LECTURE I.

Ir being my intention to give from this place, off

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the Fridays during Lent, a courfe of Lectures explanatory and practical on fuch parts of Scripture as feem to me best calculated to inform the understandings and affect the hearts of those that hear me, I fhall proceed, without further preface, to the execution of a defign, in which edification, not entertainment, usefulness, not novelty, are the objects I have in view; and in which therefore I may fometimes perhaps avail myfelf of the labors of others, when they appear to me better calculated to anfwer my purpose than any thing I am myself capable of producing.

Although my obfervations will for the prefent be confined entirely to the Gofpel of St. Matthew, and only to certain select parts even of that, yet it may not be improper or unprofitable to introduce thefe Lectures by a compendious view of the principal contents of those writings which go under the general name of the HOLY SCRIPTURES.

That book which we call THE BIBLE (that is, THE BOOK, by way of eminence) although it is comprized in one volume, yet in fact comprehends a great number of different narratives and compofitions, written at different times, by different perfons, in different languages, and on different fubject. And taking the whole of the collection together, it is an unqueftionable truth that there is no one book extant, in any language, or in any country, which can in any degree be

compared with it for antiquity, for authority, for the importance, the dignity, the variety, and the curiofity of the matter it contains.

It begins with that great and ftupenduous event, of all others the earliest and most interesting to the human race, the creation of this world, of the heavens and the earth, of the celestial luminaries, of man, and all the inferior animals, the herbs of the field, the fea and its inhabitants. All this it defcribes with a brevity and fublimity well fuited to the magnitude of the subject, to the dignity of the Almighty Artificer, and unequalled by any other writer. The fame wonderful scene is represented by a Roman poet,* who has evidently drawn his materials from the narrative of Mofes. But though his description is finely imagined and elegantly wrought up, and embellished with much poetical ornament, yet in true fimplicity and grandeur, both of fentiment and of diction, he falls far fhort of the facred hiftorian. LET THERE BE LIGHT AND THERE WAS LIGHT; is an inftance of the fublime, which stands to this day unrivalled in any human compofition.

But what is of infinitely greater moment, his history of the creation has fettled for ever that most important question, which the ancient fages were never able to decide; from whence and from what causes this world, with all its inhabitants and appendages, drew its origin; whether from fome inexplicable neceffity, from a fortuitous concourfe of atoms, from an eternal feries of caufes and effects, or from one fupreme, intelligent, felf-exifting Being, the Author of all things, himself without beginning and without end. To this last cause the infpired hiftorian has afcribed the formation of this fyftem; and by fo doing has established that great principle and foundation of all religion and all morality, and the great source of comfort to every human being, the existence of one God, the Creator and Preferver of the world, and the watchful Superintendent of all the creatures that he has made.

The Sacred History next fets before us, the primeval happiness of our first parents in Paradife; their fall from this * Ovid.

blissful state by the wilful tranfgreffion of their Maker's command; the fatal effects of this original violation of duty; the univerfal wickednefs and corruption it gradually introduced among mankind; and the fignal and tremendous punifhment of that wickedness by the deluge; the certainty of which is acknowledged by the most ancient writers, and very evident traces of which are to be found at this day in various parts of the globe. It then relates the peopling of the world again by the family of Noah; the covenant entered into by God with that patriarch, the relapse of mankind intó wickedness; the calling of Abraham; and the choice of one family and people, the Ifraelites (or, as they were afterwards called, the Jews) who were feparated from the reft of the world to preserve the knowledge and the worship of a Supreme Being, and the great fundamental doctrine of THE UNITY; while all the rest of mankind, even the wisest and most learned, were devoted to polytheism and idolatry, and the grossest and most abominable superftitions. It then gives us the history of this people, with their various migrations, revolutions, and principal tranfactions. It recounts their removal from the land of Canaan, and their establishment in Egypt under Jofeph; whose history is related in a manner fo natural, fo interefting and affecting, that it is impoffible for any man of common fenfibility to read it without the strongeft emotions of tenderness and delight.

In the book of Exodus we have the deliverance of this people from their bondage in Egypt, by a series of the most aftonishing miracles; and their travels through the wildernefs for forty years under the conduct of Mofes; during which time (befides many other rules and directions for their moral conduct) they received the Ten Commandments, written on two tables of ftone by the finger of God himself, and delivered by him to Mofes with the most awful and tremendous folemnity; containing a code of moral law infinitely fuperior to any thing known to the rest of mankind in those rude and barbarous ages.

The books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, are chiefly occupied with the various other laws, inftitutions, and regulations given to this people, refpecting their civil

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government, their moral conduct, their religious duties and their ceremonial observances.

Among thefe, the book of Deuteronomy (which concludes what is called the Pentateuch, or five books of Mofes) is diftinguished above all the reft by a concise and striking recapit ulation of the innumerable bleffings and mercies which they had received from God fince their departure from Horeb; by ftrong expoftulations on their paft rebellious conduct, and their fhameful ingratitude for all thefe diftinguifhing marks of the Divine favor; by many forcible and pathetic exhortations to repentance and obedience in future; by promises of the most fubftantial rewards, if they returned to their duty; and by denunciations of the fevereft punishments, if they continued disobedient; and all this delivered in a strain of the moft animated, fublime, and commanding eloquence.

The hiftorical books of Jofhua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, continue the history of the Jewish nation under their leaders, judges, and kings, for near a thousandyears; and one of the most prominent and inftructive parts of this history is the account given of the life and reign of Solomon, his wealth, his power, and all the glories of his reign; more particularly that noble proof he gave of his piety and munificence, by the conftruction of that truly magnificent temple which bore his name; the folemn and fplendid dedication of this temple to the fervice of God; and that inimitable prayer which he then offered up to Heaven in the prefence of the whole Jewish people; a prayer evi dently coming from the heart, fublime, fimple, nervous, and pathetic; exhibiting the jufteft and the warmeft fentiments of piety, the most exalted conceptions of the Divine nature, and every way equal to the fanctity, the dignity, and the folemnity of the occafion.

Next to thefe follow the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, which contain the hiftory of the Jews for a confiderable period of time after their return from a captivity of 70 years in Babylon, about which time the name of Jews feems first to have been applied to them. The books of Ruth and Either are a kind of appendage to the public records, delineating the characters of two very amiable individuals, dif tinguished by their virtues, and the very interesting incidents.