XI. LECT. which it must be engaged to receive inftruction can never alter. We are to learn all things by comparison; and the salvation of our fouls depends fo much on our improvement under this mode of teaching, that it is wifely provided by the author of our nature, that we are so much delighted with imitation in every fhape. All the representations of the ftage, which attract the multitude, are nothing but imitations of characters and scenes of imagery: poetry, painting, and mufic, all engage the fancy with imitative effects of art. Mirth and fadness, conversation and devotion, the finging of birds and the confufion of a battle, are all imitable in musical founds. But this great plan of imitation is no where fo conducted, nor carried to such a height, as in the figns and allegories of the holy fcripture, which compofe the richest scenery upon earth. If the fancy of man is delighted 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 XI. that wisdom, to which the things of time LECT. and the things of eternity are equally known and which framed this vifible world as a counterpart to the other. Great is the evidence which arifes when these two are laid together and compared ; and I have frequently found it such by experience, 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 leffened, if the vifible world presents to our fenfes the figures of those things which God hath proposed to our faith. To those who understand it, all nature fpeaks the fame language with revelation: what the one teaches in words, the other confirms by figns; infomuch that we may truly fay, 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, &c. then the objects of fenfe, without this their spirit and fignification, are in themselves mere image and delufion; and the whole LECT. life of man in this world is but a fhadow, XI. vain and empty, till the truth and fubftance of it is feen and understood. This relation between things visible and invisible we could never have found out of ourfelves; but when the plan is proposed, it is fo reasonable and ftriking, that nothing can refift it, but the blindness of false learning, or the malignity of vice, which has an intereft against it. In the ftyle of the fcripture, the feveral objects in the visible creation, from the fun in the heavens, through the elements and feafons, the day and the night, the land and the fea, the fowls of the air and the beafts of the field, down to the grafs that fpringeth out of the earth, and the stones which are scattered 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 foul of man as a part of it. Whofoever meditates upon the world thus applied as a figure of truth, and fees that agreement between nature and revelation which revelation itfelf hath pointed out to us, will want no mi racle XI. racle to perfuade him of the chriftian doc- LECT. trines for nature itself is chriftian, and the world itself a daily miracle; the heavens fpeak to us, and the earth and all things therein join in the same testimony: fo that if all nations were to disbelieve, nature itself would ftill continue a faithful witness to the truth: if the children of Abraham were to hold their peace, the ftones would cry out. Here we ought to defcend to particulars, and fhew how the state of nature and the feveral parts of it agree with the doctrines of the scripture; but there is not room for it on the prefent occafion and I have purposely confidered the natural Evidence of Christianity by itself in two lectures, which open a profpect into that extensive fubject, without attempting to penetrate to the end of it; and to them I must now refer you. To these advantages of the facred style, I am now to add that which is the greateft of all, and will juftify the attention I XI. LECT. have bestowed for feveral years past upon the matter of these lectures; namely, that the fpirit of thofe figures under which the bible delivers to us the things of God, has a power of raifing and glorifying even in this life, the fpirit of man; producing an effect upon it, the fame in kind with what it fhall hereafter experience when admitted into the prefence of God. This is a great thing to fay; but I learn it of that apostle who laboured more abundantly in opening to us the wisdom of God from the figures of the old testament. The fame was alfo fignified by our Saviour himself in his difcourfes with his difciples. St. Paul teaches the Corinthians, that it is the proper business of the Chriftian ministry to preach the Spirit of the law of Mofes, and not to rest in the letter of it as the Jews did; whose weakness in this refpect was foreshewed by what happened to their fathers; who could not look ftedfastly on that glory which fhone upon the face of Mofes: for which reason Mofes put |