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about God are either the penal or natural effects of moral evil. The terrors of conscience, the fears of death, restlessness and dissatisfaction of mind, these and numerous other evils are partly the natural and partly the penal consequence of sin; and show that man is not in the state in which he was originally created, but is reduced by his disobedience to a state in which all things are "vanity and vexation of spirit."

With respect to evils of a physical nature, most of them are evident consequences of the state of man as a sinner. What is war, strife, contention, but the effect of evil passions; the natural fruits of apostacy? These are the actions and workings of the evil mind, malice, envy, pride, and covetousness. The sentiment of love, which unites to God, being broken, what effects can be produced but dissension and disorder-domestic, national, and universal! There is, indeed, less disorder and confusion than might be expected from the universality of the apostacy; the wisdom and goodness of God having checked a great proportion of the evil that would have proceeded from the corrupt fountain of our depravity. We can never sufficiently admire the wisdom and goodness of God for such institutions as preserve a tolerable degree of order in this fallen world. Many benefits result from those checks and restraints which are imposed upon men, even when the heart is not renewed.

But still further. God has established another kingdom in the midst of the kingdoms of the world. He has created a new race among the race of men; the men who are the "salt of the earth," and the "light of the world." They prevent that universal corruption which would work its ruin, and that darkness which would tend to destruction. Yet there is much darkness and corruption remaining: and if you ask how long it will continue, the prophet answers, "Until the Spirit be poured on us from on high;"* that is, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the only thing which can correct the evils that prevail among mankind. This grace is not conferred by the Divine Being in the character of a governor, but as the fruit of his favour: it is, however, the only cure; and hence, the most intense desires should possess our minds for the promotion of the gospel; not only that God may be glorified in the highest, but that on earth there may be peace and good-will among

men.

4. Those that receive the grace of Jesus Christ are still in such a situation as renders a great part of their trials and miseries necessary. Many of the evils of a depraved nature still remain, and need to be subdued and removed. Pride must be abased; "covetousness, which is idolatry," abhorred; impurities cleansed; and malevolent passions conquered. This is a state of probation; and it is repugnant to reason to talk of a state of probation in which nothing is met with that is dark and painful. Besides, the virtues of the Christian must be perfected in the same way in which the Captain of our salvation was perfected: he must be conformed to Christ, and have fellowship with him in his

* Isaiah xxxii. 15.

sufferings. Jesus Christ is set forth as a type of all the happiness that accrues from suffering, from struggling, and from conquering : and we must resemble him in this respect. To this purpose our present state is adapted; every thing is so contrived as to afford opportunities of conquest. The pleasures of the world, the crosses of life, the remains of concupiscence, the venom of the "old serpent," and the insults, if not persecutions, of the wicked, are enemies by which we are beset; and we recover from their assaults, and overcome by the exercise of prayer, vigilance, and persevering struggles. "There is no discharge in this warfare," we must conquer or die. God will confer no distinction (I will not say, but where it is deserved) but only where it may be given as a recompense for service. The design of Christ is to raise his people to glory, to communicate to them the fulness of God; but as he obtained these blessings by his death, as he purchased them by his blood, so in the same path he leads on his people to his glory. Thus he makes all our afflictions and enemies preparatives to our victory and triumph. The Divine Being will display his infinite wisdom in leading his people through the wilderness: and they shall walk "in white," with "palms in their hands," and crowns on their heads, who "come up out of great tribulation.”*

5. The moral evils of man, and the depravity of human nature, are often, in a great measure, corrected and subdued by the natural evils of life, and thus are made the means of conducting to repentance, reformation, and happiness. The Spirit is not generally given to lead the soul to God and the enjoyment of a life of faith, without being preceded by affliction and troubles. He leads into the wilderness, and then speaks kindly unto man; he destroys our idols, hedges up our way, surrounds us with difficulties, and pleads with us. Thus he deals with individuals, and thus also with nations at large. "When his judgments are abroad in the earth, the inhabitants thereof learn righteousness." The overflowing of a corrupt opulence, the abundance of prosperity, feeds as in a hotbed, all the bad passions of the heart. The sword, pestilence, poverty, pain, and innumerable other evils excite us to deep and serious reflection, and thus prepare us, by the influence of the gospel, and the operation of grace, to return to God. A sense of a superior hand is felt; the vanity of the world is discovered; the soul looks out for something on which to rest, and is prepared to hear the voice that says, "Look unto me, and be ye saved." I doubt not but the cloud now gathering, and the judgments now about to descend, will be the means of casting down high thoughts, and "humbling the lofty looks of man, that the Lord alone may be exalted," and that the world may be filled with his glory. One temple of the Holy Ghost is of more esteem in his sight than all the splendour of palaces, than all the riches of the world. Jesus Christ is overthrowing all the grandeur of man, that he may gather out of ruinous heaps, and from a perishing world, the materials of an imperishable temple. He is taking out of every nation a people whom he will

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VII.

ON THE DISCOURAGEMENTS OF PIOUS MEN.*

NUMBERS XXI. 4.-And the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.

[PREACHED AT BEDFORD, MAY, 1815.]

It is generally understood and believed that the Old Testament is in great part typical. The history of the deliverance of Israel is a type of redemption by Jesus Christ; the paschal lamb a type of the great Passover. The journey of the people through the wilderness represented our pilgrimage through this world; and the land of Canaan was a shadow of the heavenly rest. Viewed in this light, many parts afford direction and consolation peculiarly suited to individual experience.

I shall take leave to accommodate this passage as an expression of what frequently befalls the people of God in this world; their “souls are greatly discouraged, because of the way."

