As the Sovereign and Lord of Nature we nave seen him exercising dominion over the powers of the worlds visible and invisible, putting Satan to flight by a word, receiving the homage and ministrations of angels. As an High Priest, "after the order of Melchizedec,' we shall in the progress of this history behold him offering himself, once for all, "a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour unto God." We are this evening to sit at his feet, and to listen to him in his humbler and more familiar character of the meek, patient, and condescending instructer of the weak, the ignorant, and the prejudiced. And, O may the gracious words which proceed from his mouth not only excite our wonder, but penetrate and melt our hearts, kindle our repentings together, and put all that remains of our existence under the dominion of love. His first labours of affection were bestowed upon his kindred and acquaintance, they were consecrated to the improvement of the companions and friends of early life. He had hitherto taught them by example, he now teaches them out of the written word. Had he been covetous of fame or of honour, he would surely have chosen another theatre on which to display his superior powers, for he well knew that no prophet is accepted in his own country. He well knew that eminent excellency excites envy, that envy produces malignity, and that malice prompts to evil speaking. But regard to his own interest and ease is lost in compassion to others, and the love of reputation with men reverently bends to zeal for the glory of God. Every circumstance of the scene before us is interesting and instructive. We have in the preceding Lecture adverted to those of place, it was "in Galilee at Nazareth where He had been brought up," and "in the synagogue." Attend now to the season, it was on the sabbath-day. As to the pure all places, so all times are pure, yet to man, weak and imperfect as he is, distinction of both time and place is important and necessary. Show me a man who is habitually and uniformly that in the world, which decency obliges him to appear to be in the house of God, and I shall not presume to condemn him, though he frequent not the temple; although such an one is of all others the least likely to desert it. Show me the man whose every day is a day of order, of piety, of mercy, and of good works, and such an one shall, for me, spend the seventh day in what manner he will; though such an one is of all others the most likely to put respect on the ordinance of God. Who of all those, who are born of a woman, stood least in need of the influence and assistance of sacred edifices and seasons? He whose conversation was continually in heaven, whose "meat and drink it was to do the will of his heavenly Father," who never lost sight, for a moment, of the great end of his mission. And who was so regular in his attendance on the exercises of religious worship; who was so exact in the observance of every institution that was stamped with marks of divine authority? The sabbath is an ordinance of mercy, designed by Him who "preserveth man and beast," to be an interruption of painful toil, a restorer of exhausted nature, a season of repose; but in perfect consistency with this, it is a season of mental exertion of beneficence; of devout contemplation, of virtuous, social intercourse. But the observance of the sabbath had, when our Saviour came into the world, degenerated into a narrow and grovelling superstition, which separated from it every idea of mercy and good-will to men, and the spirit was sunk in the letter. It therefore became this great Teacher, to restore the institution to its primitive design and use, and to guard mankind equally against the extremes of superstition, on the one hand, and of profanity on the other: and this he does with a wisdom, a delicacy, and a dignity peculiar to himself. Who can think slightly of what he treated with respect? Who dares to violate what he observed as "the holy of the Lord and honourable?" And who again can think he is doing honour to God by expressing indifference, unkindness, and want of sympathy to men? He who attended the synagogue, who read and expounded the Scriptures on the sabbath; on the sabbath also restored the withered hand, defended his disciples from the charge of profanation, displayed the character of the sovereign Lord of the sabbath, as preferring mercy to sacrifice, and as having instituted "the sabbath for man, and not man for the sabbath.' Observe farther, the evangelist takes care to inform us that Christ's attendance on the services of the synagogue and the sabbath was not merely accidental or occasional, but habitual and stated: as his custom was. What we do according to no fixed rule, we do feebly and confusedly. What we do seldom, we do with reluctance and dislike; and from dislike the natural transition is to total omission. On the contrary, what is subjected to rule is done accurately and efficiently; what we do habitually, we do with ease and delight; for custom, says the proverb, and with much truth, is a second nature. The Saviour of the world, accordingly, vouchsafed to become an example here also, as of every thing else that is wise and good; He was a pattern of regular, orderly conduct; from his childhood, and upward. He was a suent instructer of the successive stages of rising existence, in docility, in contentment, in submission, in regularity. this too, therefore, I consider the example of Christ as intelligible, decided, and instructive. He "stood up to read." Happily for the world, its information, and instruction in matters of everlasting moment were not entrusted to the uncertainty, the changeableness, and the corruptibility of oral tradition. He who bestowed on man the gift of speech, for the mutual communication of thought, gave likewise the pattern of permanent speech, by means of writing; by which thought is transmitted from region to region, from generation to generation, unsophisticated, unimpaired. Hence the events which Moses Let no one tell me that it is useless to habituate children betimes to the forms of