LECT. If this is the method God hath been XI. pleafed 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 apply it as a figure and fhadow of things to come; and how in their exhortations they reafon from fome parallel cafe in the ways of nature. And ftill it will always be found, that nothing has fuch an effect in preaching, as the skilful handling of fome image or figure of the fcripture. For truth, as we have often obferved, does not enter into mens minds in its own abftracted nature, but under the vehicle of fome analogy, which conveys a great deal of fenfe in very few words: and therefore the best preachers have always taken advantage of fome fuch analogy, after the manner of the fcripture itself, which gives us the pattern of all true preaching. Let me fhew you how this is by an example. ample. Suppose a preacher would LECT. perfuade his audience not to abuse the station in life to which Providence hath appointed them; and not to prefume upon the character they may fuftain amongst men for a short time here upon earth: he reasons from the tranfitory nature of worldly things: and this he teaches them to fee in a glass, by fetting before them the changeable fcenery and temporary difguifes 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 paffeth away, just as the scenery changes, and the curtain drops, in a theatre; to which the apostle alludes. The world is a great shew, which prefents us various fcenes and fantaftic characters; princes, politicians, warriors, and philofophers; the rich, the honourable, the learned and the wife: and with thefe, the fervant and the beggar, the poor, the weak, and the defpifed. Some feldom come from behind the fcenes; others, adorned with honour and power, are followed by a fhouting multitude, and fill the world with the noife of their actions. But XI. LECT. XI. But in a little time, the fcene turns, and all these phantoms difappear. The king of terrors clears the ftage of these busy actors, and ftrips them of their fictitious ornaments; bringing them all to a level, and fending them down to the grave, as all the actors in a drama return to their private character when the action is over. From this comparison, how easy and how ftriking is the moral. Nothing but a difordered 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 flave. Therefore let us all remember, that the world, like the ftage, changes nothing in a man but his outward appearance: whatever part he may act, all diftinctions will foon be dropped in the grave, as the actor throws off his disguise when his part is over. On which confideration, it is equally unreasonable in man, either to presume or to complain*. * See Dunlop's Sermons, vol. 1. on 1 Cor. vii. 31. The fashion of this World paffeth away. One XI. One fuch moral leffon as this, which LECT. shews us the real state of things under a ftriking and familiar refemblance of it, is worth volumes of dull abstracted reafonings. It captivates the attention, and gives lasting information for when fuch a comparison hath once been drawn out, the inftruction conveyed by it will be revived as often as the image occurs to the memory. To the scholar, the fymbolical language of the bible is fo ufeful, that every candidate for literature will be but a fhallow proficient in the wisdom of antiquity, till he works upon this foundation: and for want of it, I have feen many childish accounts of things from men of great figure among the learned. In ancient times, fentiments and science were expreffed by wife men of all profeffions under certain figns and fymbols, of which the originals are mostly to be found in the fcripture; as being the most ancient and authentic of all the records in the world, and fhewing itself to be fuch in the form of its language and expreffion. ECT. How nearly poetry and oratory are concerned with the fcience of fymbolical expreffion, has already been observed. With this key, a scholar may penetrate far into the art of poets and orators; and the next thing to compofing well is to taste and judge well. But it is alfo of eminent use for unfolding the religious 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 confiders the form of religious inAtruction in the church of God, will plainly fee, 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 prefigure the mysteries of our faith from the beginning of the world by an emblematic ritual: this manner therefore the heathens would neceffarily carry off with them; and when they changed the object of their worship, and departed from the creator to the creature, they still retained the mystical form, and applied it to the worship |