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portant station does he occupy! What an understanding must he possess, to be accurately acquainted with the diverfified circumstances and necessities of all the redeemed! How unparalleled is that love, which knows no variableness, which renders him not only in his lowest abafement, but in his highest dignity, the friend of finners; and which induces him, while furrounded by all the adorations of heaven, to liften to the complaints and petitions of each of his people upon earth; and never fuffers him for one moment to remit the kindness of his attentions!

Again, what a representation does the fubject give us of the happiness of believers! Though their Saviour be " passed into the heavens," they know that he has not dropped his concern for them; they know that they "have not an High Priest, who cannot be "touched with the feeling of their infirmities." What is the inference? "Let us therefore come boldly to "the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and "find grace to help in time of need." "Having fuch

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an High Prieft over the house of God, let us draw " near in full assurance of faith." Let us contemplate our glorious Intercessor. Let us remember the dignity of his nature; he " is the brightness of the "Father's glory, and the express image of his per"fon."

Let us remember the dearness of his character; "This," says the Father, "is my beloved Son "in whom I am well pleafed." "Afk of me, and I "shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and " the uttermoft parts of the earth for thy poffeffion." Let us remember the value of his atonement; he is more than an interceffor, he is " an advocate with the

"Father;" "he is the propitiation for our fins." He could fay, "I have glorified thee on the earth; I have "finished the work which thou hast given me to do; and "now, Father, glorify me." "He entered heaven with "his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption " for us." His fufferings and death, his obedience and righteousness, all plead our cause; he asks nothing which God had not fufpended on a condition which he had already performed. And in confequence of all this, let us remember the certainty of his success; "I know that thou heareft me always." Come then, christians, and "rejoice with joy unspeakable and full " of glory." You have a Friend in court; an elder Brother in the palace of the King of Kings. In his all-prevailing name you may approach; and while blushing over your poor services, you may be affured that your prayers will be heard, that your strength shall be equal to your day, that your grace shall be crowned with glory, and that "no good thing shall be " withholden from you." While Zechariah was burning incenfe within, all the people were praying without. O pleasing emblem of christians, and of "the "High Priest of their profeffion!" While you are praying in the outer court of this world, he is "with"in the vail" with the censfer, and "the blood of "sprinkling!" It was the happiness of the Ifraelites while fighting in the plain below, to look up and fee Mofes pleading with God for them on the hill; be not dismayed, ye feed of Jacob. "Who shall lay any "thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that "juftifieth: who is he that condemneth? It is Christ " that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even " at the right hand of God, who also maketh inter"cession for us. Nay, in all these things we are more " than conquerors through him that loved us. For I "am perfuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor an"gels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things pref"ent, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor "any other creature, shall be able to feparate us from "the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

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SERMON XIII,

CONCUPISCENCE PUNISHED.

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NUMBERS xi. 31, 84.

And there went forth a wind from the Lord, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day's journey on this fide, and as it were a day's journey on the other fide, round about the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth. And the people stood up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quails : he that gathered least gathered ten homers ; and they spread them all abroad for themselves, round about the camp. And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people; and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague. And he called the name of that place Kibroth-hattaavah : because there they buried the people that lufted.

IT is one design of the facred Scriptures to make "fin appear exceeding finful." Sometimes they place the evil before us in its essential deformity and vileness. At other times they furround it with "the terrors of the Almighty," drawn from those

dreadful threatenings which justify all our fears. To confirm these declarations, and illustrate these motives, we have also given us numerous examples in which we fee the malignity of fin realized. "Let no man "say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for "God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth "he any man; but every man is tempted when he is "drawn away of his luft and enticed. Then when "luft hath conceived, it bringeth forth fin, and fin "when it is finished, bringeth forth death."

The event which is to engage our present attention is fingularly awful. We do not wonder that God who esteems the prayer of the wicked an abomination, should refuse their unreasonable cry; but when we fee him working a miracle to gratify their wishes, and making his bounty the means of their destruction, we are compelled to exclaim, "how unsearchable are his "judgments, and his ways are past finding out!"

The Ifraelites had been for fome time preternaturally fed with manna. At length they despise it, and influenced by the multitude of strangers that was among them, fall a lusting. They wept again and said, "Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the "fish which we did eat in Egypt freely: the cucumbers "and the melons, the leeks, and the onions, and the "garlick: but now our foul is dried away: there is "nothing at all befides this manna before our eyes." The Lord hearkened and heard. He promised to indulge them; and behold the dreadful accomplishment of his word. "And there went forth a wind from "the Lord, and brought quails from the fea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day's journey