pain of death;-" do this," was its language, ." be obedient and live for ever; but be wary,for a single breach of duty, a single offence, has death for its punishment; death without hope, or remission."

But Jesus Christ, on the other hand, assures the penitent of forgiveness; and to enable us to keep His righteous and easy laws, He gives us His Holy Spirit, His example, and His prayers, interceding for our pardon at the throne of the Father. When such are the privileges of the Gospel, how, as St. Paul observes, how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation? God forbid, that I should conceal, that there are terrors, as well as comforts, in the resurrection thus purchased by the blood of Christ. If the single act of disobedience were punished by certain death; what must be their punishment, for whom Christ's blood is shed in vain; who despise His example, and His doctrines; and flatter themselves, that, by an outward reverence, or no reverence at all, so they do but sometimes think highly of His merits and sacrifice, they shall accompany Him into the most Holy place of God? For such, there is appointed a place of darkness, of weeping, and of gnashing of teeth. Though all are raised, good and bad, and the victory of our Lord is complete; though He receives the kingdom over death and hell, yet are those His enemies-who would not, that He

should reign over them, who would not obey Him, or follow His laws, yet are they-condemned to a second and more grievous death.

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Think what we will, believe what we may, nothing unclean or impenitent can enter into the kingdom of God. Without," saith the Spirit, "without, are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whatsoever loveth, or maketh, a lie.”1 Judge, then, yourselves, brethren, that ye be not judged of the Lord. Repent you truly of your sins past; and call on Christ for pardon and for grace to amend your lives. For remember, without a sincere amendment, His pardon cannot be pleaded. The gifts of God must not be used in idleness. The garden itself of Eden was to be tilled; and though our salvation, through Christ, is a free and unbought favour, those only, who sow in righteousness, can expect to reap in mercy.

1 Rev. xxii. 15.

SERMON XVI.

SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT.

ST. MATTHEW, xv. 28.

O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt.

In reading or hearing the history, from whence these words are taken, and which the Church has chosen for this morning's Gospel, it is probable, and indeed only natural, that many of you should be surprised, not only at the deep faith and interesting humility of this poor Canaanitish woman; but, also, at the unusual and remarkable sternness assumed on this occasion by our Lord; His outward indifference to her distress and cries; and, above all, the sharp and scornful answers, which He returned to her humble entreaties. These difficulties I will now endeavour to explain.

First, then, we may be sure that Christ was, from the first, desirous to relieve her; we know, for we know how much He loved mankind, that He could not be indifferent to the tears of any one of those millions, whom He was born to heal

and instruct; and whom He died in torture to redeem. We may be sure, that this seeming coldness was intended to produce some advantage to His petitioner herself, or to His hearers: and that He, who was Wisdom and Love, had none of His actions insignificant or uninstructive. More particularly, we may be convinced, that those parts of His history, which the Holy Spirit has thought fit to reveal in Scripture, contain in themselves some meaning of consequence, some valuable lesson, which may confirm or improve the faith and practice of every Christian.

And we may find, in the answer of our Lord Himself, some guide to this hidden meaning; when He says, "I am not sent, save to the lost sheep of the House of Israel." That the Jews might have not even the smallest shadow of occasion of murmuring against Providence, or of envy against the Gentiles, the offer of the Gospel was first made to them. The seventy disciples were commanded to preach to their own countrymen only; and, except in the casual instance of the woman of Samaria, our Lord confined His doctrine, and in a great measure His miracles, to the Jews only. Not, however, that the benefits of the Gospel were to stop with them;-not that the day-spring from on high was to shine on Jerusalem only; but that the ministers of the circumcision, the holy nation, whom God had chosen to put His name among

them, were to be the teachers of this new faith to all the world, and the countrymen, and the earthly friends, of the long expected Saviour.

It was, therefore, for the sake of all the world, that the Jews were first to be grounded in the faith; and that they, to whose care the ancient prophecies were given, should first bear witness to their fulfilment. Accordingly, though the chief men of the nation rejected Christ; yet the apostles and first teachers of Christianity were all chosen from among the Jews; and were sent out as most properly qualified to teach to every nation the whole system of that religion, of the course of which, from the beginning of the world, their forefathers had preserved the testimony; and the complete fulfilment of which they themselves had seen, and heard, and handled, in the birth, the preaching, the death, and resurrection of the Messiah.

The Jews, however, even those who believed in Christ as the apostles did,—were very slow in receiving, or understanding, this sort of privilege; and were too apt, for many years, even after Christ's death, and after St. Paul's preaching, to consider all nations, but their own, as unclean and unholy. We know with what unwillingness they were weaned from the law of Moses; that even St. Peter required a particular revelation of the Divine will, to induce him to baptize the Roman Cornelius; and that this