III. him in the vifion, were the people of all LECT. nations; the linen fheet which contained them fignified their fanctification by the gofpel; and it was knit at four corners, to shew that they were gathered together from the four quarters of the world, and brought into the church. Nothing more need be faid to prove that the distinctions amongst men were figuratively expreffed under the law by a distinction amongst beasts and birds and all living creatures. In the subtilty of the fox, the fiercenefs of the tyger, the filthiness of the fwine, the impudence of the dog, you fee, as in a glafs, the manners of those idolatrous nations, from whom the Jews were feparated. In the gentleness of the sheep, the integrity of the labouring ox, the innocence and profitablenfs of other tame creatures fit for food, you see the virtues of an Ifraelite indeed, fuch as those people ought to be, who were gathered into the fold of the church, and had God for their fhepherd. But when God had mercy upon all, and the Jew and Gentile became LECT became one fold in Christ Jesus, then this III. distinction was fet afide. However, to all readers of the bible, the moral or spirit of this law is as much in force as ever. Wild, fubtile, fierce, unclean manners, are as hateful in Chriftians, as they were of old in heathens: and the heathers were taken into the church, on condition that they should put off their favage manners; 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 happen under the gospel; and the prophet foretells the converfion of the heathens under the figure of a miraculous reformation of manners in wild beafts: the wolf fhall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard fhall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the lion and the fatling together 3 and though they were once fo fierce and terrible that a man dared not to come near them, they shall be fo changed, that a little child may lead them-they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain. Authors III. Authors of natural history divide their LECT. subject into three parts, under the heads of animals, plants, and minerals-I would follow the fame order to keep my subject within a moderate compass. Plants are applied to explain the growth of the mind, with its different qualities and productions. Thus preached John the Baptift: The ax is laid unto the root of the trees; therefore every tree which beareth not good fruit is hewn down and caft into the fire. At the tranfgreffions of former times God had winked, and fuffered 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 Baptift's warning. The ax was sharp; and the hand that held it being just and irresistible, it soon laid them level with the ground. In the first pfalm, the righteous man is described as a tree flourishing by the water III. LECT. fide, and bringing forth its fruit in due feafon. Such is he whom the grace of God attends, and whofe delight is in meditating day and night upon the law of the Lord; while the ungodly are like unprofitable chaff driven away by the wind. No fruitless tree will be permitted to remain in the plantation of God, nor be able to ftand when the ftorm of judgment arifes. Chriftians who do not perfevere, but fall away into a finful and unprofitable life, are compared to trees whofe 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 fuch there is no hope. The transitory nature of man in this mortal life is fhewn by the herbs of the field; and the fcripture draws this picture with such beauty as far furpaffes the most laboured poetical elegies on mortality→→→ In the morning it is green and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, dried up and withered-All flesh is grafs, and all the * Pfalm xc. goodliness III. goodliness thereof is as the flower of the LECT. field:-the grafs withereth, the flower fa- . deth; but the word of our God fhall fiand for ever*. In their decay, the herbs of the field are patterns of man's mortality; but in the order of their growth, from feeds dead and buried, they give a natural testimony to the doctrine of the refurrection; and the apostle therefore speaks of bodies rifing from the dead as of fo many feeds fpringing from the ground. The prophet Isaiah speaks as expressly upon the fame subject: thy dead men fhall live, together with my dead body Shall they arife: awake and fing ye that dwell in the duft: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth fhall caft out her dead †. Much inftruction is to be gathered from the treasures which men take (with other views) from beneath the earth: for perifhable riches are figures of the true riches, which give in fubftance what the other give in shadow: these are the riches of the mind; and though of little esteem with the generality of the world, they are yet of in * Ifaiah xl. 6. G Ifaiah xxvi. 19. finite |