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While we contemplate with shame and

by the basest and most unrelenting of human of reverence for "God whom he hath not passions, and leagued with a time-serving seen.' priesthood who put every thing up to sale. We have before us a striking and an en-sorrow the corruptions which disgraced the couraging instance of the power and influ- Jewish Church, is it possible to refrain from ence of one person of inflexible integrity, in lamenting the equally deplorable corruptions a corrupted state of society. He may singly which have disfigured the hallowed form of and successfully oppose a torrent of iniquity. Christianity? Did not all history attest the Vice is timid when directly attacked.— truth of it, who would believe that there was "The wicked flee," saith the wise man, a long period, not yet quite expired in some "when no one pursueth, but the righteous parts of Christendom, and that there was a are bold as a lion." Irresistible is the force succession of priests, called Christians, who of truth and conscience. "Is not my word presumed, for a piece of money, to grant a like as fire saith the Lord: and like a man indulgence to commit every species of hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?" wickedness, which his corrupt heart might "The word of God is quick, and powerful, suggest, and for any given period, with comand sharper than any two-edged sword, plete impunity? Who could believe that piercing even to the dividing asunder of this priest, in consideration of something cast soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, into his treasury, would take upon him to and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents issue a pardon of the most atrocious offences, of the heart." This is the weapon which and thereby screen the vilest of offenders our Master wielded, together with the from punishment; nay, confer the power of 'scourge of small cords." Smitten at once pardoning on stone walls and lifeless altars? in their persons and in their consciences, The murderer who smote his brother to death they retreat with shame from the field, ac- in the open street, in broad day, had but to knowledging, feeling the superiority of real step into the next church, and it stood always goodness. Thus then learn, O man, to arm open on purpose, to be protected from the thyself, and say, "the Lord God will help vengeance of the law. Who could believe me; therefore shall I not be confounded; that a present or bequest to the Church was therefore have I set my face like a flint, and considered as a full compensation for all the I know that I shall not be ashamed." From crimes of a life of violence, and rapine, and the inexhaustible stores of Scripture draw blood, and as a fair passport to the kingdom thy resources for the warfare, and thou shalt of heaven? That such things should ever find thyself invincible. What has he to have existed is most wonderful; that they fear, who is conscious of the goodness of should have maintained their ground over all his cause, who employs "the sword of the Europe for many centuries together is most spirit, which is the word of God," and who wonderful. But the scandalous usurpation goes forth conquering and to conquer in full is hastening to a close. And with the downconfidence of divine conduct and support. fal of popery, may every remaining error in the doctrine, discipline, and practice of the churches of the Reformation finally termi

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It is evident from the censure pronounced upon the violators of the temple, that their trade was every way unlawful. This trans-nate. action is recorded by all the four evangelists with little if any variation. And by comparing them together we shall find, that the abuse exposed and condemned was a horrid mixture of impiety and dishonesty, of contempt of God, and robbery of man. Not only was "the house of prayer for all nations" abominably polluted by what fell from the flocks and herds for sacrifice, but it was literally perverted into "a den of thieves," who had entered into a wicked combination to prey upon the public, by enhancing the price of an article which was at once a necessary of life and of religion. These two enormities, however, generally go hand in hand. If there is no fear of God before a man's eyes, his neighbour has but a slender hold upon either his veracity or integrity, when the falsehood may be uttered, or the fraud committed without danger of detection. And, on the other hand, he who deliberately practises deceit upon "his brother whom he hath seen," cannot have a very high degree

The disciples of our Lord possessed one great preparatory qualification for the exercise of their future ministry, acquaintance with the Scriptures of the Old Testament. Struck with this display of their Master's zeal for the honour of God, and for the purity of temple-worship, they call to remembrance a text from the Psalms of David, which appeared to them a prefiguration of what had just passed. "And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." We pretend not to affirm that the words of the Psalmist amount to a prediction of what Christ felt, and said, and did upon this occasion. David unquestionably uttered his own feelings, though there was as yet no temple at Jerusalem dedicated to the most High God. But the expression amounts to this: Whatever affects the character and worship of Deity, I make my personal concern. “The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up :" ardent regard for the honour of thy sanctuary,

like a secret flame pent up in my breast, must either have vent or consume me: and the sequel is in the same spirit, "and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me." But though we may not have here a direct prophecy of a future event, we have a powerful assimilation between two most eminent personages, at very distant periods, breathing one and the same spirit, aiming at one and the same end: and this similitude partakes of the nature of prophecy. And the whole leads us to this conclusion, that there may be predictions, resemblances, analogies in Scripture, hitherto concealed even from the wise and prudent, to be hereafter unfolded, or perhaps reserved for the instruction and delight of the kingdom of heaven, when there shall be in Scripture nothing obscure, or hard to be understood. What a motive is this, now to listen to the command of Christ. "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.'

