r Z- $ THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY f Princeton. N. J.,>_ J/— ^ l) Cci.se ^ Division i ShHf. ' Section L^«^' N...' _ ■■■"■| t- 4_ k ^ • # LECTURES ON THE FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURE, AND THE Interpretation of it fro?n the Scripture itself. To which are added, FOUR LECTURES ON THE RELATION BETWEEN THE OLD AND THE NEW TESTAMENTS, AS IT IS SET FORTH IN THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. ' ALSO, A SINGLE LECTURE ON THE NATURAL EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITr, BY WILLIAM'jONES, M. A. F.R.S. AUTHOR OF THE CATHOLIC DOCTRINE OF THE TRiNITV, &C. TO WHICH IS PREFIXED, A SHORT ACCOUNT OF HIS LIFE AND WRITING; A NEW EDITION. LONDON PUBLISHED BY T. HAMILTON, 37, PATERNOSTER-ROW, ANP R. OGLE, 295, HOLBORN 5 J. OGLE, PARLIAMENT- SQUARE, EDINBURGPI •, AND M, OGLE, TRON- GATE, GLASGOW. 1808. G, CAHy Printer. C O N T E N T S, LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. LECTURE L Introduction ; in which it is shewn, how the Language of the Scripture differs from that of other Books ; and whence its Obscurity arises, ..... Page 1 LECTURE XL On the Figures which are found in the Language of the Scrip- ture, and the several kinds of them, ... Si? LECTURE III. On the Figures of the Scripture which are taken from Nature. (A continuation of the former), .... 48 LECTURE IV. On the artificial or instituted Figures of the Law of Moses, 72 LECTURE V. Some farther Examples, which" shew how the Language of the other Parts of the Scripture is borrowed from the Language of the Law of Moses, and to be interpreted thereby. — The Temple, the Sabbath, Circumcision, clean and unclean Ani- mals, &c. — The wonderful Testimony of the La-.v to the Religion of Jesus Christ, 96 LECTURE VL On the Figures of the Scriptures which are borrowed from the Events of the Sacred History, . . . . 1 23 LECTURE VII. Historical Figures of the Scriptures continued, . Ljr> A 2 CONTENTS. LECTURE VIII. On the Personal Figures, or Types, of the Scriptures; parti- cularly those of Moses and Joseph, proposed by St Stephen, in his Apology to the Jews, . . . Page 165 LECTURE IX. On the Personal Figures, or Types, of the Scripture. (A con- tinuation of the former), 186 LECTURE X. On Miracles ; particularly, the Miracles of the New Testament, as they belong to the Figurative Language of the Scrip- ture, 208 LECTURE XL The Uses and Effects of the Symbolical Style of the Scripture, 235 SUPPLEMENT TO THE LAST LECTURE. The Symbohcal Form common to the Wisdom of Antiquity, profane as well as sacred, 257 FOUR LECTURES ON THE HEBREWS. LECTURE I. On the Character and Offices of the Son of God, as they are set forth in the Epistle to the Hebrews, . . 269 LECTURE 11. The Religion and Faith of the People of God, the same (in substance) under both Testaments, . . • 289 LECTURE III. On the Church, as a Spiritual Society, which is the same thing at all times, . . . . • • • ^^^ LECTURE IV. The Moral of the Christian Doctrines, as stated in the Epistle to the Hebrews, . . . • « • ^"^ A LECTURE On the Natural Evidences of Christianity, . • 347 LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. William JONES was the son of Mor- gan Jones, a Welsh gentleman, descended from Colonel Jones, who married a sister of Oliver Cromwell, and was born at Lowick in Northamptonshire, in the year 1726. He early discovered an inquisitive temper, and industry in acquiring knowledge, and when he was of a proper age, was admitted a scho- lar at the Charter-house, in London, where he made a rapid progress in the Latin and Greek languages. Here also he gave indications of a turn for philosophical studies, and copied some tables and calculations of Mr Zachary Williams, the father of Dr Johnson's Mrs Williams, belonging to a magneticai theory which that gentleman had formed, but which was never given to the public. When Mr Jones was about eighteen years of age, he was entered of University College, Oxford, on a Charter-house exhibition, and in that semi-^ nary pursued the usual course of studies with unremitted diligence. He was admitted to ti llFE OF THE AUTHOR. the degree of B. A. in the year 1749? and soon aftenvards received deacon's orders from the Bishop of Peterborough . In 1 7 5 1 , he was ordained priest by the Bishop of Lincoln, and on quitting the university became curate at Finedon, in Northamptonshire. While he was in this situation, he published, in 1753, his " Full Answer to Bishop Clayton's Essay on Spirit," or rather the essay which his lord- ship adopted ; in which he endeavoured to support the cause of orthodoxy by an appeal to the religion and learning of heathen anti- quity, particularly the notions of the Herme- tic, Pythagorean, and Platonic trinities. In the year 1754^ he forrhed a happy ma- trimonial connection, and went to reside at Wadenhoe in Northam'ptonshire, as curate to his brother-in-law, the Rev. Brooke Bridges, In this place he drew up and published, in what year we are not informed, his " Catho- lic Doctrine of the Trinity," octavo ; which was favourably received by the orthodox world, and was enlarged in the third edition, which appeared in 17^7, by a " Letter to the common People, in Answer to some popular Arguments against the Trinity." Here also he engaged in a course of experiments, neces- LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. VU Bary to his composing a treatise on philoso- phy, in elucidation of his favourite system; and met with liberal friends, who, by a sub- scription among themselves of three hundred pounds per annum for three years, enabled him to famish himself with such an apparatus as he wanted. The result of his labours w^as " An Essay on the First Principles of Natural Philosophy," published in 1762, quarto, in- tended to demonstrate the use of natural means, or second causes, in the ceconomy of the material world, from reason, experiments, and the testimony of antiquity. It was de- signed as a preparatory work, to obviate the objections against the system for which he was an advocate, founded on the Newtonian phi- losophy ; and it displayed considerable learn- ing and ingenuity, as well as an ardent at- tachment to the interests of piety and virtue, united with the eccentric peculiarities of the Hutchinsonian school. The Earl of Bute was so well satisfied with it, that he desired the author not to be intimidated through fear of the expence from pursuing his philosophical studies, but to direct Mr Adams, the mathe- matical instrument-maker, to supply him with such instruments as he might want, and to place them to his lordship's account. tin LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. In the year 1764, Archbishop Seeker pre« sented Mr Jones to the vicarage of Bethersden in Kent, whither he removed with his family ; and when he afterwards found that the income of his benefice was not equal to what he ex- pected, in pursuance of the advice of his friends, ^e undertook the tuition of a few pupils. For such an office he was well qualified by his skill in the learned languages, his various know- ledge, his great industry, and his perspicuous easy manner of communicating instruction. In the year 1765, Archbishop Seeker present- ed Mr Jones to the rectory of Pluckley, in the same county, where he took up his residence, and continued his plan of education, pursuing at the same time his course of philosophical experiments, as well as theological studies, and discharging his pastoral duties with exemplary zeal and diligence. In the year 1 769, he pub- lished a letter to " A Young Gentleman at Oxford, intended for Holy Orders, containing some seasonable Cautions against Errors in Doctrine," octavo; consisting, chiefly, of the substance of a visitation sermon preached be- fore Archbishop Seeker in 1766. His subse- quent publications during his continuance at Pluckley were, some remarks on the princi- ples and spirit of " The Confessional," an- LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. IX nexed to a new edition of his " Answer to an Essay on Spirit," &c. 1770, octavo ; " Zoo- logia Ethica : a Disquisition concerning the Mosaic Distinction of Animals, clean and un- clean ; being an Attempt to explain to Chris- tians the Wisdom, Morahty, and Use of that Institution, in two Parts," 177^, octavo; " Three Dissertations on Life and Death, 1772, octavo ; a volume of " Disquisitions on some select Subjects of Scripture," which had been before separately printed, 1773, octavo : and " Reflections on the Growth of Heathen- ism among Christians, in a Letter to a Friend at Oxford, by a Presbyter of the Church of England," 1776> octavo. About this time Mr Jones was induced to move from Pluck- ley, and to accept of the perpetual curacy of Nayland in Suffolk. Soon afterwards he effected an exchange of Pluckley for the rectory of Paston in Northamptonshire, which he visited annually ; but took up his abode at Nayland, which no future offer of pre- ferment tempted him to quit. In the mean time he had entered a member of Sydney College in the university of Cambridge, where he was admitted to the degree of M. A. From the title of his next publication, Mr Jones appears to have been admitted a Fel- low of the Royal Society ; but we have no X LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. information concerning the time when this honour was conferred upon him. The work to which we allude was his '' Physiologi- cal Disquisitions: or Discourses concerning the Natural Philosophy of the Elements," 1781, quarto. This performance contains discourses on matter, and the several kinds of bodies ; on the nature and causes of motion ; on the nature and uses of the elements ; on fire, its properties and effects ; on the nature and properties of air ; on the philosophy of musical sounds ; on fossil bodies ; on physi- cal geography, or, the natural history of the earth ; and on the appearances, causes, and prognostic signs, of the weather. They con- tain much instructive, much entertaining, and much fanciful matter, ingeniously appUed in an attempt to investigate the causes of things, and to construct a theory of nature on the principles of the author's favourite system. Mr Jones's next pubUcation was theological, and consisted of " Lectures on the Figurative 'Language of the Holy Scripture, and the In- terpretation of it from the Scripture itself," 1788, octavo; which contain a mixture of judicious and valuable explanations of scrip- ture metaphors, with others in which the au- thor has given full scope to his lively imagi- nation. LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. XI In discharging the duties of his pastoral of- fice, Mr Jones paid particular attention to the young people of his parish, whom he instruc- ted privately in his own house, and pubhcly in the church, by a course of catechetical lec- tures adapted to their capacities ; and as he was zealously attached to the establishment, of which he was a minister, he endeavoured to secure their adherence to its communion, not only by the representations which he laid be- fore them of the nature of the church, and the sinfulness of schism, but by different small treatises, such as "An Essay on the Church," the " Churchman's Catechism.," &c. That these labours were not inefficacious among his parishioners, he had reason to conclude from the increase which he had the satisfaction to see in the number of those who attended at the sacrament. In the year 1790, our author published two volumes of " Sermons on mo- ral and religious Subjects," octavo; which are chiefly of a practical and useful tendency, and include some discourses on natural histo- ry, delivered at Mr Fairchild's annual lecture at Shoreditch church, of which the preacher is appointed by the Royal Society. They re- flect credit on the author's piety and benevo- lence ; but his fondness for the introduction Xll LIFE OF THE AUTHOR, into them of allegories and spiritual allusions, renders many of his remarks and illustrations not easily intelligible to plain and common readers. In the year 1792, alarmed for the safety of the British constitution, which be conceived to be in danger from the growing prevalence of democratical principles, and also for the existence of the established church and creed, against which he was led to be- lieve that the assiduity of sectaries, free en- quirers and unbelievers, was directed, Mr Jones employed his pen in the service of high- church politics. He was the author of " A Letter from Thomas Bull to his Brother John," which was industriously circulated through- out the kingdom by the friends of administra- tion ; and he drew up and published the pro- spectus of a plan of a society " for the refor- mation of principles," the establishment of which he had long meditated. To whatever cause it was owing, however, his efforts to form such a society did not succeed. In con- nexion v/ith those efforts he gave birth to " The British Critic ;" and published a col- lection of tracts by Charles Leslie, Mr Law, Mr Norris, Roger North, Bishop Home, our author, &c. in two volumes octavo, under the title of " The Scholar armed against the LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. XlU Errors of the Time ; or, a Collection of Tracts pn the Principles and Evidence of Christianity, the Constitution of the Church, and Authority of Civil Government." During the year last mentioned Mr Jones met with a severe loss in the death of his intimate friend. Bishop Home, to whom he was chaplain, and whose hfe he undertook the task of recording. This work made its appearance in the year 1795, entitled, " Memoirs of the Life, Studies, and Writings of the Right Revd. George Home, D. D. late Lord Bishop of Norwich," octavo; which, though it cannot be commended as a very regular and well-digested biographical production, is written, on the whole, in an interesting and pleasing manner, and con- tains a warm and affectionate tribute of re- spect to the memory of that prelate. To a second edition of it, published in 17&^, Mr Jones prefixed a concise exposition of Mr Hutchinson's leading theological and philoso- phical opinions. Our author nov/ was become advanced in age, and was obliged by his infirmities to dis- continue his practice of taking pupils. That he might not be subjected to any inconveni- ence from the diminution of his income which XIV LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. was thus created, in the year 1798 the Arcli- bishop of Canterbury benevolently presented him to the sinecure rectory of Hollingbourn in Kent ; which, however, he did not live long to enjoy. The last publication which he sent into the world was " A Discourse on the Use and Intention of some remarkable Pas- sages of the Scriptures, not commonly under- stood ; addressed to the Readers of a Course of Lectures on the Figurative Language of the Holy Scriptures," 1799, octavo. vSoon after this, he sustained a heavy loss by the death of his wife, which plunged him in deep affliction ; and that trial was in a short time followed by a paralytic attack, which depriv- ed him of the use of one side. His faculties, however, remained uninjured, and he speedily recovered so far as to be able to walk with a stick, and to write. In this infirm state of body he lived some months, and at length ex- pired, without a sigh or a groan, February 6, 1800, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. Mr Jones's learning was very respectable ; his attachment to what he considered to be truth steady and zealous ; his piety ardent and animated ; his moral conduct not only irre- proachable but highly exemplary ; and his LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. XV temper and manners placid, humble, and o- bliging. As far as his means extended, he delighted in doing good; and towards his flock he uniformly behaved as a vigilant af- fectionate pastor. To his other knowledge he added that of physic, v/hich he commend ably applied to the relief and comfort of his poorer neighbours. Of the establishment, of which he was a minister, he v/as an intrepid cham- pion, on what are commonly called high- church principles ; and of the theologico-phi- losophical system of the Hutchinsonian school he is justly considered to be the m.ost ingeni- ous and plausible defender. Besides the pieces enumerated in the preceding narrative, he published numerous single sermons, and occa- sional tracts. Vv^e have only to add, that Mr Jones was a proficient in the theory and prac- tice of music ; and that he composed a morn- ing and evening cathedral-service, ten church- pieces for the organ, with four anthems in score for the use of the church of Nayland, which are said to be greatly admired, as of the old school, and in the true classical style. LECTURE t. THE INTRODUCTION: m WHICH IT IS SHEWN, HOW THE LANGUAGE OF THE SCRIPTURE DIFFERS FROM THAT OF OTHER books; AND WHENCE ITS OBSCURITY ARISES. -W HEN the Maker of the world becomes an author, his word must be as perfect as his work : the glory of his wisdom must be de- clared by the one as evidently as the glory of his power is by the other : and if nature re- pays the philosopher for his experiments, the scripture can never disappoint those who are properly exercised in the study of it. The world which God hath made is open to every eye ; but to look upon the works of nature, and to look into the ways of nature, are very different things ; the latter of which is the result of much labour and observation. If the oecondmy of nature is not to be learned from a transient inspection of the heavens and the earth ; and if the ground will not yield B 4 On the Figurative Langutige Lect. I. did not penetrate beyond the surface. And as our Saviour preached to them in the same way as Moses and the prophets had written^ (of which we shall see more hereafter) they ^-vfere as much at a loss for the meaning of his discourses, as for the true sense of the law and the prophets. The same defect may be in us at this day, and certainly is in many, although we have the scripture in our mother-tongue ; a blessing which was denied to us so long as we were under the authority of the Church of Rome. If a man hears the Bible all his life with a Jewish mind, he will know no more of it at last than the Jews do. The son of Adam will be left as ignorant as the son of Abraham, unless his heart and understand- ing are opened to admit the principles of the Christian Revelation. It is vain to argue a- bout the superstructure, so long as the foun- dation is disputed, either through ignorance or disaffection. This obscurity then in the word of God doth not arisie from the language or the gram- m.ar; for so far the Bible, like other books, is the subject of critical industry : and much useful labour hath been employed by learned and pious men in clearing the letter of the scripture from the ambiguities to which all X-ECT. I. of the Holy Scriptures. 6 language is subject. The difficulties under which the Jew laboured were not gramraati- cal difficulties : and whatever these may be in the original, they are removed for all com- mon readers by the translation of the Eibie into their mother-tongue . The great difficult ties of the scripture arise totally from other causes and principles ; namely, from the mat- ter of which it treats, and the various forms under which that matter is delivered. Let us consider first, how the case stands with respect ,to the matter of the scripture ; and then secondly, with respect to the form or manner in which that matter is represented. The Bible treats of a dispensation of God, which began before this world, and will not be finished till the world is at an end, and the eternal kingdom of God is established. It informs us of the institution of religion in paradise, with the original dependence of man upon his maker : of a primitive state or man under a former covenant^ which is now forfeited : of his temptation and fall : of the causes of death, and the promise of redemp- tion. It founds a ritual on the remission of sin by the shedding of blood, and the bene- fits of intercession ; which the heathens also acknowledged in the traditionary rites of their jg On the Figurative Language Lect. I- priesthood. It relates the dispersion of the Gentile nations, and the separation of the He- brews. It foretels the manifestation of a Sa* viour in the flesh ; the rejection of the J^ws ; the calling and conversion of the heathens ; the establishment of the Christian Church, With its preservation against the powers of the world, and the gates of hell. It treats of a spiritual life, and renewed affections in its members ; that they must eveii be born again in a spiritual manner, and return to a state of childish simplicity in their understandings ; it assures us of the resurrection of the body after death ; of the fature judgment of the world by the man Jesus Christ ; of the glorification of the faithful, and the condemnation of the wicked. It opens to us an invisible world of spirits, some of whom are in alliance with God, and others in rebellion against him ; as- suring us withal, that every m^n will have his final portion with the one party or the other. None of these things are known to us by nature ; and it is not pretended that tliey are ; for if man draws a scheme of religion for him- self, not one of all these articles finds a place in it. Therefore as the nature of man doth not know any of these things till God reveals them, it must of course be under two very Lect. I. ^the Holy Scriptures. ^ great difficulties; fifst^ of understanding or comprehending ; and secondly, of admitting or receiving them. From the difficulty we are under of com- prehending such things as are above natural reason, the manner of the scripture is as ex- traordinary as its matter : and it must be so from the necessity of the case. Of all the ob- jects of sense we have ideas, and our minds and memories are stored with them. But of invisible things we have no ideas till they are pointed out to us by revelation : and as we cannot know them immediately, such as they are in themselves, after the manner in which we know sensible objects, they must be com- municated to us by the mediation of such things as we already comprehend. For this reason, the scripture is found to have a lan- guage of its own, which doth not consist of words, but of signs or figures taken from visi- ble things. It could not otherv/ise treat of God who is a spirit, and of the spirit of man, and of a spiritual world ; which no words can describe. Words are the arbitrary signs of natural things ; but the language of revelation goes a step farther, and uses some things as the signs of other things ; in consequence of which, the world which we now see becomes 8 On the Figurative Language Lect. I. a sort of commentary on the mind of God, and explains the world in which we believe. It being then the professed design of the scripture to teach us such things as we neither see nor know of ourselves, its stile and man- ner must be such as are no where else to be found. It must abound with figurative ex- pressions ; it cannot proceed without them : and if we descend to an actual examination of particulars, we find it assisting and leading our faculties forward ; by an application of all visible objects to a figurative use ; from the glorious orb which shines in the firmament, to a grain of seed which is buried in the earth. In this sort of language did our blessed Savi- our instruct his hearers ; always referring them to such objects as were familiar to their senses, that they might see the propriety and feel the force of his doctrine. This method he observed, not in compliance with any cus- tomary figures of speech peculiar to the East- ern people, but consulting the exigence of hu- man nature, which is every where the same. He spake a sort of language which was to be carried out into all lands ; and which we of the western world are obliged to follow in our preaching of the gospel, • because we cannot otherwise preach it so as to be understood b;/ Lect. I. of the Holy Scriptures. 9 our hearers. Here I find it necessary to con- firm what I have advanced by some examples. As we have but imperfect notions of the relations and differences between life and deaths our Saviour, when he was about to raise a maid to life, said to those who were present, the damsel is not dead^ but sleepeth. He did not say, she is dead, and I will raise her to life ; but she is asleep ; whence it was to be infer- red that she would awake. They who were not skilled in the divine language of signs and figures, laughed him to scorn ; as if he had spoken in ignorance what was expressed with consummate truth and wisdom ; For the sub- stitution of sleep for death, when we have it upon such great authority, has the force and value of an whole sermon in a single word : it is a seed from vvhence a tree of life may be unfolded. Upon another like occasion our Saviour ex- pressed himself in the same manner to his dis- ciples ; I our friend Lazarus sleepeth; and when they did not understand the force of his words, he said plainly, Lazarus is dead. When he spake of the deadness of the mind, a state, v/hich, however real, must always be invisi- ble, because the mind itself is so ; he express^ ed it under the same term with the death of 10 On the Figurative Language Lect. L the body; let the dead bury their dead; of which expression no sense can be made by those who are not aware, that the scripture speaks to us by things instead of words. Ad- mit this principle, and then all is clear and consistent. It is as if Christ had said, " Let those who are dead in their spirits, (with re- spect to the new life of the gospel) employ themselves in burying those who are dead in body ; for they are fit for nothing else : but by following me and preaching the gospel, thou shalt raise men from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness." In the writings of the prophets, the spirit- ual blessings of the gospel are so constantly described under some allusion to nature, that their expressions are not true till they are figu- ratively interpreted. Let us take an example from the prophet Isaiah : Every valley shall be exalted^ and every mountain and hill shall be made low,, and the crooked shall be made strait^ and the rough places plain. Who ever heard that this was literally fulfilled .^ In what part of the world were all the mountains levelled; the vallies filled up ; the crooked and rough places made strait and plain ? But in the figurative sense all these things were to be brought to pass in the minds of men at the publication Lect. I. of the Holy Scriptures, ii of the gospel, when all flesh should see the sal- vation of God *. Then should the high and mighty of this world be confounded and brought low ; the humble should be exalted, the meek encouraged, the crooked ways of men rectified, their wild and rugged tempera softened and civilized. The Bible has farther difficulties arising from another principle. For it pleased God, for wise ends, to exercise the faith and devo- tion of his people with a system of forms and ceremonies, which had no value but from their signification. I mention no particulars here, because they will occur to us abundant- ly hereafter ; but the fact is undoubted from that general assertion of St Paul, that the law had a shadow of good things to come f : and again, that the instituted meats and drinks, the holy days, new moons and sabbaths, of the law, are a shadow of things to come^ hav- ing their substance in the doctrines and mys- teries of Christianity ; or, as the apostle speaks^ whose body is of Christ %, And therefore in the gospel things are still described to us in the terms of the lav/ ; the substance itself tak- ing the language of the shadow, that the de- sign of both may be understood : as where ^ T.uke ill 6, t Hcb. x. 1. t Col. il. 17. 1 2 On the Figurative Language Lect. T, the apostle saith, Christ our Fassover is sacri^ ficedfor iis^ &c. from the appHcation of which term to the person of Christ, we are taught, under this one word of the passover^ that he is to us a lamb in meekness and innocence of mantiers ; pure and spotless from every stain of sin ; slain (and that without the breaking of his bones) for the redemption of his people from the wrath of the destroyer ; and feeding with his body those who put away all leav-eu from their hearts. But nov/, beside this first difficulty, which we are under, of comprehending the matter of the scripture from the peculiar manner in which it is delivered, w^e are under a second difficul- ty as to the receiving of it ; without which our understanding of it will be very imperfect, if any at all. For the force of men's minds is generally found to be according to their af- tections ; for which reason the disaffection of the Jew is attended with a very conspicuous weakness of the understanding. We may lay it down as a certain truth, confirmed by the experience of all men, that when any object is admitted into the mind, it must find a fa- culty there which corresponds with its own peculiar nature. When there is no appetite, t!ie sweetest meat is of no value, and even the LeCT. I. of the Boly Scriptures, 13 sight and savour of it may be disagreeable. When there is neither ear nor skill in music, heavenly sounds give no delight ; and with the blind the beams of the sun give no beauty to the richest prospect. It is thus in every other case of the kind. The mathematician and logician apply to the intuitive faculty of reason ; the poet to the imagination or mir- ror of the mind ; the orator to the sensibility of the affections ; the musician to the musical ear. The mathematician demonstrates no- thing but to patient and attentive reason ; to the imagination which is dull the poet is a trif- ler ; on the hard and unfeeling heart the orator makes no impression ; and the sweetest music is referred to the class of noises, where there is no sense of harmony. Thus when God speaks of things which are above nature, his mean- ing must be received by a faculty which is not the gift of nature, but superadded to na- ture by the gift of God himself. For spiritual truth there must be a spiritual sense ; and the scripture calls this sense by the name oi faith : which word sometimes signifies the act of be- lieving ; sometimes the matter which is be- lieved ; but in many passages it is used for that sense or capacity in the intellect, by which the invisible things of the Spirit of Gcd are admitted and approved. J 4 On the FiguraLivt Language Lect. L It is a doetrine which may ocetsion some pciortification to human pride, and it seldom fails to do 30 ; but no doctrine of the gospel of Jesus Christ is more decided than this^ that all men have not faith ; that it i§ the gift of God wherever it is found ; and that the natural man^ or man with no power? but those of our common nature, receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: so far from it, that they seem foolish, extravagant, and incredible, and are rejected with mockery and contempt by men who can write a pleasant style, and who seem to be in other respects (within the sphere of their affections) very sensible and ingeni^ ous persons. On what other ground but that of the scriptural distinction between faith and natural reason, is it possible to account for a fact v^hich so frequently occurred at the first publication of the gospel ; when the same speech, the same reasoning, yea and the same miracle, had a totally different effect on the minds of different hearers, all present on the same occasion ? When Peter and John healrt ed the lame man at the gate of the temple, and all the people were spectators of the fact, the apostles addressed themselves in a power-* ful discourse to those who were present ; the lame man still cleaving to them, and ^ts^nd^- Lect. I. of the Holy Scriptures, 15 ing by them a§ a witness: and thus they made 3gme thousands of converts to the word of the go§peL Eut behold, the Sadducees were^/•i^^'- ed at the doctrine of the resurrection, though preached, with all the force of truth from their own scriptures, and attended with the credent tial of an indisputable miracle ; which only vexed and distressed them the more. At Athene, the philosophers of the place, proud gf their Grecian talent for oratory and dispu- tation, considered ihe matter of Paul's preach- ing merely as a new thing, which gave them an opportunity of questioning and wranghng. Some called him a babbler ; some said they would hear him again ; some mocked at the resurrection of the dead; while Dionysius, one of their senators, Damaris, and some others, clave unto them and believed: in other words, they received the gospel with that fa- culty of the spirit, which alone is susceptible of it* Till there is in man the sense which receiveth these things, the book which treats of them will not be understood. If they are rejected, we must conclude this sense to be wanting : and when that is the case, the evi- dence of a miracle will not force its way through the hardness of the human heart. — SQnqiQ speculative writers have treated of ere- 1 6 Of the Figurative Language Lect. L dibility and probability, and the nature, and force, and degrees, of evidence, as if we had rules for weighing all truth to a single grain with mechanical certainty : whereas in fact, man, with all his boasted balancings of rea- son, can resist a proof that would confound a devil. Compare the following examples : — The Jews said " As for this fellow we know not whence he is." The devils said, " I knov/ thee who thou art, the holy one of God. ' ' The Jews said, that Christ cast out devils through Beelzebub their prince : but the devils never said so themselves. The sun of the noon-day shines without effect upon the blind, because the proper sense is wanting : so saith the Evan- gelist, the light shineth in darkness^ and the dark^ ness comprehendeth it not. Vicious inclinations and habits of sin, which render truth disa- greeable, are sure to have the effect of weak- ening and perverting the judgment ; this is the condemnation^ that light is come into the zvorld^ and men loved darkness rather than lights because their deeds were evil. The understanding of truth implies a love of truth ; and the under- standing will be deficient so long as that love is wanting. None are so blind as they who are so by choice ; that is to say, the ignorant are never found to be so absurd as the disaf- Lect. I. of the Holy Scriptures* 17 fected. The word of God is in itself all-suf- ficient for the illumination of the mind ; it is a seed quick and vigorous with the principles of life ; but, like other seeds, it must find something congenial with itself in the soil into which it falls. The word spoken did not pro^ fit the Jews, because it was not mixed with faith in them that heard it ; there was nothing in the soil to give it nourishment and growth. The distinction which the scripture hath made between natural and spiritual men ; that is, between men that have faith and men that have none, is agreeable to what hath been observed from the beginning of the world ; that there have been two classes of people, all sprung from the same original, but totally different in their views, principles, and man^ ners. Before the flood, they were distinguish- ' ed as the children of Cain, and the children of Seth ; the latter of whom inherited the faith of Abel. After the flood, we find them again under the denominations of Hebrews and Heathens. In the gospel, they appear to us as the children of this worlds and the children of light: the former cunning and active in their generation for the interests of this life, the other wise towards God and the things of eternity. These two run on together, Hke C 18 On the Figurative Language Lect» L two parallel lines, through the history of this world ; always near to one another, but ne - ver meeting. Whoever considers this fact, will not be at a loss for a reason, why the wisdom of God in the scripture is so differ- ently accepted in the world. Having thus endeavoured to shew that the scripture must have its difficulties, and whence they arise \ we shall obtain some farther light, if we enquire what the scripture hath said con- cerning itself. The great apostle thus distinguishes between the language of revelation, and the words of human wisdom. " We speak the wisdom of God in a Mifstery^ even the hidden wisdom--^ which none of the princes of this world knew ; for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory," By which he means, that the priests and rulers who stood up against the Lord, did so for want of un- derstanding that sense of the scripture which is hidden under the signs and symbols of it, in a way totally different from the wisdom of this world, and which the natural m^n * can neither see nor admit. The Word mystery^ in a vulgar acceptation, is applied to such things * 1 Cor. ii. U. Lect. I. of the Holy Scriptures, 19 as are dark and unintelligible : but to speak in a mystery^ as the phrase is used in the scrip- ture, is to reveal some sacred and heavenly- doctrine under some outward and visible sign of it : and thus the sacraments of the church being outward signs with an inward and spi- ritual meaning, are also to be understood as mysteries. This sense of the word mystery is ascertained by that passage in the Revelation ; the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand^ and the seven golden candle- sticks: the seven stars are the angels of the se- ven churches ; and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches. To sig- nify a church holding forth the light of the gospel, by that domestic instrument of illu- mination which holds a candle ; and to sig- nify a ruler or teacher by a star which gives light from the firmament of heaven, is to spc so under the form of a mystery ; which is noi necessarily unintelligible, because it is here explained. So in another place; this is a great mystery^ saith the apostle, hut I speak concerning Christ and the church. To teach us the union betwixt Christ and the church, for the bringing forth of sons to glory, under the similitude of Adam and Eve united in para- dise for the multiplying of mankind upon C 2 20 On the Figurative Language Lect. I» earth, is also to speak in a mystery. The sor- ceress in the Revelation ^, who is called by the name of Babylon, hath the word Mys- tery inscribed with that name upon her fore- head ; because Babylon is there not literal, but figurative or mystical, to denote that abo- mination of idolatry^ by the sorceries of which all nations were deceived \ :' She sitteth on a scarlet-coloured beast ^ supported by the impe- rial powers of this world, called, the kings of the earth; and the wine in her cup is the false doctrine >vith which she intoxicates the minds of men. This hidden wisdorn of the scripture is to be considered as treasure hid in the earth, for which men must search with that same zeal and labour with which they penetrate into a tnine of gold : for when our Saviour com- ^^ands us to search the scriptures for their tes- timony of himself, the language of the pre- cept implies that kind of searching by which gold and silver are discovered under ground. He who doth not search the word of God in that manner, and with that spirit,, for what is to be found underneath it, will never discover its true value. The same principle is incul- cated with a like allusion, when the divine * Chap. xviL t Chap. xii. 23. Lect. I. of the Holy Scriptures. 