palliate and apt to excufe,-fuppofe you were standing at the judgment-feat of Christ, where all of us fhall fhortly be; and think, whether your excufes will then stand the test of his impartial search.

If our hearts condemn us not, God is greater than our hearts, and knoweth all things. It is therefore the duty and intereft of every finner, to take shame and confufion of face to himself, and apply to the blood of fprinkling, which Speaketh better things than the blood of Abel.

SERMON IV.

THE SALVATION OF SINNERS, ONLY BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS.

BY

ALEXANDER MACWHORTER, D. D. Paftor of the First Presbyterian Church, at Newark, New-Jersey.

I COR. V. 7.

For even Chrift our Paffover is facrificed for us.

THERE is in this paffage a direct allufion to the Jew

ifh feaft or facrament called the paffover, and to the method of obferving it enjoined by God at its origi nal inftitution. The inftitution itself, with the occafion and manner of obferving it, are particulary recorded in

Exodus. The whole economy of Providence towards the Jewish nation, especially from the time they first came into Egypt, until their fettlement in the land of Canaan, is typical. Their Egyptian bondage was perhaps intended by God to fhadow forth the natural state of man with respect to spiritual things, and their miraculous deliverance by the hand of Mofes, clearly pointed to the recovery of fallen finners by Jefus Chrift. There is no conduct of Providence, wherein the wisdom of God fhines with more glory and evidence that in the exactness in which the spirit of the New Teftament answers to the letter of the Old, the fhadows to the fubftance, the figures to the things prefigured, and the types to the antitypes. He, who will humbly and carefully compare them, will not fail of obtaining great conviction and information with regard to the divinity of the fcriptures, and entire fatisfaction with respect to most of those points, about which the Chriftian world are fo much divided. The Old and New Teftaments do mutually illuftrate each other. The Old would not be equally clear without the New, the New in many parts would be dark and unintelligible without the Old. Our text is an instance of the truth of this remark.

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What fhould we be able to make of this New Teftament doctrine, that Chrift is our paffover, were it not for the light and affistance we have from the Old Teftament? -But from both we eafily learn, that the paffover was a type of Jefus Chrift; it was intended by God to be of this nature and use. The pafchal lamb had a direct reference to Jefus as the lamb of God. It was observed by true believers under the Old Teftament in this view: their faith beheld Chrift in the inftitution. The epiftle to the Hebrews tells us, that by faith Mofes kept the paffover, and the fprinkling of blood.

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The most eafy method, therefore, of explaining the truth contained in the text, will be by contrafting the type and the antitype. We shall beft understand what we are taught when Chrift is called our passover, by attending to the original institution of this ordinance among the Jews; and pointing out the resemblance it bears to Jefus Chrift the Mediator. This I fhall endeavour to do in the following particulars.

I. The paffover was appointed when God was about to destroy all the first-born in the land of Egypt. They were all doomed to destruction by the divine decree, without exception. Mofes declares to Pharaoh: Thus faith the Lord, About midnight I will go out into the midft of Egypt, and all the firft-born in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firft-born of Pharaoh that fitteth on the throne, even to the firft-born of the maid-fervant that is bebind the mill, and all the firft-born of beafts.

On this awful occafion was the paffover inftituted by God, and appointed to the Ifraelites.

In like manner Jefus Chrift was appointed, when all the human race were, by the fentence of the divine law, doomed to everlasting deftruction from the presence of the Lord and glory of his power. Eternal death was fixed as the demerit and punishment of man's violating that law under which God had placed him. In the day thou eateft thereof, thou shalt furely die.

The head of the human race, with whom God tranfacted for himself and all his pofterity, violated the constitution established with him, and ruined himself; and the whole race was ruined in and with him. They all finned and became guilty in their head and reprefentative. By one man fin entered into the world, and death by fin, and fo death passed upon all men, for that all have finned.

On this occafion, the whole race of mankind, through all their generations, were doomed, by the fentence of God's righteous law, to everlasting perdition. The sentence was righteous, the doom was juft, and it would have been infinitely fit in God to have executed the fame. If this had been done, each of us who are here prefent, would have been now in chains of eternal darkness and despair. That this would be the event of man's apoftacy, was no doubt expected by all the elect angels. They had feen the iffue of rebellion in the case of their fallen companions; and if they could argue only from fact, no other conclufion could be made by them, than the damnation of mankind.

In this loft and ruined condition of mankind, when they were all under the curfe and exposed to everlasting deftruction, Jefus Chrift became, in the appointment of God, our paffover. God conftituted Adam our first covenant head, and he conftituted Chrift our fecond covenant head. Adam's headship was an image or type of Christ's. In regard to this appointment, Chrift is called the Lamb fain from the foundation of the world.

II. The paffover was originally appointed as the only method for the Ifraelites escaping the deftruction God intended to execute on the Egyptians. The account of the inftitution renders the obfervation evident; for when God had ordained the folemnity, and the manner of observing it, he gives the following reafon of the ordinance :-For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will mite all the firft-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beaft; and against all the gods of Egypt, I will exe-cute judgment: I am the Lord. And the blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where you are, and when I fee

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the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you, when I fmite the land of Egypt.

This deftruction of the Egyptians was figurative; the method appointed to the Ifraelites for escaping this deftruction, was also figurative. The former refpected the effect of God's wrath for fin in the eternal damnation of finners; the latter, the only way of deliverance from this mifery. Accordingly Jefus Chrift is our paffover, as by him only can we escape the wrath and curse of God, due to us for fin.-He is ordained of God for this purpose. He is the wisdom and power of God to falvation to every one that believeth. There is no name but Chrift's by which finners can be faved. There is no poffibility of efcaping the wrath of God, but by him. In vain is falvation hoped or fought for in other ways; from the hills and from the mountains, from this or from that course; for Jefus Chrift is the true and only paffover. Vain are the attempts of guilty affrighted mortals, to avert the impending vengeance. All the various inventions and practices of a mind distracted with the guilt of fin and dread of hell, are but as ftubble before the devouring flame. And he who has never felt this truth, has never yet fled to the only ark of fafety from divine vengeance. The wrath of God abideth on him, and his jealousy will smoke against that man. And unless the eyes of fuch a finner be foon opened to fee himself, and God, and Christ, in a manner that he never has, in a manner that shall shake down all his prefent hopes and confidences to the foundation, the storms of God's unquenchable fury will quickly do it. The hail fhall fweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters overflow the hiding place. Hear this, ye that forget God; hear this, ye that compass yourselves about with Sparks of your own kindling; ye fhall have this at God's hands; ye fhall lie down in forrow! Let no finner bless himself

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