and sins 12-dead to the hope of happiness, dead to the comforts of religion, dead to the invitations of the Gospel. As a dead body can no longer hear the voice of its friends, or the sounds of melody-as it can no longer see the glories of the sun and the beauties of creation-so may a man be spiritually dead. He can bring himself while his body is still alive to such a state, that he can no longer hear the voice of God, nor the sound of His Gospel-he can no longer see the glories of redemption, nor the beauties and excellence of a good hope in the Son of God. Therefore, the actions which men commit in such a state are called dead works. But those who desire to feel an interest in the death of Christ begin to live-they live to God-a new spirit is breathed into them—they are purified by the sprinkling of the blood of the great Sacrifice, and, while their sins are pardoned, they serve also the living God. You may remember that there were sacrifices provided under the Jewish law for all sins, but for the sin of presumption. For that sin no sacrifice was provided—and so it is also with us. The blood of the atonement cleanses from all sin; but if we profess to believe in the death of Christ, and approach to Him with the dead works of presumptuous, and unrepented sin, then our faith is in vain. The same blood which is poured out for our pardon, must be sprinkled upon our conscience, that we may serve the living

12 Eph. ii. 1.

God, while we profess to believe in his Son. It is not enough that sin be pardoned, unless sin be also forsaken.

I conclude, therefore, by reminding you, that if you desire to commemorate the approaching season with this holy temper-if you are conscious, upon a survey of your past lives, that you have broken the law of God-but that you desire the pardon of your sins, and then the purifying of your conscience from dead works to serve the living God-then to you is the word of this salvation sent-then the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself as a spotless sacrifice for sin, shall be your deliverer, from the wrath to come, and from all the punishment of an offended God. If, however, there are those among you who have other hopes of salvation than the atonement of the great sacrifice of the Son of God, such persons must be told that their hope is in vain. If the pride of their reason rejects it—if they are unwilling to resign the sin which separates them from their Saviour, and therefore reject it-if for any cause whatever they imagine that they may reject the crucified Son of God, and be saved in the great day of judgment by any other hope, they have rejected the counsel of God against themselves-and they shall rise from the grave with sorrow. There is no name under heaven by which a fallen man can be saved but the name of Jesus of Nazareth, whose death we are about to commemorate. Hope then, and believe in Him,

if you value peace of mind now-if you desire happiness-if you would obtain pardon for the past -strength for the present-or eternal salvation hereafter-seek for all in the atonement of the Son of God. Blessed are all they, and they only, in life and in death, who put their trust in Him.

SERMON XIX.

ON PALM SUNDAY.

[Preached at Northallerton, on the Sunday before Easter, 1828.]

JOHN xii. 1. 12, 13.

Then Jesus six days before the Passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.—On the next day, much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palmtrees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna! Blessed is the King of Israel, that cometh in the name of the Lord.

I REMINDED you, on Sunday last, that the time was drawing near when we were to be called upon to commemorate the sufferings and the death, the burial, and the resurrection, of Christ; and I endeavoured to explain to you, from the customs of the Jewish law, the meaning of the two words, which we so often use to describe the causes and the consequences of our Saviour's sufferings. I wished to shew, as an introduction to the general

subject, that the cause of His death was, that He might become the sacrifice which the justice of the Almighty required; and that the consequences of His death were, that an atonement, or satisfaction, being made for sin, man may be pardoned by faith in the Son of God. We commence on this day the commemoration to which I alluded.

Our Lord had now nearly completed His ministry. By the silent influence of His teaching, and His miracles, He had directed the attention of the whole nation to Himself. He had performed the greatest of all His miracles-the raising of Lazarus from the dead--in the presence of many of the principal persons of the country; and the Pharisees, and chief priests, who expected, and who were resolved to have, a different Messiah,—a Messiah who should deliver them from the Roman yoke,-summoned a Council at Jerusalem, and then came to a resolution to put Him to death. From THAT day forth, says St. John, they took counsel together to put Him to death'. And they issued a proclamation against Him, that if any man knew where He was, he should inform them, that they might take Him. Now it is one of the many proofs and evidences of our Saviour's divine mission, that He not only accomplished all the prophecies which related to Him; but He also fulfilled the various types under which He had been shadowed forth in the Old Testament. He is called our Passover 2,

1 John xi. 53.

21 Cor. v. 7.