duties, and for the merit which they have in performing them. O mistaken persons, when will ye learn that no man cometh to God but by Jesus Christ? When will ye learn that only through the shedding of his blood is there any access to God, any acceptance, favour, or communion with him? The whole word testifies of this. Even the Old Testament, even the law itself teaches this in all these shadowy representations; and the New Testament is full of applications of them to the person and offices of the Saviour, and the spiritual duties of Christians. Oh! learn, I pray you, this great fundamental truth of the gospel, that a sinner has acceptance with God only through his real and actual faith in that great atonement which the divine Jesus offered to the justice and holiness of the Father, for our purification and peace, when he hung upon the cross to put away our sins by the sacrifice of himself.

The other great principle which they overlook is this. They do not make their covenant with God with a sincere and full desire and intention to be wholly the Lord's

people, and to fulfil all that it requires on their part. They do not renounce all that he calls upon them to give up, and they do not perform every thing which he commands them to do. Ah, Sirs, this is but trifling with the Great God. His law, whether delivered by Moses or Christ, requires your whole heart, and your full obedience. You are not allowed to retain this and to omit that. You must deal truly and not treacherously with the Lord. You must say, and say sincerely, "All that the Lord hath said, will we do." He will not have a divided heart or a partial service. You must be his in purpose wholly, or you cannot be his at all. God give you grace to become entirely decided for him. Attempt not to compromise with him, for he will not compromise with you. He will not accept in part you must not obey in part.

SERMON XXII.

THE MOLTEN CALF.

EXODUS XXXII. 7, 8.

And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for the people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy Gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

AFTER the solemn ratification of the Law, which we saw in the last sermon, Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders, were permitted to approach nearer the mount, and had a bright display afforded them of the presence and glory of God. But

Moses himself was introduced into yet closer communion with God, and remained with him there in the mount for the space of forty days and forty nights. There he received the various directions which are recorded hereafter, and which relate principally to the ceremonial part of the law. Having received these, and the ten commandments written upon two tables of stone by the finger of God, Moses returned to the people, with these inestimable treasures in his hands. It is thus described, And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides: on the one side and on the other were they written. And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables." the tables." In what characters the law was thus written we are not informed, but probably in the language then spoken by the Israelites. The durable nature of the stones on which they were graven, intimated the perpetuity with which the law should be in force, and the preparing the tables, and

writing the commandments being done by God himself, shew how excellent and important they are and what authority they have. And oh! that the law of God may be written not on stone, as it was delivered to Moses, but on our hearts; and not with ink as we have it in the Bible, but with the indelible impressions made by the Spirit of God when he sheds the love of God abroad in the heart, and converts the soul unto himself.

But now to what a scene did Moses come down? As he descended, with his servant Joshua, who had attended him half way up the mount, and had there been left to wait his return, a noise of shouting was heard among the people. Joshua thought they were the sounds of war, but Moses corrected him: "It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do I hear." It was indeed the boisterous merriment of an idolatrous feast which was now going on, a feast which they were celebrating under most unhappy

circumstances.