devotion; to the observance of institutions whose meaning and intention they do not fully comprehend to restraints which to them appear harsh and unreasonable. It is a great thing, indeed it is every thing, to be under the government of innocent or praiseworthy customs: to be inured to the laws of order; to be prepared for thinking for themselves, and for having their sentiments heard and attend-recorded, and which Isaiah predicted, the ed to, by learning to pay respect to the understanding, to the opinions, and to the experience of others. Think with what holy indignation, He, whose name we bear, would have listened to a proposal to violate his custom, and to make the hour of the devotions of the synagogue, the hour of walking into the cornfields! The historian is here singularly minute, and gives wonderful vivacity to his representation, by going into a detail of particulars. Among these, we must advert to his posture and attitude, when employed in reading to the people the word of God. He stood up for to read. Nature seems to point this out as an attitude of reverence and respect. Since the days of Abraham, who stood up and bowed himself before the people of the land wherein he dwelt, the wise, the benevolent, and the courteous have employed it as an expression of regard to superior sanctity, power, majesty, or multitude. Posture is, in itself, still more indifferent than time or place; but nothing is indifferent in the eyes of true wisdom, by which the interests of either human virtue or felicity can be affected. Truth is the same whether delivered in an erect or a recumbent posture. But in matters of this sort, what says common practice? Will my compliance conciliate affection, procure attention, give force to what is said? Then I will cheerfully conform. Will my singularity give offence, will it awaken prejudice, will it injure the cause I mean to promote? Then I will not affect singularity; I will not be uncomplying nor unkind; and I will dissent only where conscience is concerned, and where compliance would be criminal. How melancholy it is to reflect, on the talents which have been perverted, on the time which has been wasted, but that is comparatively nothing, on the angry spirits which have been excited, on the oceans of blood which have been spilt, in determining whether standing, sitting, or kneeling; whether this or the other unessential circumstance were most adapted to the nature of things, or most conformable to the will, or conducive to the glory, of the Creator. In precepts of the Law and the promises of the Gospel, descend from age to age in equal purity, weight, and measure: and the son sees, reads, and apprehends the selfsame truth which was the light and joy of his progenitors. And what must it have been to hear the sublime and pathetic strains of Isaiah pronounced by the tongue of Him who formed the ear for the perception of melodious sounds, the mouth to utter them, and the heart to receive the impression of sacred and interesting truth! We may judge of it from the mute attention with which he was heard, and from the wonder expressed, after he had finished, "at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth." It would appear that it was not only "his custom" to attend the synagogue, but to perform the office of public reader to the assembly. For the proper minister delivers to Him, as to the acknowledged conductor of this part of the service, that portion of the Sacred Code which either order prescribed, or which his selection called for, or to which Providence specially directed; and he received it from Him again to be deposited in its place. And whether indeed did Providence, independent of human design or foresight, by a special interposition unfold the particular passage from ancient prophecy; or did his own choice select it as peculiarly applicable to the occasion? In either case, what portion of the Old Testament Scriptures is more emphatically descriptive of his person, character, and divine mission? And what can be so worthy of our most deep and serious attention, whether we consider the infinite and everlasting moment of the subject, the interest which we have in it, or the affecting correspondence of the event with the prediction, of the prophet with his object. The prophecy holds up to view a person of the most distinguished eminence, consecrated in the most extraordinary manner, to the execution of the most generous, merciful, and benevolent purposes, and in language the most powerful and pathetic. It is the anointed of the Lord God, his Holy One, who alone could without presumption undertake, souls." and triumphantly accomplish, the work of in heart, that they may find rest to their redemption, and could unfold that "great mystery of Godliness" which angels desire to "He hath sent me to heal the broken-heartlook into: who was set apart from everlast-ed." Gracious office!, divine Physician! ing to this high destination, who was gra- Thou only art equal to the task. "The heart dually revealed, and in the fulness of time, knoweth its own bitterness;" the ill admits sent to be the salvation of God to all the ends of no cure; the officious consolation of the of the earth. Who was anointed, not as creature only irritates the wound; time itself Aaron to the priesthood, and David to the brings no relief. But behold, here, not a sovereignty, by a material oil of exquisite temporary relief, but a lasting cure; not the odour and costly price, but by the effusion of transient spirit and calm of a stupifying the Spirit, the Spirit of power, of wisdom, of opiate, but the solid support of wholesome holiness, which rested upon him without food, and the refreshing balm of wholesome measure; and which was bestowed upon rest. An insnaring, persecuting world, him, for what purpose? with Moses to hum- mourner in Zion, disturbs thy peace, and ble the pride, and crush the power of Egypt? breaks thy heart; but He hath said "be of or with Cyrus, "to subdue nations, to loose good cheer, I have overcome the world." the loins of kings, to open before him the" In the world ye shall have