XCIII. Now we fee through a glafs darkly. XCIV. These things have I spoken în proverbs. XCV. They that use the world as not abufing it. XCVI. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. SERMON JESUS had called Philip to be his difciple. Philip rejoiced to meet with a perfon, who appeared marked by the prophets as the Shiloh of Mofes the branch of Ifaiah-the holy one of David-and the Meffiah of Daniel-could not enjoy the important difcovery alone, but went to Nathaniel, a pious friend, to whom he imparted it; "We have found him," faid he, "of whom Mofes, "and the prophets did write-Jefus of Nazareth, "the fon of Jofeph." Nathaniel, it seems, was not quite so easy of belief. It occurred immediately to him, that Bethlehem, VOL. II. B lehem, not Nazareth, was marked by the prophet, as the birth-place of the Meffiah. Can that good thing, faid he, or that great perfonage (for fo it might be tranflated) come out of Nazareth? Philip, not able to answer the difficulty on the spot, defired Nathaniel to go with him to Jesus. The difficulty, it is probable, was immediately removed; for it appeared that Jefus was born in Bethlehem, and not at Nazareth: but what tended chiefly to fix Nathaniel's faith, was his learning from Jefus a private circumftance of his own life. Before Philip called thee, faid Jefus, I faw thee under the fig-tree. Nathaniel answered, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God-thou art the king of Ifrael: which was, in other words, a plain confeflion of his belief in him as the Meffiah. In the following difcourfe I fhall first fhew you on what evidence these two difciples believed in Jefus as the Meffiah; and fecondly, I fhall apply their cafe to that of the christians of these times. To fhew on what evidence these two difciples believed Jefus to be the Meffiah, we must first run over, at leaft flightly, the whole of the evidence contained in what Mofes and the prophets did write. In the contents of thefe divine books, we fhall find three kinds of prophetic evidence, if I may fo fpeak. The firft is contained in the biftory of the Jews; whofe fingular story, when feen in connection with the whole chain of prophetic evidence, fets forth, in a variety of circumstances, the redemption of the world by Christ. The call of Abraham from a heathen state reprefents the gracious call of christians to forfake the wickedness of the world.-The facrifice of Ifaac was a direct representation of the great facrifice of Chrift; performed on Mount Moriah, which most interpreters fuppofe to be the very Mount Calvary where our Saviour suffered.*—The faith, by which Abraham was led through all the difficulties of his life, is a juft representation of that faith, by which the christian is exhorted to pafs through his earthly pilgrimage to his heavenly habitation. The bondage of the Ifraelites in Egypt strongly sets forth the bondage of fin, under which mankind was reduced and the miraculous deliverance by the hand of Mofes, that ftill greater deliverance by Christ from a heavier bondage. The travels of * See 2 CHRONICLES, i. I. where we find Jerufalem flood on this mountain. the children of Ifrael through the wilderness were productive of many prophetic events. Their miraculous fupply of food from heaven-their thirst quenched with water from a rock, which St. Paul tells us was an emblem of Christ—and the lifting up of the brazen ferpent, which our Saviour himself mentions as a representation of his crucifixion -may all be called hiftorical prophecies of dif ferent parts of the chriftian difpenfation.-Then again, after the travels of the Ifraelites through the wilderness, their fettling in the land of promise, (the end of all their labours,) aptly represents that great home, which the real chriftian hath ever in his view. The fecond kind of prophetic evidence, contained in what Mofes and the prophets did write, is found in the various ceremonies of the jewish church, after it became established. Almost every one of thefe ceremonies pointed at Chrift.-But we obferve here fomething fingular. The history of the Jews, we have juft feen, gives us a typical representation of feveral circumstances with regard to the redemption of man. But the rites, and ceremonies of the jewish church feem chiefly to point out the one great end, (which was indeed the peculiar end) of Christ's coming into the world the |