21 law is compared to honey and the honey- comb; an inward sense being therein hidden, as when the bee seals up its treasure in the cells of wax : and the one when taken out is as sweet to the understanding as the other is to the palate. It is also as the corn in the husk, which must be taken from thence by the labour of the ox on the threshing-floor, (as the custom was of old) before it can sup- port the hfe of man. As the disciples of Christ plucked the ears of corn, and rubbed them in their hands on the Sabbath-day, so should every Christian preacher handle the word of God before it can give nourishment to their hearers. The labour of the ministry is certainly alluded to in that precept relating to the threshing-floor. Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn : for the apostle seems to wonder how any could be so absurd as to suppose that God considered no- thing but the benefit of the beast on this oc- casidii ; as if he had care of oxen^ when he undoubtedly meant to assign the reward, and signify the work of his ministers^ who labour in the word and doctrine. It is the work of the ministry to expound the word of God, as the labouring ox in the threshing-floor treadeth out the grain from the cha|F: and as the ox 22 On the Figurative Language Lect. L is not muzzled at such a time, but partakes freely of the fruits of his labour \ so, by parity of justice, they who preach the word have a right to live of it. That there is both a pl^in and a figurative sense in the language of the scripture, parti- cularly in the law, is clear from the apostle's reasoning on another occasion. He gives a name to each of these, distinguishing thern ■under the contrary terms of the letter and the spirit :■ which terms are not unfrequently ap- plied in the language of civil life to the laws of the land, in which there is a literal sense of the words, and a deeper sense of their ge^ neral intention^ called the spirit, which the letter cannot always reach. The letter of the scripture is applied to the outward institutions and ceremonies of the law, as they stand in the words of the law without their interpretation : the spirit of them, or the intention of the lawgiver, is the same with the doctrine of the New Testament, called elsewhere the good things to come, of which the law had aii image and shadow. In its washings and purifications we see the doctrine of baptism ; that is, of regeneration by water and the Spirit of God *. In its sacrifices we * Ezek. xxxvi. 25. INJECT. L of the Holy Scriptures. 2S see the necessity and efficacy of Christ's death once for all. Had it not been necessary for nian to be born of the Spirit, and redeemed by the blood of Christ, the law would not have troubled the people with washings and sacrifices ; for in that case they would have signified nothing, and consequently would have been superfluous and impertinent : w^hereas if we take them right, the services of the law are the gospel in figurative description, and the gospel is the law in spirit and significa- tion. The passover of the law i& a sign of Christ that was to come \ and Christ when h6 is come is the sense and signification of the passover. It is the duty of a Christian mini- ster not to disappoint the law or the gospel, but to do justice to the wisdom of God in both, and put these things together, for the edification of the people. " Our sufficiency, saith the apostle, is of God, who hath made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter but of the spirit : for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." The letter of the law, voided of its evangelical intention, leaves our bodies washed, but our souls un- clean ; it leaves us nothing but the blood of bulls and of goats, and consequently under guilt and forfeiture ; whence the apostle hath 24 On the Figurative Language Lect. I. truly affirmed, that in this capacity it is a vii- nist ration of death. In his reasonings with the Jews, he presses them with the unreasonable- ness and wickedness of resting in the literal observation of the law ; telling them, that by the letter and circumcision they transgressed the law. But how could this be ? did not the law ordain circumcision in the letter ? it did undoubtedly : yet, however paradoxical it may appear, the literal observation of the law was a transgression of the law. From whence it is a necessary consequence, that the letter of the law was ordained only for the sake of its spirit or moral intention ; which the Jew ne- glecting, v/hile he trusted in the law as a form, was in effect a transgressor of it ; and was condemned in his error by the Gentiles, who, without being born under the letter of the law, had now attained to the spirit of it, and were better Jews than the Jews themselves : for, adds the apostle, he is not a Jew which is one outwardly^ neither is that circumcision^ which is outward in the fiesh ; but he is a Jew which is one inwardly^ and circumcision (as Moses himself had taught *) is that of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter. * Deut. X. xvi. Lect. I. of the Holy Scriptures, 25 To enquire more particularly into the er- rors of the Jews and the causes of them, would be foreign to my design. The fact is .plain, that they erred by a literal interpretation of their law ; and that by still adhering to the same, they are no nearer to the gospel now than they were seventeen hundred years ago. On the other hand, the apostles of Jesus Christ succeeded in their labours by being ministers of the spirit ; that is, by interpreting and rea- soning according to an inward or figurative sense in the law, the prophets, and the psalms. All the fathers of the Christian church fol- lowed their example ; particularly Origen^ one of the most useful and powerful of primitive ex- positors. Then were the Jews confounded, the heathens coverted, the word of God was efficacious, and the people were edified. The same way of teaching was observed in the middle ages, till the times of the reformation ; and even then our best scholars still drew their divine oratory, particularly the learned and accomplished Erasmus^ from the spiritual wisdom of the first ages. To revive and pro- mote which, within my own little sphere, is the design of this and the following lectures : in all which I shall invariably follow the rule pf making the scripture its own interpreter. 26 On the Figurative Language Lect. j. And now I have opened the way by shewing in what re3pects and for what reasons the style of the scripture differs from that of other books, and that it is symboHcal or figurative ; I pro- pose, with God's leave, to distinguish the fi- gures of the scripture into their proper kinds, vn\h examples and explanations in each kind, from the scripture itself. Lect. 2. of the Holy Scriptures. ^^ LECTURE II. ON THE FIGURES WHICH ARE FOUND IN THE LAN- GUAGE OF THE SCRIPTURE, AND THE SEVERAL KINDS OF THEM. XT hath been shewn in the former Lecture, that as the scripture teaches spiritual things which cannot be taught in words, the wisdom of God hath made use of things^ as signs and figures, to explain them. This is done for several reasons : first, because we cannot con- ceive things of a spiritual nature but by bor- rowing our notions of them from the things that are visible and famiHar to our senses. Secondly^ because the scripture can speak un- der this form to some men, and reveal many things to them, while the same words reveal nothing to others : like that pillar in the wil- derness, which was a cloud of darkness to the Egyptians, while it gave light to the Hebrews. Thirdly, because an outward sign, such as those of the scripture are, becomes a pledge and an evidence of the thing signified ; as it doubtless is a wonderful confirmation of the gospel to see its mysteries exactly delineated so long before in the services of the law of 28 On the Figurative Language Lect. 2. Moses ; and much more to see them written in the characters of nature itself. The things which the scripture uses as fi- ' gures of other things are taken, i . From the natural creation, or world of sensible objects. 2. From the institutions of the law, 3. From the persons of the prophets and holy men of old time. 4. From the history of the church. 5. From the actions of inspired men, which in many instances were not only miracles, but signs of something beyond themselves, and conformable to the general plan of our salva- tion and redemption. These are the materials of that figurative language in which the Bible is written ; and of the several kinds of them, as here distin- guished, I shall treat in their order, after I have given a general description of each. 1. When any object is taken from the vi- sible creation, and applied as an illustration or sign of some spiritual truth, we call it a na- tural image. The scripture calls them si?nili' tudes ; as in that passage of the prophet Hosea — / have multiplied visions^ and used similitudes by the ministry of the prophets *. A discourse made up of such is called a parable; a form of speech which our Saviour as a divine teacher * Hosea xii. 10. Lect. 2. of the Holy Scriptures. 29 thought most agreeable to the nature of his own preaching, and to the wants of his hear- ers. In which, however, he only did what the scripture had always done ; he instructed the eyes of the understanding by placing some natural object before them ; and as the visi- ble world throughout is a pattern of the invi- sible, the figures of the sacred language built upon the images of nature, are as extensive as the world itself ; so that it would be a vain undertaking to interpret all the figures which are reducible to this class. 2. Other figures are borrowed from the in- stitutions of the ceremonial law, which are applied to the things of the gospel ; and in this capacity the law is all figure. It is no- thing considered in itself but a copy, a shadow of good things to come; and as a shadow, it had only the form^ not the substance^ (or very image^ as the scripture calls it) of the things hoped for. Its elements were like those of the gos- pel in form ; and therefore it was a school- master^ a teacher of such elements as prepar- ed the mind for the reception of a spiritual dispensation, in which its shadows are now realized. When our Saviour Jesus Christ is called a Priest, a character is given to him, which can- 80 On the Figurative Language Lect. 2. not be understood till we go back to the law. There we see what a priest was, and what he did ; and thence we learn the nature of our Saviour's priestly office. And as the whole law, in its ritual, consisted chiefly of priestly ministration ; then, if the priest himself was figurative, his ministration was so hkewise, and consequently the law was a pattern of the gospel. 3. The things relating to our Saviour's Per- son, that is, to his birth, dignity, actions, suf- ferings, death, resurrection and glorification, were foreshewn in the history of other great and remarkable persons, who, in the former ages of the church, were saviours upon occa- sion to their people, or examples of persecut- ed innocence, truth, and holiness, as he was to be. Such persons acting, or suffering, or triumphing, in this prophetic capacity, are called types. In the gospel they are called signs ; and as a specimen for the present, we may take the two characters of Jonah and So- lomon^ as referred to in the llth chapter of St Luke. Our Saviour * proposed Jonah to the Jews as a sign of his own future resurrec- tion. This prophet went down into the mouth of a monster, as Christ was to be swallowed * Matth. xii. 40. Lect. 2. oftli^ Holy Sciiptures, 51 up like other men by the devouring jaws of death. As the prophet was detained there three days, Christ was so long to be confined to the sepulchre : and as Jonah was restored to the light at the Divine command, so was Christ to rise again from the dead. Jonah was there- fore a sign of his death and resurrection, such as no words could have delivered ; for a miraculous fact is best signified by a mi- raculous sign, which shews us that the thing was known and determined before it came to pass. Such another sign was Solomon; the fame of whose wisdom brought the Queen of Sheba from a heathen land to hear his words, and won- der at the greatness of his kingdom, and ad- mire the order of his government : a ^gn that the Gentiles should listen to the word of him that was greater than Solomon, and be con- verted to the laws and ceconomy of his spirit- ual kingdom ; while the Jews should despise his words and persecute his church : for which the example of the Queen of Sheba shall rise in judgment to condemn them. 4. Next to the persons of the prophets is the history of the church at large ; concern- ing which the wisdom of God ordained, tliat things past should represent things to come. 32 Oti the Figurative Language Lect. 2. and serve as admonitions and signs to the peo- ple of God to the end of the world. Hence it comes to pass, that no scripture is of any pri- vate interpretation : its sense does not end in the persons of whom it speaks, but is of pub- lic application for the benefit of all places and of all times. The apostle, speaking of some remarkable circumstances in the history of the church, assures us, that all those things hap-- penedfor ensamplesy and are written for our ad- monition. The deliverance of the Hebrews from Egypt was a pledge of our deliverance from this world of sin and bondage ; the ser- vice of which is perfect slavery, like that of the Hebrews under Pharaoh. Their tempta- tions in the wilderness were like our trials in the passage through this mortal life. Their settlement in Canaan is an earnest to us, that if we commit ourselves in faith to the guid- ance of God, we shall in like manner obtain the promised inheritance ; and that without faith, we shall fall short of it. Lastly, The actions of the prophets, and particularly of Christ himself, were figurative and prophetical ; they are therefore called signs as well as miracles, because they carried an instructive signification, and pointed to something greater than themselves. The ways Legt. 2* of the Holy Scriptures. 33 of divine wisdom are comprehensive, and an- swer many purposes at once. Our Saviour performed many mighty works, that for the sake of them men might beheve him to be the Saviour of the world ; but then they were withal of such a sort, as to admit of an appli- cation to the state of all Christians. We do not hear his voice, bidding us leave our com- panions in the ship and walk towards him up- on the water : but all that vdll come to him must have their faith exercised, as that of Pe- ter was, upon the waves of this troublesome world ; they must undertake a hazardous pas- sage, in which nothing but the power of Christ can support them ; and if they cry to him, the same 7ight hand^ which saved the fearful Apostle will be stretched out to help them ifi all their dangers and necessities * ; and the same goodness will be tender toward their infirmity in the hour of trial ; reproving and yet par- doning the deficiencies of their faith. All the miracles of Christ are after this pat- tern ; they are signs of salvation in all ages, and admit of a general application to every member of the church, with whom the same miraculous power is still present, and acting * See the Collect for the second Sunday after the Epi- phany. D B4 On the Figurative Language Lect. 2. for the highest purposes, though invisible to mortal sight. To one or other of these five heads, the spi- ritual language of the scripture may be reduc- ed, and from them the matter of it is borrow- ed : 1 . From the images of nature, or visible things as representations of things invisible. 2. From the institutions of the law, as prefi- guring the things of the gospel. 3. From the persons of the prophets, as types of the great Prophet and Saviour that was to come. 4. From the history of the church of Israel as an ensample to the Christian world. 5. From the miraculous acts of Moses, Christ, and o- thers, as signs of the saving power of God to- wards the souls of men. All these things com- pose the figurative language of the Bible ; and that interpretation which opens and applies them to the objects of faith, is called a spirit- ual interpretation ; as being agreeable to that testimony of Jesus, which is the spirit of pro- phecy. I have been thus particular in the division of my subject, that by understanding at the beginnings what my design is in the whole, it may always be known, as I proceed in it, what part I am upon. Lect. 2. of the Holy Scriptures, 35 Of this figurative language, the elements first to be understood are those which are bor* rowed from the images of nature* And here a vast field is open to us, as wide as the world itself. If we consider it in due order, we must begin with the creation ; which is related in the book of Genesis, is a pattern of the new creation in Christ Jesus ; and is so applied by the apostle : God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ ^. Till this light shines in the heart of man, he is in the same state as the unformed world was, when dark-* ness lay upon the face of the deep : and when the new creation takes place, he rises in baptism, as the new earth did from the waters, by the Spirit of God moving upon them. The Ughts of heaven in their order are all applied to give us conceptions of God's power, and shew us the glory of his kingdom. In the 84th Psalm, the Lord is said to be a sun and a shield ; a sun to give light to his people, and a shield to protect them from the power of darkness. Christ, in the language of the prophet, is the Sun of Right eousness^'^^ho^ as the natural sun revives the grass, and renews the * 2 Cor. iv. 6. D 2 36 On the Figurative Language Lect. 2. year, brings on the acceptable year of the Lordy and is the great restorer of all things in the kingdom of. grace ; shining with the new- light of life and immortality to those who once sat in darkness and in the shadow of death. And the church has warning to receive him under this glorious character : Arise^ shine^ for thy light is come J and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee *. When he was manifested to the eyes of men, he called himself the light of the worlds and promised to give the same light to those that follow him. In the absence of Christ, as the personal light of the world, his place is supplied by the light of the scripture, which is still a lamp to our feet and a light unto our paths. The word of prophecy is as a light shining in a dark place ; and as we study by the light of a lamp, so we must give heed to this light, if we would see things to come. The moon is used as an emblem of the church ; which receives its light from Christ as the moon does from the sun : therefore the renovation of the moon signifies the reno- vation of the church ; as a sign of which, the new moons were appointed to be observed as religious festivals under the law ; and the a- postle tells us they were a shadow of things to * Isaiah Ix. 1 . Lect. 2. of the Holij Scriptures, 37 co7Jie ; and the substance of that shadow is known from the nature of the case, and the relation which the moon bears to the sun. The angels or ruling ministers in the seven churches of Asia are signified in the book of Revelation by seven stars in the right hand of Christ : because his ministers hold forth the word of life, and their light shmes before men in this mortal state, as the stars give light to the world in the night season , of which light Christians in general partake, and are there- fore called children of light. This natural image of the light is applied to 50 many great purposes, that I must not dismiss it without making some farther use of it. You see, our God is light ; our Redeemer is light ; our scripture is light ; our whole re- ligion is light ; the ministers of it are light ; all Christian people are children of the light, and have light within them. If so, what an obligation is laid upon us, not to v/alk as if we were in darkness, but to walk uprightly as in the day, shewing the people of this worlds that we have a better rule to direct us than they have. If we who have the light walk as they do who are in darkness, the same darkness will assuredly come upon us ; we shall -understand nothing, we shall care for nothing; 38 On the Figurative Language Lect. 2. the light that is within us will be changed in- to darkness ; and then, vanity and confusion will be the consequence, as to those who walk in the dark through a perplexed and danger- ous path : and better would it be not to have had the light, than to be answerable for the guilt of having extinguished it and turned it into darkness. This is the moral doctrine to be derived from the usage of light in the sa- cred language. Here I would also observe, that the figures of the scripture necessarily introduce some- thing figurative into our worship ; of which I could give you several instances : but I shall confine myself to the matter now before us. The primitive Christians signified their rela- tion to the true light, and expressed a religious regard to it, by the outward form of worship- ping with their faces toward the east ; be- cause there the light first arises out of darkness, and there the day of true knowledge arose, like the sun, uppn such as lay buried in igno- rance. To this day our churches, especially that part which is appropriated to the most solemn act of Christian worship, is placed to- ward the east : our dead are buried with their faces to the east : and when we repeat the ar- ticles of our faith^ we have a custom of turn- Lect. 2. of the Holy Sc?'iptures. ■ 39 ing ourselves to the east. The primitive Chris- tians called their baptism their illumination; to denote which, a light was put into the hands of the person after baptism, and they were admitted to hear the lectures of the catechists in the church, vinder the name of the illumi- nated. The festival of Christ's baptism was celebrated in the month of January with the ceremony of a number of lighted torches. — When the converts repeated the confession of their faith at baptism, they turned themselves to the east ; and to the west when, they re- nounced the powers of darkness. In the mo- dern church of Rome this ceremony of wor- shipping to the east has been abused, and turned into an act of adoration to the altar ; on account of which, some Christians who have heard of the abuse of this ceremony, without knowing the use of it, have rejected that as an act of superstition, which has an edifying sense, and was practised in the days of the apostles, before any superstition had in- fected the church. As such only I would re- commend it to observation *. * An excellent sermon, which ought never to be forgotten, and which I carried tlirough the press^ when I was an under- graduate at Oxford, was pubHshed on Christ the Light of the World, from a verse of the 19th Psahn, by my admired, beloved and lamented friend, the late Rev. George Watson, 40 On the Figurative Language Lect. 2. In the element of air, which comes next in order to be considered, we have a figure of the Holy Spirit, which worketh imperceptibly as it listeth, while we cannot tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth. The operations of the Divine Spirit are, like those of the air, necessary to life ; the one to the natural life, the other to the spiritual : and as the air gives the breath of speech, so the Holy Ghost gives the utterance of inspiration : therefore he de- scended on the day of Pentecost under the outward sign of a rushing mighty wind from heaven ; and in consequence of it, the apos- tles spake as the Spirit gave them utterance ; and their sound went out into all lands. The element of water, which washes and purifies the body, is used to signify the in- ward cleansing of the soul from sin, by the washing of grace in baptism : and all the pu- rifications by water under the law had the like once a fellow of University College, to whose early instruc- tions and example I have been indebted in most of the lite- rary labours of my life. Many extraordinary men have I seen ; but for taste in classical literature and all works of ge- nius j for a deep knowledge of the inspired writings ; for readiness of speech and sweetness of elocution ; for devout affection towards God, for charitable goodness of heart, and elegance of manners, I never met with one that exceede4 him. Lect. 2. of the Holy Scriptures, 41 meaning ; as they are applied in those words of the prophet : Then will I sprinkle clean wa- ter upon you^ and ye shall be clean^ from all your flthiness^ and from all your idols will I cleanse you : a new heart also will I give you^ and a new spirit will 1 put within you^. This new heart and new spirit, as the work of God's grace, was always signified by every act of religious purification ; according to that of the Psalm- ist, Thou shalt wash me^ and I shall be whiter than snow. — Make me a clean hearty God, and renew a right spirit within me \. Water is used in another capacity to quench the thirst ; in which sense it is put for the doctrine of God's word, refreshing and invi- gorating the soul, as the water of the spring gives new Ufe and strength to the thirsty. As the spring breaks forth from the secret trea- sures of the earth, the doctrines of salvation proceed from a source which we cannot see. In this sort of language did our Saviour speak of the grace of his own divine doctrine to the woman of Samaria : If thou hiewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink, thjou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living zvaterX ; that is, * Ezeklel xxxvi. 25. f Psalm li. X There is a peculiar propriety in tlie scripture term of living ivaUr for the water of a running spring j because it 42 Of the Figurative Language Lect. 2. the doctrine of salvation which he preached to the world, and of which he used these re- markable words in the temple. — He that he- lieveth on me^ as the scripture hath said^ out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water ; that is, the words of his mouth shall convey that doctrine which giveth life to the world : his preaching shall satisfy a multitude of souls, as the stream of a river is sufficient to the quenching of their thirst. As the elements of the world, so the sea- sons of the year have their signification in scripture. The beauties of the spring and summer are selected by the prophet Isaiah, to describe the perfection and felicity of Messiah's kingdom at the appearance of the gospel : — when righteousness should spring up among the barren Gentiles, who had been fruitless and deserted as the earth when forsaken by the sun ; Tlie dese?'t shall rejoice and blossom as the rose ; it sJiall blossom abundantly and rejoice even zvith joy and singing : the glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the excellency of Carmel and Shai'on; they shall see the glory of the Lord^ and the ex- cellency of our God*. The season of the har- hrings with It a new life and spirit, which it has derived from the subterraneous chemistry of nature : and it is always found to contain a large quantity of air. * Isaiah xxxv, 1, 2. Lect. 2. of the Holy Scriptures, 43 vest, which came in at the end of the Jewisk year, is apphed in a parable of our Saviour to the great in-gathering of the world, when the wheat shall be reaped, the tares shall be se- parated for the fire, and the labourers employ- ed in that great work shall be the ministering spirits of God, sent forth to gather his elect, and to finish his kingdom upon earth. The Harvest of our Lord, is the end of the world ; and as surely as the course of the year brings us about to that season, so surely will the dis- pensation of God, now on its progress, bring us to a sight of that other harvest : and it be- hoves us to consider well v/hat part we are likely to bear on that occasion. From the seasons let us turn our eyes to the animal creation ; at the head of which is man, an jepitome of all the other works of God. The oeconomy and disposition of the hu- man body is used as a figure of that spiritual society, or corporate body, which we call the Church ; and God is said to have disposed the offices of the one in conformity to the order observable in the other. The head is Christ ; the eyes appointed to see for the rest of the body, are the prophets and teachers, anciently called seers. The hands that minister are the charitable and merciful, who delight in sup- 44 0?i the Figurative Language Lect. 2. plying the want of their fellow members. The feet are the inferior attendants, whose duty it is to know their place, and be subser- vient in their proper callings. Each bath his proper gifts and his proper station ; and as there is no respect of persons with God, no man should pay any undue respect to himself ; but all should unite with humility and piety in fulfilling the great purpose of God, who hath joined them together in one communion. As there is no division in the natural body, but all the limbs and members have care for one another, and one life animates them all ; so it should be in the church, where there is one body and one spirit. In this form hath the apostle argued against the divisions and jealou- sies then prevailing in the church of Co- rinth * : and if his argument v/as considered as it merits, and in that spnit of fervent zeal and love with v/hich it was written, there would be no such thing as schism in the church, or faction in the state. The bodily senses of men are used to de- note the faculties of the mind : for the soul has its senses ; but as we cannot see their ope^- rations, it is necessary to speak of them in such terms as are taken from the visible pows- * See 1 Cor. xii. IrECT. 2. of the Holy Scriptures, 45 ers of the body. He that does not understand the language of the scripture, is said to have no ears ; he that does not see spiritual things, to have «o eyes; he that cannot make con- fession of his faith with his tongue, and has no delight in the praises of God, is dumb. In short, every unregenerate man, who is with- out the knowledge of God, and has nothing but what nature and his own vanity give him, is in the nature and condition of a beggar, poor and blind and naked * ; and he who is not yet alive in spirit, is even taken for dead and buried, and is called upon to arise from the dead,, and awake unto righteousness. The soul being invisible, its distempers are so ; therefore the sacred language describes them by the distempers of the body. A na- tion or city, in a state of sin and impenitence, are represented to themselves as a body fall of diseases and sores. In this style the Spirit speaks by the prophet Isaiah of Judah and Je- rusalem ; the whole head is sick,, a?id the whole heart faint, Fro?n the sole of the foot even to the head,, from the lowest of the people up to their princes and rulers, there is no soundness in it,, but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores. — In the same way, the works of the devil in * Rev, iii. 17. 46 On the Figurative Language Lect. 2. stripping and abusing the nature of man by the fatal introduction of sin, are represented as wounds given by a thief, who meets him on the road, and leaves him naked and half- dead upon the earth. This is the intention of that parable, which describes the fall and sal- vation of man, as the relieving and curing of a wounded traveller. The support of man's spiritual life is like the support of his natural ; and the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, (which some of late have taken great pains to undervalue and mis- interpret) is built upon this similitude. Man is sent into the world to earn his bread by his labour, and some think he is sent for nothing else ; but this is only a shadow of his proper errand, which is, to work out his own salvation with fear and trembling : and for this work he has need of sustenance, as much as for the daily labours of his life. Therefore God has provided a supply of a spiritual kind, sig- nified outwardly by the figures of bread and wine, the commemorative sacrifice of the death of Christ, and the instituted means of convey- ing the benefits of it to the souls of men. — Beasts killed in sacrifice were fed upon by the offerers ; and Christ's death being a sacrifice, he is fed upon in faith by those who thus Lect. ^. of the Holy Scriptures, 47 commemorate his death ; and the consequence is the strengthening and refreshing of their souls : if not, this absurdity should follow from the parallel, that eating the flesh of sacrifices was a mere ceremony which contributed nothing to the nourishment of the body. What can be more express than the doctrine of our Sa- viour himself upon this subject ? My flesh is meat indeed^ and my blood is drink indeed — Ht that eateth me^ even he shall live by me; that is, shall live with a new and divine life, as really as his body lives and is nourished by his daily bread. Unless these words do signify, that a real principle of life and strength is derived to us from the body of Christ, whereof we par- take, there can be no certainty in language, and every doctrine of the scripture may be thrown into doubt and obscurity. Without faith, as it hath already been argued in the pro- per place, the language of the scripture never was nor ever will be admitted in its true sense : but with it, it is clear enough to every reader. This first head of my subject is so copious, that I must conclude here, and defer what re- mains to the next Lecture. 48 Ofi the Figurative Language Lect. 3, LECTURE III. ON THE FIGURES OF THE SCRIPTURE WHICH ARE TAKEN FROM NATURE. (a CONTINUATION OF THE FORMER.) X HE former Lecture would not allow me room to explain the figures which the scrip- ture hath borrowed from the natural world and the objects of common life ; though I determined to select such of them only as might be thought most important and instruc- tive : and even now, the subject is so copious, that I must leave many which I should be glad to treat of. From the consideration of the heavens, the elements and the seasons, we descended to man, whose bodily life is a pattern and sha- dow of his spiritual life, and is applied to il- lustrate it in many instances. From his natural, we must now go forward to his social, civil, or political life, as a citi- zen, subject, and member of society; together with his worldly condition, relations, offices, and occupations. Lect. 3. of the Holy Scriptures, 49 The spiritual state, or kingdom of heaven, is represented to us under the emblem of an earthly kingdom, in which God is the Su- preme Governor and Judge, ruling all his creatures with infinite power, and according to the laws of justice, goodness, and mercy. The church is a spiritual kingdom under Christ its head ; and its ministers are ambas- sadors, commissioned to treat with the world, and propose terms of reconciliation from God, with whom they are by nature at enmity. St Paul, having occasion to speak of his com- mission under Jesus Christ, saith. For whom I am an ambassador in bonds. This was a strange case ; and he mentions it as such ; because the persons of ambassadors were accounted sacred, and it was against the law of nations to do any violence to them : but the world, while it keeps good faith with itself, keeps none with God. Our blessed Saviour, as Pi- late truly entitled him upon the Cross, was the King of the Jews^ though not after the form and authority of worldly kingdoms ; and as such had a claim to the allegiance of his subjects. Their rebelHous treatment of him and his ambassadors is represented in the pa- rable of the marriage of the king's son > * Matth. xxii. E 50 On the Figurative Language Lect. 3. whose invitation they rejected, and abused his servants. In consequence of this his ar- mies were sent out, to do execution upon them as murtherers, and burn up their city : all of which was fulfilled upon the apostate Jews, and their city Jerusalem : and having reject- ed him, they are to this day without a king, without laws, without a country. There is another parable of the same kind, which admits of a more general application,, and comes home to ourselves. Christ ascend^ ing into heaven, there to receive all power, and return invested with it to the general judg- ment, is signified under the person of a noble^ man who went into afar country^ to receive for himself a kingdom and to return — But his citizens hated him^ and sent a message after him^ sayings We will not have this man to reign over us *. Thus insolently and ungratefully doth a wick^- ed world treat the authority of Christ in his absence : but he shall return ; and then the authority they will not admit for their good, will be turned to their destruction — Those mine enemies which would not tluit I should reign over them^ bring hither and slay them before me. Not all the powers upon earth can hinder the execu- tion of this command — bring them hithe?-"'^ * Luke xix. 12. Lect. 3. of the Holy Scriptures. 