In this passage of our Lord's history, as in all Scripture, we have many things "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness."

1. We have a humiliating view of the treachery and deceitfulness of the human heart. The very persons who considered it as a crime to "eat bread with unwashen hands," could quietly digest the profanation of the temple and of the worship of God. Such self-delusion do men practise every | day. They treat their own infirmities as some mothers do very homely, wayward, or even deformed children, who not only show them all possible indulgence themselves, but are offended if others adopt not their fondness and partiality. At the same time, the slightest blemish in the character of another is quickly seen and severely censured. The deception is frequently carried much farther. A man shall actually discern and rigidly condemn in his neighbour, the very fault to which he himself is notoriously addicted. The proud person can endure no one's pride but his own; the passionate stand astonished at the transports of those who are hasty like themselves: and who are so severe upon hypocrisy as the hypocritical? Every lesson taught by the great Teacher has a foundation in human corruption, and has a tendency to correct it, and this is an important one: "Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the

beam out of thine own eye; and then shat thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." To which I subjoin the prayer of the Psalmist: "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

2. If such were the dignity which the Son of God assumed, and the authority which be exercised, while he tabernacled with men upon earth, attended by a few simple Galleans, is it not a matter of very serious concern to meditate on the majesty and importance of his coming to judge the quick and the dead? If his presence was thus awful and tremendous when armed with only "a scourge of small cords," what must it be, when "the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." In this judgment to come we are all equally interested, and we are furnish ed with a present rule of judgment in the decisions of conscience and the dictates of the word of God. Happy is that man who understands, believes, and improves the testimony of those faithful and true witnesses; who, knowing the terrors of the Lord, is persuaded to flee from the wrath to come, and to lay hold on eternal life. "He that believeth on him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already; because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God.” These last words open a brighter prospect, and disclose to us "the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory, and sending his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." Then shall he be "glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe." Thus are good and evil, death and life, the blessing and the curse set before us. Thus all that is terrible in justice, armed with almighty power, addresses itself to our fear, and all that is amiable and alluring in unbounded goodness and love, expands to our hope, "an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God, through

faith, unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time." May we this day know him as a Saviour whom we must in that day meet as a judge. May we have wisdom to comply with the counsel of him, as a friend, whom it is certain and utter ruin to encounter as an adversary. "Behold, now is the accepted time: behold, now is the day of salvation."

3. Take care, frail, ignorant, erring man, how thou proposest to thyself the purifier of the temple as a pattern of zeal. "It is good," saith the apostle, "to be zealously affected always in a good thing;" but unless zeal be directed by prudence and knowledge, it may produce incredible mischief. There is a zeal about trifles, which diverts the mind from objects of serious importance. Battles have been fought, and volumes written to determine the posture in which the sacrament ought to be received, and the habit to be worn by the priest in reading the service of the church. While contention about such non-essentials waxed hot, the spirit of piety and prayer grew cold. There is a zeal which is the offspring of prejudice and habit. It actuated Saul of Tarsus, when "he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women, committed them to prison;" and while he "yet breathed out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord:" and when, speaking of himself, he says: "I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Which thing I also did in Jerusalem; and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests: and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities." There is a vainglorious, ostentatious zeal, which cannot bear to pass unobserved, which must be fed with public attention and admiration. Such is that which inspired Jehu, when he exultingly challenged applause: "Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord." There is a malignant, intolerant zeal, which pities not, spares not. Even the disciples James and John were under its influence, when a village of the Samaritans refused to receive their Master, Lord," say they," wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?" and it received a just and severe reprehension from the mouth of Christ: "He turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." The disciples themselves became the victims of this fiery, exterminat

