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gry perishing wretch? Is the friendly haven defirable to the tempeft-toffed mariner, and liberty to the languishing captive? What then to an ignorant, guilty, perifhing world must that wonderful man be whom Providence has railed up to be a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempeft; as rivers of water in a dry place; as the fhadow of a great rock in a weary land.”

But what if when he fhall appear, defirable as he is, a blind world fhall fee" no form or comelinefs in him, no beauty why he fhould be defired ?" Afflicting thought!" He was despifed and rejected of men ?" "He came to his own and his own received him not." They " denied the holy one, and the juft, and defired a murderer to be granted unto them." The cry was" away with him, crucify him;" his "blood be upon us and upon our children!" O Lord, remove the film from the eyes of those prejudiced Jews; difpofe them to receive "The Prince of Peace," let him be all their falvation and all their defire. Lord. remove the film from my eyes that I may fee in him, whom God the Father hath fent and fealed, one "fairer than the children of men; into whofe lips grace is poured" that though he may be " unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishnefs, He may be unto us who believe, Chrift, the power of God, and the wisdom of God." Amen.

LECTURÈ

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LECTURE IV.

LUKE I. 11-20.

And there appeared unto him an Angel of the Lord landing on the right fide of the altar of incenfe. And when Zacharias jaw him he was troubled and fear fell upon him. But the Angel faid unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: For thy prayer is heard and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a fon, and thou fhalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and giad nefs; and many fhall rejoice at his birth. For he fhall be great in the fight of the Lord, and fhall drink neither wine nor ftrong drink; and he fhall be filed with the Holy Ghoft, even from his mother's womb. and many of the children of Ifrael fhall he turn to the Lord their God. And he fhall go before him in the Spirit and Power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the Fathers to the children, and the d jobedient to the wifdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. And Zacharias faid unto the ringel, whereby shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife well fricken in years. And the Angel anfwering laid unto him, I am Gabri el, that ftand in the prefence of God; and am fent to speak unto thee, and to fhew thee thefe glad traings. And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that thefe things fhall be performed, because thou believeft not my words, which fhall be fulfilled in their feafon.

"THE

HE prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghoft." Being determined through the courfe of these exercises to avoid every thing that has the appearance of controversy, I take it for granted that you believe and receive the hiftory of our bleffed Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift, as delivered in the four gofpels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, as of divine infpiration and authority. Of the four Evangelifts two were of the number of the twelve whom Chrift called to the office of apostleship, and who recorded events of which they were witneffes and partakers, and transcribed difcourfes which they heard and well remembered. The other two derived their information

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formation immediately from thofe "who from the beginning were eye witnefles and minifters of the word." Their harmony, in every particular of any importance, is a proof of the truth and certainty of each individually, and of the whole. John, as one borne aloft on the wings of an eagle, afcends into the heaven of heavens, and begins his account of his beloved Mafter with a fublime and interefting reprefentaion of his divine nature'; for which we refer you to Lecture I. Mark introduces "the beginning of the gospel of Jefus Chrift the Son of God," with the voice of a lion ing in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths ftraight." Luke ufhers in the great Prophet, "the defire of all nations," with an account of the conception and birth of his forerunner John the Baptift, and is of courfe led to extract the commencement of the evangelical, out of the legal difpenfation; and he fets out with exhibiting Zacharias in the exercife of the prieft's office. Matthew commences at once with the hiftory of Chrift's humanity, as the fon of David, the fon of Abraham. For thefe reafons, the four facred hiftorians of the New Teftament difpenfation have been diftinguished by correfponding fymbolical representations, analogous to the vifion of the prophet Ezekiel, Matthew by the face of a man, Mark by that of a lion, Luke by that of an ox, and John by that of an eagle.

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St. Luke was by profeffion a phyfician; he became early a profelyte to the Jewish religion, and he is generally supposed to have been one of Chrift's first difciples, and of the number of the feventy whom He fent out two and two into every city and place, whither he himfelt would come." After he had concluded the hiftory of our Lord himself, at the period of his afcenfion into heaven, he undertook that of the acts of the Apoftles, and he addreffes both his books to a person of amiable character and exalted rank, named Theophilus, and in him, to every lover of God, in every age of the Church, who is defirous to know "the certainty of the things wherein he has been instructed." On the converfion of St. Paul to the Chriftian faith, he feems to have attached himself with much zeal and affection to that great Apoftle of the Gentiles, he be came voluntarily the companion of his travels and afflictions, and brought down his hiftory to his arrival at Rome as a prifoner, on an appeal to the Emperor Nero. His gofpel and hiftory of the acts were probably fubmitted to the inspection of his illuftrious fellow-traveller, and received the feal of his approbation. In the preface to the gospel infcribed with his