51 wherever these offenders shall then be, they will all be found ; even the grave shall not hide them, the dust shall not cover them ; but the ministers of vengeance will drag them forth, and present them before that king whom they hated and affronted. Some there are, who send their message after him in terms of open treason and defiance ; while others explain away the sense and authority of his kingdom with subtilties of logic and a mask of piety. But let them speak or reason* as they please, the proudest of them all are un- der the power of Jesus Christ : those who do not allow of his spiritual authority in his king- dom the church, are still within the reach of his justice. Happiest are they, in whose hearts the kingdom of God is established according to those words which were spoken of it — the kingdom of God is within you ; and who can {>ray daily, as they are commanded, that his kingdom may come ; that it may prevail over our affections, and direct all our doings, till at length it shall be manifested over all, and the King himself shall appear in his glory. The judgment passed by the magistrate in this world against crimes is founded on the law of God, and is an administration of his justice for the time being ; an earnest of that E 2 53 On the Figm^ative Language Lect. S- more equal and perfect administration which is to come. Every tribunal before which cri- minals are summoned is a prelude to the day of doom, when the judgment shall sitj and the dead small and great shall stand before God^ and the dead shall be judged out of those things that are written. This may seem distant to us now, in our blind way of considering things ; but in the language of the scripture it is other- wise : Behold^ saith St James, the judge stand- eth before tlie door^ ready to enter, and to bring every secret work, and every neglected and perverted cause, into judgment. Other figures of the scripture are taken from the state in which mankind are engaged un-^ der the dangers of war. As men are troubled with violence and treachery from one another; so is there another warfare more hazardous, to which all Christians are enlisted under the Captain of their salvatiouy against enemies whom no man can see ; active, subtle, vigilant, ma- lignant spirit ; for, we wrestle not against fesh and bbod^ but against principalities and powers. As men prepare for an earthly war, so are we to prepare ourselves that w^e may sta?id in the evil day : we are to put on the whole ar- mour of God^ as the apostle hath described it ; we are to take the shield of faiths the szvord of Lect. 3. of the Holy Scriptures, 53 God's word, the helmet of salvation ; and to pray that we may be inspired with fortitude, and assisted in the use of them. We have treachery as well as force to guard against. There are deceitful lusts which assume the mask of pleasure, while they are zvarrijig a- gainst the soul^ as it were by sap, to under- mine and destroy it. No man can use a sword with skill, but he who hath been instructed in the art of de- fence, and hath practised it long : so can no man handle the word of God aright, that sword ^ the spirit^ but he that has studied it diligently. With unskilful handhng by the ignorant, or the ill-disposed, it may wound ourselves, and our friends, like a sword in the hands of a child or a madman. Amongst the occupations of men, the chief is that of husbandry ; and, it will afford us much instruction. As the field is the subject of man's labour, so man himself is a field un- der the cultivation of God : Te are God's hus- bandri/j saith the apostle. All the particulars in the course of husbandry are fulfilled in our hearts. For as the ground is broken and clear- ed, so is the heart to be prepared by repent- ance : whence the prophet Hosea thus calls upon the people ; Break up your fallow ground^ 54 On the Figurative Langutige Lect. 3. fo7' it is time to seek the Lord In the parable of the sower, the seed is the word of God^ quick and powerful with the principles of life ; and the different kinds of soil denote the various dispositions with which men receive the word of God; some few into an honest iind good heart ; many more into hearts open as the common high way to the lusts of the world and the visits of Satan ; and as such people understand nothing spiritual, they immediate- ly lose what they receive. Some, whose piinds are shallow, cannot retain it, as not having depth enough for the word to be rooted, so as to withstand trials and temptations, signified by the scorching heat of the sun upon a stoney soil. Some are so full of care and business, that the word can no more thrive, than seed among thorns and thistles. I would propose this parable of the sower as a specimen of the excellence of that figura- tive mode of instruction so constantly pursued throughout the scripture. See how much doctrine, enough to fill a volume, is here com- prehended in how few words ; in a form strik- ing to the imagination, and plain to every capacity ! Another sort of husbandry, not so familiar \o us in this climate, is the cultivation of the Lect. o- oj the Holy Scriptures, 5 5 vineyard. In countries nearer to the sun, vines are cultivated in the fields, and employ many hands to plant and dress them, and ga- ther their fruits. In the 5th chapter of Isaiah there is a mystical song, which considers the church of Israel as the vineyard of God, plant- ed in a fruitful situation on the holy hill of Sion, cleared, fenced and guarded, and fur- nished with every thing that could render it complete and keep it in its perfection. In- stead of good fruit it produced wild grapes, as bad as if it had been left without cultivation. For this, its hedge was to be taken away, and it was to be eaten up ; that is, the heathens round about it were to be let in upon it to devour it, and it was to be trodden down : no rain was to fall upon it ; the blessing of di- vine grace from heaven was to be with-held ; and thorns and briars, all sorts of wicked peo- ple, under the figure of every worthless, trou- blesome and accursed plant, were to prevail in it. In the 80th psalm, the spoiling of the church is lamented under the same image. It is de- scribed as a vine brought out of Egypt by the hand of God, to be rooted in Canaan \ from whence the heathens were cast out to make room, for it^ as the ground is cleared of stones 56 On the Figurative Language Lect. 3. and rubbish for a new plantation. But for its unfruitfulness, the boar out of the wood laid it waste, and the wild beast of the field devoured it. Such ever was and ever will be the fate of the church : when it becomes de- generate, and unworthy of the hand that planted it, the world is let in upon it ; who are as eager to plunder, lay it waste, and tram- ple it down, as the swine to root up the ground and destroy a plantation. In the New Testament, the members of the church are considered more particularly as branches of Christ : / am the true vine^ says he, and my Father is the husbandman: as the branches of the vine are dressed, so are the members of Christ under the discipline of God : correction is as necessary to them as the pruning-knife to the vine ; and as the branches bear no fruit but as they belong to the tree, so can no member of the church bring forth any fruit but by abiding in Christ; for without him V7t\can do nothing. The un- profitable branch, that bears no fruit, is taken away from the tree, to b^ burned ; and the fruitless Christian must expect to be cast forth in like manner, and then gathered up fbr the fire. The offices of men are applied to the same Lect. 3. of the Holy Scriptures. 57 purpose as their occupations. God is pleased to take upon himself the office of a shepherd^ and his people are related to him as a Jlock, — Two of the psalms are composed upon this plan ; expressing the reliance of believers on the pastoral care of God, and their joy and thankfulness to him for admitting them to such an honourable relation : The Lord is my shepherd^ therefore can I lack nothing : he shall feed me in a green pasture^ and lead me forth be- side the ^waters of comfort. Such is the lan- guage of the 23d psalm. The lOOth psalm is an invitation to a solemn act of thanksgiving, with songs and instruments of music in the temple. The people of all nations being ad- mitted into the flock of Israel as the sheep of God's pasture^ ought to assemble within the fold of his church, for the public celebration of his truth and mercy. The obhgation is particular and special upon Christians, since our Lord appeared personally to men in this character ; verifying that prediction of the prophet ; he shall feed his flock like a shepherd^ he shall gather the lambs with his arm^ and carry them in Ms bosom. To every act of care and kindness proper to a shepherd did he condescend : he took the little children up in his arms, and blessed them; he went about SB On the Figurative Language Lect. 3. seeldng the lost sheep of the house of Israel; he collected together and ordered the fold of his church; he has appointed other shep- herds under him to take the charge of his flock, and is with them as the chief shepherd to the end of the world, when he shall still appear and act in the same character, separat- ing the sheep from the goats in the day of judgment. All the natural relations subsisting amongst mankind are applied to illustrate their spirit- ual interests. God is our heavenly Father, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named; the Church is the daughter of God ; the spouse of Christ, and the mother of us all, Christ is the first-born^ and all Christians are brethren in him ; constituting together what is called the household offaithj as distinguished from the world of unbelievers. The Jew and Geniile are two brethren, the sons of their father; the Jew the elder, the Gentile the younger, whose apostacy and repentance are both described in the history of the prodigal son. The union betwixt Christ and the Church is considered as a marriage, signified and fore- shewn by the first sacred union of Adam and Eve in paradise. The followers and friends Lect. 3. of the Holy Scriptures. 59 of Christ are now waiting in expectation of being called forth to meet this bridegroom, and join in the glorious procession that shall ascend, under the conduct of a train of an- gels, to meet the Lord in the air^ when he shaU return from the wedding : with which expec- tation they are to keep their loins girded up^ and their lights burning. Woe be unto the foolish, whose lamps shall be gone out when -the cry shall be raised at midnight. Behold the bridegroom cometh^ go ye out to meet him. As the author of our faith, Christ is our master or teacher ; and that in so strict a sense, that we are to call no other by that name in comparison of him ; much less are we to re- ceive any other form of doctrine, from those who assume a right of teaching on the autho- rity of any other person, or by any other rule, which the fashion of the times or the preju- dices of education may have established a- mongst us. This relation betwixt the master and the scholar must suggest to every Christian the in- dispensible duty of knowing the scriptures, and following the precepts of the gospel. For, let us ask ourselves : are we the scholars of Jesus Christ, and are we ignorant of his doc- trine ? Do we pay no regard to his discipline, 60 On the Figurative Language Lect. 3. and the rules he has given for the conduct of life ? And shall we not in such a case be dis- owned and expelled from his society ? If we know nothing of him, he will know nothing of us, and will signify the same to us upon an awful occasion — Depart from me^Iknow you not. Having thus far shewn how the nature, state, works, offices, and relations of mankind are applied, and how the scripture reasons from them, as from so many parallel cases ; I shall now consider what use is made of the inferior part of the animal creation. And here you are to recollect, that beasts differ from one. another as men do, the sober from the sottish, the gentle from the ravenous, the trusty from the thievish, the peaceable ancL obedient from the blood-thirsty and rebelli- ous : and as the scripture expresses all things by similitudes, the properties and qualities of beasts are examples of virtues and vices amongst men. This moral difference was the ground of the distinction of beasts under the law of Moses into clean and unclean. The people of God were to eat of no unclean creature ; they were to converse with no unclean man ; and so the first effect of this law was of a civil nature, to keep the Jews separate from the conversation of other nations, that they might Lect. 3. of the Holy Scriptures. 61 not learn their works. They could not eat with them, and consequently could not keep company with them ; and this law has the same effect to this day with the modern Jews. The second intention of it was of a moral or spiritual kind ; to suggest a figurative lesson of purity, obedience, and patience, from the various instincts of animals. Read the 11th chapter oi Leviticus^ and you will see how the creatures are distijiguished. The gentle, tame, and profitable kinds are allowed for food ; and all creatures of wild, fierce, or filthy manners, are forbidden. Thus the Israelites were reminded daily by what they ate, what manner of persons they ought to be in all holy conversation and godliness; by what was forbidden, they were taught to ab- Ifor the vices of the heathen So saith the law itself : Te shall not walk in the manners of the nations which I cast out before you — lam the Lord your God, which have separated you from other people; ye shall therefore put a difference between clean beasts and unclean^ and between unclean fowls and clean — and ye shall be holy unto me ; for I the Lord am holy^ and have se- vered you from other people that ye should be mine *, This passage puts the moral intention * Lev. XX. 23, &c. 62 On the Figurative Language LeCt. 3. of the distinction of meats out of dispute, and is indeed a direct affirmation of it : the peo- ple of God were to avoid unclean meats^ as a sign that he had separated them from unclean Gentiles to be Jwlij unto himself- But in the fulness of time, when the Gen- tiles were to be admitted to Christian baptism^ and taken into the church with the Jews, this act of grace in the divine ceconomy was sig- nified to St Peter, by a new licence to feed upon unclean beasts. The case was this : — Peter was about to be invited to preach the gospel to Cornelius a Homan, into whose house he could not come ; because the law which he had always observed commanded the Jews to keep themselves separate from heathens in their conversation ; as, in their diet, they ab- stained from unclean beasts. ' While this matter was depending, Peter fell into a trance, and saw a vision. A great sheet, knit at the four corners, was let down to the earth, containing all those living creatures which were forbidden food by the Levitical law, and he was commanded to kill and eat : to which, when he objected, as being con-* trary -to the law, a voice said, xvhat God hath cleansed^ that call not thou common. The message from Cornellius which immediately followed, Lect. 3. oj the Holy Scriptures, 63 shewed the design of this vision \ that it sig - nified the reception and cleansing of the Gen- tile world, and that the Jews were no longer to count them unclean. So Peter himself thus explained it when he visited Cornelius : Te know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company or come unto one of another nation ; but God hath shewed me tliat I should not call any man common or unclean. Therefore those living creatures of all kinds, which had been presented to him in the vi- sion, were the people of all nations ; the hnen sheet which contained them signified their sanctification by the gospel ; and it was knit at four corners, to shew that they were gather- ed together from the four quarters of the world, and brought into the church, * Nothing more need be said to prove that the distinctions amongst men were figuratively expressed under the law by a distinction a- mongst beasts and birds and all hving crea- tures. In the subtilty of the fox, the fierce- ness of the tyger, the fiithiness of the swine, the impudence of the dog, you see, as in a glass, the manners of those idolatrous nations, from whom the Jews were separated. In the gentleness of the sheep, the integrity of the labouring ox, the innocence and profitable- 64 On the Figurative Language Lect. 3. ness of other tame creatures fit for food, you see the virtues of an Israelite indeed^ such as those people ought to be, who were gathered into the fold of the church, and had God for their shepherd. But when God had mercy upon all, and the Jew and Gentile became one fold in Christ Jesus, then this distinction was set aside. However, to all readers of the Bible, the moral or spirit of this law is as much in force as ever. Wild, subtile, fierce, unclean manners, are as hateful in Christians, as they were of old in heathens : and the hea- thens were taken into the church, on condi- tion that they should put off their savage man- ners ; as the unclean creatures had before put off their natures and became tame, when they were admitted into the ark of Noah, a figure of the church. This change was again to hap- pen under the gospel ; and the prophet fore- tels the conversion of the heathens under the figure of a miraculous reformation of manners in wild beasts : The wolf shall dwell with the lamh^ and the leopard shall lie down with the kid^ and the calf and the lion and the fatling together; and though they were once so fierce and ter- rible that a man dared not to come near them, they shall be so changed, that a little child may lead them — they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain. LeCT. 3. of the Holy Scriptures, 65 Authors of natural history divide their sub^ ject into three parts," under the heads of ani- mals, plants, and minerals— I would follow the same order, to keep my subject within a moderate compass. Plants are applied to explain the growth of the mind, with its different qualities and pro- ductions. Thus preached John the Baptist : The ax is laid unto the root of the trees ; there- fore every tree which heareth not good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. At the trans- gressions of former times God had winked, and suflFered men to walk in their own ways ; but now the serious day of reformation 'was come, and men were commanded to repent, or to look for speedy execution ; which accordingly came upon the unbelieving Jews, who did not take the Baptist's warning. The ax was sharp ; and the hand that held it being just and irre- sistible, it soon laid them level with the ground. In the. first Psalm, the righteous man is de- scribed as a tree flourishing by the water side,, and bringing forth its fruit in due season. Such is he whom the grace of God attends, and whose delight is in meditating day and night upon the law of the Lord ; while the ungodly are, Uke unprofitable chaffs driven away by the wind. '* No' fruitless tree will be permitted to. F 66 On the Figurative Language Lect. 3. remain in the plantation of God, nor be able to stand when the storm of judgment arises. — Christians who do not persevere, but fall away into a sinful and unprofitable life, are com- pared to trees whose fruit withereth^ twice dead, plucked up by the roots : dead once by nature, and dead again unto grace, after they had been revived by the reception of the gospel : of such there is no hope. The transitory nature of man in this mor- tal life is shewn by the herbs of the field ; and the scripture draws this picture with such beauty as far surpasses the most laboured poeti- cal elegies on mortality — In the morning it is green and groweth up ; in the evening it is cut down^ dned up and withered *. — All flesh is grass^ and all tlie goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: — the grass withe?'etk, the flower fadeth ; but the word of our God shall stand for ever\. In their decay, the herbs of the field are patterns of man's mortality ; but in the order of their growth, from seeds dead and buried, they give a natural testimony to the doctrine of the resurrection ; and the apostle theretbre speaks of bodies rising from the dead as of so many seeds springing from the ground. The prophet Ist-iah speaks as expressly upon * Psalm xc. f Isaiah xl. 6. Lect. 3- of tlw Holy Scriptures, 67 the same subject : thy dead men shall live^ to- gether with my dead body shall they arise : awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust : for thy dew is as the dew df her is ^ and the earth shall cast out her dead ^. Much instruction is to be gathered from the treasures which men take (with other views) from beneath the earth : for perishable riches are figures of the true riches^ which give in substance what the other give in shadow : — these are the riches of the mind ; and though of Uttle esteem with the generahty of the world, they are yet of infinite value to those that possess them. The apostles of Jesus Christ were poor in appearance, but could boast of being able to 7nake many rich in faith and knowledge. The gifts of God to the mind are represented in one of the parables as so many t-alents of money, entrusted to men by the Lord of all things, with which they are to traffic in this state of probation, and i'ltiprove them to the best of their power. He who makes no improvement will lose what he has got, and then he is poor indeed. In the prophecy of Daniel, the four mo- narchies of the world were signified by the chief metals which are taken from the earth, * Isaiah xxvi. 19. F 2 6S On the Figurative Language Lect. 3. all united in that visionary image which ap- peared to Nebuchadnezzar. The head of gold meant the Assyrian monarchy y the breast of silver was the Persian ; the brazen part was the Grecian ; and the legs and feet of iron and clay were the Roman. The last was inferior to all the rest in quality, but exceeded them in strength^ as iron breaks all other things in pieces. The kingdom of Christ, arising in the time of the fourth monarchy, is meant by the stone cut out of the mountain^ (that is, out of the church) without hands ^ to smite this mighty image of worldly power upon Xhe^feet^ and overthrow it. Accordingly, as Christian- ity grew stronger, the Roman empire declin- ed, and was soon reduced nearly to the state in which we now see it *. We have taken a review of the natural creation, so far as the compass of these Lec- tures will permit, and have seen how the scripture has appHed the several parts of it for the increase of our faith and the improvement of our understandings^ Thus we are taught * The reader may see the three kingdoms of plants, ani- mals, and minerals, considered more at large in Three Dis- ^ courses preached at Fairchild's Lecture, by the author of this work. x Lect. 3. of the Holy Scriptures. 69 how to make the best and the wisest use to which this world can be appHed. The Crea- tor himself hath made this use of it, in reveal- ing his will by it, and referring man to it for instruction from th€ beginning. For this use he intended it when it was made ; and with- out such an intention, there never could have been such an universal agreement between na- ture and revelation. In this use of the world men differ from brutes, who can see it only with the eyes of the body, and can apply it to nothing but the gratification of the appetites. The ambitious and the coVetous are wasting their time to gain as much as they can of it, without know- ing what it is ; as children covet new books for the pictures and the gilding, without hav- ing sense to improve by what is within them. To those who consider only how the creation -can furnish matter to their lusts and passions, it is no better than a vain shadow : but to those who take it rightly, it is a shadow of heavenly things ; a school in which God is a ' teacher ; and all the objects of sense in hea- ven and earth, and under the earth, are as the letters of an universal language, in which all nations have a common interest. There was an opinion, (I should rather call it a tradition) amongst some heathen philoso- 70 On the- Figunative^ Language I^ect. 3. phers, that the world is a parable^ the Hteral or bodily^ part of which is manifest to all men, while the inward meaning is hidden, as the soul in the bodjv the moral in the- f^;ble, ov the interpretation in the parat^le *. Theyhad * E|sf; yot^ xttilcv IfioTfZdv MY0ON uxiiv a-a/^xjijv ^iv x.eii ^evif^ec- lav iv ecvla (pxtvef^ivcJVf "^v^av ^6 Kxt voav x.^v7rlof,iiva>v. Sallust. Ilsf* fiii>)*, cap. 3. loj/ f4,iv avec]i6y,a-i Movx^i,, uq «v voi^ov lov ^i ea^^nlov E|c«J<, Clem. Alex. Strom. Lib. 5. p. 412. <* We may call the world a fable, or parable ; in which << there is an outward appearance of visible things, with an *' inward sense which is hidden as the soul under the body* <* There is a barbarous philosophy, (z. e. z, foreign philo- ** sophy) which hath a knowledge of the sensible and the in- ff iellectual worlds ; the one being the archetype or original, «' the other an image or copy of it. It compares the intel- <« lectual to unittfy and the sensible to the number six" This barbarous philosophy, so called by Plato, whose doc^ trine is here repeated by Clemens Alcxandrinus, was no, \vhere to be found but in the Bible ; which in its week of, days, has a single day, the Sabbath, answering to the divine xest of the invisible world, and six days allotted to the works of this present world, Notliing but the Mosaic cosmogony, which describes the creation of the naturaj world in six days, and makes one heavenly day of the Sabbath, could be the original of this philosopliy mentioned by Plato. That certain characteristics of divine truth are legible in the works and ways of nature, is no new doctrine. It hath, been supposed by some, and lightly touched upon by others ; Lect. 3. of the Holy Scriptures. 71 heard there was such a thing ; but to us the whole secret is opened, by the scripture ac- commodatijig all nature to things spiritual and intellectual ; and whoever sees this plan with an unprejudiced mind, will not only be in a way to understand the Bible, but he will want no other evidence of the Christian doctrines. but never pursued (as I have found) to any good effect. The two preceding Lectures give some little prospect of it as it stands in scattered passages of the scripture. But I am so much affected to the plan, that I have drawn out two Lec- tures upon it, under the title of the Natural Evidences of tJie Christian Religion j not yet published . 72 Of the Figurative Language Lect. 4. LECTURE IV. C?r THE ARTrnCIAL OR INSTITUTED FIGURES OF THE LAW OF MOSES. JN E X T in order to those figures of the the scripture which may be called natural^ as being taken from nature, we are to examine those which are borrowed from the institu- tions of the law, and may be caWtd artijicial^ as being ordained and accommodated to this purpose by the Lawgiver himself. The chief ordinances of the law are refer- red to in the prophets, the psalms, and the New Testament, and many passages are cited from thence and treated of by Christ and his apostles, which will serve as a key to the lan- guage of the law, and shew us the intention of its ceremonies and precepts St Paul, in his epistle to the Hebrews, gives; us thi^ general idea of the law, that it had a shadow of good things to come * ; by which he means to teach us, that it was in its ordinan- ces a figure of the blessings of the gospel. It was, as a shadow is, just and descriptive in its * Heb. X. 1. Lect. 4. of the Holy Scriptures. 73 lineaments, but it had in itself neither sub- stance nor life. When the gospel refers us to the law, it refers us to a shadow of itself; and such references will necessarily be figurative and want an interpretation ; of which I shall now proceed to give some examples. Among the institutions of the law, the first place is due to its sacrifices and priesthood ; and the first and greatest sacrifice of which we have any particular description is that of the passover. From this the apostle instructs U5 in the benefits of Christ's death, together with the qualifications necessary to a partici- pation of them ; and in so doing he uses the terms of the institution itself ; Christ our pass- over is sacrificed for us ^. This expression carries us back to the cause and end for which the pas30ver was instituted; and it appears from this reference of the apostle, 1. That Christ is what the passover was, a lamb taken from the flock of his people. 2. That he was a sacrifice, put to death as an offering to God. 3. That this was ^oxiguilty persoia, before he was carried out to execution: which ceremony explains what is mid of those for whom no a- tonement w^as to be accepted, that they should i^ar their iniquity,; they should suffer for it themselves and be their own sacrifice. So st- rain, where it is said, 'his biood shall be upon his Jiead^^ it means^ that the person in this case should be answerable for the guilt of his own death. And when the Jews blasphem- ously cried out, his blood be on us^ and on our children^ they meant, that whatever sin there might be in putting Jesus to dea:th^ they would venture to have the guilt of it laid upon the heads of themselves and their posterity, and atone for it in their own persons; which they have accordingly, by the just judgment of God, been doing ever since. This laying of sin upon the head of a sacri- fice, gives us a farther understanding of what happened to Christ in his passion, when the curse of our sins was crushed with heavy and merciless hands upon his head, in the fortoa oi a crown of thorns ; under which afflicting burden he was duly prepared as an offering for sin. Hence also we see the meaning of a like form which has a contrary intention; for * Joshua ii. If). Lect. 4. cf the Holy Scriptures, 79 as the curse of guilt was laid on the head of a sacrifice ; so blessings of every kind are con- veyed by the laying of hands on the heads of the persons v^ho are appointed to receive them. Thus our Saviour took the little children into his arms, and when he blessed them he laid his hands upon them: thus also the sick were restored to the blessings of health ; and thus the ministers of God receive their commission, with the gifts necessary to the exercise of it : Stir up the gift of God^ saith Paul to Timothy, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands *. When Christ is said to be a priest^ we must understand the word in a new sense ; for cer- tainly he was not a priest in a literal sense, neither could he officiate according to the forms of the law, because he was not of that tribe to which the priesthood pertained. He is therefore called a priest after the order of MelchizedeCj whose priesthood was prior and superior to that of the Levitical ojrder, and carried with it the administration of bread ^ini wine\^ after the form of the gospel itself. Yet ^11 we must go to the Levitical law, for the nature of the office, and the proper character of our high-priest. Such an high-priest became us, saith the author of the epistle to the He- * 2Tim. i. 6. . f Gen. xiv. 18, So On the Figurative Language LeCT. 4* brews, who is holy^ harmless^ undejiled^ separate from sinners^ and made higher than the heavens *. Such an high-priest as the law had in all re- spects, according to the letter ; such ought we to have in the spirit ; one in whom all the outward signs of holiness and perfection re-^ quisite to the high-priesthood of the law should be inwardly verified and accomplished ; with no blemish of nature, no defilement of sin ; sanctified by an eternal consecration, and ex-^ alted to execute that office in the heaven it- self, which the high-priest performed yearly in the most holy place of the tabernacle. Even the clothing of the high-prsest was not with- out its signification ; his garments were ex- pressive of purity, sanctity, and divinity itself : they are therefore called holy garments \ ; and there is a reference to them in the Psalms which gives them this meaning, let thy priests be clothed with righteousness \ ; let them be in spirit and truth what their clothing outwardly signifies : The fine white linen worn by the priest is here applied in its emblematical ca- pacity to spiritual sanctification ; and it is thus interpreted for us in the Revelation ; the fine linen is the righteousness of saints §. The * Heb. vli. 26. f Kxodus xxviii. 2, + Psalm cxxxii. 9. } Rev. xix. 8^ Lect. 4. of the Holy Scriptures. 81 sense of this is still preserved amongst us, with those who understand it right ; it being the custom for a bride to go to her marriage in 'tvhite^ as a testimony of her virgin state ; and they who minister in the church, either to serve, or to pray, or to sing, are clothed in white linen, to signify the purity which is proper to their calling, and should be found in their characters. The evangelists in their ac- counts of our Saviour's transfiguration are all of them very particular as to that one circum- stance, that his raiment was white as the light. This divine splendor of his person was denot- ed by the splendor of the high-priest's gar- ments, which are said to have been appointed for glory and for beauty; such beauty as is ap- plied in the Psalms to its proper sense, the beauty of holiness *. This clothing of light was proper to an earthly high-priest, only in con- sideration of his being a representative of that divine intercessor, who was to be the glory as well as the priest of his people Israel. Such dignity hath God been pleased to grant to his ministers ; not for their own sakes, but from their relation to Jesus Christ. As the Jews shewed all reverence to their high-priest, much more ought we to ours, and * Psalm xcvi. 9. G 82 On the Figurative Language LeCt. 4» to all that act in his name, for his sake : and they who think meanly of the priesthood, or speak of it with contempt, as some do of m^a- lice, and some of ignorance, shall one day see heaven and earth fly away from before the face of a priest. When the name of a priest is applied to Christ in the New Testament^ we understand the term in a figurative sense, and go to the law for its literal meaning y because Christ did not serve at the altar, nor officiate in the temple, nor was of the family of the priest- hood. Whereas in truth, he was the origi- nal, and they of the law were figures of him. Had it not been for his priesthood fore-or- dained of God, there never had been such a thing as a priest in the world. Why was one man appointed to intercede for another ? — Where can be the sense and reason of it ? For why cannot that man as well intercede for himself? It was to shew that there should be ir the fulness of time one to intercede eflfec- tually for all : and that this great intercessor should be taken fro?n among men^ like the other priests who were before him : this is the true reason why some men in preference to others were admitted to intercede ; though still on a level with the rest, and obliged to offer sacri- fices /or their ozvn sins. Lect. 4. of the Holy Scriptures. 83 In one respect we are to this day in the state of the Jewish people. They could not offer their own sacrifices ; they were to bring them to the priest, and he was to offer them. So cannot we now oflFer up our prayers and praises to God but by Jesus Christ ; and so the apo- stle appUes the case for us : By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God conti- nually^ that is^ the fruit of our lips^ giving thanks to his name. Yea and even under the law^ while the earthly high-priest served, as a sha- dow, to present the offerings of the people to God, it was understood by the prophets that he was no more than a shadow, and that there was another divine priest to whom the office properly belonged. For who is he that saith in the 16th Psalm, their drink-offerings of bbod will I not offer ^ nor make mention of their names within my lips? David was no priest; and though he was a king^ he could offer no sa- crifice either for himself or for others. The passage refers to the impure and unsanctlfied offerings of the heathens who went after other gods; yet he, who refuses to offer these, must be the person v>^hose office it is to present to God, as the common intercessor, the offerings of all men : for the speaker here is the same as in the 10th verse, where the same priest saith^ Gs 84 On the Figurative Language Lect. 4, Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell^ nor suffer thy holy one to see corruption ; which words are expressly said to have been spoken of the re- surrection of Christ : as the next words are of his exaltation. — Thou wilt shew me tlie path of life : in thy presence is the fulness of joy ^ and at thy right hand there is pleasure for evermore : for certainly this place at the right hand of God is the place of the Son of God, which he assumed when he ascended into heaven : this was the^by which the prophets and the psalms had set before him^ for which he endured the cross and despised the shame of it. This is the priest who saith all these things : it was therefore declared to those who were under the law, that there was another high-priest, above him that ministered in the tabernacle or temple, by whose invisible ministration, the offerings of men were to be presented and made acceptable to God. So plain and direct is the doctrine of this psalm, that St Peter, by an application of it to the person of Christ, converted three thousand souls at once. As the words of the apostle abave -mention- ed, relating to the priesthood of Christ, are spoken with reference to the figures and pro- phecies of the Old Testament, it must hav& been declared therein that we should have a Lect. 4. of the Holy Scriptures, 85 priest higher than the heavens : for that such an one became us^ inasmuch as every other would have fallen short of what the scripture had testified by prophetical signs and prophetical words ; some of which I am now to set before you. Melchizedec was a sign of the priesthood of Christ ; being not only priest of the most high God^ but also a king^ a person of royal majes- ty, and in dignity superior to the greatest man upon earth, because he blessed the father of the faithful; and the less is blessed of the great- er. It follows therefore from this character of Melchizedec, that to the hoHness of the priesthood there should be added in the per- son of Christ the majesty of a king ; even of such a king as should have a throne in heaven itself. For thus is this priest spoken of in the 110th psalm : The Lord said unto my Lord^ sit thou at my right hand: and in the subsequent verses of the psalm the same person is spoken unto as priest for ever after the order of Mel- chizedec: therefore the scripture, under the old covenant, gave notice of a priest who should sit^at the right hand of God; and should of consequence be higher than the heavens. The argument from this psalm is very clear; but what the scripture hath said on the character 86 On the Figurative Language Lect. 4. and priesthood of Melchizedec is so important, and withal so mysterious, that the apostle hath a long and critical discovirse upon it in the epistle to the Hebrew ; of which he himself gives us this as the sum : We have such an high- priest^ who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens. The intercession of Christ as a priest in hea- ven was signified yearly in the service of the tabernacle, when the _high-priest went on the great day of atonement into the inner taber- nacle or holy of holies with the blood of a sacrifice. From whence the same apostle ar- gues, that Christ as our high-priest shoul4 enr ter, not into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the truCy but into hea- ven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us * The holy place of the tabernacle is applied in the same manner to the residence of God in the invisible heavens in the 24th psalm : Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord ? or who shall stand in his holy place ? he that hath clean hands ^ &c. this may allude to the ceremony prescribed, for the high- priest to wash himself with water f before he entered the holy place. Then follows a de^ scrip ti on of the majestic ascension and entrance * Heb, ix. 24. f See Lev. xvi. 4. Lect, 4. of the Holy Scriptures, 87 of the king of glory into the everlasting doors of the heavenly places ; and this psalm is ac- cordingly appointed by the church as one of the proper psalms for the feast of the ascen« sion. A sign was given that the heavenly places were opened, for himself first and for all believers after him, in consequence of his overcoming the sharpness of death. The vail of the temple by which the holy place was separated from the worldly sanctuary, or first tabernacle, was rent miraculously at his cru- cifixion, and that figure of the heaven was laid open, into which none but the high-priest might enter : which circumstance is thus ap- plied for us in the epistle to the Hebrews : Having therefore^ brethren^ boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus ^ by a new and living way^ which he hath consecrated for us through the vail^ that is to say^ his flesh ; and having an high-priest over the house of God ; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance offaith^ having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience J and our bodies washed with pure wa- ter *. These last words allude as the corre- spondent ones before in the 24th Psalm, to the custom of the high-priest washing his flesh with water, before he was permitted to * Heb. X. 22, &c> 88 On the Figurative Language Lect. 4. enter into the holy place : which ceremony is applied in the psalm to the purity of the great high-priest him.self ; but in the language of the apostle with equal propriety to all Chris- tians, who are to partake of the benefits of his ministration in heaven, and to follow a pure high-priest with purity of conscience. Another rite pertaining to the priesthood, and of great signification in the scripture, is that of the high-priest's consecration with the anointing oil : a sign of grace and authority from the Spirit of God ; and in virtue of this anointing, the high-priest had power to heal the leprosy and other unclean diseases *, that the parties §0 cleansed might be fit to attend upon the service of the sanctuary, for which they were disqualified and in a state of excom- munication f , so long as their uncleanness lasted. Thus in the New Testament we read, that Jesus was anointed of God with the Holy Ghost and with power ; in consequence of which he went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him J. A leper, who had faith in his power, came and worshipped him, saying, Lordy if thou wilt^ thou canst make me clean. * Lev. xiv. 11. f Lev. xv. 31. X Acts X. 33. Lect 4. of the Holy Scriptures, 89 When this man was cleansed of his leprosy, he was commanded to shew himself to the priest, and to make the accustomed offering, for a testimony unto them : and as it was the office of the priest to cure this disease, this cure was a legal proof and testimony to the priest- hood of the time, that there was a greater than themselves amongst them ; who, though not literally anointed to the ministry, had the true anointing from the Spirit of God, which had descended upon him after his baptism ; and who should supersede them in their office : but it doth not appear what inference they made from the case. As the gift of the Spirit was communicated at the anointing of the high-priest, and the Spirit is the author of love and unity to the church, who are to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace : we find a beautiful allusion, with an application of this rite to its mystical sense, in the 133d Psalm; Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity : it is like the precious aintment upon the head^ that ran down unto the beard^ even unto Aaron s beards and went down to the skirts of his garments* It was always an undoubted truth in every state of the church, that unity is from the Spirit of God ; begin- 90 On the Figurative Language Lect. 4. ning in those of superior authority, and spread- ing itself with a progress of descent from the highest to the lowest members of the commu- nity : but the thing is most evident to us un- der the gospel ; who are taught, that the church is the body of Christ ; that he him- self is the head of it ; and that the Divine Spi- rit first shed upon him, is from thence dif- fused to all orders of Christians, to the least and lowest members of the church. The scripture has numberless other refer- ences to the sacrifices and priesthood of the law, more than the plan of these lectures will admit : for I do not undertake to explain all that is referred to in the law : my meaning is to shew, by several examples, in what man- ner the scripture itself applies the institutions! of the law ; and by so doing, I put a light into the hands of those who read the Bible, with which they may go farther and examine things for themselves. Yet, among the offer- ings of the tabernacle and temple, there are two more for which I shall have room in this discourse ; I mean the first-fruits and the burning of incense. In 1 Cor. XV. Christ, as risen from the dead, is called X\it first-fruits ; but now^ saith St Paul, is Christ risen from the dead^ and become the first- LecT. 4- of the Holy Scriptures. 