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ing zeal, as Christ predicted concerning them. "They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service." Thus the hard measure which they would have meted to others, was measured out unto themselves. But there is a zeal, as well as a doctrine, “which is according to godliness:" a pure and lambent flame of love to God, which admits of no mixture of human passion, which views every object through the medium of Deity, and aims but at one end, that God may be glorified. This excellent spirit will never think of doing God service, by showing unkindness or cruelty to man. But it is so rare and so easily counterfeited, that even its emotions are to be regarded with a jealous eye, for there is no small danger of a man's mistaking the ebullitions of his own mind, for the impulse of God's spirit, especially in cases where guilt is to be condemned and vengeance executed. David made a wise and happy choice, when constrained to submit to one of three great evils. "I am in a great strait:" said he, "Let us fall now into the hand of the Lord, (for his mercies are great) and let me not fall into the hand of man." I like not to see the scourge, the sword, the torch voluntarily assumed by one of like passions with myself. In vehement attempts to reform abuse, I should tremble to think of their degenerating into a rage to destroy. The tremendous attribute of vengeance, God will confide to no hands but his own, but he permits man to carry the imitation of divine mercy as far as he can. "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, vengeance is mine: I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shall heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome, of evil, but overcome evil with good."

4. Mark the power of conscience, and learn to secure its testimony in your favour. What made cowards of those gross and brutal men? An ill conscience. What chased away a multitude before one man? An ill conscience. What overawed a rapacious priesthood and a licentious populace! An ill conscience. Conscience drove our guilty progenitors to seek concealment "from the presence of the Lord God, amongst the trees of the garden." Conscience sent out murderous Cain "a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth," under the dire apprehension that every one who found him would slay him. It is conscience that dictates the unavailing cry to despairing wretches, who in bitterness exclaim "to the mountains and rocks, fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his

perience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us."

wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" But what, in opposition to this, is the source of a Christian's composure and satisfaction? "Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simpli- Though the buyers and sellers were abashcity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly ed and put to flight, some of the consequenwisdom, but by the grace of God, we have tial cavillers, who are to be found in every had our conversation in the world." Herein age, and in every society, maintain the ground, consisted the triumph of the apostle over and call for the commission under which Jethe fear of the Roman governor, and over sus acted. "Then answered the Jews, and the oratory of Tertullus: " Herein do I said unto him, what sign showest thou unto exercise myself, to have always a conscience us, seeing that thou doest these things!" void of offence toward God and toward | This furnished him with a fair occasion of men." And this constitutes the triumph and bringing forward the peculiar and distinthe security of every believer in Christ guishing doctrine of his religion, the resurJesus: "Being justified by faith, we have rection of the body, which was soon to be peace with God, through our Lord Jesus exemplified in his own resurrection from the Christ: by whom also we have access by dead, as "the first fruits of them that sleep." faith into this grace wherein we stand, and This will accordingly constitute the subject rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And of the next Lecture. "Blessed and holy is not only so, but we glory in tribulations he that hath part in the first resurrection, on also: knowing that tribulation worketh pa- such the second death hath no power; but tience; and patience, experience; and ex-they shall be priests of God and of Christ."

HISTORY OF JESUS CHRIST.

LECTURE CXXVI.

Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, What sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thon doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days! but he spake of the temple of his body. When, therefore, he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had said. Now, when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast-day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men: and needed not that any should testify of man; for he knew what was in manJOHN ii. 18-25.

THE actions and events of Christ's life are the basis on which the truth and importance of his doctrine rest, and the solidity of the foundation must be estimated from the structure which it supports. The foundation of a building lies buried under ground, and cannot be examined by the eye; but when we behold a stately, lofty, and venerable pile, which has withstood the attack of ages, and which still presents undiminished beauty and strength, we justly reason from what we do see to what we do not; and we feel ourselves constrained to applaud the excellency of the design, from the perfectness and durability of the execution. 66 Behold," saith the Lord God, by the mouth of the prophet Isaiah, more than seven centuries before the fabric began to appear, "behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. Judgment also

will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet." Here is the design of the sovereign Architect, not sleeping like many a beautiful human plan in the portfolio of the artist, never to be realized, but quick with the spirit of life, already executed in the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will," and to arise, in due time, the wonder of angels and of men. This building of God at length began to appear and to ascend. But it accorded not with human ideas of grandeur and magnificence. The very depositaries of the original design, were the first to resist the completion of it, because it justified not their prejudices and prepossessions. Their opposition, however, served only more illustriously to display the manifold wisdom and goodness of God, and to expose the weakness and folly of man. Had the edifice been of man's devising and rearing, it could not have stood "the wash