tribulation, but two-leaved gates, to make the crooked places in me ye shall have peace." In the bitterstraight, to break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron;" to execute the righteous judgment of the Eternal on rebellion, presumption, and disobedience; to condemn and to destroy? No, when this mighty One cometh, armed with power, anointed with the Spirit, it is to dispense grace, to diffuse happiness, to relieve the Iniserable. ness of thy soul thou criest out, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"-Trembling, sinking creature, speak peace to thy soul, “return to thy rest," "there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus; it is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth ?” To preach deliverance to the captives. Bondage, slavery, captivity are happily "He hath anointed me to preach the gos- known to us only by the name, or in idea. pel to the poor." The poor are, with the We are more than Abraham's children; our great of the earth, the objects of neglect, father's contended for liberty, Heaven grantand contempt, and oppression. In the diced it, and we enjoy it. But ah! our country tionary of the world, rich means respectable, is but a speck on the globe; our population powerful, and important: and poverty is is but a handful of men. And alas, even in equivalent to wretchedness, meanness, despi- our own country there is captivity. How cability. But the dispensation of grace by many among us "wax poor and fall into dethe gospel inverts this order; it affixes a dif- cay," and that not from profligacy and proferent, indeed an opposite meaning to words, digality alone? The creditor cometh, and it raises into consequence what was lightly there is nothing to give him. The loss of esteemed, and it hurls pride down to the liberty is the consequence: the evil becomes ground. It "puts down the mighty from worse and worse. He who entered within their seats, and exalteth them of low degree." the walls of a prison unfortunate only, conIs it poverty of condition? That is no bar tinues there under a total incapacity of against the admission of the consolations of shaking off calamity. What was at first the Christianity; that is no disqualification for pressure of debt, imperceptibly changes into enjoying the rights of citizenship of the king- an intolerable load of vice, from which a dom of heaven; that implies no exclusion from miracle of grace alone can deliver. How the glorious "privileges of the sons of God;" many thousands of our fellow-subjects are in that implies neither sin nor shame. Is it po- this unhappy, this almost hopeless condition! verty of spirit? It is the creature's highest But liberty may exist even in a dungeon. If glory; it is the Redeemer's brightest and the prisoner carries with him into confinemost perfect image; it is the soul's prepara- ment the "spirit of adoption," he is already tion for the kingdom of heaven. To the one delivered from bondage. No bolts, nor bars, and to the other is the anointed of the Lord nor fetters of iron can restrain the heavensent to preach the gospel; to the poor in this born mind; he can look up and "cry, Abba, world, that they may learn to be sobermind- Father!" "He that is called in the Lord, ed, patient, and content; not envying nor being a slave, is the Lord's freeman." grieving at the good of others, but laying up the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free for themselves "treasures in heaven;" look- indeed." Paul in bonds, a prisoner in the ing for "another country," for "a city which cause of Jesus Christ, possesses a nobly free hath foundations, whose builder and maker and independent spirit. Galled with "many is God;"-to the poor in spirit, that they may stripes;" "thrust into the inner prison" at grow in grace," that they may "contem- Philippi, with Silas his companion in tribulaplate and follow their pattern more closely, tion, "their feet made fast in the stocks," learning of him daily to be "meek and lowly they enjoy liberty of access to the throne of 66 "If Grace. "At midnight they prayed, and sang | of vision after the organ is destroyed: but to praises unto God." Thus "the Lord looseth be reduced to mourn with the poet in these the prisoners," and thus the Anointed is affecting strains: "sent to preach," and to give "deliverance to the captives." With the year Seasons return; but not to me returns Of nature's works, to me expung'd and ras'd, But what, in respect either of multitude or of misery, are imprisoned debtors, or even felons lying under the rod of the law, compared to the voluntarily enslaved? Whosoever committeth sin is the slave of sin." And what blindness is like wilful blindness, and what servitude so hopeless, so inglorious as that into which a man degrades himself! It is some alleviation of the depression of a This is "darkness which may be felt." servile estate, that the master is honourable, In representing, accordingly, the deplorable and that the service required is neither state of the world under the image of blindhumiliating nor severe but O how mortify-ness, a state of ignorance, guilt, and wretching the reflection of being in subjection to an unfeeling monster, to a capricious tyrant, to a contemptible groundling! And such is every slave to irregular appetite, whether it be "the lust of the flesh, or the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life." Such dream that they are following their own will, but in truth they "are led captive by Satan at his will:" and "the wages of sin is death." To deliver from this most inglorious, this fatal thraldom, then, is the object of Christ's mission. What, Britons, glory, and well you may, in your civil liberties! and willingly assume the yoke of a paltry interest, of a grovelling propensity which you are ashamed to avow! What, make it your boast that the moment the ill-fated African breathes British air he becomes free; and continue deliberately to "fulfil the desires of the flesh and of the mind," which "war against the soul!" Great Deliverer, exert thy power, display thy grace; "open their