shall one be found in our camp ? Where is there one whose whole man is not impregnated with the venom of sin ? If you feel it not, that only shews that your wounds are the more deep and deadly : but know assuredly, that, unless you be brought to a sense of your perishing condition, your doom is sealed ; and in a little time you will perish for ever.]
2. Those who would substitute some other remedy in the place of Christ —
[What would have become of any man who should have persisted in devising some mode of healing himself, instead of looking to the brazen serpent ? He must of necessity have died. And no other fate awaits you, if you will be substituting your own works, whether in whole or in part, in the place of Christ. Every other hope must be utterly renounced, and Christ alone be made the one object of your affiance.]
3. Those who desire the healing of their souls —
[Make the Israelites a pattern for yourselves. When they felt in themselves that they were dying, they sought after God through Moses their mediator ; and confessed their sins, and implored mercy, and thankfully availed themselves of the preferred benefit, seeking it humbly in God's appointed way. Thus then do ye also : seek your God through the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only mediator between God and man ; and with deep contrition implore mercy at his hands : then direct your eyes to the cross on which the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified for you ; and doubt not but that you shall be made monuments of his grace and mercy to all eternity. Let no doubt about his sufficiency or your own worthiness keep you from him : for he " is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him ;" and " whosoever" believeth in him shall assuredly be saved V]
4. Those who doubt whether this mode of healing will not encourage sin —
[Such doubts were entertained in the Apostle's clays : but he spurned at the idea with holy indignation : " Shall we con- tinue in sin that grace may abound ? God forbid." What think you ? Would an Israelite have taken one of the fiery serpents to his bosom, because he had been healed of his wounds, and because the same means of healing were yet open to him ? How much less would one who has felt the bitterness of sin, cherish it any longer in his bosom, because he has obtained deliverance from its guilt and condemnation ? When he reflects that nothing but the crucifixion of the Son of God
b Isai, xlv. 22.