desire to unite these glaring opposites! How many would be religious, if religion might be mixed up with the honey of sensual and worldly pleasures! But if any of the unholy desires or feelings which have been specified are permitted to enter into our profession of the service of God, they will utterly corrupt the whole. With such a forbidden and polluted mixture, "he that offereth an oblation will be as if he offered swine's blood, he that burneth incense as if he blessed an idol."

The only remaining ingredient in the meatoffering which I have still to notice is the salt. This you remember was positively enjoined, and not only in this offering, but in every other; "with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt;" "every sacrifice," says the Evangelist, "is salted with salt." Salt is used to give a savouriness to food which without it would be insipid. "Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt ?" It is emblematic of that fervour and liveliness which should be in all our religion, so as to make it taste, as it were, on the palate of others. Thus the Apostle applies it, "let

your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt." This spirituality of mind should be carried into our conversation with others, into our public prayers and worship of God, and into all our more private devotions: else they will all be insipid and tasteless, a mere dull and heartless formality. Christians are to look upon themselves as "the salt of the earth," but alas from the useless and frivolous discourse of many, from their cold and uninterested feelings, from their dulness and apathy in divine things, may it not be said of them that "the salt hath lost its savour," and is good for nothing?" Yet as the term stands in its present connection it is intended no doubt to represent the covenant, into which God has been pleased to enter with his church through his beloved Son. His covenant of salt is an expression of scripture which denotes at once that his covenant is a covenant of peace and an everlasting covenant. And oh! what sweet, and constant, and abiding peace may we find in it! And what a refuge may we gain in it from all the disappointments and sorrows which fall so heavily

on many of us! Happy indeed shall we be, if we can truly say as David,

66

Although

my house be not so with God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure: this is all my salvation and all my desire." And while we strengthen and comfort our hearts with the thought of these "sure mercies of David," let us think also that it must be perpetual on our part. When we bring our offerings to our God, we should say in our hearts, with the pious feeling of the prophet Jeremiah, "come and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten."

Thus I have endeavoured to explain to you another of those interesting ceremonies of the Mosaic dispensation, and to shew you how it also contained several of the principal doctrines of the gospel. I must repeat it that my great object in these expositions is to make those doctrines appear to you still more weighty and important, as having been thus prefigured, and taught, though in the comparative obscurity of type and shadow, so

many ages ago. That we may receive the gospel heartily, and obey it faithfully, and depend upon it wholly, we must see its importance and how indispensible it is for our salvation. And surely we shall see this in a still stronger light, when we find that it has been the power of God and the wisdom of God" through all ages of the church, yea even from eternity, that it was formed in the divine mind and counsels for the recovery of fallen man even before his fall, that preparation was making for its introduction for four thousand years, and that it has now been nearly two thousand years revealed to mankind. It is called "the glorious gospel of the blessed God:" it is "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." God grant you a true and living, a sure and stedfast faith in all its sublime and sanctifying truths, that it may be such to you.

My beloved brethren and dearest friends, I know not how to part with you while I am upon this, to me at least, all engrossing subject. Oh! if you knew what a blessing to my own soul is the hope begotten in it by

that " glorious gospel," what peace in trouble, and joy in sorrow, and tranquillity in sickness, are produced in me by it, what pleasure I have in setting forth, with all affection and love, its blessed truths to you, oh! you would think that I might well ask you, as David did his brethren, "Is there not a cause ?" Is there not a cause why I should be importunate with you, why repetition should recur after repetition, and I should detain you, often and often, on this one subject, "the glorious gospel of the blessed God," or on that which is in fact the same, nay which is still more interesting, which puts all its efficacy and value into the gospel itself, I mean, the person and offices of the glorious Son of the blessed God, even the blessed Jesus himself. Oh! think me not troublesome, but believe that the whole arises from ministerial anxiety for the peace minds and the eternal safety of your your souls. And oh! receive, in simple faith and love, that gospel and that Saviour who are preached to you.