eyes, turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified." edness; and in representing the correspondent office and work of the Redeemer, that blindness is not described as an original and radical defect of sight, but as the casual deprivation of a blessing once in possession: and he is considered as sent, not to confer a benefit unknown, unenjoyed before, but to restore that which was lost, to relumine the extinguished orb. The truth is, men had wilfully shut their eyes, because they could not bear the light. This was the condemnation of the unbelieving Jews, with all their superior advantages: "Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world; that they who see not might see, and that they which see might be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth." And this was the condemnation of the self-conceited Gentiles, with all their affectation of wisdom: “ professing themselves to be wise, they became fools:" "they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." They are in another place thus described, and under the same image; "The Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart." And this mental darkness is represented as necessarily blend 66 "He hath sent me-for the recovering of sight to the blind." On what numberless, and what delicate hinges does human comfort turn! Who can describe "the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to?" Were the kindness of Nature or the care of Providence to be suspended but for a day, into what a lazar-house would the world be instantly transformed! The defect of a nailed with moral corruption of the grossest of a little finger is a blemish in organization, but a blemish which nature seldom permits; how much less a deficiency of one of the nobler parts, or a disarrangement of the whole system! "But that the works of God should be made manifest," a "man is blind from his birth;" and another loses "the precious treasure of his eyesight." Of the two, the latter surely is the greater evil. We cannot regret what we have hardly an idea of, what we never possessed, and to which we become perfectly reconciled before we are conscious of existence. But to recollect the pleasures kind. Thus are both Jews and Gentiles involved in thick darkness, and both under the dominion of sin; "God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all." The promises of Messiah are of equal extent; as "a salvation prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of his people Israel." "He is sent, to set at liberty them that are bruised." We have here a representation of human misery in every circumstance of aggravation; poverty, mental depression, cap tivity, blindness, fetters of iron. There is in, this gradation, perhaps, an allusion to the horrid treatment of unhappy prisoners on falling into the hands of their enemies. They were shut up in prison their eyes were thrust out, they were loadea with chains. Thus was Samson treated, the moment his strength failed, and his cruel adversaries had obtained power over him: "The Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prisonhouse." And the sight of his wretchedness they called sport. In this manner could one king act by another. "So they took the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they gave judgment upon him. And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon." Such are the dreadful abuses which a man commits against his brother! such is the dreadful malignity of the human heart; such the detestable working of "the carnal mind," which "is enmity against God," and an unrelenting foe to man! 66 This enumeration of human woes, is equivalent to a declaration, that whatever may be the nature, and whatever the extent of the malady, the promised deliverer should come provided with a suitable remedy. And when he did come, he not only exercised this gracious power himself; for "they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them;" but he communicated the same salutary virtue to his disciples also; "He gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease." And thus was the scripture fulfilled. The prophecy contains one important article more: servant to a Hebrew, "he and his children The sequel of this service of the synagogue, and the effect which it produced, will be the subject of the next Lecture. Learn, Christian, to compare Scripture with Scripture, and predictions with their corresponding events. Search diligently for him to whom all the prophets give witness, and in whom "all the promises of God are yea, and in Him amen, unto the glory of God." Much is clearly manifested, and pointedly applied; but much still remains to be brought to light. Truth will not obtrude itself on the careless, superficial reader or observer, but discloses its hidden charms to the diligent, the devout, and the inquisitive. It is the injunction of Christ himself: "Search the Scriptures; for The Anointed is sent to preach the accept- in them ye think ye have eternal life: and able year of the Lord. "The law had a they are they which testify of me." Search shadow of good things to come." With its then in this particular view, and you will severity was blended a powerful infusion of have to tell to others what Philip said to Namercy and mildness, the particulars of which thaniel; "We have found him of whom Mohad a direct reference to the times and the ses in the law, and the prophets, did write, spirit of the Gospel. Of these, the year of Jesus of Nazareth." "With joy shall ye jubilee was one of the most distinguished. draw water out of these wells of salvation:" It was ushered in with the sound of the trum- and having tasted how sweet and refreshing pet, "proclaiming liberty throughout all the it is, you will be disposed to impart it to land, unto all the inhabitants thereof." On others, for in this, if in any case, the saying the return of this hallowed fiftieth year, debts of the wise man is verified: "There is that were remitted; alienated lands reverted to scattereth and yet increaseth :" and "it is the original proprietor; the Hebrew bond-more blessed to give than to receive." |