91 fruits of them that slept. From the term thus applied he confirms, and opens in a wonder- ful manner, the doctrine of the Kesurrection ; and therefore it is proper we should have a right understanding of it. When the har- vest was ripe and ready for the sickle, a first sheaf was reaped and carried into the temple, where the priest waved it before the Lord to be accepted ; and till this was done, the rest of the harvest was not sanctified to the use of the people, nor had they any right to partake of it. The use the apostle makes of this is very extensive. In the first place, the growing of grain from the earth where it was buried, is ^n exact image of the resurrection of the body : for as the one is sown,, so is the other, and neither is quickened,, except it first die and be buried. Then the whole harvest, from its re- lation to the first-fruits, explains and ensures the order of our resurrection. For, is the sheaf of the first-fruits reaped ? Then is the whole harvest ready. Is Christ risen from the dead ? Then shall all rise in like manner. Is he accepted of God as an holy offering, and lifted up in his heavenly sanctuary? Then shall every sheaf that has grown up with him be taken from the earth and sanctified in its 92 On the figurative Language Lect. 4. proper order ; Christ the first-fruits^ after- ward they that are Christ's at his coming. If there seems any impropriety in making Christ the first-fruits, when we know that o- thers were raised to Hfe before him ; as the Shunamite's son by Ehsha, and Lazarus by Christ himself: it is to be observed, that they were raised; he only rose from the dead by his own power, as the grain springeth from the ground of itself. Besides, though they were raised, they died again ; but Christ, be- ing raised from the dead dieth no more^ death hath no more dominion over him: He was the first who rose to life eternal. Nothing follow- ed to mankind from the resurrection of others ; but he sanctified the harvest of the whole field, and had the efficacy as well as the appearance of the first-fruits. Saint Paul, in his apology before Agrippa, pleaded, in defence of his doctrine, that he said none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come; that Christ should suffer *, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead. Now these things are no where said by Moses in the let- ter ; therefore they were foretold figuratively and in the spirit. Christ, according to the * Acts xxvi. 22. LecT. 4- of the Holy Scriptures. 93 doctrine of Moses, was to suffer in the Fass-- Qver^ and to rise ag{iin in \kv^ first-fruits oi\h& harvest. And as this assertion of the apostle shews us the style and manner in which Mo- ses preached the gospel, it is of great import- ance to us in our present enquiry. The other offering, which I proposed to speak of, is that of the daily i?icense. Morn- ing and evening it was to be offered up upon an altar of gold, where no bloody sacrifice was to come *. This offering the Psalmist re- fers to in his devotions, and explains its mean- ing by his application of it : Let my prayer be set forth in thy sight as the incense. As the smoke and odour of this offering was wafted into the holy place, close by the veil of which 6tood the altar of incense ; so do the prayers of the faithful ascend upwards and find ad- mission into the highest heaven. Cornelius^ said the angel, thy prayers are come up for a memorial before God\. The prayer of faith is acceptable to God, as the fragrance of incense is agreeable to the senses of man : and as the incense was offered twice a day, in the morn- ing and evening, the spirit of this service is to be kept up at those times throughout all generations. The prophet Malachi foretold * Exodus XXX. 8, 9. f Acts x. i. 94 On the Figur^ative Language Lect. 4. that it should be observed throughout the world : from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same^ my name shall be great among the Gentiles^ and in every place incense shall be offered to my name *. In the Revela- tion we hear of this incense as now actually carried up and presented in heaven : where the elders fall down before the lamb with golden vials in their hands ^ filled with odours (of in- cense) which are the prayers of saints f . Hap- py are they who fulfil this service ; and at the rising and going down of the sun send up this offering to heaven, as all Christians are supposed to do, at least twice in every day. What then are they, and to whom do they belong, who do not pray ? What is their in- cense ? Perhaps it is nothing but a faithless murmuring and complaining against the Pro- vidence they ought to bless and adore. Per- haps, they call upon God, for cui'ses upon themselves and others : and then their mouthy instead of offering incense, is, an open sepul-- chre^ sending forth the filthy odours of death and uncleanness. From this unprofitable and most miserable state, may God deliver all Christian families, who look for any blessing upon themselves and their affairs: may his * Mai. i. n. t Rev. V. 8. Lect. 4. of the Holy Scriptures. 95 grace open their lips, and dispose their affec- tions; that they may meet together in peace, and make a morning and an evening sacrifice to that God whose eyes are upon them all the day long; who made them, and redeemed them, and is alone able to save those that call Ujpon him through Jesus Christ. g6 Of the Figurative Language Lect. 5 . LECTURE V, SOME FARTHER EXAMPLES, WHICH SHEV/ HOW THE LANGUAGE OF THE OTHER PARTS OF THE SCRIP- TURE IS BORROWED FROM THE LANGUAGE OF THE LAW OF MOSES, AND TO BE INTERPRETfiD THEREBY. THE TEMPLE, THE SABBATH, CIR- CUMCISION, CLEAN AND UNCLEAN ANIMALS, t5f^. THE WONDERFUL TESTIMONY OF THE LAW TO THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST, JN EXT in order to the offerings and the priesthood of the law, is the place of divine worship, wherein these services were accom- phshed, called the tabernacle; to which the scriptures both of the Old and New Testa- ment refer us in many figurative passages, for the right understanding of which, we must first enquire what the tabernacle was in itself. It was a moveable habitation ; like a large tent, first erected in the wilderness, when the Israelites were on their pilgrimage to Canaan. It contained two apartments ; the first of which was called the Holy Place^ appointed for the daily services of sacrifice and prayer ; beyond which there was an inner apartment, called the most Holy Place^ in which a service Lect. 5. of the Holy Scriptures. 97 Was performed once in a year by the high-priest only : and these two apartments were sepa- rated by a veil reaching from the top to the bottom. In the most holy place, the presence of God was manifested, and his glory is said on some occasions to have filled the taberna- cle : but it was usual for this glory to appear above or between the cherubims, which were placed here upon the mercy-seat which co- vered the ark ; on which account the apostle, in the epistle to the Hebrews, calls them the cherubims of glory ; and the Psalmist speaks of of them as the proper seat of the Divine Ma- jesty — Thou that dwellest between the cherubims^ shine forth *. There was this remarkable distinction be- tween the two apartments of the tabernacle ; that as the one was the place of God*s resi- dence, the habitation of his holiness ; the o- ther had a conformity with this present world ; whence the apostle calls it a worldly sanctuary^ or world-like sanctuary, that is, a sanctuary * If the reader wishes to enquire into the form and de- sign of the Cherubim, more particularly than the intention of these lectures will permit me to do, as being designed for general use, I must refer him to the last edition of Mr Park- hursfs Hebrew Lexicon; the most useful work, without exception, that has ever been published on the Literature or Philology of j:he sacred Language. H yS On the Figurative Language Lect. 5* resembling this visible world ; as must indeed be evident to those' who consider what relation it bore to the other sanctuary : how it was distinguished in its use from the most holy place which wai^ the habitation of God ; and how it was furnished with lights, as the visi- ble heavens are, the chief of which are seven in number,, and the lights of the tabernacle were made to answer them. From this known relation between the visible world and the sanctuary, the heavens are called the taber^ iiacle of the sun; the whole world itself, and the firmament of heaven, with its glorious furniture, being one great tabernacle, compre- hending the luminaries of the day and night, represented in figure by the lamps of the ta- bernacle, Josephusy in his Jewish Antiqui- ties, has preserved a tradition, that this wa.E«rf^#£. Lect. 7. of the Holy Scriptures. 147 at his return from the mount shall surprise and judge as hypocrites and unbelievers ? We have another example of our danger from the case of the Israehtes, who fell into sin from evil communications and bad com- pany. There was a mixt multitude of strolling Egyptians and disorderly people who went up with the Hebrews out of Egypt, and at- tended their camp from motives of curiosity or beggary. These are said to have fallen a lusting^ and to have propagated their evil in- clinations among the congregation ; who, led by their example, provoked God with their discontent and murmurings. The Christian church hath always been attended by a like unprincipled multitude of heretics, sensualists, enthusiasts, sectaries, and even atheists ; men, who being discontented with the ways and doctrines of the Christian society, have re- commended and spread their own evil opini- ons, and occasioned multitudes to fall away. A defection from the doctrines of Christianity is the natural consequence of a departure from the worship and sacraments and authority of the Church. Some of the earliest instances of blasphemy against the doctrine of the bles* Sed Trinity, were found among ignorant peo- ple in those times of confusion and rebellion, L 2 148 On the Figurative Language Lect. 7. when a mixt multitude of more than sixty dif- ferent sects arose even to the astonishment of those who first began the separation *. But afterwards the same error was adopted by men of higher pretensions to learning, who have found too many followers ; till the times have at length produced a new generation of opi- nionists, who assume to themselves^ and attri- bute to one another, the honours of confes- sion and martyrdom, for asserting the blas- phemy of Socinus against the church and the kingdom of Christ, with the same boldness as the saints, in the primitive times, asserted the doctrines of the gospel against the heathen powers and the kingdom of Satan. But bold- ness without truth will never make a Chiistian confessor : and if a man injures himself for the love of error, he is not a martyr but a sui- cide. They who are acquainted with the world, and the present state of religion and literature, must have observed, that heresy, schism, and the new philosophy of the Deists, with their * An authentic and very curious account' of the errors and blasphemies of that time, (two years before the death of the king) was published in a Treatise, entitled, Gangtana, by Thomas Edwards^ Presbyterian minister : of which, see part 1. p. 32, 1 10. But see also Burnett's Hist, of the Re- formation, An. 1549. vol. 2. p. Ill, 112. Lect. 7. of the Holy Scriptures. 149 numerous adherents, form a mixed multitude, which are always hovering about the Chris- tian camp, and never fail to corrupt it. They are now boasting of their success, and threaten to overwhelm this church in a very short time with a deluge of Unitarianism, that is, of Ma - home tan Infidelity *. The destruction of three and twenty thou- sand was occasioned by the Israelites asso- ciating with the people of Midian^ who invit- ed them to the feasts of their idols ; in conse- quence of which, they fell into shameless for- nication after the manner of the fleathens. And as there were wicked Midianites and Moabites in the neighbourhood of the camp, so is there a wicked world always near at hand, ready to invite and seduce the servants of God by its ensnaring customs and diversions. To mix with the world on all occasions, and not be corrupted by its ways, is almost as un- likely, as that the Hebrews should go to an idol-feast with the Midianites, and not be the worse for it. What is the natural tendency of many, and even the design of some public diversions tolerated among Christians, but to corrupt youth and give opportunities to vice? How are most of the scenes of public diversion * See Priestlet/s Sermon on Free Enquiru. 1 50 On the Figurative Language Lect. 7. crowded with the daughters ofMidian^ who are well aware, that what is there to be seen and heard will seldom fail to encourage the vi- ciouis, and betray some of the innocent, into their snares ! wherever any public meetings have this tendency to corrupt the manners, we may call them by what names we please, but they are as Moab and Midian^ if they are the enemies of Christian virtue. Balak^ the king of the Moabites, hated the camp of Israel, and bribed Balaam^ a prophet, to curse them. Just thus doth the world hate the church, and is never happier than when it can hire the ministers of the church to turn against it and betray its interests. But it can no more succeed by all its curses than the wicked Balak could : it must seduce Chris- tians to sin^ and then it prevails ; not by its own power, but by tempting the church to provoke the anger of God. When Balaam found that he could prevail nothing by his sacrifices and enchantments, then he gave counsel to Balak to corrupt the people of the camp with fornication ; and that soon an- swered the purpose. But now we are to learn another lesson, from the example of those who are said to have tempted Christ with their impatience un- Lect. 7- of the Holy Scripitures. 151 der the ways of his providence. "VV^hen the people expected to see an end of their joiirney- ings, it pleased God still to lead them round about ; but being weary of this unsettled life^ we are told, that the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way * : and, to pu- nish tlieir impatience on this occasion, fiery serpents were sent to destroy them. But when Moses prayed for them, he was directed to place a serpent on a pole f , and when they who were bitten looked up to it, they were saved from death. Our Saviour hath apphed this to the Hfting up of himself upon the cross, where the serpent that hath the power of death, was to be vanquished; that they v/ho are wounded by sin, and in danger of eternal death, may look up to him and live. What was the offence of the people ? It was impa- tience. What was their punishment r They were delivered to the power of the destroyer. What was the remedy ? They wer^ directed to look up to a figure of the cross. And where should the impatient nov/ look up, but to Je- sus the author and finisher of their faith ; that great example of patient suffering, who for * Numbers xxi. 4. ■ f In the heathen Mythology-, a serpent, twisted about a stick, is the emblem of health, and the ensign of Esculapiiis. 152: On the Figurative Language Lect. 7. their sakes endured the cross and despised the shame of it If we are tempted to be weary and faint in your minds^ when the Providence of God is leading us by some tedious and dis- agreeable way against our ^vi^, then we are to look up to this pattern of patience, and to consider, how he took the painful way of the cross, and submitted his own will to the will of God. With this example before us, let us ask ourselves, whether we have any thing to complain of; we who ought to have been there instead of him ! In his death we see the victory that overcometh the world. For the joy that was set before him, he waited till the great work of our 'salvation was jfinished : and we are to wait in like manner, till all the de- signs of Providence are accomplished in us ; for we can inherit the promises on no other condition : He that endureth unto the end^ the same shall be saved. 3ut salvation, such as God hath promised, is not an object to all men. Some have no opinion of it ; as there were those amongst the people in the wilderness, who thought scorn of that pleasant land to which they were going. When the spies who were sent to view the land of Canaan, made their report of it, and brought back with them some of its fruits. Lect. 7- of the Holy Scriptures, 153 they differed very much in their accounts. They who proved faithful and. told the truth, said it was an exceeding good land, flowing with milk and honey ; and that they were well able, with God on their side, to. take possession of it, and ovejrcome the . inhabi- tants, whose defence was departed from Jhem. Others brought up art evil, report of the land which they had searched: they described it as a land which ate up^ that is, starved its inhabitants ;. and that these were men of a gigantic stature, to whom ordinary men were but as grasshop- pers. This latter report found too much cre- dit : and the congregation was so discourag- ed and terrified by it, that they lift up their voices and wept ; and they murmured against Moses and Aaron for bringing them into these insuperable difficulties, and even determined to make them another captain and go back. This is the act of unbelief for which they were doomed to fall in the wilderness, without be- ing permitted to see that land which they would take no pains to win. Such is the case of those fearful minds and faint hearts, which say the?'e is a lion in the way,, and magnify ail the difficulties of the Christian warfare. The heavenly land, as they conceive it, and as they hear from peo- 154 On the Figurative Language Lect. 7. pie like themselves, is not a place that would make them happy. Besides there are such tepiptations in the way as no man can resist. Vice is strong, and nature is weak. The gos- pel prescribes a way of life that would starve people, and take away all their comfort. — Therefore whien all things are considered, no- thing is to be done, but to give up the cause, and go back to the opinions and ways of the children of this world. If I may give you my own sentiment, I do not suppose there is a sin upon earth more hateful to God, than this of undervaluing his promises, distrusting his protection, and mak- ing unjust representations either of his religion itself, or of the rewards of it ;• as if his service were hard, or the end of it not worth attain- ing. This I can tell you, that such people are often made more miserable, and suifer worse agitations of mind from disappointments in the way of their own chusing, than the most abstracted saint ever suffered from the practice of self-denial in the way of godliness. For we may lay it down as a certain rule, that they who have not faith to see the value of the other world, have not the wit to use this proj>erly : and no man need wish his worst enemy more wretched than the abuse of this Lect. 7- of the Holy Scriptures, 155 world will make him. But, on the contrary, what words can describe the blessedness of him, who, depending on the promises of God, conquers the difficulties of hfe, and hath hope in his death ! such an hope as is signified by the divine Psalmist, in words much to our present purpose — / should utterly have fainted^ but that I believed verily to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. As if he had said, " I believe the report concerning that good land, to the possession of which we are journeying ; I knov/ the value of it, and that the Lord himself is my defence by the way ; and so my heart hath not failed me : therefore I give the same advice to all ; Wait on the Lord^ be of good coirrage^ and he shall strengthen thine heart : he who led Joshua to victory in the promised land, si>all bring down the walls of tht mighty, and support thee against all that appears gigantic and terrible in the way of thy salvation." St Paul, having pointed out to us, and applied all these figures as examples to us under the gospel, draws this weight)^ moral from the history of our fathers who journey- ed in the wilderness : " Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken youy but such as is com- mon to man : hut God is faithful., zvho will not 156 On the Figurative Language Lect. T* suff'er you to be tempted above that ye are abkj but willj with the temptation also^ make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it^ * This is the doctrine we are to learn from their his- tory. He that standeth may now fall through unbelief, as they did : he that has been brought out of Egypt, may fall in the wilderness ; therefore let us pass the time of our sojourning here in fear. But then, as God is still with us, we are never to be discouraged in the time of trial, nor to doubt of his protection. If there is a sea on one side, and a host of Egyptians on the other, and there seems no way to escape^ the waters shall be divided, and the Egyptians shall be overthrown. If there is neither bread nor water in appearance, . some improbable causes shall give us a supply of both : some flinty stone shall become a springing well, and the heavens above shall give us meat enough. Then for the sicknesses of the soul, we have the remedy of the cross ; and against the gi- gantic race of Anak, a defender who will ne- ver leave us nor forsake us : howsoever great and formidable the enemies of the Christian may appear. Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world, * 1 Cor. X. 12, 13. Lect. 7- of the Holy Scriptures.' 157 Though it is the design of these Lectures rather to interpret the scripture than to apply it ; yet we are to consider the appKcation as the end, and the interpretation as the means : therefore I cannot help indulging myself some- times in dwelling upon the moral part, which is the most edifying of all. The history of the church in the wilderness is figurative, and we have learned what it signifies : but what good will this knowledge do us, if there is no coun- sel with it? What shall we gain by seeing how men were lost, unless we take advice from thence and learn how we may be saved ? I therefore do not spare, when occasion offers, to add to my interpretations such spiritual ad- vice as arises out of them. The length and labour of my undertaking is the greater upon this account ; but 1 hope your profit will be greater in proportion. The church that went from Egypt to Canaan gives us an example of every thing that can happen to the Christian church from the beginning of it even to the end of the world : therefore no historical fi- gure of the scripture is of more importance to us than this journey of the Hebrews through the wilderness : and I ought not yet to lay it aside. For there are two particulars remain- ing, which are of great signification ; the one 158 On the Figurative Language Lect. 7. is the rebellion of Corah, and the other is the settlement of the chmxh in Canaan, a land of the Gentiles. St Jude^ in his epistle concerning the cor- ruption of the church, speaks of some who perished in the gainsaying of Core:- therefore this same evil which happened in the church of Moses, is to be found in the church of Christ, and it behoves us to consider what it was. CoralL and his company had no dispute about the object or form of divine worship : they questioned none of the doctrines of the law; they rose up against the persons of Moses and Aaron ^ that is, against the civil and ecclesiastical authority ; contending that themselves and all the congregation had an equal right; that Moses and Aaron had taken too much upon themselves ; and by exercising an usurped authority wtrt abusing and making fools of the people. This was their sin, and they maintained it to the last, and perished in it. It was the dispute of po- pular power against divine authority : and wherever the like pretensions are avowed by Christians, and the same arguments used in support of them, there we see the gainsaying of Corah. It is a lamentable circumstance attending this sin, that it inspires great bold- Lect 7- of the Holy Scriptures, 159 ness and obstinacy, such as we read of in Co- rah and his party. Other sinners are apt to be ashamed of themselves ; but these never ; because they assert their own sanctity in the act of their disobedience. When they set up human right against that which is by God's appointment ; the more proud and obstinate they are, the more colour they seem to give to their pretensions. It is one reason why rebellion was so severely punished in Corah, and is now so severely threatened in the New- Testament, that men are never known to re- pent of it. In vain did Moses exclaim and remonstrate against the wickedness of Corah : he and all his party preserved the same good opinion of themselves, and persisted in it to the last; even appeahng to God himself, though they were risen up'against God's mi- nisters ; till the earth opened ; and the fire devoured them. From this example of Corah, we are to learn, that God considers all opposition against lawful authority, as a sin against himself. He declares that rebellion is as the sin of witch- crcft^ and stubbornness is as iniquity and idola- try ^: the meaning of which, as it stands in the book of Samuel^ is this ; that if a man * 1 Samuel xv. 2S. l60 On the Figurative Language Lect. 7. were a Jew, and yet a rebel, he might as well be an heathen : if he were too stubborn to submit to the ordinances of God, he might as well be a sorcerer, or serve idols. And it is worthy of observation, that this severe sen- tence is against Saul^ a king, who usurped the authority of the priesthood, and pleaded a godly reason for it. But so jealous is God^ for the wisest ends, upon this subject, that no dignity of person, no appearance of rea- son, is admitted in excuse for the sin of re- bellion. We therefore rightly pray in the Liturgy of the church of England, that God would deliver us from rebellion in the state and schism in the church ; and in order to this, we should also pray, that he would deliver us from the principles out of which they proceed ; for none of our reasonings will prevail in this case. — For my own part, I must confess, that if there be any man who is so far infatuated as to have persuaded himself that God is no pro- prietor of power in the world of his own mak- ing and governing, and that all men are born to a state of equality ; I would no more rea~. son with that man, than I would preach tem-. perance to a swine, or honesty to a wolf. I- would leave him to himself, and turn toward those who have not yet received the infection. Lect. 7. oftke Holy Scriptures, ■ 16 1 The settlement of the church of the He- brews in Canaan, a land of the Heathens, is the last article I am to explain, as prefigura- tive of the Christian church. It is mentioned as such in the apology of St Stephen against the Jews : Our father shad the tabernacle of wit- ness in the wilderness^ which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus (i. e. Jo- shua) into the possession of the Gefitiles^ whom God drave out before the face of our fathers. — The doctrine, of all others most unacceptable and odious to a Jew, was this of the transla- tion of the tabernacle of God to the Gentiles. St Stephen therefore does not literally affirm it, but covertly, and, as a prophet should do, under the shadow of that ancient history which was intended to foreshew it. The Jew- ish church derived much danger from its situ- ation among the Canaanites ; for though God had driven them out as possessors, and esta- blished his own people in their land, he left some of the former possessors to be thorns in their sides for trial and punishment : and their history shews how often they were ensnared by the abominable doctrines of idolatry, until the^ captivity of Babylon was the reward of Ihiir apostacy; l62 On the Figurative Language Lect, 7. Wonderful was the settlement of the Jews in Canaan, with the fall of Jericho, and the victories of the people of God against all the armaments and confederacies of their enemies. But not less wonderful was the establishment of Christianity amongst the Gentiles. Hea- thenism was in as full and quiet possession of the world and its empire at the coming of Christ, as the Canaanites were in their owix land when Joshua entered it. But the voice of the gospel preached by a few fishermen from among the Jews,, a people held in the utmost contempt by the whole heathen world,, soon cast down all the highest fences of Sa- tan's kingdom, as the walls of Jericho fell down at the sound of rams horns blown by priests. As the Hebrews in the progress of their victories were exhorted to fear nothings remembering how Pharaoh had been subdued in Egypt ; so ought Christians to remember daily, how God reduced the power of Satan- all over the heathen world, till his temples- were destroyed, and the churches of Christ were placed upon their ruins. But then, as there was a remnant of the Canaanites, to whom the people were fre- quently joining themselves in marriage, and consequently relapsing into idolatry, accord- Lect. 7. of the Holy Scriptures, 163 ing to that of the Psalmist — They did not de- stroy the nations concerning whom the Lord com- manded themy hut were mingled among the hear then and learned their works^ and they served their idols ^ which were a snare unto them: iso the works of heathen authors, with the fables of their false gods, the abominable rites of their religion, and the obscenity and immo- rality of their practices^ are in like manner remaining among Christians ; and it has been the custom for ages, all over Europe, to com- inunicate the rudiments of languages and learning to young minds from heathen books, without due care to caution them against im- bibing heathen principles ; by which thou- sands of minds are corrupted, and through early prejudice rendered incapable of under- standing the value of truth, and the abomina- ble nature of heathen error. How frequently are heathen moralists applied to, when the finest rules of human prudence for the con- duct of life are to be found in the scripture. But to go to the heathens for divinity, as some authors do, is intolerable. They blow out the candle of revelation, and then go raking into the embers of paganism to light it again . Many good and learned men, of the first abi- lity and taste, have observed and lamented M s 164 On the Figurative Language Lect. 7* the bondage we are under to heathen modes of education : but custom is a tyrant which hears no reason. However, there can be no harm, and I hope there will be no offence, in praying that God will enable us to correct all our errors from the history of past miscarri- ages. This is the great use we are to make of our present subject. The dangers to the souls of men are the same' in all ages ; and their errors are the same for sense, however they may differ in form : so that we cannot be sur- prised and ensnared by any temptation that comes upon the church, if we look to the things that are past. Lect. 8. of the Holy Scriptures. l65 LECTURE VIIL ON THE PERSONAL FIGURES, OR TYPES, OF THE SCRIPTURES ; PARTICULARLY THOSE OF MOSES AND JOSEPH, PROPOSED BY ST. STEPHEN, IN HIS APOLOGY TO THE JEWS. '^ X HE Scripture would have supplied us with much more matter, of the same kind with that in the two preceding Lectures. I might have set before you the histories of Gideoiis victory, and the fall of Sis era ; which were signs of the spiritual victories of the church over the enemies of her salvation ^. I might have considered the rejection of the Jews, as it was prefigured in the histories of Cain and Abel^ of Jacob and Esau^ of Isaac and Ishmael^ of EphraifTi and Manas ses : to which I might have added a view of their present state, as signified by the fall of the proud Nebuchadnez- zar^ and his temporary banishment amongst the beasts in a state of insanity, till the times of judgment passed over him. The grace of God to the heathen world, in admitting them to the salvation of the gospel, might have been * See Isaiah ix. 4. Psalm Ixxxiii. 9. 165 On the Figurative Language Lect. 8. exemplified by the healing of 'Naaman the Sy- rian^ and the visitation of the widow of 5"^- repta : which two cases our Saviour pointed out to the Jews at Nazareth ; but they would not bear the most distant hint of the recep- tion of the Gentiles \ and were so filled with wrath, that they would have thrown him down headlong from the brow of an hill, (af- ter the Roman fashion) as an enemy to his country ; for 30 were traitors punished at Rome, by being thrown from the top of the Tarpeian Rock. Many figures are to be found in the occur- rences and circumstantials of the history of the gospel by those who read it with such an intention. In short, the history of the Old and New Testaments hath a secondary or pro- phetical sense in many instances : its great events were signs and figures of things not seen as yet ; and many of them are in force as such to this hour. Great things are still to be expected, of which we can form no concep- tion, but as they are set before us in the fi- gures of the sacred history. God shall descend, and the earth shall be on fire, and the trum- pet shall sound, and the tribes of mankind shall be assembled, as formerly at Horeb. Di- stress shall come upon a wicked world, when Lect. 8. of the Holy Scriptures. 167 its iniquity shall be full, as once upon Baby- Jon, and afterwards upon the apostate Jerusa- lem. The armies of the Lord shall encom- pass it; and it shall be overthrown^ with them that dwell therein. For this reason, the visitation of Jerusalem was foretold in such terms by our Elessed Lord, that in many of his expressions it is hard to distinguish, whe« ther that, or the end of the world, is to be understood. These things, however, I must at present leave to your meditation, and go forward to the figurative histories of individual persons ; such as were the prophets, kings, heroes, and saints of the Old Testament ; who by their xictions, as well as their words, foreshewed the coming of that Saviour, in whom, the saint made perfect through suiFerings, the conque- ror, the prince, the priest, and the prophet, were to be united- As the things which befel the church at large, happened to them for en- 5amples to the ^whole congregation of Christian people ; so the things which befel the pro- phets of old happened for ensamples of the vSaviour himself; that his character and his- tory, as the true Son of God who should come into the world, might be infallibly ascertained and demonstrated, by a comparison with the 168 On the Figurative Language Legt. 8- various characters of those who had been most eminent in the church of old. Some of these characters were extremely different from o- thers, and the events of their history very un- like ; but the character and history of the Messiah was to comprehend them all. For this end their lives were purposely conformed by the divine Providence to the image of him that was to come after. This consideration, when we see the force of it, will reconcile us to some strange things, which might appear very unreasonable, if they were to be considered only in themselves, not under the relation which they bear, and were intended to bear to higher and greater things. How monstrous would it seem in any other history, that a man should be buried in the body of a fish, and cast up alive again after three days upon the dry land ! But if this strange thing happened, that it might after- wards be compared with the return of Jesus Christ from the dead, for the salvation of all mankind ; then the preservation of Jonah be- comes fit and reasonable ; it being of infinite consequence to the world, that the fact of Christ's resurrection, when it should happen, should be admitted and believed ; and so the case was worthy of the Divine interposition. Lect. 8. of the Holy Scriptures, I69 Jonah was not preserved by a miracle for his own sake^ but for a sigti^ to instruct the people of God in the truth of their salvation, and the peculiar means or mode of it. Two strange events of the same kind are more credible than one ; because the objection is removed which might arise from the singularity of the case. The resurrection of Christ is a true fact, and a credible fact : for w^hy ? it was foreshewn by the preservation of Jonah ; another fact of the same kind. And again, to take the mat- ter the other way ; the preservation of Jonah was a miracle, worthy of God, from its rela- tion to the resurrection of Christ ; the most im- portant fact in itself, and the most necessary to be believed, of all that should ever happen from the beginning of the world to the end pf it. Jonah's deliverance was intended to do what the apostles were sent over the world to do, viz. to witness the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our Saviour himself hath directed us to make this use of Jonah's history. The Jews required of him some miraculous fact as a testimony that he was the true Messiah: and he gave them this : As Jonah was three days and three nights in the whalers belly ; so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth *. Here the person of * Matthew xii. 39, 40. 