acles like thefe the Spirit of Chrift is exhibiting every day. Do we not fee: Q that the spectacle were more common? Do we not fee loftinefs of ftation united to lowlinels of mind a hard lot to a contented fpirit; the fulness of this world to the exceeding riches of the grace of God? When the Son of God came for the falvation of a loft world, "verily he took not on him the nature of angels." But more wonderful ftill! he united the divine nature to the human, and thereby became at once an object of fupreme adoration, and a familiar infructor. What he said and did as the Lord, wife in heart and mighty in ftrength," we must ever contemplate at an awful diftance, admiring, venerating what we cannot find out unto perfection, and which we are ftill more incapable of imitating. But in what he faid and did as a man, we behold a pattern moft amiably fimple, moft powerfully impreffive, moft confummately perfect. In vain do we look any where else for that fleadiness and uniformity of character which alone can' merit the distinction of being proposed as an example. Whom elfe can we with fafety follow in every thing? In the moft perfect of mere men, while there is much to respect and to commend, there is ever a fomething to blame and to regret ; fome fault of temper, fome inconfideratenefs of expression, fome inconfiftency of conduct. But in our divine Mafter allis eflimable, uniform and confident. He prefents one and the lame character in folitude and in fociety, in the fynagogue and in domeftic retirement, at a marriage feast and before the tribunal; difplaying a native dignity undebased by an infufion of infolence, condefcenfion pure from fervility, fortitude without ferociousness, fenfibility without affectation, the fublimity of devotion with the perfect eafe of friendship. In the laft Lecture we attended this friend of mankind to the celebration of a marriage folemnity, and beheld him partaking of the pure delights of friendly and domeftic intercourse, mingling with his kindred and with the difciples whom he had chofen; and while he miraculously miniftered to their wants, as the great Ruler and Lord of nature, we obferve him, as bone of their bone, and flesh of their flefh, fympathizing in their joys, adopting their folicitudes, their wants and expectations, and joining in their converfation. Thus he tacitly and obliquely reproves that haughty referve, that unbending ftateliness, that ungracious diftance from men which frequently attempts to pafs for fuperior wifdom, fanctity and importance. We pretend not to arrange the feveral events of our Lord's history in the exact order of time. The Evangelifts difplay them in an energetic energetic fimplicity far beyond the reach of art. There is in the word of God, if it be lawful to say fo, a majestic irregularity that tranfcends the control of rule; juft as the furface of our globe, with its mountains and valleys, its precipices and plains, its rivers and oceans, defies the application of the ftraight line and of the compaffes; and as the face of the ftarry heavens prefents to the eye a magnificent affemblage of worlds fcattered about by a hand that rejects all measurement by any flandard but its own Science has indeed contrived artificial combinations and arrangements both of the heavenly bodies, and of Scripture truths, but their native glory and magnitude are not reducible to fyftems of human invention. It may be pleafant, and far from unprofitable, to afcertain dates, to unravel the chain; but it is furely of fecondary moment. The actions and events themfelves, and the evidence that they existed, are the great concern of the Chriftian world; but above all, the practical influence of thofe great truths on the hearts, the confciences, and the lives of men. Precluded from opportunities of being eminently useful at Nazareth, through the envy and unbelief of his townfmen, Jefus withdraws from that city not in anger but in forrow, though a moft cruel ungrateful and atrocious attempt upon his life had been made by its unworthy inhabitants; and he proceeds to profecute his labours of love at Capernaum, a city fituated on the fea of Galilee. From this place, it would appear, he was' called to the adjacent town of Cana, to the celebration of the marriage; and that folemnity being ended, he returns to Ca pernaum accompanied by the difciples whom he had already chofen. Here we find this Teacher fent from God ftill indefatigably pursuing the great object of his miffion, and ftill putting refpect on the word and ordinances of God. Behold him devoting the day of facred reft to useful purposes; employing the leisure and retirement from temporal concerns" which it al forded, in executing the benevolent office of inftructing the ignorant and guilty, in the way of life and falvation. know, from the general train of his public miniflrations, and particularly from the portion of Scripture, which he rehearsed and applied in the fynagogue at Nazareth, that the things written concerning himfelt conftituted the great burthen of his preaching Scripture the fource, Chrift Jefus the subject, the fabbath the season, the fynagogue the scene. "Never man fpake like this man." : We But the fervices of an earthly fanctuary muft clofe. There is a season of retirement and repofe as there is of labour and exertion. The duties of private friendship, of domestic devo tion, the rights of hospitality, the care of the body, put in their feveral claims, which must be answered. Christ accordingly "arofe out of the fynagogue, and entered into Simon's house." The accommodations of a poor fisherman's hovel, on the fhore of the lake of Genneffaiet, could not be very elegant. The fare provided by a hard-working plebeian, doomed frequently to toil all night long, without taking any thing, could not be very luxurious or delicate. But when a man gives you the fhelter of his roof, however mean, and a place at his board, however homely, he does all that a prince can do; and the difference is a paltry circumftance or two, beneath the confideration of a rational being. But the house of Peter was, at this time, not only the abode of penury, but likewise the house of mourning, for "Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever." The fabbath had not been to her a day of reft, but of agitation and pain; and the diftrels of a fick-bed might probably be aggravated by reflecting on abfence from the house of prayer, and from the comforts of the public worfhip of God. The value and importance of objects vary ftrangely, in our eftimation, as they are viewed through the medium of health or of sickness, of pain or eafe. The illufion of the world difappears, when the fever in the blood forms in the diftempered imagination, whirling orbs of perturbation, and perplexity, and defpair; or when in cold blood, confcience darts an anxious look into the world of spirits. Very different is the afpect of the fabbath in the eye, and the hour, of thoughtless diffipation, and when the fon of diffi pation is fretched on a bed of languifhing. Then he “fnuffed at it, and faid, Behold, what a weariness is it? When will the new moon be gone, that we may fell corn, and the fabbath, that we may fet forth wheat ?" But how very different are the reflections of "the days of darkness," of the "months of vanity," of the "wearifome nights," appointed, when the fleeplefs patient is constrained to cry out, When fhall I arife and the night be gone." What fruit had I then in those things, whereof I am now ashamed? for the end of those things is death." 