Application —
[Certain it is that " we have need of patience, in order that, when we have done the will of God, we may inherit the promises." But let not any of the sons and daughters of affliction yield to discouragement. If their trials be great, their supports and consolations shall be great also. Are they particularly discouraged at the thought of their weakness and sinfulness ? let them recollect, what a fulness of merit and of grace is treasured up for them in Jesus ; that " where sin has abounded, his grace shall much more abound ; and that his strength shall surely be perfected in their weakness."]
Numb. xxi. 8, 9. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole : and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole : and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, xohen he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.
IT is said in Scripture, that, "■ where sin hath abounded, grace shall much more abound." This declaration, if received as a licence for sin, would be pernicious in the extreme : but, if taken as an encouragement to repent, its tendency is most con- solatory and beneficial. That God has magnified his grace towards the most unworthy of men, and even taken occasion from their wickedness to display the unbounded extent of his own mercy, is certain : we need only read the history of the Israelites in the wilderness, and we shall be fully convinced of this. Their conduct was most perverse. They were truly a stiff-necked people. Notwithstanding all their ex- perience of God's kindness towards them, they could never confide in him, but were always murmuring, and always rebelling. By their wickedness they brought down upon themselves the divine judgments ; but no sooner did they implore forgiveness, than God returned to them in mercy, and put away his judg- ments far from them. We have a very singular in- stance of this in the history before us ; where we are informed, that God had, on account of their murmur-