170 On the Figurative Language Lect. 8. Jonah is a sign of the person of Christ, and the belly of a devouring fish a sign of the power of the grave, by which he should be detained for the same time as Jonah was. The lives of the other prophets had a like relation to the times and transactions of the gospel. From a passage which is taken out of the 4 1st Psalm, and applied to the treason of Judas ; it appears that some of the most remarkable circumstances in the life of the prophet David were prefigurative of other pa- rallel circumstances in the life of Christ It is observed by our Saviour himself, that in the treason of Judas, that scripture was fulfilled^ which saith, he that eateth bread with me hath lift up his heel against me. The familiar friend of David, whose treachery is here complained of, was Ahithophel, to whom these words, in the letter of them, must be supposed to have referred : but if they v^tx^ fulfilled^ as our Sa- viour saith, in Judas^ then they were prophe- tical ; and the suffering of David from a trai- tor, foreshewed that the true David should be a sufferer from a person of the same charac- ter. Ahithophel, a man entrusted with the chief management of David's affairs, took part against bis master, and betrayed him to those who sought his life : and Judas in like man- Lect. 8. of the Holy Scriptures. 171 ner, being first entrusted by his master, be- trayed him to the chief priests, that he might be put to death. But now let us mark the sequel ; for both these traitors came to the same tragical end : they both hanged them- selves^ when they failed of the success which their ambition aimed at : and if Judas had studied the scripture as much as he studied the world, he might have foreseen his own fate in that of his brother traitor Ahithophel.- Un- less the character of David, as a prophet, had a relation to the person of Christ, how can we account for it, that the name of David is applied to him by Ezekiel * four hundred years after the natural David was dead ? On what other principle could David speak such words in the l6th Psalm, as could be verified only in the person of Christ ? Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell^ neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. Concerning this passage, St Peter argued with the Jews, that it could not be meant of David himself, the memorials of whose death and burial were still remaining among them. That the Providence of God did exhibit in the person of David a character prefigurative of the Messiah, can never be doubted if we compare * Ezekiel xxxvil. 25. 172 On the Figurative Language Lect. 8. their characters together : both were shep- herds, prophets, kings and conquerors ; both were despised and set at nought by their bre- thren ; oppressed and persecuted by the pow- erful ; ungratefully reviled, mocked at, and betrayed, by rebels and traitors ; and both were raised to the throne of Israel (called the throne of David) in opposition to all the power and malice of their enemies. From this si- militude of character, all men might infalli- bly distinguish the true son of David, when he should have fulfilled his course, and attain- ed the kingdom on the holy hill of Sion. In the prophet Elijah,, we have a character prefigurative of the person and office of John the Baptist: whence it is said in the 4th chap, of Malachi, Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dread-- ful day of the Lord^ and he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children^ &c. The scribes and pharisees, who took this passage literally, expected that the prophet Elijah (whom the New Testament jcalls Elias) would appear in person before the coming of the Messiah, and therefore, at the crucifixion, they observed of Jesus with a sneer, that though he had not as yet received any testimony from EUas, he might do so, even upon the cross, if they did LeCt. 8. of the Holy Scriptures, 173 but give him a little more time — Let be^ said they, let us see whether Elias will come to save him *. By those whose minds were enlight- ened, it had been understood, not that the person of Elijah should come again, but the character; that the spirit and power f of that prophet should be revived and fulfilled in the character of the Baptist. Let us therefore compare them together. As to their personal appearance, we read that Elijah the Tishbite was an hairy man J, (probably with a rough garment) and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. And do we not read of John the Baptist his counterpart, that he also had his raiment of camel's hair^ and a leathern girdle about his loins f With respect to their manner of life, Elijah frequented the wilderness, and was fed in solitude : and John the Baptist was in the deserts^ and came preaching in the wilder- ness of Judea^ and his meat was locusts and wild honey ^ proper to a man of a contemplative and holy life. In their office and ministry, which give importance to the other marks of their character, both of them were raised up for the great work of reforming a degenerate people, and turning to God those who had departed * Matthew xxvii. 49. f Luke i. 17. X \ Kings xix, 4. 174 On the Figurative Language Lect. 8. from him. Elijah brought over to Jehovah thousands of the people who had revolted to Baal : and John the Baptist warned a genera- tion of vipers to flee from the wrath to come ; and prevailed upon them to receive that bap- tism of repentance which was preparatory to the baptism of the gospel. Elijah bore his testi- mony without fear against two kings, Ahab and Ahaziah ; one of whom was urged on by that wicked woman Jezebel, who had deter- mined to put that prophet to death. So did John boldly rebuke Herod, a king under the influence of another wicked woman, who sought his life and succeeded. Thus we un- derstand how far these two were alike in their persons, their manners, and their ministry ; and with what propriety it was said of John by the angel, that he should go before the Lord God of Israel in the spirit and power of Elias. There is something very remarkable to our present purpose in the testimony our Saviour gave to John, as being the person in whom the character of EUas was fulfilled : .'/ say unto you^ that Elias is indeed come^ and they have done unto him whatever they listed^ as it is written of him *. These last words plainly re- f.n- us to what was written of Elijah ; from * Markix. 13. Lect. 8. of the Holy Scriptures, 175 whose history it might be foreseen, what would become of John the Baptist ; namely, that a wicked and powerful woman should thirst af- ter his blood, and that a king should send his officers to take away his life. This was what they listed to do against Elijah: therefore when Herodias persecuted the Baptist, and Herod ^ent an executioner to behead him, they act- ed according as it was written, Elijah was miraculously preserved to be carried up alive into heaven : whereto John followed him, in a way more agreeable to the spirit of the Gos- pel, the way of martyrdom *. We find another figurative character in the person of Isaac the son of Abraham, whose sacrifice and deliverance were descriptive of Christ's death and resurrection. Abraliam^ says the apostle, offered up Isaac^ accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead ; from whence also he received him in a figure f . The history of this transaction in- forms us, that on the third day Abraham lift up his eyes, and saw the place where his son was * If the reader should be pleased with what is here said, he will be much more pleased with Considerations on the Life and Death of John the Baptist^ by Dr Horne^ the present Dean of Canterbury. f Hebrews xi. 19. 176 On the Figurative Language Lect. 8, to be offered up. He laid upon Isaac the wood on which he was to suffer, as Christ carried his own cross : and when the knife was hft- ed up to slay him, the angel of the Lord in- terposed, and Isaac was received, as it were, from the dead ; having been actually devot- ed to death in the mind of his father for three days. In his substitute the ram, a real sacri- fice was offered, as Abraham had expected, and Isaac was still alive ; so that in the one we have a figure of the death of Christ, in the other of his resurrection. And to render this transaction more descriptive, the provi- dence of God directed Abraham on this oc- casion to the mountains of Moriah^ where the temple of Jerusalem was afterwards built ; in which the lamb Christ Jesus was daily offer- ed up for many hundred years in the sacri- fices of the law ; and where Christ himself at length suffered ; accomplishing all the of- ferings of the law, and fulfilling the sacrifice and figurative resurrection of Isaac. The 11th chapter ^ of the epistle to the Hebrews, in which the history of Isaac is treated of, * A learned Dignitary qf this Church, who is mighty in the scriptures y hath composed a series of discourses, equally excellent and edifying, upon the several characters of tHe faithful in this chapter ; which I hope he will not forget ta publisli in due time. Lect. 8. of the Holy Scriptures. 177 Would afford us many other examples of illus- trious persons whose actions and sufferings were conformed to the character of that Sa- viour in whom they believed. But of all the personal histories which have a prophetic re- lation to the sufferings and exaltation of Jesus Christ, none are so full to the purpose as those two characters of Joseph and Moses, which were selected by the blessed martyr St Ste- phen in his apology against the Jews : which apology, when rightly considered, opens a wonderful scene, and carries us very far into the prophetical imagery of the scripture. St Stephen, in his disputes with the adversaries of the gospel, had argued in such a manner from the figures of the Old Testament, to vin- dicate the sufferings and demonstrate the ve- rity of the mission of Jesus Christ, that none could resist the wisdom and the spirit with which he spake *. And at length, in his speech before the high-priest at his trial, we have the method and substance of his reasoning : of which I am now to make my use, so far as it relates to the present part of our subject. The design of this discourse, and the drift of the argument may be collected by comparing some passages of it together. * See Acts, chap. vi. 7. N 178 On the Figurative Language Lect. &. Having reminded the Jews, in the first place *, that the promises of God, and the hopes of the fathers, did not rest in a tempo- ral or worldly inheritance^ as they had falsely flattered themselves ; he lays down the histo- ries of Joseph and Moses, with the perse- cutions they underwent from their people, and the interposition of God for their exal* tation : and then, to shew his meaning in all this, he makes the following application, for the conviction of his hearers, who had been the persecutors of Jesus Christ. " Ye stiff- " necked, and uncircumcised in heart and ears " (who from your disobedience are not able " to hear and understand what tht law has " declared to you), ye da always resist the Holy Ghost : as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fa- thers persecuted ? And they have slain theiti " which shewed before of the coming of the- " Just One, of whom ye have been now the " betrayers and murderers f ." This applica- tion shews us with what design he had remind- ed them of the reception which Joseph and Moses, those two eminent characters of the law^ had m.et with. He meant to shew them, that as these favourites of heaven, whom God had * See the beginning of the 7th chapter of the Acts, f Acts vii. 51. i( (( Lect. 8. of the Holy Scriptures, 179 commissioned to be the Saviours of their peo- ple, were opposed and persecuted ; so had they now, in Uke form and manner, opposed and per- secuted the Just One, Jesus Christ ; and in so do- ing had fulfilled the scripture, and done all that was wanting to confirm the truth of his divine mission ; ina^smuch as none could be the true Saviour, according to the scriptures, but a per- son rejected by them,^ as these holy prophets had been rejected by their forefathers. Such is the purport of St Stephen's apolo- gy ; and, with this key, we are prepared to examine the particulars. He enters on the character of Joseph with these remarkable Words : The patriarchs moved with envy sold Joseph into Egypt, Who were the enemies of Joseph ? The patriarchs ; his own brethren^ all jagainst him to a man. Having first plotted Ipgether to take away his life, they sold hioi, and then shewed the marks of his bloody that his father might he as3ured he was dead. The ;3trangers, to whom he was given up, carri^ him far from his family, and placed him a- mong heathens in the Jand of Egypt. All these particulars were exactly verified in the person of Christ : his brethren^ moved with envy,^ soM him for m.oney, and delivered him to the N ^ 1 80 On the Figurative Language Lect. 8 Gentiles. The brother who advised * the sell- ing of Joseph, that some p?'oJit might be made of him, was Judah, who answers even in his name to the traitor that sold Jesus Christ : but the guilt which attends his name extends to the whole nation of the Jews, of whom Judah among the twelve patriarchs, and Judas among the twelve apostles, were the representatives. Envy was the motive on which the patriarchs sold Joseph ; and Christ was accused and con- demned on the same principle, according to the opinion of his judge ; of whom two of the evangelists relate, that Pilate knew the chief priests had delivered \mnfor envy. When Jo- seph declared his dreams which signified his future superiority over his whole family ; his brethren hated him yet the more for his dreams and for his words ; and persuaded themselves they should prevent his advancement by sell- ing him for a slave : but this was the circum- stance without which his advancement could not have happened : he had never been a ruler and a prince, if he had not been sent in- to Egypt as a slave, and to prison as a male- factor. So when Christ asserted his own dig- nity, his brethren took up stones to cast at him for making himself the Son of God ; and * See Gen. xxxviL 26. Lect. 8. of the Holy Scriptures, 181 when he told them they should see him com- ing in the clouds, and sitting at the right hand pf power, they pronounced him to be guilty of blasphemy, and inflicted those sufferings which were necessary to his exaltation. They sold him into the hands of the Romans, to be treated as a slcrve^ scourged and crucified. With the kingdoms of the Gentiles, to whom his brethren delivered him, he remains to this day ; and thither they must come after him, if they are to meet with him, as Joseph was followed by his family into Egypt. Much more might be said to shew how ex- act the parallel is between the history of Jo- seph and the history of Christ, if we were to pursue it. We see Joseph in company with two malefactors in the prison, and promising life to one of them : we see him endued with such wisdom^ that even Heathens were oblig- ed to own that this Hebrew spoke by the Spi- rit of God ; and they were content that he should receive the power and glory of domi- nion amongst them ; while his brethren had I'ejected him as an insignificant dreamer. One circumstance, however, I must not pass over, which is particularly noted by St Ste- phen ; that at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren. At the first meeting 182 On the Figurative Language LeCT. 8. they knew him not : but after they had ac- cused themselves for being guilty of his death, and hM imputed their troubles to its proper cause, then, their brother was made known unto them. Thus we trust it will be at last betwixt Christ and the Jews. The time will come, when they shall ^ee the true reason why they have been wandering backwards and forwards, and seeking their bread with anxi* ety and suspicion, in a strange land ; and shall say with the brethren of Joseph, We are verily guilty concerning our brother^ in that we saw the anguish of his soul zvhen he besought us^ and we would not hear ; therefore is this distress come upon us *. God who found out the ini- quity of Joseph's brethren, and at last opened their eyes to see and confess it, can turn the hearts of the Jews, how hard soever they may be at present, and prepare them for that se- cond meeting, when their Saviour shall be known to them. Some things which have passed before us in the present Lecture would suggest many profitable reflections, if I had time to insist upon them. From the ofRce of John the Baptist, which was preparatory to the doctrines of Jesus * Genesis xlii. 21. Lect. 8. of the Holy Scriptures. 183 Christ, we are to learn, that no man can re- ceive the truth of the gospel, unless he is pre- pared by a baptism t)f repentance^ and is ready to forsake his sins. The counsel of God for his salvation can take no effect, till his former evil ways are given up. With an attachment to his old sins and errors, he can neither un- derstand nor approve any thing the gospel of- fers to him ; but will either hate or despise it, and tempt others to do the same.: as the scribes did, who would not accept of John's baptism. Why do not all men receive the gospel, but because some have taken part with the world, the flesh, and the devil ; and determine never to renounce them ? To all such the gospel is a thing of no value- From the case of Joseph, and our blessed Saviour, hated and persecuted as they were ; we should learn to suspect all those whom the world magnifies., and not trust to reports and appearances, where self-love and temporal in- terest are concerned to disguise things. This is a world in which truth is neglected, good- ness evil spoken of, and innocence run down and persecuted. It is the constant practice of mankind to misrepresent and defame those whom they have injured, that their own in- justice may not appear. When virtue is op- 184. On the Figurative Language Lect. 8. pressed, it is generally silent; while its op- pressors never fail to be clamorous in their own vindication : and in most cases, men may distinguish where the fault lies, by the noise that is made to conceal it. When Christ was defamed he answered not again ; and his dis- ciples also suffered in patience ; while the Jews were running here and there all over the world to tell their story, and turn the hearts of men against the gospel, that they might be prepar- ed to disbelieve and reject it, as soon as it should come to their ears. In the history of Joseph's brethren, you see them in distress under their Atants ; not able to stay at home without starving, nor daring to go into Egypt, taking the lord of the coun- try for their enemy. Every mortal man will suffer under the like miserable dilemma, who cannot find his happiness in the world, and dare not seek it where only it is to be found. All this happens because he does not know Jesus Christ ; does not know that he is the brother and the friend of sinners, ready to take them under his protection and supply all their wants ; but supposes religion to be his ene- my, and expects to be roughly handled. The brethren of Joseph did not know him ; and were distressed with fear and anxiety ; the Lect. 8. of the Holy Scriptures. 185 Jews did not know Christ, and are to this day wandering, restless and hopeless, about the world ; and every man will find himself in the like condition, till he discovers that the religion he is afraid of is his best friend, and that God has sent a Saviour before us \o pre- serve life^ not to destroy it. 186 On the Figurative Language Lect. 9. LECTURE IX. ON THE PERSONAL FIGURES, OR TYPES, OF THE SCRIPTURE. (A CONTINUATION OF THE SORMER.) KJ¥ all the personal figures of the Old Tes- tament, none are so proper to answer the pur* pose of these Lectures, as the two characters, which St Stephen proposed to the Jews, as figures and forerunners of Jesus Christ ; whom they would not have crucified if they had known him, and they could not have failed to know him, if they had looked to those saints of old who had foreshewed him in their lives and actions, more plainly than words could have described him. Notice had been given of this by Moses himself; so that they ought not to have been ignorant. A prophet^ said he, shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me: which words are cited by St Stephen, and marked out for special observation : This is that Moses ^ who said unto the children of Is- rael^ a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you^ like unto me : and from the use he Lect. 9. of the Holy Scriptures. 187 has made of the history of Moses, in the 7th chapter of the Acts^ it appears that this hke- ness extends to his whole character, from his birth to his death : as we shall see when we come to examine the particulars. We are likewise taught by St Paul, that Moses, as a minister and mediator, was faithful in his of- fice, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after : when the Son himself, the great and final Mediator, should take the di- rection of the house of God, and accomplish the ministry, which is now witnessed by the ministry of Moses. The circumstances fittest for our purpose in the history of Moses, and most remarkable in themselves, are already selected by St Ste- phen : to these, therefore, I shall confine my- self ; and treat of them in the order in which he has laid them down. But that we may first have a distinct view of the particulars, which will come under consideration, it may be proper to observe, that the history of Moses, as here to be applied, comprehends, 1 . The circumstances of his binh. 2. His qualifica- tions and endowments as the minister of God. 3. His oflSce as the deliverer of his people. 4. The reception he met with from the people he came to deliver. 188 On the Figurative Language Lect. 9. Our blessed Saviour's birth in Judea was rendered very remarkable by the circumstan- ces that attended it, and the character of the time in which it happened. When the promises of God were about to be fulfilled by the redemption of mankind, and the time foretold by the prophets was drawing near ; the nation of the Jews was fallen under bondage to the Roman power, and were subject to Herod, a strange king, jealous of the people he was set over, and ap- prehensive of a deliverer to be born among themselves. When the report of Christ's birth was brought by the wise men, Herod de- termined to cut him off; and with this view cruelly slaughtered all the infants in the neigh- bourhood of Bethlehem. With all this the birth of Moses agrees in every circumstance. For, 1. The time of the promise drew nigh which God had sworn to Abraham, It had been foretold, that the seed of Abraham should continue four hundred years in Egypt, and after that come out with great substance. — When this time of redemption was approach- ing, the Hebrews were fallen into great afflic- tion under a new king who knew not Joseph; who being probably an alien, had no respect to the merits or memory of him who had been Lect. 9. of the Holy Scriptures. 189 a saviour to the land of Egypt ; looking with a jealous eye upon all his people, as enemies, and treating them as captives and slaves. He had a suspicion that they would become more powerful, and get them up out of his land. To prevent which, he proceeded with subtil- ty, (as Herod did afterwards) and resolved up- on a massacre of all the male infants of the He- brews. He first commanded the midwives to kill them ; but failing in this, Pharaoh charged oil his people^ sayings Every son that it born ye shall cast into the river. At this time Moses was born : and a remarkable time it was : a strange new king kept the people of God in subjection, and murdered their infants, to pre- vent their deliverance. But Moses and Christ, under these wonderful circumstances, were both miraculously preserved, to accomplish the redemption for which they were raised up : and they were both preserved in the land of Egypt. Moses was taken up by Pharaoh's daughter, and escaped from the wrath of a cruel king : and the child Jesus was carried into Egypt by his parents to escape the wrath of Herod. The nativity of Christ was dignified by the appearance of a star, and celebrated by an host of angels \ though its earthly appearance was 190 On tkt Figurative Language Lect. 9. in poverty and obscurity. And some unusual circumstances marked the birth of Moses, though the particulars are not related. He was born of a poor, oppressed people, the child of a slave, and doomed to death by the cir- cumstances of his birth. But his parents were aware of some distinction, which shewed that he was raised up for some great purpose. St Paul says, they saw he 'was a proper child; St Stephen, that he was txcefdijig fair ; the ori- ginal is^ fair to God; from all which it is most reasonable to understand, that some marks of divine favour and distinction were visible a- bout him at his birth. His qualifications and endowments come next under consideration. He is said to have been learned in all the wisdom ^of the Egyptians *, and to have been mighty in words and in deeds. This character is given of Christ as a prophet, nearly in the same terms. The two disciples who walked with him to Emmaus described him as a pro- phet mighty in deed and zvord before God and all the people. When Moses was grown up, he went forth to vindicate the rights of his people, and gave them a sign of his power by slaying an Egyptian who did them wrong ; casting out one of their strorxg men, to shew that ^a * Compare Luke ii. 52. Lect. 9- of the Holy Scriptures, 191 stronger than he was come upon him, and that God had visited his people. So did Christ give a sign of his power as a Redeemer, by re- scuing the souls and bodies of men from the bondage of Satan \ casting out devils by the finger of God, to shew that the kingdom of God was come upon them. The Egyptian wisdom, according to the ac- counts we have of it, delivered all things under signs and figures ; speaking to the mind rath- er by visible objects than by words, and con- veying instruction under a hidden form which only the wise could understand. I do not stay to enquire into the reason of this ; I only speak of the fact, which is well known to scholars. Moses must therefore have been accustomed early to this mode of delivering science by symbols and hieroglyphics : and we have seen that his whole law is according to the same method, not speaking literally of any spiritual thing, not even of the immor- tality of the soul (whence some have ignorant- ly supposed that it was not a doctrine of his law), but delivering all things under signs, emblems and descriptive ceremonies ; which they who do not study, are miserably in the dark as to the wisdom of the Mosaic dispen- sation. 192 On the Figurative Language Lect. g. The wisdom of our blessed Saviour was always conveyed under the same form; all his instructions were given in parables^ were visible objects signifying intellectual ; things ; and without a parable spake he not unto them : which form of speech, they who do not study and delight in, as the medium of instruction which the wisdom of God hath preferred from the beginning of the world, will never see far either into the Old or New Testament. The mission of Moses bears witness, in the form of it, to the mission of Jesus Christ ; and gives us the most worthy idea that can be con- ceived both of the dignity and design of it. Both these ministers of God were sent upon their commissions by a voice from heaven. God appeared to Moses in a bush that burn- ed with fire, and said, I have seen the afflic- tion of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them ; and, now come, I will send thee into Egypt. So when Jesus was appoint- ed to his ministry, there came a voice from the excellent glory ^ this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. The redemption of the people under Moses, at the Exodus from Egypt, having already been considered as a figure of the world's re- Lect. g. of the Holy Scriptures, 193 demption under Jesus Christ, I need not dwell upon it here. I may however observe, that as the servitude of the Hebrews was extrem'e, and their oppression intolerable, when Moses was raised up to redeem them ; so was the power of Satan at its utmost height, over Jews and Gentiles, at the coming of Christ. He was permitted to bind and to oppress after a strange manner the sons and daughters of Abraham. And if we consider the state of the Heathens at that time all over the world, we find them under the grossest darkness of idolatry, and the most abominable corruption of manners : so that Christ was wanted by the world of Jews and Gentiles as much as Moses by the Hebrews in Egypt. On this occasion, we have before us a re- markable sign attending the mission of Moses ; which being insisted upon by St Stephen must (like all the other ways of God) have its sense and signification. God appeared to Moses in the desert, from a bush w^hich was on fire, and yet was not consumed. Which is a sign, first applying itself as an assurance of deliverance from the affliction of Egypt ; and, secondly, as a pattern of the incarnation, when God should come down from heaven to redeem the whole world. O 1C)4 On the Figurative Language Lect*. 9. The burning bush was an earnest and a pledge to assure Moses, that the people of God^ though then in a low and miserable condition (aptly signified by a thorn growing on a de- sert), and under a fiery trial in a turnace of affliction, should yet survive it all ; as the bush, though in the midst of a flame of firey was not consumed. According to this models such should the event be ; and such in fact it was, to the Hebrews in Egypt. As God was- present in the bush which was not burned, sa being present with his people in their fiery trial, and as it were partaking with them ii> their sufferings, they would certainly be deli- vered out of them : according to those words- of the prophet Isaiah ; In all their affiictions he was afflict edy and the angel of his presence saved them: which passage some of the Jewish com- mentators themselves have properly applied to this exhibition of the burning bush, as a sign that God was with his people in their afflic- tions, to defend and preserve them in the fiery trial. And if this wo-nderful spectacle was a sign that God was with them; surely it was also a sign that he would be with us in a like form for the salvation of the world from the bon-^ dage of sin : that, as the thorn of the desert Lect. 9. of the Holy Scriptures. 195 is the lowest amongst the trees, so should he take upon himself the form of a servant, the lowest condition of humanity ; submitting to serve with us, and be afflicted in all our af- flictions ; that in and with him we might be enabled to sustain and survive the sharpness of death. That, as the children in the furnace of fire felt no harm, because the Son of God was with them in the midst of it ; so should not we be consumed by the trials of this world, or the fire of judgment itself. Herein was it also signified, that the manifestation of God to man should not be that of a consuming fire, but of a benign light and glory instead of it ; a light to lighten the Gentiles^ and the glory of his people Israel. It was signified, that wrath was turned away ; that God was reconciled, and that there is good will to man from him that dwelt in the bush ^. This appearance of God to Moses is such a testimony to his. appearance afterwards in the flesh, that if we lay the whole together as a figure of the poverty of his birth, like that of a root out of a dry ground ; of the servility of his condition ; of the thorns he bore at his cru- cifixion ; of the glory and brightness of his transfiguration ; of the misery of man ; the * Deuteronomy xxjciii. 1 6. O 2 19ti On the Figurative Language Lect. 9. condescension o-f God j the necessity of a Re- deemer : in all these things met together in this exhibition of the burning bush, I see a complication of wonders, which cannot wor- thily be spoken of: we must adore the sub- ject as we can, and leave it to the more ade- quate contemplation of angels-. The work of Moses in delivering his people was attended with a display of divine power, which shewed how it should be in the other case. He brought them out^ saith St Stephen, after he had shewed wonders and signs in the {•and of Egifpty and in the Red-sea^ and in the wilderness forty years ^ So it may be said of Jesus Christ in words to the same effect, " He brought them out after he had shewed won- ders and signs ; casting out devils, healing the sick, raising the dead, feeding a hungry mul- titude in a wilderness, and giving every pos- sible demonstration of a divine power, exer- cised for the deliverance and salvation of the people of God/' The power of Moses in Egypt, and at the Red-sea, and in the wilderness, was as visible as the sun in the heavens; and it was as plain and certain that he acted by the finger of God, as that he acted at all. But now the argument of St Stephen leads us to observe. Lect. 9. of the Holy Scriptures. 197 as one of the greatest of all wonders, how this man of might and wisdom, so miracu- lously preserved, and so highly commissioned, was understood and received by the people to whom he was sent ? For if the forefathers of the Jews had rejected their lawgiver thus commissioned, and attested by all the evi- dences of divine power ; then was it so far from being any objection against Jesus Christ, that they had misunderstood him, and hated him, and crucified him ; that it was requisite to the truth and divinity of his commission, that his brethren should sell him, and cast him oiit^ as they had done to Joseph; and that they should refuse him, as they had refused Moses, With this argument St Stephen pressed the Jews, till they were unable to bear the force of it : and, I declare, I think it so forcible at this day, that a man must either be a Chris- tian upon the strength of it, or fall into a rage, like the Jews, if he has an interest against it. Hear how the case is represented — *' This Moses whom they refused, saying, who made thee a ruler and a judge, the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer, by the hands of the angel which appeared to him in the bush." — Fie supposed that his brethren would hav£ understood, how that God by his hand 198 On the Figurative Language Lect. 9. would deliver them ; but they understood not — " This is he — to whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust 'him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt." What the high priest and the people of the Jews, before whom St Stephen pleaded, must have felt in their minds from such a represen- tation as this, when the fact of rejecting Jesus Christ was fresh upon their memories and con- sciences, is more easy to be conceived than expressed. There, is no occasion on which the mind of man feels more miserable, than when it is convicted without being converted. Such was the case with St Stephen's hearers ; so they acted like men that were possessed ; they gnashed with their teeth, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him in a fury to put him to death : for so doth bigotry dispose of those whom it cannot answer. Let us suppose, however, that some one a- mongst the rest was prevailed upon to apply the cases of Joseph and Moses, as St Stephen had stated them, to what had lately come to pass in Jerusalem : then would he have rea- soned with himself in some such words as these : — " Jesus of Nazareth offered himself to our nation as the true Messiah and the King of the liECT. 9. of the Holy Scriptures, 199 Jews : yet none of our rulers or priests or pharisees believed on him, but hated him and despised him. What then ? Was not the holy patriarch Joseph, with all his in- nocence and virtue, hated of his brethren, and persecuted for envy ? One of the disciples of Jesus betrayed and sold him for a sum of mo- ney, and he was delivered to the Romans as a slave and a malefactor : but so did Joseph's brethren sell him, and so did that innocent victim go down into Egypt among heathens as a slave, and was imprisoned as a malefac- tor under a false accusation. Yet did God bring this salne Joseph to honour, and made his family who had despised him bow down before him ; as, they say, God has now ex- alted this same Jesus, and that every knee is to bow to him. Many and mighty were the miracles of Jesus, such as we could not dis- prove, and such as were proper to shew that he was the expected Redeemer : but we who were witnesses of them did not accept of them as such. Thus did our lawgiver Moses come forth to avenge our wrongs upon the Egyp- tians, supposing that his brethren would un- derstand, from the part he took, that God by his hand would deliver them ; but they un- derstood not ; they accused him for what he had done, and took part with the Egyptians, 200 On the Figurative Language Lect. 9. as we have taken part with the Romans, our task-masters, against Jesus Christ. When Moses undertook to compose the differences of his brethren and restore them to peace, the aggressor flew in his face, and questioned his authority with those saucy words, who made thee a ruler and a judge ? Thus did we insolently demand of Jesus on every oc- casion, who gave him his authority ; instead of submitting to it, and taking advantage of it for our own good. We represented him not as a Saviour, such as his works proved him to be, but a destroyer (as they made Moses a murderer), an accomplice of Beelze- bub, the prince of the devils and the destroy- er of mankind. Thus have we done unto him as our fathers did unto Moses : Yet was Moses sent of God to bring us out of Egypt ; and therefore so was Jesus sent to save his people from their sins. When Moses had overthrown the Egyptians and led our fathers into the wilderness, the people would not obey him, but turned back in their hearts into E- gypt, the scene of all their misery : and if we have thrust Jesus from us, it must have been owing to the same cause, a vile attach- ment to this sinful world, which holds us in bondage, and has made us take part against him with our tyrants and oppressor^. Lect. 9. of the Holy Scriptures, 201 " Upon the whole then, our refusal of Je- sus Christ can be no argument against him. Moses was undoubtedly sent to be a ruler and deliverer, and we all believe it ; yet he was refused by the people whom God sent him to redeem ; and though they had been witnesses of all his mighty works, their hearts were not converted. So it hath been with us now; and therefore woe be unto us ! we are verily guilty concerning tins our brother ; and what is most to our shame and confusion, our guilt is of such a form as to turn against ourselves, and prove the very thing we have been so forward to deny ; namely, that he who was sold like Joseph, hath like him received favour and dominion ; that he who hath been affronted and refused and thrust away by us as Moses was, is the true lawgiver, whom we have thus conformed in all things to the example of our prophet; even of that Moses, who said, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up like unto me ; and we have done all that was wanting on our part to make the likeness complete." Thus must they have reasoned, on whom St Stephen's argument had the proper effect ; and thus would the Jews reason at this day, who know the Old Testament, and have heard 202 On the Figurative Language Lect. 9. the history of Jesus Christ, if they were not under a judicial infatuation, which God can remove when it is just and fit. We who are not under the Uke bhndness can see how plain- ly and irresistibly these figures of the Old Tes- tament shew the certainty of those things wherein we have been instructed. When Stephen disputed with the Jews, he took ad-^ vantage of this evidence, and they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit with which he spake. When we hear of the effect of this disputation, and fi^nd nothing in his speech but a mere narrative of facts compiled from the scripture, we wonder how the Jews could be so provoked by it, more than by reading the Bible according to their daily cus- tom : but when we see how all this is pointed as a testimony to the sufferings and exaltation of Jesus of Nazareth, the wonder ceases ; and it is no longer strange, that they whose hearts were not turned to good by it, should be pro- voked to rage and persecution. This subject will suggest some important reflections, which I must beg of you to take into your serious consideration, and lay them up in your hearts as long as you live. ]. From the cases of Joseph and Moses, Lect. 9. of the Hohj Scriptures. 