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it, and refuse to receive it. Again, the doctrine of the cross calls to self-denial, and renunciation of the world, and sin, and this prejudices you yet more against it. Such a reason is assigned by Christ himself, who best knew what is in man, This," says he, he, "is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men have loved darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil." Thus the love of the world, and the indulgence of sin fill you with perverse opposition to the doctrine of Christ, and " you will not come to him that you might have life." Oh! that I could make you see and feel the true reasons of your prejudice and opposition, that becoming deeply ashamed of them, you might cast them altogether out of your hearts, and meekly submit yourself to the righteousness of God, and deny yourself, and take up your cross, and follow Christ.

Lastly, to those who daringly and impiously deny and reject the truth altogether. Alas there are such: but I hope that there are none such in this congregation. For these are in a dreadful state indeed. Rejecting the sacrifice

of Christ, which is the only atonement for sin, denying the Lord that bought them with his own precious blood, what can they look for but to be broken in pieces as a potter's vessel, and to be cast for ever from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power? Nothing can be more awful than that the divinity and atonement of Christ should be denied, when these are the only foundations of sinful man's salvation. This is a heresy, my brethren, against which I would warn you in the strongest ferms. It destroys the first principles of Christianity, and plunges a dagger into its very vitals. It degrades the eternal Son of God into a mere man, and makes his death of no more value than that of another. May God deliver you all from this deceivableness of error, which must needs be the ruin of the soul, and teach you to confess, with a true faith, that Jesus is the Son of God, and his death the propitiation for our sins.

SERMON VI.

THE TRESPASS-OFFERING.

LEVIT. VI. 6, 7.

And he shall bring his trespass-offering unto the Lord, a ram without blemish out of the flock, with thy estimation, for a trespassoffering unto the priest and the priest shall make an atonement for him before the Lord and it shall be forgiven him for any thing of all that he hath done in trespassing therein.

I HAVE read to you these words as introductory to the consideration of another of those offerings which were enjoined upon the Jews, and which were so remarkably typical of the sacrifice of Christ. This is the trespass-offering, which in some particulars differs but little from the sin-offering, but in others there is a

strong and plainly marked distinction, as we shall see by an examination of it.

The offences which required the presenting of a trespass-offering, were, first, those which are mentioned in the four first verses of the fifth chapter. These were the concealing any part of the truth by a witness who gave evidence on oath; the touching of any unclean person or thing; and the swearing rashly that he would do what might be sinful, or what he might not be able to perform. In all these cases he was to make a voluntary confession that he had sinned, and he was to bring as a trespass-offering unto the Lord, a female lamb or kid, which was to be offered with precisely the same ceremonies as the sin-offering, except that the blood, instead of being put upon the horns of the altar, was to be sprinkled round about the altar. If the offender was too poor to give a lamb, then he was to bring two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons, one of which was to be offered with the ceremonies of the sin-offering, and the other with the ceremonies of the burnt-offering. If he was so very poor that he could not procure even

these, then he was to offer the tenth part of an ephah, that is about five pints, of fine flour, without either oil or frankincense, both which always accompanied the meat-offering, and this was to be offered with the ceremonies of the meat-offering.

A second class of offences, for which a trespass-offering was necessary, consisted in any trespass committed through ignorance in the holy things of the Lord, that is, if any one had unwittingly kept back any of the required offerings which were to be made to the Lord, or had eaten any of those parts of the sacrifices which were the due of the priests, then he was to bring as a trespassoffering a ram without blemish. But besides this, he was to make restitution, a proper estimation being made in standard money of the value of that which had thus been misappropriated, and moreover he was to add a fifth part more of this estimated value. Nay even if he only suspected that he had offended in any of these holy things of the Lord, he was to bring the ram as a trespass-offering, and to pay the estimated value, but without

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