live; and "it is better for thee to enter into life halt and maimed, rather than having two hands, or two feet, to be cast into everlasting fire." No sooner had our Saviour entered Capernaum than another opportunity was presented of displaying his goodness and power. For, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed."-How numerous, how various, are the objects of human wretchedness! What proofs of the evil of sin are perpetually striking our very senses. What daily calls have we, in the distresses of others, to be thankful for our own exceptions and indulgences. What room is there for the daily exercise of pity and benevolence. How happy was our Saviour, who never saw a misery that he was not able to alleviate, to remove. The subject of this narrative was the victim of a distemper that rendered life useless and burdensome, though not immediately dangerous. The palsy is a partial death, depriving the limbs affected of sensibility and motion. The poor creature, therefore, when he heard of the fame of Jesus, was unable to go to him for relief. But it was his happiness to have those around him who were disposed to acts of humanity and compassion. The impotent man at the pool of Bethesda complained that "he had no one, when the water was troubled, to put him in." But this paralytic had some neighbours, friends, or relations, who brought him. And it is said, our Lord "saw their faith." There was faith in the poor man; or he would have refused their assistance, and have saidTrouble not yourselves-my case is hopeless -let me alone to exhaust the remains of a miserable existence. But there was a cooperation; they also had faith, or they would not have taken the journey, and the trouble. They had a persuasion of our Lord's ability and mercy; and therefore they agreed to bring the helpless patient, and place him under the Saviour's view. And thus they, in a very material sense, became instrumental of his cure. And herein they are an example to us. We should endeavour to do good. The ways in which we may render ourselves useful are numberless. Who is so limited as to be able to do nothing for a fellow-creature? Silver and gold you may have none. You may not have the resources of office, of genius, of learning. But who cannot advise? Who cannot speak a word in season? Who cannot sympathize? Who cannot pray? Who cannot bring to the throne of grace-the ignorant, the guilty, the afflicted, the perishing, and say, "Lord Jesus, have mercy on them? And in doing this let us remember for our encouragement, that our Saviour never turned a deaf ear to prayer-not only when it was offered for the petitioner himself, but also when it implored relief for others. Did the leper obtain a cure for himself? So did the nobleman for his son. So did the centurion for his servant. We are not told that the man said any thing. Nor was it necessary. His situation, lying motionless on his bed; his features, his looks-all pleaded loud enough for him. Nor did they plead in vain. Jesus said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee." But did not the man come for a bodily cure? Was any thing said of his guilt? Why then does our Saviour reverse the order, and begin with the pardon of sin? First.-To display his sovereignty. Has he not a right to do what he will with his own?-Is it not becoming in us, who have no claims upon him, to leave the time and the way of communicating his favours to the good pleasure of his will; and be thankful if he blesses us at all? We may pray, but we must not dictate. Secondly. To show that the soul is of more importance than the body, and should be principally cared for, even in sickness. We never need a physician so much as we do a Saviour. Thirdly. Perhaps the man was convinced of sin. Perhaps he suffered more from spiritual distress than from bodily pain. Perhaps he desired a pardon more earnestly than a cure; though he might have had no apprehension of our Lord's authority to bestow it. Words are not necessary to inform the Redeemer. He knows what is in man. Our desire is before him, and our groaning is not hid from him. Fourthly.-It would serve to emit a ray of his glory, and prove a test to try the dispositions of the company. And, accordingly, so it fell out. For, "behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth." What, could not He do good without censure, and shall we wonder at reproach, or be deterred by it from the course of duty? It is enough that the servant be as his master, and the disciple as his Lord. Is it sinful to harbour suspicions and surmisings; and to condemn actions unknown and unexamined? It is. Does he arraign men even for their thoughts? He does. And he is acquainted with them: and "there is no creature that is not manifest in his sight: for all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." "Jesus knowing their thoughts, said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts!" This indication of his being privy to sentiments, which, though they harboured, they had not expressed, would serve to raise his character, and vindicate the prerogative he claimed. But he does more. He makes use of a sensible argument, and suited to their carnal minds, which at the same time was a 66 very decisive one, and such as could not fail to produce immediate conviction. If he could not forgive sins without a divine authority, neither could he work miracles without a divine energy and the exertion of the one would substantiate the possession of the other, or render it credible. For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. And he arose, and departed to his house." Here several things are worthy of notice. The cure was effected by a word and in an instant! We think much, by the application of medicine, or the use of means, of easing a pain, or gradually removing it. If the constitution be renovated, it must be the work of time; strength is renewed by degrees, and requires food, and air, and exercise. But this man in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, feels himself enlivened; and becomes a new creature. draw a man off from his calling, but to teach him therein to abide with God." "If