203 and more particularly from that of Christ himself, we are to learn, that the qualifica- tions which recommend a person to God, will not make him acceptable or respectable with men, but often the contrary; for amongst men, innocence is envied, godliness is de- spised, zeal discouraged, and justice hated. Whence it has been established by wise and virtuous men, as a maxim founded on experi- ence, that the voice of the multitude is never to be regarded as a test of truth or merit. — Fashionable error is a dreadful enemy to the advocates of truth : and there never was an age or country in which error did not get into fashion, and take the direction of men's minds ; so that truth has but a poor chance without an over-ruling Providence to second and en- force it. We have a famous passage to this effect from the greatest moral philosopher of the Greeks, who declared with a kind of pre- science, that if a man perfectly just were to come upon earth, he would be impoverished., and scourged., and bound as a criminal., and, when he had suffered all manner of indignities., -would he put to the shameful death of suspen- sion or crucifixion *. * Several of the fathers have taken notice of this extraor- dinary passage in Plato \ looking upon it as a prediction of 1204 On the Figurative Language Lect. 9. There is not a more spotless character in the scripture than that of Joseph : yet his breth- ren hated him, and their envy had no rest till they had sent him out of their sight as a slave. Moses was a pattern of meekness, and with a struggle of diffidence undertook his commis- sion ; a commission, with which he should have been received by a poor oppressed peo- ple, like, what he was in fact, a messenger from heaven. But they railed at him, as if he had only made that condition worse which was bad enough before ; so had provoked those who were already enraged, and had put a sword into their hands to slay them. Thus the fearful and unbelieving (who are sometimes found amongst the wise ones of this world) are always disposed to discourage and con- demn a zeal for the cause of God and the rights of his reUgion, as indiscreet, unseasonable, and dangerous. Whence it follows, that if we are called upon to act in any public character, we must do people good against their will, and take the chance of being ungratefully or even despitefully treated for it. None but the the sufferings of the Just One, Jesus Christ ; and ^fter them it is noted by Grotius de verit. Lib. 4. sect. 12. Casaubon (Merick) has a learned and excellent Criticism upon it, in his Treatise Of Credulity and Incredulitij, p. 1 35, &c. Lect. 9. of the Holy Scriptures, ^05 mean-spirited, or the ambitious, or the insi- pid, or the hypocritical, are spoken well of by all men ; and popular applause is the grand object of a vain or navish disposition. There- fore the Christian is wisely admonished, to seek that praise which cometh only from God j which is never bestowed upon false merit, and will never be wanting to the true. 2. From the example of the Jews, who were only irritated by St Stephen's arguments, when they ought to have been converted ; we see what a dreadful thing it is to have our reasons for hating and rejecting the truth. It is of infinite consequence that we should en- quire what that meaneth — they received not the love of the truths that they might he saved. What can be plainer than truth ? And what is more amiable ? And if it saves us, what in all the world is half so valuable ? Yet that saving truth is the only truth men cannot of themselves understand : and if they do not understand it, what fearful commotions are raised by it ! It is a powerful drug, which will either embitter and inflame the mind, * or restore it to reason. The bigotted Jew, the ancient heathen, the modern infidel, the man of levity and pleasure, are, all upon a * Siultos facit tnsanos. Tejr. 206 On the Figurcuive Language Lect. g* levelj all equally adverse to the Christian plan of salvation ; all equally restless and impatient when the proofs of it are laid before them. Even Paul himself (who from the part he took when the blood of the martyr Stephen was shed^ must have been present at the trial) could hear the martyr's apology without being persuaded by it : that x^ery man, who afterwards struck into the same way of interpretation, and de- lighted to apply the figures of the law as a tes- timony to Jesus Christ. There was a time when he was not only deaf^ but inveterate, and as he said, exceedingly mad against the Christians and all their arguments. Stephen might look like an angel, and reason like an angel : nothing could touch him. He had an opinion, that the Christians were wrong, and deserved to be persecuted : but opinion is that judgment which a man forms of the things of God without the grace of God. When Ste- phen had reasoned with his hearers, he prayed for them ; and perhaps the conversion of that glorious instrument of God, the blessed apostle St Paul, might be granted in consequence of that prayer 3. We are lastly to learn from the deliver- ance of the Hebrews under Moses, which God was pleased to accomplish by his hand, after LECt. 9. of the Holy Scriptures, 207 all the contempt and opposition he had with ; that, however the church, in bad times, may- be corrupted and oppressed, and even averse to its own deliverance ; yet the counsel of God is sure ; and He who hath promised to be with it to the end of the worlds will never forsake its interests. Kings, with their statesmen and politicians, may be jealous of its rights, and invade them without fear or shame : nay, the time may come, when the very idea of a di- vine authority, either in priests or kings, shall be as hateful among Christians, as Moses and Aaron were to Pharaoh and the magicians of Egypt : and there are too many amongst us already, who cannot speak of it with patience. But the powers of the world can proceed no farther than God shall permit; and when things are at the worst, and seemingly past remedy, then will the time of the promise draw nigh ; God shall interpose in what form and manner he sees best ; and the church shall be conducted to glory and liberty, as the afflicted Hebrews were led forth to the possession of the land of Canaan. 208 On the Figurative Language Legt. lO. LECTURE X. ON miracles; particularly, the miracles ot THE NEW TESTAMENT, AS THEY BELONG TO THE - FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE OF THE SCRIPTURE. VV E are prepared to consider the miracles of the gospel, as descriptive of something be- yond themselves : because we have already seen how the miracles of Moses, for the sav- ing of the Israelites, are applied iii the New Testament, as figures of the saving of all man- kind by Jesus Christ. Our Saviour applied the lifting up of the serpent by Moses in the wilderness, to the lifting up of himself upon the cross, to draw all men unto him for the cure of their souls. The apostle tells us, that the rock which Moses smote, to give drink to the people, was Christ ; that is, a figure of Christ, smitten for our sins, and giving to a thirsty world the waters of life. Moses fed the people with inanna ; but that manna was a figure of the true bread from heaven which giveth life unto the world. These things were our examples : the miracles wrought for them were signs of the miracles to be wrought for Lect. 10. of the Holy Scriptures, 209 us. And as it was under the law, so it is un- der the gospel : the miracles of Christ are not of any private interpretation; but, like the miracles of Moses, with a miraculous effect carry a miraculous signification. And now, for the right understanding of this whole matter, we are to consider, that the name of Jesus was given, because he who bore- it was to save his people from their sins. Sin is the great distemper of man, and salva- tion from sin is the great deliverance* The want of grace is the greatest want of man, and therefore grace is the greatest gift of God. To save us from sin, and restore us to grace, was the great work which Jesus Christ descended from heaven to accomplish. Every word and every action of his life tended either to effect this, or to give us a right understanding of it : therefore, when we see him working miracu- lous cures upon men's bodies, we are still to consider him as the Saviour of men's souls ; and that he cured their bodies, as a pledge to assure us thereof. As this is a matter of infinite importance toward the advancement of a Christian in the true knowledge and spirit of the gospel, and not so obvious to common understandings, I have reserved it to my last expository Lecture, that you may take advantage of all that has P 210 On the Figurative Language Lect. 10. gone before : and when you see into the figu- rative intention of the miracles of Christy you will want no more of my instructions concerning the language of the scripture. The v/onders which Jesus Christ wrought upon earth in the course of his ministry were .all of a particular sort, because more ends than one were to be answered by them. The world was not only to believe the fact of his heaven* ly mission, but to understand the design and object of it. Any supernatural act would have shewn, that he was invested with supernatural power ; but as the object of his commission was to save mankind from their sitiSy all his mi- racles were signs of salvation towards the bo- dies of men ; all explanatory of his great work in redeeming their souls from the fatal effects- of sin. He v/ent about doing good; and accor- ding to the present state of things under the fall, to do good, is to remove evil ; to save mankind is to undo and destroy the works of the devil. The worst of these take place upon the soul ; but we cannot apprehend them without some help, because the soul is invi- sible. When we speak of the faculties of the soul, we are obliged to borrow our words from the faculties of the body ; so the evils and dis- tempers of the soul must be signified to us by the evils and distempers of the body : and both of Lect. 10. of the Holy Scriptures, 211 these proceed from the same cause ; for had there been no sin in the soul, there would have been no death in the body. The bodies of men fell into infirmities along with their souls : and it was of God's mercy that it so happened, for we, who take all our notions of the soul and its operations from those of the body, could not otherwise have understood the distempers of the mind : whence it too frequently hap- pens, that they who never were sick, are apt to be ignorant of the weakness of the inward man, and so become confident and self-sufl&- cient — tlwu sayest^ I am rich^ and have need of nothing, and know est not that thou art wretch- ed, and miserable^ and poor^ and hlind^ and naked^. When man was first placed in paradise, his body was in health, and his soul had all its faculties in perfection : and if we would know what a perfect soul is, we must consider what a perfect body is. When the body of man is in a state of perfection, its senses are all per- fect. Its sight is quick and strong ; its hear- ing is uninterrupted ; its limbs are vigorous and active ; it distinguishes all tastes and all odours without error, and in its feelings it is sensible of all the impressions of the elements. * Revelations iii. 17. F2 2iJ On the Figurative Language Lect. 10. So when the soul is in equal health, it sees and understands things spiritual ; it sees God and his truth as plainly as the eye sees the light of the day ; it hears and attends to all important and useful information : it walks with God in the way of his commandments, and even runs with pleasure to do his will, as the angels fly through the heaven for the same purpose : it distinguishes good and evil with- out error ; and, apprehending their different effects and consequences^ it relishes the one and abhors the other : its speech is employed in the praises of God, and will be telling of his wonders from day to day, for it knows no end thereof; it therefore preserves its relation to God, as his cliild^ his scholar^ his subject^ in affection^ attention^ and obedience. O blessed state ! who can survey this condition of hu- manity without bewailing its loss, and aspir- ing to its restoration ? For lost it was ; and under that loss we are now suffering ; and as such sufferers we were visited by Jesus Christ. When sin entered, man fell from this perfect state of mind, into ignorance and blindness of heart; inattention to divine knowledge and instruction ; aversion to. spiritual things ; er- ror of judgment ; insensibility of the conse- quences of good and evil ; a^d inability, as Lect. 10. of the Holy Smptmrs. 213 well as indisposition, to do the will of God* His soul is as a body maimed and distemper- ed : for sin is not only a defect, but a posi- tive disease, including the nature of all the diseases incident to man. The eyes of his mind are blind ; its ears are deaf ; its tongue is dumb ; its feet are lame ; its constitution infected with foul distempers ; it is agitated with vain cares, cheated with vain pleasures, and distressed with emptiness and want. When the apostle had this subject before him, well might he exclaim, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death '^ For the life we have upon these terms as na- tural men, is rather death than Hfe ; and so the gospel hath considered it : we are dead in trespasses and sins ^ and the world in which we live is dead unto God. Now as Jesus Christ came to restore us from this state of disease and death into which we are fallen, all his mighty works present him to us as a deliverer from these evils; and there- fore while his miracles were evidences of his own divine mission, they were signs of our salvation. They all spake the same sense ; and our Saviour himself hath given us a key to the right interpretation of them all : who, when he was about to give sight to a man 214 On the Figurative Language Lect. 10. born blind, did not proceed to the cure, till he had instructed his disciples in the sense of it, in such terms, as could not be applied to it as a bodily cure. " As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world," as if he had said, " I give light to this man born iii darkness, as a sign that I give light to man- kind, who are all born in the like state. This man is but an individual ; and all the persons to whom I shall restore their bodily sight are but few : but a spiritual discernment in the eyes of the mind is necessary to all mankind ; therefore I who give it am a light to the whole worlds and I give sight to this man as a sign of it." That the miracle might be more instruc- tive, a very peculiar form was given to it. He moulded the dust af the ground into clay, and having spread it upon the eyes of the man, he commanded him to go and wash off this dirt in the pool of Siloam. Here the rea- son of the thing speaks for itself. What is this mire and clay upon the eyes, but the power this world has over us in shutting out the truth ? Who are the people unto whom the glorious light of the gospel of Christ cannot shine^ but they whose minds the god of this world hath blinded? So long as this world re- Lect. 10. of the Holy Scriptures. 2 1 5 tains its influence, the gospel is hidden from the eyes of men ; they are in a hst condi- tion ; and nothing can clear them of this de« filement, but the water of the divine Spirit sent from above to wash it av/ay. This f:eems to be the moral sense of the miracle : and a miracle thus understood becomes a sermon, than which none in the world can be more edifying. Our Saviour himself preached in the same way to his disciples, to instruct them in the nature of his mission, and of their own salvation. In short, the gospel is sealed up, and a man may as well read a miodern system of morality, unless he sees that Jesus Christ is the physician of human nature, and that a miserable and sickly world is in daily want of his healing power. The same spiritual turn is given to the mi- raculous distribution of bread in the wilderness. Christ informed the people, that if they fol- lowed him only to eat of this bread, for the feeding of their bodies, they mistook the na- ture of the miracle. Te seek me because ye did eat of the loaves and were filed. Labour not for the meat that perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, zvhich the Son of man shall give unto you. The meat he then gave w^as only a figure of that which he gives 216 On the Figurative Language Li;ct, 10. in a higher sense to all that believe on him, and which is meat indeed ^ no other in com- parison of this being worthy of the name. By bread our Saviour sometimes means the doctrine of the gospel, which nourishes the mind ; and sometimes his own body spiritually taken in the eucharist : but whether we here understand the bread of the Lord's supper, or the preaching of the word ; both are distri- buted to the hungry multitude of mankind in the midst of this desert : and a sort of food this is, which, like the manna laid up in the tabernacle (called the hidden manjia^) never perisheth^ but nourisheth the soul to life eter-r nal. From the curing of the blind and the feed- ing of the hungry, let us proceed to the rais^ ing of the dead. It appears to us as a most wonderful thing, that a dead man should hear the voice of Jesus Christ and return to life : but it is more wonderful that the grace of God and the calling of his gospel should revive a man dead in sin ; because, to speak after the manner of men, it seems harder to revive a dead soul than to raise a dead body. And now observe the order of things. The first transgression brought with it a present * Revelations ii. 17. Lect, 10. of the Holy Scriptures. 21? death to the spirit of man, and a future death to his body. The power of the gos- pel brings a present Ufe to the spirit, and a future hfe to the body ; and as the reno- vation of the spirit is the greater in effect, and most necessary to be understood, the re- storation of a dead body, which is more strik- ing to the senses, is exhibited as a visible sign of it. The scripture therefore in many places speaks of the conversion of the soul to a life of righteousness as a rising from the dead ; as in Eph. v. 14. where the apostle paraphrases these words of the prophet Isaiah, Arise^ shine^ for thy light is come^ and gives their full mean- ing to them; Awake thou that sleepest^ and arise from the dead^ and Christ shall give thee light *. Here the dead are of the same sort with those spoken of by Christ in the gospel, Let the dead bu?'y their dead; of whom the for- * This is delivered as the sense of the prophet^ because it is ushered in as a quotation, ^wherefore he saith or it (that is, the scripture) saith. The language of the prophet is an al- lusion to the rising of mankind from sleep when the sun rises upon them in the morning 5 but as the prophet doth not speak according to the letter, the light is the true light of the world, and the sleep is the sleep of death, either na- tural or spiritual : and so the apostle hath only translated the words of the prophet from the letter into the spirit, and given then-i their true meaning. 218 On the Figurative Laiiguage Lect. i o. mer are the dead in spirit, and the latter the dead in nature. The word death has the hke sense in the sentence which was pronounced on m^n in paradise, In the day thou eatest thou shah die: and there are numberless passages of the Old Testament, in which the words life and death do not signify the natural, but the spiritual life and death. I know not how to understand, but by admitting both a natural and a spiritual resurrection ; those other words of Christ, the hour is comings and now isj when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God ; for certainly, the resurrection which now is must be that figurative resurrection spoken of by the prophet and apostle ; and the margin of our Bibles accordingly refers us to such pas- sages as speak of a quickening unto grace. I cannot but understand the raising of Lazarus from the putrid state of death, as a sign that the same power should revive men who had been long dead in trespasses and sins, and seem- ed to be past grace ; as was the case with the whole heathen world. In the raising of the widow's son at the city of Nain, we have a lesson of this kind worthy of our consideration. " A dead man was car- ried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and much people of the city Lect. 10. of the Holy Scriptures. 219 was with her." This was a funeral of some pomp, and so we may suppose the young man was a considerable person. Thus, alas, do we see many sons of the church, in the prime of life, in their best days, who seem to know no more that Jesus Christ is near to them, than if they were stretched out upon a bier. Such examples are too often found in low life ; but they are much more common among young men of station and fortune ; too many of whom are totally insensible to the things of God ; lifeless and stupid at prayer ; and as indifferent to the word of God from a reader or a preacher of it, as if they did not hear one word that is spoken, and had no concern with that other world, to which, young as they are, time is in the mean while carrying them out; though they may seem to move slowly on, as is the custom in a funeral. Nothing less than that same power which raises the dead can awaken such to hear that voice which is daily calling unto them in the words of the gospel, Young man^ I say unto thee^ arise : hear now the voice of him that hath pity upon thee, and calls thee to rise and be saved ; because thou wilt soon be forced to hear that other voice, which shall bid thee rise from the earth to be judged for thy sins. 220 On the Figurative Language Lect. 10. The cure of sin in all its symptoms and ef- fects is signified by other like miraculous works ; such as the deliverance of the body from bon- dage and imprisonment, from uncleanness, from weakness, lameness, deafness, poison, and madness, or the possession of the devil : all which are so fulfilled in the deliverance of the soul from sin, that the prophets seem rather to have predicted the salvation of which the miracles were signs, than the miracles them- selves : that is, they seem to have predicted the miracles rather in the spiritual sense than the natural. Thus where Isaiah * describes the conversion of the Gentiles as a blossoming of roses in a desert^ and a sound of joy and sing- ing in a lonely wilderness ; it follows, that the eyes of the blind sliall be opened^ the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped^ the lame man shall leap as a hart^ the tongue of the dumb shall singj &c. all of which expressions must be applied to the souls of men ; for if we understand any of them literally of the body, we shall make the passage inconsistent with itself; or, to make it uniform, we must suppose, that the gospel should be revealed to multiply flowers in a wilderness. Therefore, the inference is easy ; that the works of giving sight to the blind, * Chap. XXXV. Lect. 10. of the Holij Scriptures. 221 opening the ears of the deaf, &c. though cer- tainly to be performed by our Saviour in the letter, were to be no more than signs of the salvation foretold by the prophet. The misery of man under sin, is like the bondage of an imprisoned captive ; and the liberty of those who are made free by the Son of God under the gospel, is like that of a per- son miraculously brought out of prison. As such the prophet speaks of it, in a passage which our Saviour has applied to liis own mi- nistry. " The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach* good tidings unto the meek, he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim //- berty to the captives, ' ' Who are these captives ? Did Jesus Christ come to pubhsh a goal-deli- very to debtors and felons ? by no means : but he delivers those who are appointed unto deaths and are tied and bound with the chain of their si?is : and to give an assurance of it to all men, he miraculously opened the doors of a dungeon, and delivered his servants from their bonds. When this happened to Peter, he supposed it to be a vision : when the Lord thus turned his captivity^ he was like unto them that dream; but he came to himself, and co?i- side red the thing; and seeing farther into the 222 On the -Figurative Language Lect. 10. wisdom of God than we do, he probably con- sidered the whole as a scenical representation of that deliverance, which is wrought by liim who was sent to proclaim liberty to the captives^ and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. Sin appears to us in another form, as a loath- some distemper, like the leprosy, which de- scended by inheritance, and incrusted the whole body with a foul humour. So doth that sin, which is in the constitution of man, break out and discover its offensive nature. This distemper therefore the great physician con- 'descended to cure, either by his word alone, or by a miraculous washings to denote the sa- lutary effect of baptism. The purification of the Gentiles had been signified long before by the cleansing of Naaman the Syrian^ who was ordered to wash seven times in Jordan. He supposed, that if water would cure him, the rivers of Damascus would have done as well ; but he was taught, that salvation was of the Jews : the water that could effect this cure was to be taken from Jordan, where Christ should be baptized ; and his baptism was a prelude to the baptism and conversion of the heathen world ; whose distemper was after- wards transferred to the worldly-minded Jews, as that of Naaman was fixed upon Gehazi, the Lect. 10. of the Holy Scriptures. 223 covetous attendant on the prophet. To shew that this cleansing by baptism should not take place upon the Jews, but the Gentiles, our Saviour hinted to those of the synagogue, that there were many lepers in Israel when this happened, and none of them were cleansed saving Naaman the Syrian The Jews could bear to hear of any thing rather than the ac- ceptance of the Gentiles; and seeing his mean- ing they were filled with rage, and would have cast him down headlong as an enemy to his country. Other miracles of Christ were intended to shew how the power of God is necessary to help the impotence of man. He must open our lips before we are able, and furnish us with matter before we know how to praise him or pray to him ; therefore the tongue of the dumb was loosed, and even babes and sucklings were empowered to utter hosannas to his name. The deaf were made to hear, because men have ears which neither hear nor understand, nor can attend to the words of divine wisdom, till God has opened them : of which there are many lamentable examples in the gospel, and I wish there were none at this day. The lame were made to walk, because th^ way of man is not in himself; it is God alone 224 0?i the Figurative Language Lect. 10. that enableth us to walk, yea, to run with plea- sure and swiftness, as the feet of an hind, in the way of his commandments. In short, all the faculties of man are useless in the ser- vice of God, like the limbs of one sick of the palsy, which cannot lift or move themselves till some new strength is communicated. The prophet instructs us how this should be when God should be revealed : Strengthen ye the weak hands ^ and confirm the feeble knees ; or, as the apostle words it. Lift up the hands which hang down^ and the feeble knees ; and make strait paths for your feet^ lest that which is lame be turned out of the way^ but let it rather be healed:^ which terms are all applied in an intellectual sense to the minds of weak Christians. Another miracle of Christ, and one of the most considerable, is that of relieving the pos- sessed by casting out evil spirits : the design of which is to teach us, that there is a spirit working in the children of disobedience (the Greek signifies possessing \ them), which no- thing but the power of the gospel can cast out. When we observe how strangely men err in their judgments ; how they hasten towards * Heb. xii. 13. f Evjgy»»3lo5j the common name of daemoniacs, or pos- sessed people, was EyeywMsyflj, Energumenl. Lect. 10. of the Holy Scriptures. 225 their own destruction, maiming their bodies and ruining their fortunes by their vices, as if they hated their own flesh; preferring naked- ness and wretchedness, and loathsome diseases and infamy, to peace, honour, health and hap- piness ; we must conclude they are under the working of some malignant power, beyond the mere depravity of nature : for nature would always act in men, as it does in brutes, on a principle of self- preservation. Such as were possessed by the devil uttered horrible noises, and chose a miserable residence amongst the tombs of the dead. And bad as such a spec- tacle may be, it is not a worse example of Sa- tan's power, than when we hear a miserable man crying out for curses to descend from hea- ven, inviting the blastings of lightning on their enemies, or their friends, or themselves ; on their souls as well as their bodies. To live naked among the tombs is not a greater symp- tom of possession, than to fly from God, and his light and truth, and seek after the ways that lead to death. To bruise the flesh in frantic fits of despair, is not worse than to in- jure the health of the body with such excess and riot, as wastes the flesh, and brings wounds and bruises and putrifying sores : yet the world, who are shocked at a madman, look with un- ^^:^d On the Figurative Language Lect. 10, concern on this moral insanity, because the case is common. It is a symptom of madness when a man delights in mischief: and how many do we see, who have no greater diversion, than to impose upon the innocent, and terrify peo- ple with vain fears, or mock at them when they are betrayed into real dangers. The wise man, considering how fools make a mock at sin ; how outrageous men are in their mirth, how perverse in their ways, how^ corrupt and irrational in their pleasures, pro- nounces upon them in plain terms ; The heart of the sons of men is full of evilj yea madness is in their heart while they live^ and after that they go to the dead, * (Ratione expulsa sensuq. re- ligionis amoto, quae immanitas, quae feritas, quae dementia non illico exoritur ?) f without true religion to sober them and bring them to a right mind, men are in fact as much out of the way as lunatics ; and worse in one respect, that they are still accountable as free agents for that reason which vice has extinguished. The man who does not see and consider that he is come into this world to be saved by Je- sus Christ, is an ideot to all intents and pur- * Monita ^ pracepta Christiana^ p. 104. f Eccles. ix. 3. Lect. 10. of the Holy Scriptures, 227 poses in the sight of God. If he is upon his defence against the power of the gospel, and puts it from him with those words of the de- moniac. " Why art thou come to torment us?" he is a madman of the first class, to < whom the poor lunatic, with a sceptre of straw, is an hopeful character. Miserable is the condition of men under temptation or possession from evil spirits : but the power of grace sets us free from their ter- rors, with those comfortable words, WJw is he that shall harm you^ if ye be followers of that which is good P As a pledge to assure us of which, our Saviour gave to his apostles an evi- dent superiority over the powers of darkness : Behx)ld I give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions^ and over all the power of the etie- my^ and nothing shall by any means hurt you. * Who is this enemy f The enemy of Christians is the devil; and such poisonous vermin as serpents and scorpions are the emblems of him and his children. A miraculous power over these creatures which hurt the body, was an outward assurance to the world, that he who wounds the soul shall have no power to hurt a Christian. When the viper fastened on the hand of Paul, he shook him off into * Luke X. 19. Q 2 V28 On the Figurative Language Lect. 10. the fire from whence he came : and thither, into the element prepared for him, shall the devil be shaken off by the faith of those whom he assaults-. Another great miracle, and the last I shall take notice of, is that of our Saviour stilling the raging of the sea, and delivering his dis- ciples in a storm. We, like them, are em- barked with Christ in the ark of his church, and are subject to many dangers and terrors upon the waves of this troublesome world. So long as we are in the world, we shall be ex- posed to the cares and troubles of this mortal life. Son^e times the elevations of pride and ambition lift us up toward the heaven ; at o- ther times disappointment and despair oppress us, and the deep threatens to swallow us up : while the Saviour in whom we have trusted seems to sleep, as if he were leaving us to pe- rish in the storm. But the prayer of faith will at last awake him : we are therefore to trust in the worst of times, that he who re- buked the winds and the sea, when his disci- ples cried out, Lord^ save us^ we perish^ will^ after the same example save us when we pray to him ; that he will lessen our cares, and quiet our passions, and restore us to peace, so that there shall be a great calm : the winds Lect. 10. of the Holy Sc7'iptures, 229 shall drop, the sun shall shine out, and there shall be peace of conscience, which is the greatest calm in this world. Thus it appears that all the miracles of Christ have a figurative acceptation. From them we learn all the distempers of our souls, and where we are to apply for the cure of them. To open this subject still farther, I desire you will observe what a curious opposition there is between the miracles of Christ, and theworkings of Satan. As the power of Christ was exercised in such works of salvation as were proper to his character as the Saviour of Souls ; so there is a surprising agreement be- tween the outward works of the devil on the persons of men, and his inward works upon their minds ; insomuch that his character, as a destroyer^ is not less evident in the scripture, than that of Jesus Christ as a Saviour, From some opportunities Satan had of shewing his power, we see how it is exercised. When some strolling Jews took upon them to deliver one that was possessed, the man, in whom the evil spirit was, leaped upon them, as a lion would leap upon his prey, and they fled out of that house naked and zvounded. He who here strips men, and tears off their clothes, is 230 On the Figurative Languhge Lect. 10. the same that left Adam naked in paradise; who delights still to repeat the same act, or even to see the shadow of it in nakedness and wretch- edn^s : therefore the poor demoniac, who resided among the tombs, ware no clothes *. When the evil spirits went into the herd of swine, the whole herd ran headlong into the sea and perished. After the same form doth the devil drive men headlong into the gulph of perdition, when he gets the direction of them. He was permitted to possess this un^ clean herd, that we may thence learn how an unclean life will prepare us to be driven into hell itself by the destroyer. Temperance, so- briety, and devotion, prepare our bodies to be the temples of the Holy Ghost ; but impure manners prepare the heart for unclean spirits, and give them the opportunity they desire. We have heard of certain arts to call up the devil : but a man need only live like a swine, and he will be sure to have his company. A woman who was bowed together for eigh- teen years, and could in no wise lift up her- self, is said to have had a spirit of infirmity^ and to have been bound of Satan : whence it appears, that he is the instrument for inflict- ing unaccountable diseases. It is his will that * Luke viii. 27. Lect. 10. of the Holy Scriptures, 231 none should be able to lift up their minds to heavenly things ; and as a sign of it he bows their bodies towards the earth. Those extreme cases, in w^hich men raged and were thrown about, and torn, and tor- mented of the devil, were permitted, to shew us what his inclinations are toward the souls of all men living : that he would deprive them of all reason ; disturb their imaginations with fancies of horror and despair ; inspire them with cruelty toward themselves ; and drive them from the living God into the regions of the dead. Such are the works of Satan ; con- trary in every respect to the works of Jesus Christ; and men, as their nature now is, being subject to his power, exorcism^ or the casting out of the evil spirit, was admitted as a part of the office of baptism in the primitive church. I w^ould desire you to observe farther, in re- gard to our present subject, that the very same images are used in the 107th Psalm as in the miracles of Christ, to express the redemption of mens souls from the effects of sin by the goodness of God. The redeemed of the Lord are there called upon to praise him for gathering them out of a wilderness, and satisfying their souls when hungry and thirsty : For breaking their bonds asunder, and delivering them out 232 Onthe Figurative Language Lect. 10. of prison, where they were bound in affliction and iron, and sat in darkness and the shadow of death : for heahng them by his word when afflicted with sickness : for dehvering them from the perils of the sea, and making the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. All this scenery is well drawn out, and finely applied, by a devout and elegant com- mentator of our own church *, who has made the book of Psalms more useful to pious Chris- tians, than it ever was made since the reforma- tion ; and, I may add, before it. From that Psalm, as from the miracles of Christ, we learn the weakness and wretchedness of man, and the goodness of God with the power of his grace. We see the necessity of prayer for the help of God ; after the example of those, who cried unto the Lord in their trouble^ and were de- livered out of their distress. No forms of prayer can be more significant than those which are built upon the miracu- lous works of Christ. These shew us what our wants are, and thence teach us what we are to pray for : and when we have respect unto them, and the author of them, we mix an act of faith with our petitions, which will * The Reverend Dr Hsrney Dean of Canterbury, and President of Magdalen College in Oxford. Lect. 10. of the Holy Scriptm-es. 233 never fail to render them more acceptable ; for we read, that the power of Christ took effect on those only who had faith to be heal- ed. There is not a want of man, nor any oc- casion in life, on which the miracles of Christ will not supply us with the finest matter of devotion, and in some such form as the fol- lowing with which I shall conclude. " O Son of David, thou great physician of " souls, who didst once exercise thy power in " the land of Judea, and wentest about doing " good ; thou art still with us ; and hast pro- f' mised so to be unto the end of the world. " Have mercy upon us under all the weak- *' nesses of our nature, and succour us under all " oppression from evil men or evil spirits : de- " liver us from the bonds of our sins, and give " light to us when we sit in darkness : open " our eyes, that we may see the things which " belong to our peace : give us an ear to hear " and understand thy word ; and a tongue to " praise and confess thee before men : give '' strengthpto our feeble hands, that they may " be lifted up to thy name, and let our knees " be flexible and ready at their devotions : " cleanse us from our secret faults, as well as •' our outward offences : feed our souls with " the bread of Ufe, and let us hunger and 234 On the Figurative Language Lect. 10. " thirst, that thou mayest satisfy us. Be mind- " ful of us, O Lord, in our distresses, when " we are tossed about upon the waves of this " troublesome world : and in all our dangers " of soul and body, stretch out, to save and " defend us, that right hand which raised up " thy disciple sinking in the mighty waters. " In all things let our faith be toward thee, " and then shall thy power and mercy be to- " ward us for deliverance and salvation." A- MEN. Lect. 11. of the Holy Scriptures. 