"And Moses said, Hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all these works; for I have not done them of mine own hand. If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men, then the Lord hath not sent me. But if the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit; then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord”.

And great provocation it was to the Lord-and even will be when repeated in any age of the Church. Unhappily it may be repeated even in the Christian Church according to the testimony of the Apostle Jude. Moreover our own observation painfully convinces us that it is repeated too commonly in our days, in the daring assumption of the Ministerial office by every dissenting preacher, who may choose to say to the appointed ministers of the Lord, that all are as holy as they; and that therefore all may take upon themselves the office, though God, who alone can judge and give authority, hath not called them to it. "Woe unto them!" saith Jude, "for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core." Thus he connects the perverse and persecuting spirit of Cain, the lucrelove of Balaam, and the presumptuous usurpation of the sacred office by Korah, as joint fruits of the same spirit of pride and worldliness, the fundamental ingredients of rebellion and divisions. "These," says he, "be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit." How entirely modern dissent treads in the footsteps of Korab and his selfconcocted sect of would-be priests, a cursory notice of the offence of these leaders of Dissent, and monuments of its guilt, will soon shew. The transaction is related in the Sixteenth chapter of the Book of

Numbers. This Korah and his ambitious and presumptuous associates, who formed the Vanguard of Dissent under the Mosaical dispensation of the Church, commence their operations by asserting their own holiness, and charging the Ministers lawfully appointed by the Most high with taking too much upon themselves in claiming the exclusive privilege (or rather, as good Ministers would feel, being under the especial and awful responsibility) of the Priestly office.

"And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord, is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord."

Now nothing could be more outrageously false than such a charge. For these holy men, instead of taking too much upon themselves, actually took nothing upon themselves. Nay more, they held it a most awful crime, for any man to take upon himself the Priesthood. They knew that no man could, without incurring the wrath of God, pretend to any inward holiness or personal fitness, or popular election or self-appointment, as a reason for assuming the office, and that he must be regarded and treated as a presumptuous intruder, unless he were called of God, as Aaron was, according to the laws of the Church. This was exactly the case then, and this is the case now. The Dissenter, like Korah, reviles the lawfully called Ministers for taking too much upon themselves with assuming too much; and for what reason? Actually because they assume nothing, they take nothing upon themselves; and they declare it a sin for any man to do so! They dare not pretend to a personal fitness, as a title to be received as God's ambassador without God's authority; they dare not thrust themselves into the sacred office,

*

without being called and sent by those, who have authority from God to call and send labourers into His vineyard. They dare not, because both Korah's punishment under the law, and the example of Jesus Himself under the Gospel, solemnly declared and left on record by the Holy Spirit, marked such assumption as a sin of the greatest magnitude. The truth is, that those who assume, or take too much upon themselves, are the Dissenters; who thrust themselves upon the pretence of their own gifts and holiness; or those who without pretending to those gifts, take upon themselves, a power never granted by God, of appointing canvassing candidates, whom they elect into an office, to which no authority but that of God or those commissioned by God, is a lawful call. What would be thought of a man taking upon himself the office of the Lord Chancellor, or any other function of the State, upon the plea of his own supposed qualifications without a lawful appointment? He would be looked upon as a madman or an enemy to Society. Yet the Dissenter acts upon exactly the same principle as to the Church, and tells its lawfully appointed Priests that he is as holy as they, and may take the office without authority, but merely on the supposed ground of his fitness. And so Moses retorted upon Korah and his dissenting, and selfrighteous and self-sufficient band, "It shall be," said he, "that the man whom the Lord doth choose, he shall be holy; ye take too much upon yourselves ye Sons of Levi."

"And Moses said unto Korah, Hear, I pray you, ye sons of Levi: Seemeth it but a small thing unto you, that the God of Israel hath separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself to do the service of the tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand before the congregation to mi. nister to them? And he hath brought thee near to him, and all thy brethren the sons of Levi with thee:

* Heb. v. 4, 5.

and seek

ye the priesthood also? For which cause both thou and all thy company are gathered together against the Lord: and what is Aaron that ye murmur against him?"

To these plain truths, and paternal remonstrances, Korah and his faction can reply only by sneers and false statements, by imputing selfish motives to Moses and Aaron, by depreciating the deliverance they had effected, and by misrepresenting all that they had done. How exactly is the old portrait of the patterns of dissent in those days like the living examples of it, in the present. Are not these in substance exactly the language and tactics of Dissent now? Do they not now pour out all kind of calumnies against the lawfully called Ministers of the Holy Church? Do they not sneer at, and pervert their acts, and motives? do they not accuse them of priest-craft to aggrandize themselves? do they not deny or run down the blessings, which the Pastors or theologians of the Church have conferred upon the people? Do they not sneer at what they cannot deny, and calumniate where they cannot argue? Do they not combine in their hatred and revilings both the civil and the ecclesiastical government, and seek to stir up the people to discontent and dissatisfaction against both? How truly do the incendiary harangues of Dissenters now verify the identity of that spirit, by which the sacred penman represents Dissent to have been actuated in his day, and by which it is always actuated.

We shall not dwell upon the signal and extraordinary punishment, which befel these wicked men— and need only remark that the very nature of it shews, that their destruction in that extraordinary manner, was not the mere punishment of their sin, but also a sign and warning to that, and all succeeding generations, to beware lest they should "perish in the gainsaying of Core." There is only one other

point to be noticed, which is the appetite that the people (all the corrupt race of Adam) have for doctrines which flatter their pride. This corrupt propensity is evidenced in the frequent popularity of those leaders who will "go with a multitude to do evil." At first they were terrified at the awful punishment of their misleaders, and fled “lest the earth should swallow them up also." But on their recovering from their panic, their prejudices in favor of those who had flattered their pride and self-love revived. They began to utter rebellious murmurs, and to charge Moses and Aaron with the death of these men, who had perished through their own wickedness, and whom they now choose to call "the people of the Lord." Just so it is with the followers of dissent now. Let their noisy panderers and leaders be convicted of the most flagrant inconsistencies with the word of God, and the practice of the Church, yet their faction will still cling to them and still follow the unauthorized guides, till both together fall into destruction. A dreadful pestilence at last convinced the sectarian admirers of Korah and his partners in guilt, that the Divine authority was not to be defied with impunity; and no less than fourteen thousand and seven hundred besides the leaders of the schism, perished in that awful "gainsaying of Core." So it will be, sooner or later, with the gainsayers of God's Church. What allowances He, in His mercy and long suffering, may be pleased to make for ignorance or prejudice we know not. But that punishment will assuredly overtake the wilful gainsayers, we cannot doubt, and cannot in duty refrain from declaring. "Whether they will hear or whether they will forbear"-the Church must speak and tell them plainly, that "they are most rebellious,” and that they are in danger of the punishment due to rebellion against the Almighty Sovereign of the Church. We shall conclude this