any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." A man is really in religion what he is relatively and he is more to be judged of by what he is in his own house than by what he is in the house of God. : It is easy to imagine what an affecting scene his return would produce. How far or how long he had been from home we cannot conjecture; but his connexions would be anxious for the success of the trial. Perhaps in this cottage was an old withered mother, who waited only to know the event before she departs in peace. Perhaps a wife-perhaps children were there! They are look ing out between hope and fear. By-and-by they see him not borne of four-but walking-and carrying his bed-his neighbours walking by his side. He enters. Who has not known what it is to receive back a dear friend or relation from the grave! How much more vivid is the joy arising from the It may be asked why he is commanded not recovery of a blessing, than the pleasure of only to walk, but to take up his bed? Was continued possession!-His first concern is to it to show more fully the reality and the adore, with his family, the Preserver of men. completeness of the cure, in that he could-But the principal thing in his extraordinary not only use his limbs, but carry a burden? case was, that, like the publican, he has re-Was it to teach him not to be wasteful; as turned to his house justified-divinely par in another case, after the miraculous abund-doned and assured of it; as sure of the salvaance which fed the multitude, he said- tion of his soul as of the cure of his body. "Gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost?"-Or was it to be a memento of his First, fix our eyes on Jesus; the most disease and deliverance? The mind is ap- prominent figure in every piece of evangeli proached through the medium of sense. We cal history. What a wonderful, what a need every assistance. "Samuel took a stone, peculiar, what a lovely, what a glorious and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and character does he sustain! Wherever we called the name of it Eben-ezer, saying, open the memoirs of his life, as given us by Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." This the evangelists, we find in him an originality, man could never see his bed without think-as free from all affectation and eccentricity, ing, "There I lay, when he took pity upon as it is from commonness. We discern the me. And I said, My strength and my hope brightness of his glory, and the express image is perished from the Lord: remembering of his person, whose grandeur is his goodness mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not."" Again. He was ordered to return home. A man who sought his own glory would have detained him to swell the number of his followers, and to produce a trophy of his power. There is little benevolence in all our beneficence. There is often more vanity than kindness in what we do for our fellow-creatures. But he only thinks of us; and selfishness deducts nothing from his benefits.-This man had a house, and it was the sphere of his duty. "Go, and there rejoice thy friends. Go, and there fill up every relative duty. Go, and there shadow forth a spiritual cure. Go and prove that conversion is designed not to Let us, in drawing towards a close, and who has named himself the "God of love." We always see him employed in revealing some truth, in conferring some benefit, in working some miracle. We al ways see him acting in harmony with him self, and in conformity to the design of his coming into the world, which was to seek and to save that which was lost.-Behold him the physician of soul and body; behold him the friend of man, for time and for eternity; behold him casting out none that come unto him; behold him doing "for them exceeding abundantly above all they are able to ask or think!"-And shall we peruse his life as we would the history of a Cyrus or an Alexander? Shall we read it only to amuse our minds, or merely to inform our understandings? Oh! let the blessed relation interest our hopes and our affections. Let it render him precious to us, as he is to these that believe. Let us, "beholding as in aed to the soul, and made the imprisoned inglass his glory, be changed into the same mate long for release. image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord!" Secondly. Think of this man; and suffer me to inquire how far his case represents your own. I would address you under a fourfold supposition. First. Are any of you distressed in mind, and body too; oppressed at once with disease and guilt? It is a sad case; but the best thing you can do is to go to him, and address him in the language of one who has been in the same state before you. "Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak: O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed. My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O Lord, how long? Return, O Lord, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies' sake. For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks? Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins." Secondly. Has he healed thy body, and not said to thy soul, "I am thy salvation?" O be not satisfied with the inferior blessing. Rest not till you are justified by faith, and have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It would be infinitely better to have the forgiveness of sins, and be left languishing under incurable disease, than to be released from the most dreadful malady, and left under the guilt of sin. What are fifteen years added to our life, to go on treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath, and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God! Thousands have been recovered from the borders of the grave, and have afterwards He has done enough to secure your welfare and happiness, whatever your outward condition may be: for "blessed is the man whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sin Your trials are without a sting, is covered." and will soon be removed for ever; and "the inhabitant shall no more say, I am sick." Fourthly. Are there none here who are freed from sickness and condemnation too? Such