66 The vifit of Jefus to Peter's family had more than one object in view. The friend of man retired to converse with men, the master to inftruct his difciples, the poor to feed with the poor, the weary to repose with the weary. The Son of God entered into the house to manifeft his glory, to difplay his power, to exercise his benevolence in the miraculous relief of diftrefs. Thus amply does he repay every token of affection bestowed on himself, or on one of the least of his brethren. Diftrefs Distress awakens fympathy. The children of the family cannot think of fitting down to eat bread, while the mother of it lay in extremity. Filial tenderness had undoubtedly exerted itself to the uttermoft. The poor fcrip of the Galilean had, perhaps, been drained in purchasing medicine and cordial for his afflicted mother-in-law: though this be none of the leaft of the evils which attend poverty, to behold the perfon whom we love perish for want of advice and medicine, for want of a cordial beyond the reach of our means. As a laft refource they lay her cafe before Jefus : and they befought him for her." Did he need to be importuned ?. Was he difficult of accefs? Did his goodness flow reluctantly? No, but the intercourse between heaven and earth, between the Creator and the creature is the confidence, the prayer of diftrefs meeting the benignity, the unremitting attention of the Father of mercies, who will be fought unto, that he may fhew himself gracious. "And he ftood over her, and rebuked the fever, and it left her." The miracle of turning water into wine was effected by a fimple act of the will, without either gefture or speech, and the evidence of it refted, in part, on the teftimony of the fervants who had filled the pots with water. Here we have both gefture and speech, and the immediate and perfonal conviction of all who were in the house. In nothing is the fovereignty of Deity more confpicuously difplayed than in the manner of his acting. It is fo unlike human conjecture, that the pride of man is apt to be offended that Providence did not obferve the mode which his fagacity had prescribed. Naaman the Syrian had settled, in his own mind, the whole process of the cure of his own leprofy. "Behold, I thought, He will furely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God. and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper." Not one iota of his conjecture was realized. The prophet did not come out, nor affume the fuppofed attitude, nor pronounce the fuppofed invocation, but "fent a meffenger unto him, faying, Go and wash in Jordan feven times:" and pride is hur rying him away in a rage, to think that the rivers of Damafcus fhould be poftponed to the waters of Ifrael. Thus while prophecy has been fucceffively fulfilling, the event fo ill accorded with prevailing opinion and expectation, that while the prediction was admitted, the accomplishment, however coincident and exact, has been rejected. This divine fovereignty our bleffed Lord exercises in performing all his mighty works. He wills water into wine. Now he rebukes the difeafe, and now fpeaks to the patient. Ꮓ He He heals the fevérous fon of the nobleman, at the diftance of Cana from Capernaum, and the feverous mother of Simon's wife ftanding by her bed-fide. He anoints the blind man's eyes with clay, and fends him to wash in the pool of Siloam; he cries with a loud voice over the grave of his departed friend, "Lazarus, come forth." All demonftrates the underived and independent, as well as the almighty power of God, whofe will is the fole and the fupreme law, as to the time, the manner and the matter of the work. There is a wonderful vivacity in the unaffected concifenefs and fimplicity of the narration. He flood, he fpake, he prevailed. "He rebuked the fever." Difeafe is here perfonified, as fufceptible of reprehenfion, and of voluntary fubjection to authority, and it left her," as one who has encroached and intruded, and who feels and acknowledges the power of a fuperior repelling and cafting him out. The tranfitions of nature are gradual, flow, imperceptible in their progrefs. When the ocean is roufed into fury by the raging wind, it continues in a flate of agitation Tong after the tempeft has ceafed to roar; but when Chrift fpeaks the word, the effect is inftantaneous and complete. "He arose, and rebuked the wind, and faid unto the fea, Peace, be ftill. And the wind cealed, and there was a great calm." When the fever has spent its force, and the erifis of convalefcence has taken place, it leaves the patient feeble and languid, and it frequently requires a confiderable length of time to reftore both the body and the mind to the full exercife of their feveral functions; but when Jefus rebukes the fever, it not only in a mo ment departs, but the fufferer is at the fame moment made perfectly whole: And immediately fhe arofe, and miniftered unto them." As in creation fo in Providence, He fpeaks and it is done, he gives commandment and it ftands faft. "He is the Rock, his work is perfect." The circumftance of her miniftering to her phyfician and the family, is ftriking and inftructive. It teaches us the proper ufe of prolonged life, of restored faculties. They are to be devoted to the honour of God, and to the service of our fellow creatures. They were deeply affected by her danger, they looked in anxious expectation to the return of her health, and they befought the Lord for it; fhe employs that precious gift in contributing her beft endeavours to promote their eafe and comfort. What debt is fo facred as that of gratitude? and what beneficior has laid us under fo many and fuch unfpeakaable obligations as He who gave us life, and who fuftains it, as He who died to redeem us? We have here a beautiful and in- terefling |