shadow of death: for heal- | wants are, and thence teach ing them by His word when afflicted with sickness for delivering them from the perils of the sea, and making the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. All this scenery is well drawn out, and finely applied, by a devout and elegant commentator of our own Church, who has made the book of Psalms more useful to pious Christians, than it ever was made since the Reformation; and I may add, before it. From that Psalm, as from the miracles of Christ, we learn the weakness and wretchedness of man, and the goodness of God, with the power of His grace. We see the necessity of prayer for the help of God; after the example of those, who "cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and were delivered out of their distress." us what we are to pray for: and when we have respect unto them, and the Author of them, we mix an act of faith with our petitions, which will never fail to render them more acceptable: for we read, that the power of Christ took effect on those only who had faith to be healed. There is not a want of man, nor any occasion in life, on which the miracles of Christ will not supply us with the finest matter of devotion, and in some such form as the following with which I shall conclude. 66 "O Son of David, Thou great Physician of souls, Who didst once exercise Thy power in the land of Judæa, and wentest about doing good; Thou art still with us; and hast promised so to be unto the end of the world. Have mercy upon us under all the weaknesses of our nature, and succour us under all oppression from evil men or evil spirits: deliver us Bishop Horne. No forms of prayer can be more significant than those which are built upon the miraculous works of Christ. These shew us what our and so highly commissioned, whom they refused, saying. who made thee a ruler and a judge, the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer, by the hands of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.-He supposed that his brethren would have understood, how that God by his hand would deliver them; but they understood not.-This is he to whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypts." was understood and received by the people to whom he was sent ? For if the forefathers of the Jews had rejected their lawgiver thus commissioned, and attested by all the evidences of Divine power; then was it so far from being any objection against Jesus Christ, that they had misunderstood Him, and hated Him, and crucified Him; that it was requisite to the truth and divinity of His commission, that his brethren should sell Him, and cast Him out as they had done to Joseph; and that they | before whom St. Stephen should refuse Him, as they | pleaded, must have felt in had refused Moses. With this argument St. Stephen pressed the Jews, till they were unable to bear the force of it and, I declare, I think it so forcible at this day, that a man must either be a Christian upon the strength of it, or fall into a rage, like the Jews, if he has an interest against it. Hear how the case is represented "This Moses St. Stephen's hearers; so What the high-priest and the people of the Jews, their minds from such a representation as this, when the fact of rejecting Jesus Christ was fresh upon their memories and consciences, is more easy to be conceived than expressed. There is no occasion on which the mind of man feels more miserable, than when it is convicted without being converted. Such was the case with s Acts vii. 35, 25, 39. from the bonds of our sins, and give light to us when we sit in darkness: open our eyes, that we may see the things which belong to our peace give us an ear to hear and understand Thy word; and a tongue to praise and confess Thee before men give strength to our feeble hands, that they may be lifted up to Thy name, and let our knees be flexible and ready at their devotions: cleanse us from our secret faults, as well as our outward offences feed our souls with the bread of life, and let us hunger and thirst, that Thou mayst satisfy us. Be mindful of us, O Lord, in our distresses, when we are tossed about upon the waves of this troublesome world : and in all our dangers of soul and body, stretch out, to save and defend us, that Right Hand Which raised up Thy disciple sinking in the mighty waters. In all things let our faith be toward Thee, and then shall Thy power and mercy be toward us for deliverance and salvation." AMEN. LECTURE XI. THE USES AND EFFECTS OF THE SYMBOLICAL STYLE Now it hath been shewn what the figurative language of the Holy Scripture is, by an induction of particulars; we may proceed to speak with more confidence concerning the uses and good effects of it. We now stand as it were upon an hill, up to which our enquiry hath conducted us, thence to survey the fruitfulness of the holy land. We have seen that the law, in its sacrifices and services, had a "shadow of good things to come ";" that its history is an allegory; that God used similitudes by His prophets; that Christ spake in parables; that the Apostles preached a Heb. x. 1. "the wisdom of God in a mystery";" in a word, that the whole dispensation of God towards man, is by signs, shadows and figures of visible things. The law of Moses, the Psalms, the Prophets, the Gospels and Epistles, and most of all the Revelation of St. John, use and teach this figurative language: and therefore, in the use and interpretation of it must consist the wisdom of those who are taught of God. "Here is the mind that hath wisdom," saith St. John, "the seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth":" Where the word wisdom is applied |