235 LECTURE XL THE USES AND EFFECTS Of THE SYMBOLICAL STYLE OF THE SCRIPTURE. JN O W it hath been shewn what the figur- ative language of the holy scripture is, by an induction of particulars ; we may proceed to speak with more confidence concerning the uses and good effects of it. We now stand as it were upon an hill, up to which our enquiry hath conducted us, thence to survey the fruit^ fulness of the holy land. We have seen that the law^ in its sacrifices and services, had a shadow of good things to come; that its history is an allegory; that God used similitudes by his prophets; that Christ spake in parables; that the apostles preached the wisdom of God in a mystery; in a word, that the whole dispensa- tion of God towards man, is by signs, sha- dows and figures of visible things. The law of Moses, the Psalms, the Prophets, the Gos- pels and Epistles, and most of all the Re- velation of St John, use and teach this figura- tive language : and therefore, in the use and ijnterpretation of it must consist the wisdom of 236 On the Figurative Language Lect. 11. those who are taught of God. Here is the mind that hath wisdom^ saith St John, the seven heads are seven mountains^ on which the woman sitteth : Where the word wisdom is appUed to this sci- ence of decyphering the figurative expressions in the language of the Revelation. So at the end of the 107th Psalm, wherein the salvation of man's soul is set forth under all the forms of deliverance from bodily dangers, it is add- ed, Whoso is wise and will observe these things^ even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord, Whatever the form and manner may be after which the divine wisdom is com- municated, it must be the best : and such we shall find it when we enquire how the improve- ment of man's mind is promoted, and all the purposes of God's revelation answered by the use of this symbolical or figurative style of speaking from the images of things. 1. This method is necessary to assist the mind in its conceptions, and supply the na- tural defect in our understandings. Being men, invested with an earthly body, which hath a sense of nothing but material things, we cannot see truth and reason, in themselves, as spirits do : these things are of a different nature from our sight ; and therefore we are obliged to conceive them as they are reflect- Lect. 11. of the Holy Scriptures, 237 ed to us in the glass of the visible forms, and sensible qualities, of outward things. It is the excellence of this mode of speaking, that it is not confined to the people of any- particular nation or language ; but applies it- self equally to all the nations of the earth, and is universal. It was not intended for the He- brew or the Egyptian, the Jew or the Greek, but for man; for that being who is composed of a reasonable soul and a fleshly body ; and therefore it obtains equally under the Patri- archal, Jewish, and Christian Dispensation ; and is of common benefit to all ages and all places. Words are changeable ; language has been confounded : and men in different parts of the world are unintelligible to one another as barbarians ; but the visible works of nature are not subject to any such confusion ; they speak to us now the same sense as they spoke to Adam in paradise ; when he was the pupil of heaven, and their language will last as long as the world shall remain, without being cor- rupted. Thus, for example, if we take the word God^ we have a sound which gives us no idea ; and if we trace it through all the languages of the world, we find nothing but arbitrary sounds, with great variety of dialect and ac- 238 On the Figurative Language Lect. 11. cent, all of which still leave us where we be- gan, and reach no farther than the ear. But when it is said, God is a sun and a shield^ then thi?igs are added to words, and we understand that the being signified by the word God^ is bright and powerful ; unmeasurable in height, inaccessible in glory ; the author of light to the understanding, the fountain of life to the soul ; our security against all terror, our de- fence against all danger. See here the dif- ference between the language of words and the language of things. If an image is pre- sented to the mind when a sound is heard by the ear, then we begin to understand ; and a single object of our sight, in a figurative ac- ceptation, gives us a large and instructive les- son ; such as could never be conveyed by all the possible combinations of sounds. So again, when we are told of a being whose name is the devil^ we go to the derivation of the term, and find it signifies an accuser j and accusa- tion may be true or false. But, when instead of the word, we have a serpent^ as a figure of him, we are aware of his nature, and of our own danger. We understand that the devil is insidious and insinuating ; that his tongue is double; and his wounds poisonous and fatal, — When we are told that he is the prince of dark- Lect. 11. of the Holy Scriptures. 239 ness^ then we find that he promotes bhndness and ignorance amongst men, as darkness takes away their sight ; and that he is contrary to God^ who is light. When the devil is said to be a lion^ then we understand, that as hunger makes the furious beast wander about the de- sert in search of prey ; so the devil, with an appetite to destroy and devour, is always go- ing to and fro in the earth, to watch and take advantage of the ways of men. So plain is this sort of teaching, and so ef- fectual, that if I were to begin with the first elements of instruction to a child, I think I would teach this ideal language in preference to all the languages of the world ; for this is the life and soul of all the rest, and the best pre- paration of the mind for receiving the wis- dom of God, who hath every where instructed us after this form : which, while it helps the understanding, has a wonderful power to en- gage the attention and please the imagination, Man from his childhood is strangely delight- ed with pictures ; and the passion lasts to the end of his life : for when the eye ceases to be entertained as a child is, the mind will have its pictures for amusement and learning ; and the wisest and greatest among mankind have been captivated by them in all ages. 240 On the figurative Language Lect. 11. As philosophy derived much of its influence from the powerful imagery of poetry in the ancient tragedies of Greece ; so is the religion of revelation greatly a^ksisted and enforced by its figurative language ; always pertinent and instructive : and, on proper occasions, exceed- ingly sublime and beautiful. The two ends of poetry, as they are laid down by the greatest master in the art, are to profit and to delight'; to give the best instruc- tion under the most pleasing form. The means it uses for the attaining of these ends, is to inform the mind, by presenting to the imagination those pictures and images of truth, which are to be gathered either from created nature or the actions of men, and the various scenes of animal and social life. Philosophy and poetry differ in this respect ; that the one instructs by words, and delivers its precepts literally ; the other by the images of things : and if these images are lively and proper, then the mind is delighted with a moral as the eye with the effect of a picture. Therefore good poetry, under proper restrictions, is one of the greatest and best works of human art; and hath always been accounted divine, as pro- ceeding from the assistance of heavenly beings. Even in the oratory of prose, the method of Lect. 11. of the Holy Scriptures. 241 managing well an allusion or comparison, is of great value, because it is of great effect. He is the most agreeable speaker, who can o- pen and adorn the argument of his discourse by some apt representation of truth from the nature of things. But in religious subjects, where it is of the utmost consequence that men should hear attentively, and be persuaded effectually, there this manner is most valuable of all. How beautiful is that admonition of Saint J antes ^ from the propriety of the imagery un- der which the moral is conveyed ! He exhorts to govern the tongue; which though so small a member of the body, is yet of suchgreat effect, that to govern the tongue is to govern the whole man. " If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. Behold, we put bits in the horses mouths, that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body. Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whither- soever the governor listeth." Nothing upon the subject can possibly exceed the eloquence of this passage : and the apostle carries on his dis- 24^ On tke Figurative Language Lect. 11, course all the way in the same beautiful style of allusion. How were the lowest among his hearers cap- tivated, when our Saviour discoursed to them in parables; explaining the doctrine of the kingdom of God from the scenes of nature which were daily before their eyes. The con- stitution of man s mind is still the same, in the rich and the poor, the learned and the igno- rant : and the principal on which it must be engaged to receive instruction can never alter. We are to learn all things by comparison ; and the salvation of our souls depends so much on our improvement under this mode of teach- ing, that it is wisely provided by the author of our nature^ that we are so much delighted with imitation in every shape. All the repre- sentations of the stage, which attract the mul- titude, are nothing but imitations of charac- ters and scenes of imagery : poetry, painting, and music, all engage the fancy with imita- tive effects of art. Mirth and sadness, con- versation and devotion, the singing of birds and the confusion of a battle, are all imitable in musical sounds. But this great plan of imitation is no where so conducted, nor carried to such a height, as in the signs and allegories of the holy scrip- Lect. 11. of the Holy Scriptures, 243 ture, which compose the richest scenery upon earth. If the fancy of man is deUghted with imitation even in the smallest subjects, how much more, when the originals are objects of an eternal nature, and the delineation of them is from that wisdom, to which the things of time and the things of eternity are equally known : and which framecfL this visible world as a counterpart to the other. Great is the evidente which arises when these two are laid together and compared ; and I have frequently found it such by expe- rience, when I have tried the force of it upon minds to whom it was new. If there be any difficulty in our creed, it is certainly much lessened, if the visible world presents to our senses the figures of those things which God hath proposed to our faith. To those who understand it, all nature speaks the same lan- guage with revelation : what the one teaches in words, the other confirms by signs ; inso- much that we may truly say, the world is a riddle, and Christianity the interpretation. If Christ is called the true bread,, the true light,, the true vine,, and the talents or gifts of God's grace are the true riches,, Sec. then the objects of sense, without this their spirit and signifi- cation, are in themselves mere image and de- ft 2 i^44 0?i the Figurative Language Lect. li. lusion ; and the whole hfe of man in this world is but a shadow, vain and empty, till the truth and substance of it is seen and understood. — This relation between things visible and invi- sible we could never have found out of our- rselvei?; but when the plan is proposed, it is so reasonable and striking, that nothing can resist it, but the blindness of false learning, or the malignity of vice, which has an interest agains-t it. In the style of the scripture, the several objects in the visible creation, from the sun in the heavens, through the elements and seasons, the day and the night, the land and the sea, the fowls of the air and the beasts of the field, down to the grass that springeth out of the earth, and the stones which are scatter- ed upon the face of it, do all fall in naturally as figures to explain and enforce the things that belong to the kingdom of God, and to the soul of man as a part of it. Whosoever me- ditates upon the world thus applied as a figure of truth, and sees that agreement between nature and revelation which revelation itself hath pointed out to us, will want no mi- racle to persuade him of the Christian doc- trines : for nature itself is Christian, and the world itself a daily miracle ; the heavens speak to us, and the earth and all things therein join in the same testimony : so that if all nations XiECT. 11. of t lie Holy Scnptiwes. 245 were to disbelieve, nature itself would still con- tinue a faithful witness to the truth : if the children of Abraham were to hold their peace, the stones would cry out. Here we ought to descend to particulars, and shew how the state of nature and the se- veral parts of it agree with the doctrines of the scripture ; but there is not room for it on the present occasion; and I have purposely considered the naiural Evidence of Christianity by itself in two Lectures, which open a pros- pect into that extensive subject, without at- tempting to penetrate to the end of it ; and to them I must now refer you. To these advantages of the sacred style, I am now to add that which is the greatest of all, and will justify the attention I have be- stowed for several years past upon the matter of these lectures ; namely, that the spirit of those figures under which the Bible delivers to us the things of God, has a power of rais- ing and glorifying, even in this life, the spirit of man ; producing an effect upon it, the same in kind with what it shall hereafter experience when admitted into the presence of God. This is a great thing to say ; but I learn it of that apostle who laboured more abundantly in o- 246 On the Figurative Language Lect, 1 1 . pening to us the wisdom of God from the figures of the Old Testament. The same was also signified by our Saviour himself in his discourses with his disciples. St Paul teaches the Corinthians, that it is the proper business of the Christian ministry to preach the spirit of the law of Moses, and not to rest in the letter of it as the Jews did ; whose weakness in this respect was foreshew- ed by what happened to their fathers ; who could not look stedfastly on that glory which shone upon the face of Moses : for which rea- son Moses put a veil upon his face ; which veil, saith the apostle, is still upon their hearts in the reading of the Old Testament. So far was the act of Moses fulfilled upon them. But now with respect to us Christians, who see the glorious spirit of the New Testament under the letter of the old, we are not like Mo- ses when veiled, as the Jews are ; but like Mo- ses when turned to the Lord ; and deriving glory to his own face from beholding the light of the divine presence. Just such is the ef- fect of the spirit of the Old Testament on those who are converted and look towards it, through faith in Jesus Christ, who is the spirit and glory of the law : it occasions a transfiguration in man's nature, and derives glory to it, like to Lect. 11. of the Holy Scriptures. 247 that which fell upon the face of Moses when he had conference with God, and was turned towards him. This is the effect which hap- pens to us according to the sense of the apostle; whose words, though very obscure when ta- ken independent of the context, will be easily understood after what hath been said — " We all, with open (that is, unveiled) face, behold- ing as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to I glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord ;" or, as the margin reads, by the Lord who is the spirit of the law, as aforesaid. Of all which the sense, in brief, is this : there was a glory on the face of Moses underneath his veil, and there is a glorious spirit under the letter of his law, which they who behold stedfastly are themselves transfigured and glorified after the ' manner of Moses. Whoever beholds the glory of God is himself thereby glorified, as he who looks at the sun is shone upon by it. All we can see of God in this mortal life is in his word : there that light doth still shine which illuminated the face of Moses ; and they who behold it reflected as in a glass from the figures and ceremonies of his law, are changed (Gr. transfigured) into the same image ^ from glory to glorij; from the glory of tht law 24S On the Figurative Language Lect. 11. which appeared in Moses, to the glory of the gospel which appeared in the transfiguration of Jesus Christ *. A sight of that glory which is in the spirit of the law, is not only our privilege, but is absolutely necessary toward the conversion of a natural man into a spiritual one ; if it doth not rather presuppose such a conversion ; be- cause a natural man can neither receive nor discern the things of the Spirit of God. This was the case of the Jews ; they were not able to see the inward Spirit of our Saviour's para- bles ; and so, instead of being converted, they were only condemned by it. '^ Their ears, said he, are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed ; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and should hear with their ears, and should understand with their hearts, and should be converted, and I should heal them." Hence we see, that they who have * Chrlstianis cum legitur (Lex) thesaurus est absconsus in agro — ostendens Scipientiam Dei — quoniam in tantum homo diligens Deum proficiet, ut etiam videat Deum, et audiat sermonem ejus, et ex auditu loquelse ejus in tantum glorificari, uti reliqui non possint intendere in faciem glo- rix ejus, quemadmodum dictum est a Daniele ; quoniam in^ telligentes fulgebunt^ quemadmodum claritas firtnamentiy ^c, Irenaei, Lib. 4-. c. 48, Irenseus has here fallen upon the very same idea with that before us, though he does not col- lect it from the same passage. JLiECT. 11. ' of the Holy Scriptures, 249 the spiritual sense which discerns spiritual things, may be converted and healed: while they who have it not are only hardened in their unbelief. Instead of improving they grow worse, and are farther from God than ever : " whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath :" As it was with Christ m his parables, such to this day will be the success of every preacher of God's word, who keeps up to his profession as a minister- of the Spirit : if his hearers do not grow better and become spiritually minded, they will grow worse as the Jews did. The Spirit of God's word which should convert and heal them will never prove to be an inactive indifferent medicine : it will either do good or harm; it will operate either towards life, or towards death ; it will make men turn to God or drive them farther away from him : which is a serious and fearful consideration ; and I pray to God you may lay it to heart. My only desire is to do you good, and I should be sor- ry to speak to the condemnation of any one soul committed to my charge. But you see how the case is : as the benefit is great, so is the danger : if there should be darkness where there ought to be light, how great will be that darkness ! 250 On the Figurative Language Lect.11. Such then is the excellence of the sacred style, that it is accommodated to our capaci- ties, it delights our imagination, and leads us into all truth by the pleasantest way ; it im- proves the natural world into a witness of our faith ; it transfigures us from natural into spi- ritual men, and gives us a foretaste of the glo- rious presence of God. If these are the effects of it, it must be of infinite value to particular persons in their several studies and professions. And first, it is absolutely necessary to a Chris- tian preacher : whose doctrine, if it be after the form of the scriptural imagery, will be more intelligible, more agreeable, and more edify- ing to all sorts of hearers. If this is the me- thod God hath been pleased to prefer for the teaching of man, it must be the best when one man undertakes to teach another. We have seen how our Saviour's preaching was in the form of parables : how the apostles in their interpretations of the Old Testament ap- ply it as a figure and shadow of things to come ; and how, in their exhortations, they reason from some parallel case in the ways of nature. And still it will always be found, that nothing has such an effect in preaching, as the skil- ful handhng of some image or figure of the scripture. For truth, as we have often ob- Lect. 11. of the Holy Scriptures. 251 served, does not enter into mens minds in its own abstracted nature, but under the vehicle of some analogy, which conveys a great deal of sense in very few words : and therefore the best preachers have always taken advantage of some such analogy, after the manner of the scripture itself, which gives us the pattern of all true preaching. Let me shew you how this is by an exam- ple. Suppose a preacher would persuade his audience not to abuse the station in life to which Providence hath appointed them ; and not to presume upon the character they may sustain amongst men for a short time here up- on earth : he reasons from the transitory na- ture of worldly things : and this he teaches them to see in a glass, by setting before them the changeable scenery and temporary dis- guises of men in a theatre. In the world at large, as upon a stage, there is a fashion in the characters and actions of men, which passeth away^ just as the scenery changes, and the curtain drops, in a theatre ; to which the a- postle alludes. The world is a great shew, which present us various scenes and fantastic characters ; princes, politicians, warriors, and philosophers ; the rich, the honourable, the 252 On the Yigurative Language Lect. 11. learned and the wise : and with these, the ser- vant and the beggar, the poor, the weak, and the despised. Some seldom come from behind the scenes ; others, adorned with honour and power, are followed by a shouting multitude, and fill the world with the noise of their ac- tions. But in a little time, the scene turns, and all these phantoms disappear. The king of terrors clears the stage of these busy actors, and strips them of their fictitious ornaments ; bringing them all to a level, and sending them down to the grave, as all the actors in a drama return to their private character when the ac- tion is over. From this comparison, how easy and how striking is the moral. Nothing but a disor- dered imagination can tempt an actor on a stage to take himself for a king, because he wears a crown, and walks in purple : or to complain of his lot, because he follows this fictitious monarch in the habit of a slave. — Therefore let us all remember, that the world, like the stage, changes nothing in a man but his outward appearance : whatever part he may act, all distinctions will soon be dropped in the grave, as the actor throws off his dis- guise when his part is over. On which con- Lect. 11. of the Holy Scriptures, 253 sideration, it is equally unreasonable in man, either to presume or to complain *. One such moral lesson as this, which shews us the real state of things under a striking and familiar resemblance of it, is worth volumes of dull abstracted reasonings. It captivates the attention, and gives lasting information : for when such a comparison hath once been drawn out, the instruction conveyed by it will be revived as often as the image occurs to the memory. To the scholar, the symbolical language of the Bible is so useful, that every candidate for literature will be but a shallow proficient in the wisdom of antiquity, till he works upon this foundation : and for want of it, I have seen many childish accounts of things from men of great figure among the learned. In ancient times, sentiments and science were expressed by wise men of all professions un- der certain signs and symbols, of which the originals are mostly to be found in the scrip- ture ; as being the most ancient and authen- tic of all the records in the world, and shew- ing itself to be such in the form of its lan- guage and expression. * See Dunlop's Sermons, vol. 1. on 1 Cor. vii. 31. Tlie Fashion of this World passeih away. 254 On the Figurative Language Lect. 11. How nearly poetry and oratory are con- cerned with the science of symbohcal expres- sion, has already been observed. ' With this key, a scholar may penetrate far into the art of poets and orators ; and the next thing to composing well is to taste and judge well. But it is also of eminent use for unfolding the re- ligious mysteries of Heathen antiquity. The Grecian and Roman mythology has been much inquired into by the learned, and is still a great object with them. Whoever considers the form of religious instruction in the church of God, will plainly see, that the mystical or mythological form among the Heathens was derived from it, and set up against it as a rival. It pleased God to pre- figure the mysteries of our faith from the be- ginning of the world by an emblematic ritual : this manner therefore the heathens would ne- xessarily carry off w^ith them ; and when they changed the object of their worship, and de- parted from the Creator to the creature, they still retained the mystical form, and applied it to the worship of the elements of the world ; describing their powders and operations under the form of fable and mystery, and serving them with a multitude of emblematic rites and ceremonies. Because the true God taught his Lect. 11. of the Holy Scriptures. 255 people by mystical representation, they truly would have their mysteries too : and I take this to be the true origin of the fabulous style in the Greek mythology : though it makes a wretched figure in many particulars ; as the woolly-headed negro savage does, when we consider him as a son of Adam descended from paradise. The whole religion of heathenism was made up of sacred tradition perverted, a customary ritual, and physiological fable; but the emblematic manner prevails in every part alike ; and therefore every scholar ought to be well acquainted with it. Yet after all, it will be found most valuable to the Christian believer. The knowledge of human languages prepares us for the reading of human authors ; and great part of our life is spent in acquiring them. But the interpre- tation of this sacred language takes off the seal from the book of life, and opens to mau the treasures of divine wisdom, which far exceed all other learning, and will be carried with us into another world, when the variety of tongues shall cease, and every other treasure shall be left behind. We study some human writings, till we are so enamoured with the spirit of them, that it would be the highest pleasure to see and con- 256 On the Figurative Language Lect. li, verse with the person, of whose mind we have such a picture in his works. Blessed are they who shall aspire to the sight of God on this principle ; for their hope and their affection shall be gratified. They who now see him by faith, as he is manifested to them in his word, shall sit with him in the glory of his kingdom : and then they will know the value of that wisdom, which has led them through the shadows and figures of temporal things, to that other world, where all things are real and eternal. SuF. of the Holy Scriptures, 257 THE SYMBOLICAL FORM COMMON TO THE WISDOM OF ANTIQUITY, PROFANE AS WELL AS SACRED. (a supplement to the last lecture.) AT was observed in the foregoing Lecture, that in ancient times sentiment and science were expressed by zmse men of all professions under sigfis and symbols. I could not pursue this ob- servation in the body of the lecture, as being less proper for the pulpit. But it is pity we should drop a matter of so much curiosity and importance without descending to some ex- amples of what I there advanced. Whoever enters into the learning of anti- quity, or, if already learned, recollects what he has met with, will soon discover, that the- ologians, morahsts, politicians, philosophers, astronomers ; all who have made any preten- sions to wisdom, have used the language of symbols : as if the mind were turned by na- ture to this kind of expression, as the tongue is to sounds : and indeed this language of signs is, properly speaking, the language of the mind ; which understands and reasons from the ideas, or images of things, imprinted up- on the imagination. S ^58 On the Figurative Language Sup* All the idols in the world, with their seve- ral insignia^ were originally emblematic figures, expressive of the lights of heaven and the pow- ers of nature. Apollo and Diana were the sun and moon ; the one a inale^ the other a female power, as being the lesser and weaker of the two. Both are represented as shooting with arrows, because they cast forth rays of light, which pierce and penetrate all things- As the objects, so the forms of worship were symbolical ; particularly that of dancing in circles to celebrate the revolutions and re- trogradations of the heavenly bodies. It was an ancient precept, tt^og-jcwu 'Trt^i^i^of/^evog " turn round or move in a circle when you practice divine adoration :" that is, do as the heaven- ly bodies themselves do. — *^ that move in mystic dance, not without song, Milt. We find the sacred dance appointed and prac- tised in the church : where its true and ori- ginal intention was probably to ascribe to the •Creator the glory of the heavenly motions : and the idea might be that of a religious dance, in those words of the Psalm, Let the heavens rejoice^ and let the earth be glad: the other parts of the creation being called upon to signify their adoration by their own proper motions ; Sup. of the Holy Scriptures, 259 as the sea to roar^ the trees to wave^ iht floods' to clap their hands. The figures by which the constellations and signs are distinguished in the heavens, are mostly symbols of such high antiquity, that we are not able to trace them up to their ori- ginal. The accounts given of them by the Greeks and Romans deserve no regard ; being childish and ridiculous. In many of these the meaning is easy, because they speak for them- selves. The Bears,, inhabitants of the arctic regions, have possession of the northern pole. The Ram,, Bull,, and Lion,, all sacred to the solar light and fire, are accommodated to the degrees of sun's power as it increases in the summer months. The Crab,, which walks side-way and backwards, is placed where the sun moves parallel to the equator, and begins in that sign to recede towards the south. The Scales are placed at the autumnal equinox,, where the light and darkness are equally balanced : the Ca- pricorn,, or wild mountain-goat, is placed at the tropical point from whence the sun begins to climb upwards toward the north. The ear of corn in the hand of Virgo marks the season of harvest. The precession of the equinoctial points has now removed the figures and the stars they belong to out of their proper places; S 2 !26o 071 the Figurative Language Su?. but such was their meaning when they were in them. Royalty and government were from the ear- liest times distinguished by symbohcal insig- nia. A kingdom was always supposed to be attended with power and glory. The glory of empire was signified by a crown with points resembling rays of light, and adorned with orbs, as the heaven is studded with stars. — Sometimes it was signified by horns, which are a natural crown to animals ; as we see in the figure of Alexander upon some ancient coins. The power of empire was denoted by a rod or sceptre. A rod was given to Moses for the exercising of a miraculous power y whence was derived the magical wand of en- chanters ; and he is figured with horns to de- note the glory which attended him when he came down from the presence of God. In the Iliad of Homer,, the priest of Apollo^ who comes to the Greeks to ransom his captive daughter, is distinguished by a sceptre in his hand and a crown upon his head ; which is called o-g^^c^a &eo/o, the crown of the God, because the glory of the priest was supposed to be derived from the deity he represented. So long as monarchy prevailed, the sceptre of kings was a single rod : but when Brutus first formed a repubhc Sup. of the Holy Scriptures. 26l at Rome, he changed the regal sceptre into a bundle of rods, or faggot of sticks, with an ax in the middle, to signify that the power in this case was not derived from heaven, but from the multitude of the people, as peers in em- pire ; who were accordingly flattered with ma- jesty from that time forward ; till monarchy returned, and then they were as extravagant the other way, << Divisum imperium cum Jove Caesar habet." Virgil plainly understands the bundle of rods as the ensign of popular power, by opposing to it the majesty of monarchy. NoH populi fasces, ijon pupura Regum. Georg. II. 495. The metaphysical objects of the mind, such as the virtues, the vices, the properties and qualities of things, were represented of old with great ingenuity for moral instruction. We have a good specimen of this kind in the emblematical figure of Time^ which, for any thing we know, may be almost as ancient as time itself. He was figured by the artists of Greece as an old man running on tiptoes, v/ith wings at his feet, a razor, or a scythe, in his right hand, a lock of hair on his forehead, and his head bald behind : of all which par- 262 On the Figurative Language SuP. ticulars the signification is too well known to need a comment. Justice with her sword and scales ; Fortune with her feet upon a rolling sphere, and her eyes hood-winked ; Vengeance with her whip ; Envij with her snakes ; Plea- sure with her enchanted cup ; Hope with her anchor ; Death with his dart and hour-glass ; and innumerable others of the same class, shew what delight men have always taken in painting their ideas after various ways under the images of visible forms, to give substance and force to their thoughts : and painters are but indifferently furnished for their profession without a competent knowledge of these things. The poetical figure called prosopopicea^ or per^ sonijication^ from whence all these devices are borrowed, is no where so frequently used, nor with so much sublimity, as in the holy scrip- ture : of which the learned author De Sacra Poesi has selected many fine examples. The enigmatical method of Pythagoras is well known ; who was so fond of teaching by signs, that he made use of the letter Y to sig- nify the two different roads of vice and virtue, to one of which young men give the prefer^ ence, when the age of trial brings them to the point where the way of life divides itself into these two. Certain moral precepts are pre- SuF. of the Holy Scriptures: 2^8 served which are called the symbols of Pytha- goras *. He advises not to keep animals with crooked claws; by which he means, that we should not take into our houses and make companions of persons who are fierce and cruel in their nature ; such as another author calls ^rioiu, av^^6)7roiM>^ ♦ See Chap. xi. of this Epistle, f Chap. xii. 1. Lect. 4. to the Hebrews. 