ing of a tide," for the "foolish man built his cuted judgment: and so the plague was house upon the sand: and the rain descend-stayed. And that was counted unto him ed, and the floods came, and the winds blew, for righteousness unto all generations for and beat upon that house; and it fell: and evermore." Did not the sign, in the present great was the fall of it." But infinite Wis- instance, appear in the act? Did not the dom founded the fabric of Christianity upon great Reformer authenticate his powers by a rock. The rains have descended, the floods the manner in which he exercised them, have come, the winds have blown and beaten and by the effect which they produced? upon this house, but it has not fallen; for it is Did the guilty resist? Did they call in founded upon a rock. question his authority? Did they drag In the gospel history we behold the him, in their turn, to the tribunal? No, groundfloor or platform of the Christian re- they feel his ascendant, and shrink from ligion. It principally consists in a narration his rebuke. Who, then, call for a sign? of plain, unadorned facts, well authenticated Not the offenders; they had received suffiindeed, but recommended by no artificial cient evidence: not the populace, for they polish, and deriving all their importance and must have been equally overawed and coneffect from their own native truth and ex-founded. The rulers of the Jews hearing cellence; serving, nevertheless, as a solid of this singular transaction, some of them, support to the precepts, the promises, the perhaps, being on the spot, and eye-witnesses predictions, the doctrines, the consolations of what passed, jealous of their honour, and of our most holy faith. Take, for instance, the event which our blessed Lord, in the passage which has now been read, foretold concerning himself, namely, that the temple of his body should be destroyed, and in three days raised up again. Now when this event actually did take place, not only was the veracity of Jesus, as a prophet, completely established, but a foundation was laid of sufficient strength to sustain the whole weight of the Christian's hope, of a resurrection to life and immortality. We shall, therefore, first consider this all-important doctrine, in the history which is the foundation of it, and then in the superstructure reared.

considering their prerogative as invaded; they, as men having authority, demanded a sign. From their general character, and from the inefficacy of this and other signs afterwards given, we know from what motive the present demand was made; not in the spirit of meekness, not from the love of truth, not to obtain conviction; but in the hope of finding occasion to censure, or of putting the assumed authority of Christ to a test which it could not stand.

A sign is given them, and a most remarkable one it is. "Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Whatever In purifying the temple from the abomi- construction the Jews might put on these nations practised in it, Jesus had undoubt- words, what Jesus intended to convey is edly assumed the authority of one invested obvious, and it was in every point justified in the office of magistracy, or with the cha- by the corresponding event. He who is racter of a prophet. That he was no ma- simplicity and truth itself could have no degistrate all men knew, and he never pre-sign to mislead. The action and emphasis tended to it. To have acted in this capacity with which he spake, clearly pointed out the might have been considered an usurpation. object. The general attention had just been As a prophet, then, and only as a prophet, directed to a temple made with hands, a could he appear in the character of a public temple wickedly profaned by an abominable reformer. But it is requisite that a prophet traffic, which was connived at by its proshould produce his credentials. This sug- fessed conservators, and whose honour had gested the demand: “What sign showest been so nobly vindicated by a stranger. That thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these stranger had already attracted general nothings?" which plainly implied, that one tice by the singularity of his speech and deacting under a commission from heaven, was portment; every eye was fixed upon him, obliged to support his claim by a sign from his every attitude and gesture were observed, heaven. But is there need to produce su- and these plainly indicated that the temple pernatural testimony to a right to reform to be destroyed, and raised up in three days, known, public, flagrant abuse? Did not could not be the venerable pile in the court their own history furnish a noted instance of which this conversation passed. When of a pivate person's assuming the sword of he afterwards foretold the approaching dejustice, and acting at once as judge and exe-struction of that temple, he expressed himcutioner, in the case of open and gross vio- self in terms not liable to misapprehension. lation of the divine law; that of Phinehas," As he went out of the temple, one of his who was but the grandson of Aaron the priest? disciples saith unto him, Master, see what He not only became liable to no censure, manner of stones and what buildings are but obtained a deathless name, and an ho- here! And Jesus answering, said unto him, nourable office for his seasonable interposi-Seest thou these great buildings? there shall tion. "Then stood up Phinehas, and exe-not be left one stone upon another, that shall

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