XIV.

the voice of Jesus saying to him by his DISC. word, by the absolution of the church, and the teftimony of his confcience through the holy Ghost" Son, be of good cheer; "thy fins be forgiven thee. Arife, take "up thy bed, and go to thine house." And,

Lastly, my brethren, the reality of the cure of the spiritual palsy will be demonstrated to all the world exactly as that performed upon the body of the paralytic was by what followed when Christ had spoken these words to him. Straightway " he arose, took up " that whereon he lay, and" (regardless of the cenfures and calumnies of the scribes and pharifees) " departed to his house glorify" ing God," the people around him doing the fame. This will be the process with every one who by the mighty power and infinite mercy of the Redeemer is healed, upon application to him of his inability to good, his floth, and listlessness, his criminal attachment to the creature. He will arise forthwith, and as it were stand upright,

X 2

DISC. right, shewing that he now enjoys the use

XIV.

:

of his powers and faculties, and is in a posture to execute the will of God. "He " who cannot rise and stand upright, but " either continues groveling on the earth, or " falls back as foon as he gets up, is not yet

" cured of his spiritual palsy. The finner's " bed is every thing which he loves, and in "which he finds his rest and fatisfaction

66

upon earth; his criminal inclinations, and "the objects of his paffions: a true con“ verfion takes up and carries away every "thing of this nature*." And now being thus arisen, in some fort, from the dead, the man begins to lead a new life, a life of vigour and activity, setting forward in the path of life, the way of God's commandments, to “ go to his house" not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Nor will he suffer himself to be stopped in his progress by the sneers, and scoffs, and calumnies of those who have in them the spirit of the scribes and pharifees, and are

ever ready to detract from the glory of DISC. Christ, and to laugh at the remiffion of XIV. fins, and the converfion of the finner. None of these things will move the true penitent from his purpose, or prevent his "glorify"ing God" openly and before men for his mercy and goodness towards him, in his redemption from the guilt and power of fin through his Saviour Christ, both God and man. The consequence of which will be, that others will be led thereby to give glory to the God of heaven, for the mighty and wonderful work that he hath done, in restoring health and salvation to a diseased and lost soul. For surely nothing but great blindness of mind, want of faith, and love of this life, can make men rejoice more at a bodily cure, than at the converfion of a foul from fin to righteousness; a work, which is indeed spiritual and invisible, and for that reason perhaps the less regarded; but it is a work that far furpasses all the miracles wrought upon matter - a work, to accomplish which, the Son of God died; and to celebrate which, the angels tune their golden

X3

DISC. golden harps to everlasting HallelujahsXIV. " Christ Jesus came into the world to fave

" sinners:" and "there is joy in heaven, among the angels of God, over one fin" ner that repenteth." Which joy therefore let us labour to increase, while it is in our power, by arising from all sloth and inactivity of spirit, and walking in all holiness and righteousness, without being weary or faint in our minds, until we come to the home and house of eternal reft, through him who says to every true penitent and fincere believer, in the perfon of the " man fick of the palsy-Son, be of good "cheer; thy fins be forgiven thee. Arife, " take up thy bed, and go to thine house." To him, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be ascribed, &c.

1

DISCOURSE XV.

ON THE TWENTY-NINTH OF MAY.

PSALM LXXXVII. 2.

The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.

W

HEN we take a view of the re- DISC. volutions that have happened in

the kingdoms of the world, and behold

a

Equidem paradoxum quid dixero; et nihilominus vere: Imperia omnia mundi secundum Dei Providentiam fic fuisse ordinata, ut subservirent confilio Dei erga ecclefiam, nec eorum difssolutionem aut destructionem alio referendam; ut proinde eorum destructio, qualis fuit Perfarum, certo fuerit argumentum, illud non satisfecisse confilio Dei erga ecclesiam; nec populum fuum ea æquitate, juftitia, et indulgentia tractasse, qua par erat.

VITRINGA Comment. in Zach. i. 20. 203.
mighty

x 4

xv.