LECTURE. We have been reading how that, when one possessed with a devil, blind and dumb, was brought to Jesus, he restored him immediately to the use of his sight and speech, by casting out the devil, "insomuch that the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the Son of David?"—that is, that Son of David whom they looked for according to promise, and who was to work a great salvation for them. The common people, you see, judged right, and thought the very thing which Christ said for himself upon the occasion. It was a clear case with them, that, if he cast out devils, then the kingdom of God was come unto them; though the Pharisees, a sect of the Jews, conceited of their knowledge and holiness, but bitter enemies to Christ, and always stark blind, boldly affirmed, that he wrought his miracles by the help of the devil, which was just as likely as that Satan should act by his own power against his own interest, and destroy himself. Well then, the matter is plain; Christ was the Son of David, the promised Saviour, and the kingdom of God was come with him; his works proved it, and there is no resisting the force of this evidence. But, I beseech you, do not stop here. Consider what you have to do for yourselves, and how you are to improve our Lord's miracles to the benefit of your own souls. When you read of his mighty works, one chapter after another, and are told, moreover, that he did many other signs, which it would have been endless to set down in writing, ask yourselves for what purpose chiefly he wrought them. You know it was that he might be acknowledged as the Christ of God, the Saviour of the world. Whose Christ, whose Saviour? Do you mean yours? Do you think of yourself? Have you seen a want of him? Do you know of a truth that you are undone without him? Are you come to him for life; and are you now in his hands, to be helped, healed, and saved by him? If not, what is he to you? I have no intention, in any thing that I say, to call in question the efficacy and great blessing of your baptism; but what can it signify to you, if your own faith does not entitle you to the benefit of it, and prove you to be in a regenerate state? Why do you call Christ your Saviour, if you do not live in the belief of his being so, or have no saving work for him to do? You have sins innumerable to be forgiven; and every one of them brings you under a sentence of death, from which you must be absolved in perpetually renewed acts of repentance and faith. You are by nature the corrupt trees, which can bring forth no good fruit. What will you do in this extremity? Will you not look to Christ? Will you not beg of him to give you repentance, to take the load of guilt from your hearts and consciences, and to change your nature? Will you not call earnestly to him for help, every one for himself, as you would if you saw your house on fire? Can you be thoughtless and indifferent when all is at stake with you for life or death, heaven or hell? He says, "He that is not with me is against me." You will not own that you are against Christ; but, you see, he is at a word with us; and if we are not with him in will and desire, and hearty concern for ourselves, he reckons that we are against him; as we certainly are, if we make so little account of his salvation as not to think it worth seeking after, or not better to us than all the world. And if would know whether he has it to lay to your charge you that you are against him, or, which is the same thing, not with him, consider what thoughts you have of him and of yourselves now while I am speaking; bethink yourselves whether you ever asked any thing of him in your whole lives; I do not mean in a cold, formal way, or a bare saying of prayers, whether at church, or at home, but with careful, feeling hearts, and truth of desire. Were you ever burdened with your sin? Have you seen yourselves without righteousness and without strength, corrupt and helpless, and, in this sight of your condition, have you cried to him, " Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me?" Believe it, my dear friends, you must know both Christ and yourselves, what he is, and what he must of all necessity do for you, if ever you are the better for him. If ever he comes near to you with a saving work, and to set up his kingdom in your souls, he will bring you to him one by one, every man for himself, with an humble confession of your vileness, with thankfulness to God for providing such a sacrifice of atonement for you, with desire to have all your sins laid upon him, with full purpose to lay them down at his feet, and with sincere prayer to walk worthy of the mercy which is offered to you, by a patient continuance in well-doing. PRAYER. Grant, O Lord, that our faith in thy sight may never be reproved. As thou hast given us thy Son Jesus Christ to heal all the diseases of our souls, give us grace to believe in him as our Saviour and mighty Deliverer. Open our eyes to see the greatness of thy mercy, and loose our tongues to speak thy praise. Take from us all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of thy word; that, beholding the miracles he wrought by the power of the Holy Ghost, we may be led by the same We are by Spirit to commit our souls to him, to trust in his name for the pardon of all our sins, and for strength against them, knowing that he only can bind the strong man in us, subdue the stubborn opposition of our wills, and deliver us from the power and malice of the devil. Oh let our eyes be to him, and our hearts with him, for his grace and work of power in us. nature the corrupt tree, and the fruit of it is evil, and only evil continually. Convince us of our misery and great want, and graft us into Christ; that, partaking of his nature, we may grow up to thee in love, abound in all good words and works, have our fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life, for the sake, and through the alone merits of the same Jesus Christ, our blessed Saviour and Redeemer. Amen. SECTION XXVI. ST. MATTHEW, Xii. 38. THEN certain of the Scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.-What they had already seen and heard was abundantly sufficient, if it had met with a right disposition: but what can convince those who will not be convinced, especially those who are wise and righteous in their own eyes ? If we truly desired to see the miracle of our own healing and conversion by Christ, we should soon see the force of all the rest. Ver. 39. But he answered, and said to them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign.—Evil, and thoroughly evil, whatever else they did, because adulterous, by taking their hearts from God. Observe the sharpness of the reproof, and dread to hear it from his mouth. - —And there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah. What they required was some extraordinary sign, greater and more convincing than any he had wrought. One such he tells them they should have, viz. his resurrection from the dead. Ver. 41. The men of Nineveh, &c. repented at the preaching of Jonas, and behold, a greater than Jonas is here Now preaching repentance to you, calling you to it, at this time and place, in these very words, and pronouncing that very sentence upon you, if you do not repent. Ver. 49. The queen of the south, &c. came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, a greater than Solomon is here.-O! what a shame it is for those who call themselves Christians, to be so little athirst for his wisdom, so backward to hear it, and so little acquainted with that holy book in which it is taught! How criminal is their neglect! What blindness is in their hearts! How just, how great will be their condemnation ! Ver. 43. He walketh through dry places.- Desert, uninhabited places. -Seeking rest, and findeth none. From this and the following verse, we learn that it is some kind of rest, or ease, to evil spirits, to be in men. How this comes to pass we need not inquire, as we cannot know. How to keep them from us, we must know at our peril. Ver. 44. He findeth it empty, swept, and garnishedEmpty of God, and prepared for his reception. - Ver. 45. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation. Their condition will be more desperate, and the devil have more full possession of them than ever, upon their refusing the means of grace and salvation offered them by Christ. All are exposed to this danger, |