IX. inflame the mind,* or restore it to reafon. LECT. The bigotted Jew, the ancient heathen, the modern infidel, the man of levity and pleasure, are, all upon a level, 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 prefent at the trial) could hear the martyr's apology without being perfuaded by it: that very man, who afterwards ftruck into the fame way of interpretation, and delighted to apply the figures of the law as a teftimony to Jefus Chrift. There was a time when he was not only deaf, but inveterate, and as he faid, exceedingly mad against the Chriftians 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 perfecuted: but opinion is that judgment which a man forms of the things of God without the * Stultos facit infanos. TER. R 4 grace LECT. IX. grace of God. When Stephen had rea- 3. We are laftly to learn from the deliverance of the Hebrews under Mofes, which God was pleafed to accomplish by his hand, after all the contempt and oppofition he had met with; that, however the church, in bad times, may be corrupted and oppreffed, and even averfe to its own deliverance; yet the counfel of God is fure; and He who hath promised to be with it to the end of the world, will never forfake its interefts. Kings, with their statesmen and politicians, may be jealous of its rights, and invade them without fear or fhame: nay, the time may come, when the very idea of a divine authority, either in priests or kings, fhall be as hateful among Chriftians, as Mofes and Aaron were to Pharaoh and the magicians of Egypt: and there are too many amongst us IX. us already, who cannot speak of it with LECT. 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 fhall interpose in what form and manner he sees beft; and the church fhall be conducted to glory and liberty, as the afflicted Hebrews were led forth to the poffeffion of the land of Canaan. LECTURE X. ON MIRACLES; PARTICULARLY, THE MIRA CLES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, AS THEY LECT. X. W miracles of the gofpel, as defcrip E are prepared to confider the tive of fomething beyond themselves; because we have already seen how the miracles of Mofes, for the faving of the Ifraelites, are applied in the New Testament, as figures of the faving of all mankind by Jefus Chrift. Our Saviour applied the lifting up of the ferpent by Mofes in the wilderness, to the lifting up of himself upon the cross, to draw all men unto him for the cure of their fouls. The apostle tells us, that the rock which Mofes fmote, to give drink to the people, was Chrift; that is, a figure of Chrift, fmitten for our fins, and giving to a thirsty world the wa- was a figure were our examples: the miracles wrought for them were figns of the miracles to be wrought for us. And as it was under the law, fo it is under the gospel: the miracles of Chrift are not of any private interpretation; but, like the miracles of Mofes, with a miraculous effect carry a miraculous fignification.. And now, for the right understanding of this whole matter, we are to confider, that the name of Jefus was given, because he who bore it was to fave his people from their fins. Sin is the great distemper of man, and falvation from fin 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 Jefus Chrift defcended from heaven to accomplish. Every word and LECT. |