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name, he modefily, yet with firmnefs, lays claim to the great, the effential qualification of a hiftorian, namely, accurate and complete information refpećting his fubject, "having," fays he, had perfect understanding of all things, from the very firft:" and the profeffed end which he had in view is no lefs worthy of a great and enlightened mind, that a refpected friend might be established in the knowledge, faith, and hope of the gofpel. The tongue of prophecy had now been fient for more than four hundred years. The laft word which it had Spoken announced the fending of Elijah the prophet, to precede the great and notable day of the Lord, to work a remark-. able change in the temper and character of mankind, to prevent the earth from being " fmitten with a curfe."

A period of dark nefs and diforder fucceeded. The land which had been for ages fo renowned in hiftory feems as if blotted out of the globe; the people, which had been hung up as a fign before the eyes of fo many fucceffive generations, feems to be extinguished and loft; the predictions and promifes which conferred upon them fuch high importance, and duzation fo extended, feem to have been defeated and rendered of no effect. The throne of David, whofe permanency was fo often, and fo folemnly declared, has funk into the earth and difappeared. The representative of the royal line of Judah is funk into an humble carpenter: and all hope of revival is at an end. But the Lord hath fpoken and fhall he not do it, he hath promised and fhall he not bring it to pafs? Yes, but not at the feafon, nor in the way which human wisdom would have prescribed, nor by means which human wifdom would have employed. Behold light once more, and fuddenly, fhines out of darkness: the land of Ifrael rifes once more into importance; Jerufalem rears her head among the nations, the ftar of Jacob arifes," a rod fprings out of the ftem of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots;" and the glory of the latter temple eclipfes that of the former.

The Evangelift informs us that at this eventful period Herod was King of Judea. "Princes are often among the inferior actors in the great drama of Providence. Their will shakes the nations of the earth, but the hearts and arms of Kings themselves are in the hands of the Lord, to be by him turned which way foever he will. This man has by fome been dignified with the addition of "the great :" an appellation more frequently beftowed as a reward to fplendid vice, than as a tribute to modest merit. Herod the great! and yet a paltry fubftitute of a Roman Empeior, an habitual flave to the vileft of hu

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man paffions, envy, luft, jealoufy, cruelty, revenge. The inspired penman gives him no names, either go d or bad, but fimply tells his ftory as far as it is connected with that of Him by whom "Kings reign and Princes decree judgment." The reign of Herod to us ferves merely as a prologue to introduce the more important name and hiftory of an ancient, obfcure priest called Zacharias, and our attention is inftantly called away from the fplendor, noise and intrigue of a busy, vain-glorious, debauched court, to contemplate the humble concerns of a private family, and the noifelefs performance of a religous fervice.

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How different are the ideas affixed to the terms great and little by fober reafon and popular opinion, by the wildom of. God and the folly of man! Weighed in the balance of the fanctuary, Herod fawning on Auguftus, or on one of his favorites, diffolved in luxury, ftained with blood, inflamed with refentment, is little and contemptible; while the aged priest, reconciled to the will of God, who had written him childlefs, purluing the calm tenor of his way, fulfilling the unoftentatious duties of his place and itation, rigtheous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blamelefs," commands affection, efteem and refpect. This venerable pair, Zacharias and Elizabeth, were both of the tribe of Levi, on which the office of priesthood was entailed. Both nature and religion taught them to confider the gift of children as a bleffing; but the hope of that bleffing they feem now calmly to have refigned, and they are quietly finking into the decline of life, if not with the confolation of leaving their name and office to their children, poffeffing nev ertheless that of mutual affection, of a devout spirit and a confcience void of offence. The midnight of nature is the dawning of the day of grace; and he who in wifdom and juftice brings to nought the wisdom of the worldly prudent," raiseth up the poor out of the duft, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill, that he may fet him with princes, even with the princes of his people. He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children.”

The Prince of Peace is ready to make his public entrance on the grand theatre, and it is time for his harbinger to prepare the way, and for the herald to announce his approach. And where fhall we look for him? Turn your eyes to Judea, to Jerufalem, to the temple. See, the lot is prepared, to determine whofe turn it fhould be to burn incenfe before the Lord in the holy place. Providence prefides over it, and

Zacharias

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