disappointments in the way of their own choosing, than the most abstracted saint ever suffered from the practice of self-denial in the way of

Prov. xiv. 32.

it down as a certain rule, that they who have not faith to see the value of the other world, have not the wit to use this properly: and no man need wish his worst enemy more wretched than the abuse of this world will make him. But on the contrary, what words can describe the blessedness of him, who, depending on the promises of God, conquers the difficulties of life, and hath "hope in his death*!” such an hope as is signified by the divine Psalmist, in words much to our present purpose-" I should utterly have fainted, but that I believe verily to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the livingy." As if he had said, "I believe the report concerning that good land, to the possession of which we are journeying: I know the value of it, and that the Lord Himself is my Defence by the way; and so my heart hath not failed me therefore I give the same

advice to all;

Psalm xxvii. 13.

"Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heartz;" He who led Joshua to victory in the promised land, shall bring down the walls of the mighty, and support thee against all that appears gigantic and terrible in the way of thy salvation. St. Paul, having pointed out to us and applied all these figures as examples to us under the gospel, draws this weighty moral from the history of our fathers who journeyed in the wilderness: "Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest

he fall. There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man: but God is faithful Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear ita." This is the doctrine we are to learn from their history. He that standeth may now fall through unbelief, as they

2 Psalm xxvii. 14.

66

did: he that has been
brought out of Egypt, may
fall in the wilderness;
therefore let us
pass the
time of our sojourning here
in fear." But then, as
God is still

with us, we
are never to be discouraged
in the time of trial, nor to
doubt of His protection.
If there is a sea on one
side, and a host of Egyp-
tians on the other, and there
seems no way to escape, the
waters shall be divided and
the Egyptians shall be over-
thrown. If there is neither
bread nor water in ap-
pearance, some improbable
causes shall give us a sup-
ply of both some flinty
stone shall become a spring-
ing well, and the heavens
above shall give us meat
enough. Then for the sick-
nesses of the soul, we have
the remedy of the cross;
and against the gigantic
race of Anak, a Defender
Who will never leave us
nor forsake us: howsoever
great and formidable the
enemies of the Christian
may appear,
"Greater is

a 1 Cor. x. 12, 13.

b 1 Pet. i. 17.

Egypt to Canaan gives us an example of every thing that can happen to the Christian Church from the beginning of it even to the end of the world: therefore no historical figure of the Scripture is of more im

journey of the Hebrews through the wilderness: and I ought not yet to lay it aside. For there are two particulars remaining, which are of great signification : the one is the rebellion of Corah, and the other is the settlement of the Church in Canaan, a land of the gentiles.

He that is in us than he The Church that went from that is in the world." Though it is the design of these lectures rather to interpret the Scripture than to apply it; yet we are to consider the application as the end, and the interpretation as the means: therefore I cannot help indulg-portance to us than this ing myself sometimes in dwelling upon the moral part, which is the most edifying of all. The history of the Church in the wilderness is figurative, and we have learned what it signifies but what good will this knowledge do us, if there is no counsel with it? What shall we gain by seeing how men were lost, St. Jude in his Epistle unless we take advice from concerning the corruptions thence and learn how we of the Church, speaks of may be saved? I therefore some who "perish in the do not spare, when occasion gainsaying of Core :" thereoffers, to add to my inter- fore this same evil which pretations such spiritual ad- happened in the Church of vice as arises out of them. Moses, is to be found in The length and labour of the Church of Christ, and my undertaking is the it behoves us to consider greater upon this account; what it was. Corah and but I hope your profit will his company had no disbe greater in proportion. pute about the object or

c 1 John iv. 4.

form of divine worship: | the act of their disobe

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dience. When they set up human right against that which is by God's appointment; the more proud and obstinate they are, the more colour they seem to give to their pretensions. It is one reason why rebellion was so severely punished in Corah, and is now so severely threatened in the New Testament, that men are never known to repent of it. In vain did Moses exclaim and remonstrate gainst the wickedness of Corah: he and all his party preserved the same good opinion of themselves, and persisted in it to the last; even appealing to God Himself, though they were risen up against God's ministers; till the earth opened, and the fire devoured them.

a

tending that themselves and all the congregation had an equal right; that Moses and Aaron had taken too much upon themselves; and by exercising an usurped authority were abusing and making fools of the people. This was their sin; and they maintained it to the last, and perished in it. It was the dispute of popular power against divine authority and wherever the like pretensions are avowed by Christians, and the same arguments used in support of them, there we see the 66 gainsaying of Corah." It is a lamentable circumstance attending this sin, that it From this example of inspires great boldness and Corah, we are to learn, that obstinacy, such as we read God considers all opposition of in Corah and his party. against lawful authority, Other sinners are apt to be as a sin against Himself. ashamed of themselves; but | He declares that "rebellion these never; because they is as the sin of witchcraft, assert their own sanctity in and stubbornness is as ini

quity and idolatry":" the | my own part, I must conmeaning of which as it fess, that if there be any

stands in the book of Samuel, is this: that if a man were a Jew, and yet a rebel, he might as well be an heathen if he were too stubborn to submit to the ordinances of God, he might as well be a sorcerer, or serve idols. And it is worthy of observation, that this severe sentence is against Saul, a king, who usurped the authority of the priesthood, and pleaded a godly reason for it. But so jealous is God, for the wisest ends, upon this subject, that no dignity of person is admitted in excuse for the sin of rebellion. We therefore rightly pray in the liturgy of the Church of England, that God would deliver us from rebellion in the state and schism in the Church; and in order to this, we should also pray, that He would deliver us from the principles out of which they proceed; for none of our reasonings will prevail in this case. For

man who is so far infatuated as to have persuaded himself that God is no Proprietor of power in the world of His own making and governing, and that all men are born to a state of equality; I would no more reason with that man, than I would preach temperance to a swine, or honesty to a wolf. I would leave him to himself, and turn toward those who have not yet received the infection.

The settlement of the Church of the Hebrews in Canaan, a land of the heathens, is the last article I am to explain, as prefigurative of the Christian Church. It is mentioned as such in the apology of St. Stephen against the Jews: "Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus (i. e. Joshua) into the possession of the gentiles,

d 1 Sam. xv. 23.

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