of the Old Testament profitable to us in every part, even in those which seem to be most entirely abrogated as belonging only to the Jewish law. We should seek every motive that we can hope for from every possible quarter, to purify us from sin. That was the great use of the ordinance which we are now considering, and that is the great object which we should be daily aiming at through the principles of the gospel. Oh, bear this in mind, ye who are placed under a better law and a less burdensome yoke. Think not that sin may be indulged, because you have not now to wash your persons or your raiment but wash your hearts and not your garments: "wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings" from before the Lord's eyes: " cease to do evil and learn to do well."

Let us next observe how the ashes of the heifer were to be used. They were to be mixed with clear water in a vessel; and then a clean person was to take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it into the mixture, and sprinkle it upon the tent, the vessels, and all the persons

that were in the tent, and upon every one who had touched a bone, or one slain, or one dead, or a grave. He was to sprinkle it upon the unclean on the third day, and again on the seventh day; and on the even of the seventh day that unclean person having purified himself, and washed his clothes, and bathed himself in water, should again be clean. What may we learn from this mixture and the sprinkling of it. The ashes of the burnt heifer will represent to us the merit of the sacrifice of Christ who died for us, and the running water will represent the power and grace of his Holy Spirit, which is called the water of life and the laver of regeneration, while the mixture of the two together will represent to us that inseparable union which ever occurs between the justification and the sanctification of a sinner. The mercy which pardons sin, and the grace which renews the nature, uniformly go together. St. Paul puts them together in his description of the change which was experienced by the Corinthians. When he had described how some of them had been defiled by sin, had been

fornicators and idolaters, and adulterers, and thieves, and drunkards, and other wicked characters, he says, "But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the spirit of our God." And again, what learn we from the sprinkling of this mixture by the bunch of hyssop, but the part which faith bears in our salvation? Faith takes up the Lord's mercy and grace and sprinkles them, if we may so speak, upon the sinner's soul. It lays hold of the things prepared for general use, and applies them to the individual, who can derive no benefit from them except he thus receives them unto himself. Never omit any one of these three particulars, I beseech you, in your plan of salvation. Let the sacrifice of Christ, the renewing grace of the Holy Spirit, and the application of both by faith to your own individual case, be continually united, as things which are all absolutely necessary in your salvation. May the divine spirit take hold of his hyssop, and therewith purge you that you may clean and wash you, that you may be whiter than

snow, and sanctify you wholly both in body and spirit.

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We may moreover notice how all the persons engaged in this extraordinary ceremony were rendered unclean. Not only was the ordinance itself for the benefit of those who had become unclean, but all the individuals who took any part in the preparation or use of the water, thereby became themselves unclean. The priest who officiated was made unclean; the man that burnt the heifer was made unclean he that gathered up the ashes also became unclean; and he that sprinkled the water, and he that even touched it were in like manner rendered unclean. The Jews say that even Solomon could not understand the mystery, how the same water should pollute the clean person, and cleanse the polluted. But we can at least see how all the persons who were engaged in the sacrifice of Christ, did thereby contract enormous guilt, while, by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, they were preparing for other sinners that great atonement and purification which procured and availed for

the taking away of the sin of the world, and even their own sin, when they applied to it for themselves in faith. Oh! there are many mysteries of mercy far above our knowledge in the death of Christ: and well are we employed when we can gain, from any part of the word of God, from any ceremony, any type, any plain declaration, any thing shadowy, or any thing bright, something which may give us a further insight into his wondrous love, or impress it more strongly on our hearts. There is no mystery in this remarkable ceremony of the law comparable to that contained in the doctrine which tells us in plain words that "he was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

III. Now let us notice, in the third place, the consequences of the neglect and observance of this ceremony. We read thus in the twentieth verse, "The man that shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from among the congregation, because he hath defiled the sanctuary of the Lord: the water of separation