The present life is a way; it is not the end of our being: it is not our rest, it is not our abode; but the place of our pilgrimage, a passage to eternity.

There are two ways, the way to heaven, marked out by the example of Christ, and the way to perdition, marked out by an evil world. But there are many discouragements that the Christian meets with, though he is in the way to heaven. These we shall point out in the first place, and then direct you to some considerations to remove these discouragements.

I. I shall point out the discouragements in the way; and in doing this I shall keep my eye on the pilgrimage of the people who were originally referred to in the text.

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1. The way is circuitous, and therefore discouraging. This is suggested in the beginning of this verse: And they journeyed from Mount Hor, by the way of the Red Sea, to compass the land of Edom;" they took a way which was round about, which added to the tediousness of their journey. Their nearest route would have made it comparatively easy; but instead of taking this, they went up and down in the wilderness. When we consider what God had done for this people in Egypt, it might have been expected that all the way would have been prosperous; that joy would have been heard in their tents, and triumph attended their march; and it would have been seen that they were the people of God by the blessings which they enjoyed; but instead of this they met with delays, hinderances, and troubles, till they murmured against Moses and Aaron saying, "Why were we brought out hither? Would to God we had

* Printed from the notes of the Rev. Samuel Hillyard.

died by the hand of the Lord in Egypt."* Thus, souls that are brought to Jesus, and delivered from the slavery of sin and the curse of the law, in their first ardour overlook trials, and think of nothing but enjoyments; they do not anticipate the fightings and fears that are the portion of God's Israel. After a time, through want of watchfulness and care, the love of their espousals begins to decline, the world regains a degree of influence, the Spirit is grieved, and they fear God has become their enemy: they seem to themselves to go backward, and indeed are in danger of doing so, if they neglect to watch and pray; and much time is spent in mourning, retracing, and recovering the ground that has been lost. This is too common a course there is provision made for something better; there are promises and comforts which should encourage us to advance from strength to strength; but through our neglects we feel that we go backward instead of forward, and are therefore discouraged.

2. The way is through a wilderness, and is therefore discouraging. Moses reminded Israel of this in Deuteronomy: "You remember how you went through the wilderness, a waste land, not sown or tilled, where there was no trace of human footsteps, and where no man dwelled." A wilderness is distinguished by the absence of necessary sustenance: there was no corn, nor vine, nor olive; nothing to sustain life. Thus this world is a state of great privations; men are often literally straitened with poverty, penury, and sorrow, and know not how to conduct themselves in their difficulties: the supplies which they once had may be exhausted; and though they have seen the hand of God in affording them what was necessary on former occasions, they are ready to say, Though the rock has supplied us, and the manna has descended, yet can God spread a table for us in the wilderness?" With respect to the blessings of this life they live by faith, and frequently have no provision or prospect for futurity.

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But in a spiritual sense this world is also a wilderness. It has no natural tendency to nourish the spiritual life; nothing is derived from it of that kind: though spiritual blessings are enjoyed in it, the Christian knows they are not the produce of the soil; the "bread" which he eats "cometh down from heaven;" the perpetual exhibition and communication of that one bread is all his support. Jesus Christ says, “I am the Bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead; but he that eateth of this bread shall never die. My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." The ordinances of the gospel do not support and comfort us any further than there is a heavenly communication and influence attending them. This is not peculiar to the poor: the rich, who abound in worldly things, feel that this is a wilderness to their souls; they feel that there is something to which earthly treasures are not suited; wants which they cannot supply. The same bread that feeds the poor must feed them, or they will be lean from day to day: on this they depend as much as the meanest around them. David felt this when he said, "I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a

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VII.

ON THE DISCOURAGEMENTS OF PIOUS MEN.*

NUMBERS xxi. 4.-And the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.

[PREACHED AT BEDFORD, MAY, 1815.]

It is generally understood and believed that the Old Testament is in great part typical. The history of the deliverance of Israel is a type of redemption by Jesus Christ; the paschal lamb a type of the great Passover. The journey of the people through the wilderness represented our pilgrimage through this world; and the land of Canaan was a shadow of the heavenly rest. Viewed in this light, many parts afford direction and consolation peculiarly suited to individual experience.

I shall take leave to accommodate this passage as an expression of what frequently befalls the people of God in this world; their "souls are greatly discouraged, because of the way."

The present life is a way; it is not the end of our being: it is not our rest, it is not our abode; but the place of our pilgrimage, a passage to eternity.

There are two ways, the way to heaven, marked out by the example of Christ, and the way to perdition, marked out by an evil world. But there are many discouragements that the Christian meets with, though he is in the way to heaven. These we shall point out in the first place, and then direct you to some considerations to remove these discouragements.

I. I shall point out the discouragements in the way; and in doing this I shall keep my eye on the pilgrimage of the people who were originally referred to in the text.

1. The way is circuitous, and therefore discouraging. This is suggested in the beginning of this verse: "And they journeyed from Mount Hor, by the way of the Red Sea, to compass the land of Edom;" they took a way which was round about, which added to the tediousness of their journey. Their nearest route would have made it comparatively easy; but instead of taking this, they went up and down in the wilderness. When we consider what God had done for this people in Egypt, it might have been expected that all the way would have been prosperous; that joy would have been heard in their tents, and triumph attended their march; and it would have been seen that they were the people of God by the blessings which they enjoyed; but instead of this they met with delays, hinderances, and troubles, till they murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying, Why were we brought out hither? Would to God we had

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* Printed from the notes of the Rev. Samuel Hillyard.

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