[Moses had ministered to his people for forty years : and it is now just about that time that I have ministered to you. How much longer God may be pleased to continue my labours amongst you, he alone knows : but, according to the course of nature, it cannot be long. Be in earnest, then, to improve the light whilst you have itu. Many who are gone to judgment would be glad enough if they could come back again to hear the invitations and warnings which they once slighted. And it is possible, that, when the present ordinances shall have come to an end, and the tongue that has so often warned you lies silent in the grave, you may wish that you had " known the day of your visitation," and improved the privileges you once enjoyed. Let us all " work while it is day : for the night cometh, when neither your minister can work for you, nor you for yourselves." And the Lord grant, that, whilst we are continued together, I may so preach the word, and you receive it, that we may stand with boldness before God, and obtain his plaudit in the day of judgment!]
u John xii. 36.
Deut. xxxi. 6. Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them : for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee ; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
THE application of passages in the Old Testament to the Church at this time is thought by many to be an unwarrantable liberty, especially if those passages referred to any particular occasion, and still more if they primarily related to any particular individual. We are far from saying that great caution is not requisite on this head ; but we feel no hesitation in affirming, that passages in the Old Testament, whe- ther general or particular in their primary import, are applicable to the Church of God in all ages, as far as the situations and circumstances of the Church resemble that in former times : nay, we go further still, and affirm, that passages, which in their primary sense related only to temporal concerns, may fitly be applied at this time in a spiritual sense, as far as there exists a just analogy between the cases. We cannot have a stronger proof of this than in the