Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

LECT.
X.

are

of the fame fort with those spoken of by Chrift in the gospel, let the dead bury their dead; of whom the former are the dead in fpirit, and the latter the dead in nature. The word death has the like fenfe in the fentence which was pronounced on man in paradife, in the day thou eatest thou halt die and there are numberlefs paffages of the Old Testament, in which the words life and death do not fignify the natural, but the fpiritual life and death. I know not how to understand, but by admitting both a natural and a spiritual refurrection; those other words of Chrift, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall bear the voice of the Son of God; for certainly, the refurrection which now is must be that figurative refurrection spoken of by the prophet and apoftle; and the margin of our bibles accordingly refers us to such paffages as fpeak of a quickening unto grace. I cannot but understand the raifing of Lazarus from the putrid state of death, as a fign that the fame power should revive men who had been long dead in trefpaffes and fins, and feemed to be paft grace

X.

grace; as was the cafe with the whole LECT, heathen world,

In the raifing of the widow's fon at the city of Nain, we have a leffon of this kind worthy of our confideration. 66 А dead man was carried out, the only fon of his mother, and fhe was a widow, and much people of the city was with her." This was a funeral of fome pomp, and so we may suppose the young man was a confiderable perfon. Thus, alas, do we fee many fons of the church, in the prime of life, in their best days, who seem to know no more that Jefus Chrift is near to them, than if they were ftretched 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 infenfible to the things of God; lifeless and ftupid 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 fpoken, and had no concern with that other world, to which, young as they are, time

S 4

X.

LECT. time is in the mean while carrying them out; though they may feem to move flowly on, as is the custom in a funeral. Nothing less than that fame power which raises the dead can awaken fuch to hear that voice which is daily calling unto them in the words of the gospel, Young man, I say unto thee arife: hear now the voice of him that hath pity upon thee, and calls thee to rife and be faved; because thou wilt foon be forced to hear that other voice, which fhall bid thee rife from the earth to be judged for thy fins,

The cure of fin in all its fymptoms and effects is fignified by other like miraculous works; fuch as the deliverance of the body from bondage and imprisonment, from uncleannefs, from weakness, lamenefs, deafnefs, poison, and madness, or the poffeffion of the devil; all which are fo fulfilled in the deliverance of the foul from fin, that the prophets feem rather to have predicted the falvation of which the miracles were figns, than the miracles themselves: that is, they seem to have predicted the mi

racles

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

X.

racles rather in the fpiritual fenfe than the LECT. natural. Thus where Ifaiah defcribes the converfion of the Gentiles as a blossoming of roses in a defert, and a found of joy and finging in a lonely wilderness; it follows, that the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the eurs of the deaf shall be unstopped, the lame man fhail leap as a hart, the tongue of the dumb fhall fing, &c. all of which expreffions must be applied to the fouls of men; for if we understand any of them literally of the body, we shall make the paffage inconfiftent with itself; or, to make it uniform, we must fuppofe, that the gospel fhould be revealed to multiply flowers in a wilderness. Therefore, the inference is eafy; that the works of giving fight to the blind, opening the ears of the deaf, &c. though certainly to be performed by our Saviour in the letter, were to be no more than signs of the falvation foretold by the prophet.

The mifery of man under fin, is like the bondage of an imprisoned captive; and the liberty of those who are made free by * Chap. xxxv.

the

X.

LECT. the Son of God under the gospel, is like that of a perfon miraculously brought out of prison. As fuch the prophet speaks of it, in a paffage which our Saviour has applied to his own ministry. "The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek, he hath fent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives.". Who are these captives? Did Jefus Christ come to publish a goaldelivery to debtors and felons? by no means but he delivers those who are appointed unto death, and are tied and bound with the chain of their fins: and to give an affurance of it to all men, he miraculously opened the doors of a dungeon, and delivered his feryants from their bonds. When this happened to Peter, he supposed it to be a vifion: when the Lord thus turned his captivity, he was like unto them that dream; but he came to himself, and confidered the thing; and feeing farther into the wisdom of God than we do, he probably confidered the whole as a scenical representation of that deliverance, which

« FöregåendeFortsätt »