was the distinguished privilege of this Thus it was with Hezekiah. In poor man. his mercy, assurance of pardon and recovery "Behold, for from disease were combined. peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back." If this be your case, resemble him. Say, "The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth." Say with David, after his remarkable salvation, "Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living." Publish his praise, and constrain others to come to him. Say to "O taste and your neighbours and friends, see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him." DISCOURSE LXV. seen not only the pit of corruption, but of THE WORK OF THE DAY DONE IN destruction. What are the nine ungrateful lepers the better for their cure now! Many never think of this. They are only concerned to escape from a bed of sickness. Whether their souls are blessed or injured by the visitation, is no inquiry with them. But it is an awful thing to have an affliction removed and not sanctified. THE DAY. As the duty of every day required. TIME, with regard to many-I use the words of Solomon, is "a price in the hand of fools." They know not its value, nor the importance of the things they could purchase with it, if properly laid out; and therefore they barter it away upon trifles, or heedlessly lose it. But the talent is the same, notwithstanding the ignorance of the possessor. Thirdly. Has he spoken peace to thy conscience, and is thy body still under the influence of disease? Be thankful that the Yes-time-time is unspeakably precious. greater work is accomplished, and submit to his pleasure with regard to the less. You And this is readily acknowledged by all those may pray for ease and deliverance from your who know the worth of it by the loss. O affliction: but it must be conditionally; "Not what would the miserable in hell give for a my will, but thine be done." He may have little of that time which many consume in ends to answer by keeping you in affliction doing nothing, or worse than nothing! O after he has pardoned you. He may design what thoughts of time has a dying sinner, to endear to you the scriptures and the throne who has lived without God in the world! If of grace; to wean you from a vain world; to heaven would lengthen his days, he would afford you opportunities to prove the tender- accept the boon on the hardest condition that ness of his care, and the supports of his could ever be proposed. Could he only but presence. Bodily infirmities, like breaks in live, he would be content to labour in a mine, a wall, says Watts, have often been avenues or beg his bread from door to door. Ah! how through which the light of heaven has enter-feelingly then does he admonish children, 2 G 20* friends, and neighbours to number their days, | into these new scenes old habits that cannot and "apply their hearts unto wisdom!" No wonder, therefore, that the Apostle should call upon us to "redeem the time;" that is, to improve it, by devoting it to the purposes for which it was given. In doing this, there is no one rule of greater importance that that which we may lawfully draw from the words before us; in which we are informed that the pious Jews returned from Babylon, having erected an altar, kept also the feast of tabernacles as it is written, and offered the daily burnt-offerings by number, according to the custom, "as the duty of every day required." It is in the margin, "the matter of the day in his day." This has grown into a proverbial saying among those who love Scripture phraseology; and teaches us that we should do the work of the day in the day. I. WE MAY APPLY THIS TO LIFE IN GENERAL This is called "a day"-and it is a single day-a short day-a day which it is impossible to lengthen. And what is the language of reason; of Scripture? "To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart. Behold now--is the day of salvation." And what will be your language if the same mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus? "I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day; the night cometh, wherein no man can work." II. IT WILL APPLY TO PROSPERITY. This is called "a day;" and Solomon tells us what is the duty of it. In the day of prosperity be joyful." He cannot, we may be assured, intend to countenance extravagance and excess. The good creatures of God's providence are not given to be consumed upon our Iusts, or to degrade a man below the beasts that perish. We are to use this world, but we are to use it as not abusing it. The wise man would teach us to enjoy the comforts our circumstances afford, in opposition to that self-denial that arises, not from religious motive, but from anxiety; from a disposition to live comparatively poor and destitute at present, in order to hoard up for the future. Whereas the Apostle tells us, that "God gives us all things richly to enjoy." Those men are to be pitied who possess much and enjoy little; who have the blessings of life in abundance, but no heart to use them. These generally promise themselves great enjoyment hereafter when they shall have obtained so much. But what is the result? Their souls are often required of them before the expected season, "and then whose are those things which they have provided?"When they do reach this period, they feel the infirmities of nature, or the assaults of disease; many of their connexions, who would once have shared their joys along with them, are lodged in the cold grave, while those that remain are praying for their death: and when to all this we add, that they carry be changed; what wonder is it that they "have no pleasure in them?" We should never sacrifice present happiness to future imaginations. God, like a generous friend, is pleased to see his presents enjoyed-" to enjoy is to obey." Yea, such is the goodness of our heavenly Benefactor, that he does not desire us, even by a sense of our unworthiness, to lessen our relish of his favours. But let us be always joyful in him; let us enjoy all in God, and God in all. For, behold another thing that the duty of this day requires. It is gratitude. The more you have received from God, the greater is your