337 because they did actually perform it, and are entitled to the crown of victory. What hin- ders us from doing the same ; but that we are retarded by some weighty which we are not careful to divest ourselves of and lay aside ? We do not strive against that sin, whatever it may be, which most easily besets us, and is never to be subdued but by faith, and prayer, and self-denial ; faith in better things than this world can bestow ; and prayer for that grace which may assist us in doing what our strength will never accomplish. Great is the influence which the example of God's faithful servants will have upon our minds, if we meditate upon it. They were men of like passions with ourselves, and were not without their weaknesses : Sin put on the same deceitful appearance to them as to us : and they had the scorn of an overbearing world to resist, as we have now. Their ex- ample, while it instructs, will animate and encourage us. But greater than all is the ex- ample of our blessed Saviour himself: there- fore we are directed to look unto Jesus the au- tlwr and finisher of our fait h^ who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross^ despising the shame^ and is set down at the 7'ight hand of 338 Lectures on the Epistle Lect. 4. God^, What are the troubles we are accus- tomed to, compared with the agonies of the cross ? What is the contempt of silly empty people, who call themselves the world, com- pared with the disgrace of hanging naked as a malefactor before a multitude, who mock- ed at the punishment as a proof that he who suffered it was an impostor ? Nothing was ever so full of apparent disgrace, as the cha- racter of Jesus Christ at his passion. How distressing, and almost distracting is it, to be innocent, and yet seem to be guilty ? This is a piercing trial to an honest mind. To affect to be great when we are mean, and powerful w^hen we are weak, exposes us to the scorn of every enemy ; and this the enemies of Christ laid to his charge, and gratified themselves with every malicious expression that could add to the apparent infamy of his sufferings. Yet all this shame he patiently endured, for tlie joy that was set before lilm. This we are to consider under all our trials. God does not lay upon us any grief or chastening, for its own sake ; but to correct our minds, and give us a title to that joy, which shall be the re- ward of patient suifering. Thus we shall not be weary and faint in our minds. I grant it * Chnp. xli. 2. Lect. 4* to the Hebrews. B39 is a severe trial to mortal man, to deserve good and receive evil : but to this we are all called, as the followers of a crucified Saviour. The Son of God was made perfect through suffer- ings; and if God is our Father, wx must ex- pect that he will chasten us ; if he does not, then are we bastards and not sons *. Bastards- are often forsaken by their parents, and left to grow up without correction ; consequently to be brought by the tendency of their unre- formed nature to misery and destruction : but ^ no Christian would wish for such a privilege : he judges it far better to suffer in hope, than to be at his ease, as one whom God hath ne- glected. From the description given of the Church as a spiritual society, the Christian is to learn the dignity of his own character, and to con- duct himself in a manner suitable to his sta- tion. He seems outwarQly like other men; but inw^ardly he has an honourable place in the kingdom of spirits : he is in the company of angels, saints, and martyrs ; he is under the dominion of God as his king and lawgiver ; he is a student of wisdom in the school that has sent out so many sons unto glory ; he is with- in the covenant that is sealed by the blood of * Chap. xii. 8. Z 2 540 Lectures on the Epistle Lect. 4- Christ for his purification and redemption; his name is registered in heaven^ as an heir of immortaUty : he knows that while the mighty- empires of the earth are changing and passing away into obhvion, the kingdom of which he is a member shall never be moved ^. The earth shall be shaken^ and the heavens shall melt a- way ; but his inheritance is secure. The same God who is a consuming fire to an impenitent world, will be to him a Protector and a Savi- our, if he serves him acceptably^ in this short time of his probation, with reverence and godly n fear. The last chapter of the Epistle consists wholly of exhortations, relating to the great duties of charity^ purity, submission, and a detachment from the world. All parties of men are bound together by a common interest; which, though in some cases even wicked ajhd absurd, and little bet- ter than a conspiracy, Ivill have its effect in disposing them to espouse the cause, and pre- fer the company and conversation of one ano- ther. Now, as there is no common interest so important as that of Christians, it ought to produce such a friendship as is superior to evt:ry other relation or connection. Remevi- * Chap. xlif28. Lect. 4. to the Hebrews, 341 her them that are in bondsy says the Apostle, as bound with them; that is, as considering that they are members of the body of Christ, and that one member cannot suffer without affec- ting the rest. The same rule is apphcable to every other condition of hfe; as if it had been said ; remember them that are poor^ as partaking of their poverty ; remember them that are sick^ as being sick with them : for thence we shall feel the same obligation to re« lieve them as to relieve ourselves; and m^uch greater comfort, because it is more blessed to give than to receive. Purity of life is another virtue essential to the Christian character. We are to consider ourselves as brought into that heavenly socie- ty, wherein are angels, saints, and martyrs : then, how shocking will it be to reflect, that an impure Christian is impure in the company of Angels ; drunk, and like a beast, in the company of Angels; covetous, ambitious, self- interested, and deceitful, in the company of Angels. Hence you will understand, how a wicked Christian is worse than ^ wicked hea- then, and will have a more severe account to give; because he adds affront and insult to his wickedness ; so tliat it shall be more tolera- ble for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for him. 342 Lectures on the Epistle Lect. 4. From the consideration, that true religiox^ has always had the same object from the be- ginning of the world, namely, that of bring- ing men to God by the way of faith ai)d pati- ence ; and that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday^ to-day^ and jor ever ; yesterday^ under the Law; to-day^ under the Gospel; andyir ever^ in the kingdom of Glory: we should learn to be stedfast in this ancient plan, and look with a suspicious eye upon all pretended reforma- tions and improvements of modern Christians, who are inventing new modes of faith, and would shew us what they call a more excellent way. Vanity is always fond of novelty : you see it every day in the common change of fa- shions : and therefore vain men are carried about with every wind of doctrine, propagat- ed by those who are ignorant of the antiquity of that religion, by which all believers have been and are now to be saved. If men did but study the scripture on a right principle, without a spirit of party, and enquired duly into primitive Christianity, they would be a- shamed of the little mean differences and di- stinctions which divide their hearts, and break them into sects ; filling them with a Phari- saical pride against one another ; as if the end of the commandment were not charity^ but hat- red, contempt, and ill-will. Lect. 4. to the Hebrezvs. 343 To prevent this, the Apostle instructs the Hebrews to obey th-em. that have the rule over thevi^ their lawful Pastors and Teachers, whom Christ hath appointed to keep them in the way of peace ; and whose studies and labours must qualify them to inform and direct the igno- rant better than they can direct themselves. An abuse of the principles of the reformation, which can never be sufficiently lamented, has at length made every man his own teacher, and established a spirit of self-exaltation and opposition, than which no temper is more hateful to God, because none is so destructive of piety and peace. Christians should leave that to the sons of the earth, who are disput- ing for power, places and pre-eminence ; with whom gain is godliness, because they have no God but Mammon and Belial, no views nor hopes beyond the present life. This leads me back to the great source of all moral instruction, on which the Apostle hath so frequently insisted, and with which I shall conclude ; I mean the necessity of a de- tachment from the world in all those who would be followers of Jesus Christ. Our Mas- ter was one who came to disown the world, and to be disowned by it : he came to his own and was not received by them ; he wa.s 344 Lectures on the Epistle Lect. 4. hated for his truth, reviled for his works of goodness and mercy, and at his death was led out of the city of Jerusalem to suffer without the gate* J as one disowned, and cast out, and delivered over to the world of the Gentiles ; all of which was foreshewn by the great year- ly sacrifice, whose blood was first offered in the Tabernacle, and then it was carried out to be burned without the camp. On this the A^ postle raises an affecting exhortation, that we ought to go out after him hearing his reproach ; even the reproach of being despised and dis- owned and cast out by the world, as he was. Every Christian, though he is neither with the camp, nor with the city of Jerusalem, has some attachment which he is called upon to leave, and to be despised for so doing : he must go out either from the wisdom of the world, or the fashion of the world, or the party and the interests of worldly people ; as Christ went out of the gate of Jerusalem, and as Abraham forsook his family and friends, to obey the calling of God. The unbeheving Jews looked with contempt on those who left them to follow a crucified Master, whom they had led out of their city as a malefactor, and (delivered to the Gentiles ; and the world will * Chap. xiii. i2. Lect. 4. to the Hebrews. 345 cast reproach upon all those who forsake its opinions and customs. But, as the Jews them- selves were soon afterwards driven out from their city, and their whole ceconomy was dis- solved ; so shall the world itself be destroyed, and its inhabitants shall be turned out from tne place in which they trusted. When this shall happen, they have no other place m re- serve ; but we shall find that city, that con- tinning city^ which we have so long looked after, whose builder and maker is God. END OF LECTURES ON THE HEBREWS. y A LECTURE ON THE NATURAL EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY; DELIVERED AS A SERMON ON MR FAIRCHILD'S FOUNDATION, AT THE CHURCH OF ST LEONARD, SHOR^DITCI/, ON TUESDAY IN WHITSUN WEEK, 1787. A LECTURE, &c. T HE wisdom of God in the natural creation, is a proper subject of the lecture delivered in this place upon this occasion: but as the knowledge of the scriptures is not excluded, I may be permitted to bring them both together into one discourse : for they illustrate one an- other in a wonderful manner : and he who can understand God as the fountain of truth, and the Saviour of men, in the holy scripture, will be better disposed to understand and adore him as the fountain of power and goodness in the natural creation. To those who search for it, and have plea- sure in receiving it, there is a striking alliance between the oeconomy of Nature, and the principles of divine Revelation ; and unless we study both together, v/e shall be liable to mistake things now, as the unbelieving Sad- ducees did, in their vain reasonings with our blessed Saviour. They erred^ not knowing the scriptures^ nor the power of God : they neither understood them separately, nor knew hov/ to compare them together. 350 On the Natu?'al Evidences Men eminently learned, and worthy of all commendation, have excelled in demonstrating the wisdom of God from the works of Nature : but in this one respect they seem to have been deficient ; in that they have but rarely turned their arguments to the particular advantage of the Christian Revelation, by bringing the vo- lume of Nature in aid to the volume of the Scripture ; as the times now call upon us to do : for we have been threatened, in very in- decent and insolent language of late years, w^ith the superior reasonings and forces of na- tural philosophy ; as if our late researches into Nature had put some new weapons into the hands of Infidelity, which the friends of the Christian Religion will be unable to stand against. One writer in particular, who is the most extravagant in his philosophical flights, seems to have persuaded himself, and would persuade us, that little more is required to over- throw the whole faith and oeconomy of the Church of England, than a philosophical ap- paratus; and that every prelate and priest amongst us hath reason to tremble at the sight. This is not the voice of piety or learning, but of vapouring vanity and delusion. Neither a Bacon^ nor a Boyle^ nor a NewtoUj would ever have descended to such language, so contrary of Christianity. 351 to their good manners and religious senti- ments : the first of whom hath wisely observ- ed, that the works of God minister a singular help and preservative against unbelief and er- ror : our Saviour, as he saith, having laid be- fore us two books or volumes to study ; first the scriptures., revealing the will of God, and then the creatures., expressing \m, power ; whereof the latter is a key unto the former *. Such was the piety and penetration of this great man. However, let us not take it amiss, that, at certain times, we are rudely attacked and insulted. Christians, under the tempta- tions of ease and security, would forgot them- selves, and go to sleep : they are therefore o- bliged to their adversaries for disturbing them, that they may awake, hke Samson., and disco- ver their own strength. So little reason have we in fact to be terrified with the threatenings of our adversaries, that we invite them to en- ter with us upon a comparison between the word and the works of God. For it will be found true, as I shall endeavour to shew, that the invisible things of God, that is, the things concerning his Being and his Power, and the ceconomy of his spiritual kingdom, which are the objects of our faith, are clearly seen from *' See Bacon's Adv. of Learning, B. 1. 352 On the Natural Evidences the creation of the worlds and understood by the things that are made. Having much matter to propose, I must not indulge myself in the use of any superflu- ous words. A plain and unadorned discourse will be accepted rather for the meaning than the form : and as I am about to consider the works of God in a new capacity, I must be- speak your attention, not without a degree of your candour also, to excuse an adventurous ex- cursion into an unfrequented path of divinity. Let us enquire then, how the religious state of man, and the spiritual kingdom of God, as the scriptures have made them known to us ; that is, how Christianity, as a scheme of doc- trine, agrees with the works of God, and the oeconomy of Nature ? In consequence of which it will be found, that the Christian Religion hath the attestation of natural philosophy; and that every other religion hath it not. Our Bible teaches us these great principles or doctrines : that man is now in a fallen state of forfeiture under Sin and Death, and suffering the penalties of disobedience : that, as a religious being, he is the scholar of hea- ven, and must be taught of God : that the Almighty Father of men and angels gives him life and salvation by his word and spirit ; in of Christianity, 353 other words, by Christ and the Holy Ghost : that there is danger to us from the malignity and power of evil spirits : that a curse hath been inflicted upon the earth by a flood of water : that there is no remission of sin with- out shedding of blood ; and that a divine life is supported in us by partaking of the death of Christ in the Paschal or Sacramental Feast of the Lord's Table ; that there is a restora- tion to life after death by a resurrection of the body ; and, lastly, that the world which we inhabit shall be destroyed by fire. These are the principles, at least the chief of them, which are peculiar to the scriptures. He that believes them is a Christian : and if the works and ways of nature have a corre- spondence with these principles, and with no other, then ought every natural pliilosopher to be a Christian believer. I. Let us proceed then to examine how the case stands. The unbeUeving philosopher supposes man to be in the same state of per- fection now, as when he came from the hands of his Creator. But the infirmities of his mind, with the diseases and death of his body, pro- claim the contrary. When the death of man is from the hand of man, according to the A a S54 On the Natural Evidences laws of justice, it is an execution : and it is the same in its nature, when inflicted upon all men by the hands of a just God. The moral history of man informs us, that he offended God by eating in sin. His natural history shews us^ that j in consequence of it, he now eats in labour and sorrow. The world is full of toil and trouble : and for what end, but that man may earn his daily bread ? The hands of the husbandman are hardened, and his back is bowed down with the cultivation of the earth. Thorns and thistles prevail a- gainst him, and multiply his labour. While some are toiling upon the earth, others ar^ doomed to work underneath it. Some are exercised and wasted with works of heat : some, for a livelihood, are exposed to the storms and perils of the sea : and they, who are called to the dangers of war, support their lives at the hazard of losing them. The woman, who was first in the trans- gression, is distinguished by sorrows peculiar to her sex : and if some are exempt, they are exceptions which confirm the general law; and shew, that the penalty doth not follow by any necessity of Nature, but is inflicted. Many are the unavoidable sorrows of life : but if we consider how many more are brought of Christianity, 355 lipon mail hy himself it is plain his mind is not right : for if he had his sight and his senses, he would see better, and avoid them. Suppose human nature to be perfect ; what is the consequence ? We not only contradict our own daily experience ; but v/e supersede the use of Christianity, by denying the exist- ence of those evils,, for which only it is pro- vided. The whole system of it is offered to us as a cure for the consequences of the fall. From the accommodation of its graces, gifts, and sacraments, to the wants of our nature, we have a demonstration that our minds are in a distempered and sinful state : as the drugs and instruments in the shop of the surgeon are so many arguments that our bodies are frail and mortal. 11. The scriptures declare farther, that man, thus born in sin and sorrow, would grow up in darkness and ignorance, as to all heavenly things, unless he were taught of God : whose word is therefore said to be a light. The case is the same in nature. For how doth man receive the knowledge of all distant objects ? not by a light within himself, but by a light which comes to him from heaven, and brings to his sight a sense of the objects from which A a 2 Sod 0?i the Natural Evidenced it is reflected. What an uninformed empty being would man become in his bodily state ; how destitute of the knowledge of all remote objects, but for the rays of light which come to him from without ? Such would, he be iix his religious capacity without the light of re- velation, which was therefore sent out into all lands, as the light of the sun is diffused ■ throughout tlie world : The people that walked in darkness (such is the state we are born to) have seen a great light : they that dwell in the land of the shadow of deaths upon tJmn hath the light shined^. The scriptures declare that we- are in a state of stupidity and death, till we ate illuminated by the Gospel : Awake thou that slecb'est^ and rise from the dead^ and Christ shall give thee light f . But they cannot make our souls worse than our bodies would be with- out the visible lights of heaven ; and therefore in this respect, the physical state of man an- swers precisely* to his religious state; and if we duly observe and reflect upon the one, we must admit the other also, or oppose the tes*- timony of our senses. III. The gospel informs us, that there is a light of life to the soul of man, and a divine * Isa. ix. 2. t Eph. V. 14- of Christianity. 357 Spirit of Gk)d which quickens and inspires ; and that the whole oeconomy of grace is ad- ministered to us by the persons of the Son and the Holy Ghost. And are not the prin- ciples of man's natural life maintained by a parallel agency in nature ? Do we not there also find a light to animate, and a spirit to inspire and give us breath ? The Divine Spirit, from his nature and office, takes his name from the air or natural spirit of the world, which sup- plies us with the breath of life. On the day of Pentecost he descended from heaven under the outward sign of a rushing mighty wind ; that from his philosophical emblem we might un- derstand his nature and operations ; who, like the windj is invisible, irresistible, the medium of life, and the inspirer of the prophets and apostles, who all spake as the Spirit gave them "utterance. The air is the instrument of speech, and the vehicle of sound. Such was the Di- vine Spirit to the apostles ; by v/hose aid and operation, their sound went out into all lands. The ways of the Spirit of God in the birth of man unto grace, are hidden from us : we di- stinguish him only by his effects : so it is in nature ; we hear the sound of the wind, but we cannot tell whence it cometh, nor whither it gqeth. Thus did our Saviour himself illu.s 358 On the Natural Evidences trate the operations of the Holy Ghost from those of the air : and, what is very remark* able, he communicated the Holy Ghost to his disciples under the outward sign of breathing Upon them, ^ In the invisible kingdom of God, there is a sun of righteousness which rises upon a world that lieth in darkness ; raising up the dead to a new life, and restoring all that sin and death had destroyed. So doth the visible world present to us the great luminary of the day, whose operations are in all respects like to those of the sun of righteousness. In the morning it prevails over darkness, and in the spring it restores the face of Nature. When the scriptures say that the powers of the word and Spirit of God are necessary to the souls of men ; they say no more than what the most scrupulous philosophy must admit in regard to their bodies : for certainly man- kind cannot subsist without the sun and the air. They must have Hght, to live by as well as to see by ; and they must have breath, without which they can neither live, nor speak, nor hear. We are to argue farther ; that as we must suppose a sun to shine before we can suppose a man to exist upon earth : so, by parity of of Ckristianitij. 359 reason, the Diviue light was pre-existent to all those who are saved by it : and to presume that Jesus Christ, who is that light, is only a man like ourselves, is as false in divinity, as it would be false in philosophy to report the sun in the heavens as a thing of yesterday, and formed, like ourselves, out of the dust of the ground. Doth not philosophy teach us, that the elementary powers of light and air are in nature supreme and sovereign ? for, is their any thing above them ? Is there a sun above the sun that rules the day ; and is there a spirit above the wind that gives us breath ? therefore, so are the persons of Christ and the Holy Ghoiit supreme and divine in the invisi- ble kingdom of God. If not, it must lead us into idolatry and blasphemy, when we see them represented to us in the scripture by these sovereign powers in nature. God is Light y and God is a Spirit ; therefore, that person who is called the Spirit must be divine ; and Jesus Christ who is the true Light must be the true God, Wheresoever we go in divinity, thither will philosophy still follow us as a faithful witness. For if we are assured by revelation, that there is a power of divine justice to execute ven- geance on the enemies of God, and which S6o On the Natural Evidences shall destroy with a fearful destruction the ungodly and impenitent whenever it shall reach them : we find in nature the irresistible power of fire, which dissipates and destroys what it acts upon, and which in many in- stances hath been applied as the instrument of vengeance upon wicked men. Sacrifices were consumed by fire, to signify that wrath from heaven is due to sin, and would fall upon the sinful offerer himself, if the victim did not receive it for him by substitution. When the law was given on Mount Sinai, the heavens flamed with fire, and the mountain burned below, to give the people a sense of the ter- rors of divine judgment. With allusion to which exhibition, and other examples of the actual effects of his wrath, God is said to be a consuming fire : and happy are they who regard the power of it, ^xAfleeJrom it^ as Lot and his family fled from xhe flames of Sodom. IV. Another doctrine, pecuUar to the scrip- ture, is, the danger to which we are exposed in our religious capacity, from the malignity and power of the Devil; whose works are manifest, though he himself is invisible. But the natural creation bears witness to his ex- istence, and to all jiis evil properties ; where of Christianity, ' 36 1 the wisdom of God hath set before us that creature the Serpent, a singular phsenomenon of the same kind ; whose bite diffuses death so suddenly and miraculously through the body, that he may be said, in comparison of all other creatures, to have the power of death. He is double-tongued and insidious ; often un- discovered till he has given the fatal wound. In a word, he is such a pattern of the invisi- ble adversary of mankind, who was a liar and a murderer from the beginning, that the hie- roglyphical language of the Bible speaks of him in the history of the first temptation un- der the name oi the Serpent. The wicked who are related to him as his seed or children^ are called 2i generation of vipers ; by which figur- ative phrase it is literally meant, that they were of their father the DeviL In the modern systems and schemes of those who affect the philosophical character, we are not always sure of finding a God : but we are sure never to find a Devil : for as the Hea- thens of old offered sacrifices to him without understanding that they did $o ; in like man- ner do some people of these days work under him without knowing him. Yet certainly, the scripture, by its application of the word Serpent to the Tempter who brought Sin and 362 Oji the-Natural Evide?ices Death into the world, hath referred us to the natural creation for the properties of the Ser- pent-kind ; and from those properties every naturalist may learn what the Devil is, and what we have to fear from him, more accu- rately and effectually than any words can teach. What he finds in the natural Serpent he must apply to another invisible Serpent, who can think and reason and dispute the veracity of God; which the common serpent never could. How came so fearful and cursed a creature in- to the works of God ? Certainly for the wisest end : that men might understand and abhor and avoid the enemy of their salvation. The world was made, as the scriptures were writ- ten, for our learning ; and unless the Serpent were found in it, there would be a blank in the creation, ^nd we should have been to seek for some ideas, which are of the last import- ance to the mind of man. Other ideas, nearly related, may indeed be collected frorn the contrariety between light and darkness; with their figurative alliance to moral good and evil. The power of Satan hath the like effect on men's souls as darkness hath upon their bodies ; and the scripture calls it the power of darkness. If the enemies of God's religion are called the seed of the Ser- of Christianity^. 363 pent J in opposition to the sons of God ; so are they also represented to us as children of dark- ness, in opposition to the children of light. What communion^ saith St Paul, hath light with darkness; zvhat concord hath Christ with Belialy or what part hath he that believeth with an In- fidel f The ancient Persians, who were given to speculate as Philosophers on the principles of their Theology, argued from the course of Nature, that there are two contrary principles of Good and Evil in the world of Spirits : that there is a malignant power acting in oppo- sition to the benign goodness of the Creator, as darkness, in the vicissitudes of day and night, holds divided empire with light. Which speculations, properly corrected, are agreea- ble to the imagery of the scripture j in which the author of evil is called the power of dark- ness; and, in his capacity of a destroyer, is compared to lightning, which, like Lucifer, falls from heaven to do mischief upon earth. V. Another doctrine of Revelation, is the execution of a curse by the waters of a flood ; which obliges us to examine how it agrees v/ith the natural history of the earth. It was impossible to know that this catastrophe was u- Xiiversal, but by Revelation ; but when known, 364 On the Natural Evidences it is confirmed as a fact by the same proofs of it occurring to us in every part of the known world. The curvatures, furrows, and chan- nels, on the whole face of the earth, open to common observation, are so many marks and monuments of the forcible effects of descend- ing waters. The relics, fragments, and bones of marine productions, every where found under the earth, shew that the sea covered the land, and that the present world, on which we now live, is the burying-ground of a for- mer, on which that curse was executed, which God pronounced at the beginning. The na- tural history of the earth, as bearing this tes- timony to the Flood of Noah, has been very troublesome to our Infidel-Philosophers ; and the improbability and weakness of some theo- ries, with the wild extravagance of others, ad- vanced to disguise this plain fact, shew that its evidence is stubborn and untractable. VI. The derivation of a principle of life from the death of Christ, and the remission of sin by the shedding of his innocent blood, are doctrines essential to the Gospel, and every way agreeable to the condition of man's na- tural life : for we live by the death of inno- ceut animals, who lay down their lives for our bf Christianity, 365 sustenance, not for any fault of their own. — Such creatures as are hurtful and not fit to HvCj are not fit for us to eat. The act of killing clean beasts in sacrifice, and the sprin- khng of their blood, and the feasting upon their flesh, had undoubtedly an intended cor- respondence with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and the support of our spiritual life by a par- ticipation of his death. The whole institution was prophetical, and the scriptures are copi- ous in the application of it. And though the act of slaughtering innocent creatures is not now a religious act, as it used to be, the ra- tionale of it is still the same ; and it will speak the same language to the end of the world ; it Will always be declaratory of the salvation of man by the death of an universal sacrifice. The insensible people who trade in the slaugh- ter of innocent animals, and shed their blood by profession ; and they who feed upon them by daily custom, never think of this : but the universal practice of mankind speaks, without their understanding it, that which Caiaphas prophesied without knowing what he said. It is expedient that one man die^ that the whole peo- pie perish not. It is expedient that the inno- cent should die to feed our bodies : let any man deny it if he can : and it is equally ex- 366 On the Natural Evidences pedient, that Jesus Christ should die to feed our souls. Some Philosophers of antiquity,, ignorant of the terms man is now upon with "his Maker^ refined upon the traditional rites of sacrifice and the priesthood (which are nearly as an* cient as the world), and reasoned themselves into an abhorrence of animal food. They ex- claimed against the use of it, as barbarous and unworthy of a rational creature : especially as the lot falls upon the most inoffensive of ani- tnals, whose dispositions and services have a claim upon us for kindness and protection. But these are doomed to die by the wise ap- pointment of God, and by these men live ; as Jesus Chri&t the righteous, with the meekness and innocence of the Lamb^ was brought to the slaughter; that through his death we might have life eternal. VII. The resurrection of the body, which comes next in order, is no where taught but in the scriptures. The apparatus of the Phi- losopher can furnish no argument against it ; and God's apparatus is clearly on the side of it. For if it be examined by the light of Na- ture, that is, by the liu;ht reflected from na- tural things, it becomes a reasonable, and al- most a natural doctrine. of Christianity, 367 It is evident that man's body was made of the dust of the earth, because we see that it returns into earth again. Philosophy there- fore may argue, that as God formed man's body of the dust at first, he can as easily re- store and raise it from the same afterwards. That he will actually do this is promised to us in the scripture ; and on that promise Nature is giving us a lecture every day of our lives. Many animals, after a torpid state, scarcely distinguishable from death, recover the pow- ers of life at the proper season by the influ- ence of the sun : some after submersion in water during the whole winter. Some crawl for a time as helpless worms upon the earth, Uke ourselves ; then they retire into a cover- ing, which answers the end of a coffiu or^a sepulchre, wherein they are invisibly trans- formed, and come forth in glorious array, with wings and painted plumes, more like the inhabitants of heaven, than such worms as they were in their former earthly state. This transformation is so striking and pleasant an emblem of the present, the intermediate, and the glorified states of man, that people of the most remote antiquity, when they buried their dead, embalmed and enclosed them in an ar- tificial covering, so figured and painted, as to 368 On the Natural Evidences resemble the caterpillar or silk -worm, in the intermediate state : and as Joseph was the first we read of that w^s embalmed in Egypt, where this manner prevailed, it was very pro- bably of Hebrew original. The vicissitudes of night and day instruct us farther on the same subject. The sun sets to rise again ; the year dies away into the winter, and rises to verdure and beauty in the ^spring. Sleep is a temporary death from which we daily awake ; insomuch that in many passages of the scripture sleep and death are the same thing, and he that rises from the dead is said to awake out of sleep *. The fur- row of the field is a grave, out of which the seeds that#re buried rise to a new and better state. Their death and burial, which seems to be their end, is the beginning of their life : It is not quickened except it die. The allusion to plants and seeds is very common in the scripture, to illustrate the present and future state of man : and if it reminds us, that all flesh is grass^ and all the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field ; it makes us amends, by assuring us, that our bones shall flourish as an herh^ and that every seed shall have its own body. * See Dan. xii. 2. of Christianity. ^^^ VIII. The destruction of the world by fire is the last doctrine I shall take occasion to speak of : which, though never unreasonable, and admitted even by Heathens of old time ; is now more apparent than ever, from the late improvements in experimental philosophy. Indeed, we may say, the world is already on tire : for as Sinai, with its smoke and flame, was a positive^ so is every volcano a natural prelude to the burning of the last day. The earth, the air, the clouds, the sea, are all re- plete with a subtile penetrating fire, w^hich, while at rest, is neither felt nor observed, and was absolutely unknowm to some of the most learned forages ; till accidental discovery hath now laid open the treasures of fire in heaveu and earth to all that have the use of their sight and senses. The publication of the philo- sophy of fire hath been so sudden and so uni- versal, and is so wonderful in itself, that it seems to be second to the publication of the Gospel : at least, there is no event in philoso- phy or literature that comes nearer to it. In this element we live and move ; and, perhaps, so far as our frame is mechanical, we are moved by it. When excited to ac- tion, it turns into a consuming fire, v/hich no substance can exclude, no force can resist. — Bb 370 On the Natu?'al Evidences The matter of lightning, which seems to break out partially and accidentally, is now found to be constitutional and universal in the system of Nature: so that the heavens, which, ac- cording to the language of the scripture, are to melt with fervent heat^ want no foreign mat- ter to convert them into fire. What is called phlogiston can rise in a moment from a state of quiescence to a state of inflammation ; and it discovers itself in many bodies where we should little expect to find it. The earth and the works that are therein carry within them the seeds of their own destruction ; and may be burnt up by that element which now re- sides within them, and is only waiting for the word from its Creator. Upon the whole then, philosophy, so far as the term signifies a knowledge of God's wisdom and power in the natural creation, which is the best sense of the word ; this phi- losophy, I say^ is so far from being adverse to true religion, that with all the common evi- dences of Christianity in reserve, we may ven- ture to meet the philosopher upon his own ground : we have nothing to fear froni the testimony of Nature : we appeal to it : we call upon every man of science to compare the gospel which God hath revealed with the of Christianity, 371 world which God hath created ; under an as- surance, that he will find the latter to be a key unto the former^ as our noble philosopher hath well asserted. We have ventured to try this comparison upon the general plan of Christi- anity, and we see how it answers. And if Nature answers to Christianity, it contradicts Deism : and that religion cannot be called natural which is contradicted by the light reflected upon our understandings from natural things. The Socinian is nearly in the same situation with the Deist ; and they may both join together in calling upon Nature, from morning until night, as the Priests of Baal called upon their Deity ; but there will be none to answer ; and philosophy must put out one of his eyes before it can admit their doctrines. In short, take any religion but the Christian, and bring it to this test, by com- paring it with the state of Nature, and it will be found destitute and defenceless. But the doctrines of our faith are attested by the whole natural world. Wherever we turn our eyes, to the heaven or to the earth, to the sea or the land, to men or to beasts, to animals or to plants, there we are reminded of them. They are recorded in a language which hath never B b2 372 On the Natural Evidences been confounded ; they are written in a text which shall never be corrupted. The Creation of God is the School of Chris- tians, if they use it aright. What is common- ly called the Worlds consists of the forms, man- ners, diversions, pursuits, and prospects, of human society. But this is an artificial world,- of man's making ; the subject of his study, tlie object of his ambition. The natural world, of God's making, is full of wonder and instruction y it is open to all, it is common to all. Here there can be no envy, no party, no competition ; for no man will have the less for what his neighbour possesses. The world, in this sense, may be enjoyed without fraud or violence. The student in his solitary walk, the husbandman at his labour, the saint at his prayers, may have as much as they can desire, and have nothing to repent of: for they will thus draw nearer to God, because they will see farther into his truth, wisdom, and good- ness. Some have expressed their astonishment at the choice of hermits and men of retirement as people who have fled from all the enjoy- ments of life ; and consigned themselves to melancholy and misery. They are out of the of Christianity. 373 world, it is true ; but they are only out of that artificial world of man's making, in which so many are hastening to disappointment and ruin : but they are still in that other better world of contemplation and devotion, which affords them all the pleasures and improve- ments of the mind, and is preparatory to a state of uninterrupted felicity. 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