obligation to him; and your language should be, "Bless the Lord, Ŏ my soul, and forget not all his benefits." In order to this, you must never sacrifice unto your own net, nor burn incense unto your own drag, be cause by them your portion is fat, and your meat plenteous; but "remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth. The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it." Compare your circumstances with those of others, whose plans are equally wise, and whose dependences seemed equally sure.Compare your present with your former condition; the "two bands" with the "staff” Compare your indulgences with your deserts: and how can you be unthankful? And surely the duty of this "day" requires liberality. He had others in view as well as yourselves, in all that he has done for you He has made you stewards, and not proprie tors; and he will soon call you to give up your account. This is your rule: "Let every one lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him. Charge them that are rich in this world that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate." III. IT WILL APPLY TO ADVERSITY. This also is called "a day;" and it is said, "in the day of adversity, consider." This is the grand duty of the season. Whatever be your afflic tion, it is a solemn call to consider your ways; to examine your hearts and lives; to inquire wherefore he contends with you; and what he would have you to do. You are also to consider the alleviations of your suffering; how much worse it might have been; and to compare your resources with your difficulties. Another part of the duty this "day" requires is submission. This is what the apos tle Peter prescribes, with promise: "Submit yourselves under the mighty hand of God, and he shall exalt you in due time:" and this is that which the apostle Paul so beautifully enforces "Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits,and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us from play, but in rendering instruction more personal and minute, by some kind of examination and inquiry. In doing this, it is neither necessary nor proper to make the service long and irksome. It may be serious, and yet short and interesting too. "What a dismal day have you described! after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness." This subjection does not exclude feeling, but regulates it; keeping us, while sensible of the affliction, from quarreling with Providence, from charging him foolishly or unkindly, and leading us to say, "It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good." This, says an oldIt is a hard saying; who can hear it?"divine, turns the stroke of the rod into a kiss. But hard to whom?-To you? If so-what The duty of this day also requires prayer. can we think of your disposition !—And what "Call upon me in the day of trouble. Is any can you think of spending an eternity in reafflicted? Let him pray." The very exer-ligious exercises?-Hard! To whom? Not cise of it will soothe him, while the answer to a Christian. These are his "pleasant of it will deliver him. Indeed, prayer is the things." He does not say, "What a weariprivilege, rather than the duty, of sufferers. ness it is to serve the Lord; when will the Who ever tried it in distress and could not Sabbath be gone!" He resigns it with relucsay, "It is good for me to draw near to God?" tance; and in the enjoyment of its privileges IV. WE MAY APPLY IT TO THE SABBATH. he begins to enter "the rest that remains for This is called "the Lord's day" because it is the people of God." When once a regard consecrated to the memory of his resurrec- for the Sabbath is gone, every thing serious tion, and is employed in his service. But as goes with it. Have we to learn this? to advantage, it is our day. It "was made for man." It is a day in which we enjoy a solemn repose from worldly employment; in which we lay in a store of spiritual supplies for the week; in which we meet God in his ordinances, and see him in the sanctuary. Such a season has peculiar claims upon us, and we are commanded "to sanctify it, calling the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; not doing our own ways, nor finding our own pleasure, nor speaking our own words." Some profane it. Some trifle it away. And let me remind you, that it may be trifled away even in divine things. If you go to the house of God, but "leave your souls behind;" if with your mouth you show much love, but your heart goeth after your covetousness; if you hear his words, however frequently, and do them not-in vain do you worship him. Can this be doing all the duty of the day? Our obligation does indeed take in public worship; and a Christian will say, "With early feet I love t' appear "How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord Lastly. IT WILL APPLY TO EVERY DAY. No day comes without its appropriate duty. There is something to be done for God; our fellow-creatures; ourselves: something religious, and something secular. We are not even to neglect any of the duties of our civil concerns. We are to be diligent in our respective callings. And not only so—but we are to do every thing in its season; to do the work of the day in the day; and not leave it till to-morrow. First, because we may not live till to-mor"We know not what a day may bring row. forth." Secondly. Each day will have its own engagements, and it is wrong to surcharge one period with the additional work of another: "Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof." Note. It is unlawful to encumber to-day with the care of to-morrow; and to encumber to-morrow with the work of to-day. Thirdly. Because, by this temporary negligence, we have nothing to do, or too much; whereas, by doing the work of the day in the day, we are never unoccupied, never oppressed; we keep our affairs under easy management, and never suffer them to accumulate into a discouraging mass. Fourthly. Because by this means the mind is kept cool, and tranquil, and cheerful; and we shall know nothing of the perplexities and ill temper of those who are always in confusion and haste. To verify this important maxim, let me lay down three rules. |