tried in like manner with their blessed Master. They are instructed to renounce the world, and to deny themselves: which is only the original prohibition in other words: "Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat." of the former, and obey the dictates of the latter, is the knowledge of good and evil, and the true wisdom of man. So that the forbidden tree in Paradise, when the divine intentions concerning it are explained from other parts of Scripture, teaches the important lesson more than once inculcated by Solomon, and which was likewise the result of holy Job's inquiries: "Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is WISDOM; and to DEPART FROM EVIL IS UNDERSTANDING." The apparent qualities of the forbidden tree are represented to have been these: It seemed "good for food, and fair to the sight, and a tree to be desired to make one wise." It is remarkable, that St. John, laying before us an inventory of the world, and all that is in Whoever shall attentively reflect on the it, employs a division entirely similar: "Love evidence which has been produced, and duly not the world," says he, "neither the things consider the perfect coincidence and harthat are in the world. If any man love the mony of the Scriptures and dispensations of world, the love of the Father is not in him. God upon the subject, will, perhaps, be conFor all that is in the world, the desire of the vinced, that, in the main, we must have fixed flesh, and the desire of the eyes, and the pride upon the true exposition of " the knowledge of life, is not of the Father, but is of the of good and evil," and the nature of man's world. And the world passeth away, and original trial. There is a doubt, or difficulty, the desire thereof; but he that doeth the will which offers itself, and may seem to require a of God abideth for ever."* Here is a picture solution. It is this. We all know, as the of the fatal tree, full blown, with all its temp- state of human affairs is at present, by what tations about it, drawn, by the pencil of truth, manner, and by what temptations, the world in its original and proper colors. The ex- solicits our desires after objects forbidden : pressions tally, to the minutest degree of ex- but what temptation, you will say, could it actness. The "desire of the flesh" answers hold forth to our first parents, existing alone, to "good for food," the "desire of the eyes" invested with sovereignty over it, and posis parallel with "fair to the sight;" and the sessed of all its pleasures and its glories in the "pride of life" corresponds with "a tree to garden of Eden? This question will, perbe desired to make one wise." The opposi-haps, be best answered by asking one or two tion between this tree and the other is strong-more. What temptation, then, let it be askly marked. "If any man love the world, ed, could the world present to the people of the love of the Father is not in him." And we are informed, that one leads to death, the other to life. "The world passeth away, and the desire thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." Precisely comformable, in every circumstance, was the threefold temptation of the second Adam. He was tempted to convert stones into bread for food, to satisfy the desires of the flesh;" he was tempted with the kingdoms of the world, and the glories of them, to satisfy "the desire of the eyes;" he was tempted to work a miracle on the pinnacle of the temple, and to show himself moving aloft through the air in the sight of the multitude, to display "the pride of life." He repelled the tempter, as our first parents should have done, and as we their children should do now, instead of judging according to appearances, by a firm and resolute appeal to the revelation of God. Thus, whether we consider the tree of knowledge as to its nature, its situation, its design, or its qualities, it seems to have been a very apt and significant emblem of the creature, or the world, with its delights and its glories, the objects opposed, in every age, to God and his word. To reject the allurements * 1 John, ii. 15 God, when placed in the land of promise, and blessed with every species of temporal felicity? What temptation can the world present to a pious Christian, placed by Providence in a state of affluence, and furnished with every good that his heart can wish for? The truth is, that the world, even supposing it to have been lawfully attained, and to be in ever so good hands, has this power of temptation; it may engage the attention of the human mind, and attract to itself the affections of the human heart, till, by degrees, its Maker is forsaken and forgotten. It may induce a man to consider it as an abode, and no longer to desire a removal to higher and better things with God above. "Beware," says Moses, "lest when thou hast eaten, and art full, thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God."* This proved to be the case of the Israelites. It is the temptation too often fatal both to nations and individuals, when indulged by Heaven with success and prosperity. And if the world, obscured as its brightness has been by the fall, can and does now produce such an effect on the wisest of those that are not at any time * Deut. viii. 14. favored with a large share of it, how much more must it have been able to charm and to deceive, when first formed in perfect beauty! Considering this circumstance, and withal, how the creature," in the earliest ages, "was worshipped and served instead of the Creator," one is almost ready to think it possible, that idolatry itself might take its beginning in Eden. From the sad experience of those who have gone before us, let us learn to have recourse to the law of God, for our knowledge of good and evil, and to refrain from the fruit of the forbidden tree, the tree of death. Of this fruit, though proceeding from the same root, there have been different kinds put forth and exhibited in different periods of time, agree able to the turn and temper of each. In the days of the patriarchs, and of the Israelites, it was the worship of the material elements, or powers of nature, in the place of Him who made them, accompanied with every kind of impurity. Such was the religion of the revolted nations, and such the rites with which it was celebrated. Yet such a religion, and such rites, the people of God, for many ages, notwithstanding all that he did for them and said to them, strange as it may appear to us at present, were ever ready to adopt and embrace. They apostatized to idolatry, with the divine glory blazing before their eyes on the top of Sinai. Nor could the wisest and greatest of their princes afterwards escape the contagion. This corruption, which the Babylonish captivity, like a well-applied caustic, served to eat out and to do away, was succeeded by a disease of another kind, but one that stuck to them till it destroyed them; a mistake as to the nature of their economy; a confidence in externals; a deep hypocrisy; a spirit wholly secularized; an ambition to have all the kingdoms of the world subject to Jerusalem, and the wealth and glory of them centred there. "The desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life," were chosen in opposition to the celestial fruits of love and obedience, humility and charity, faith and holiness, produced among them by Jesus Christ, the tree of immortality. They "put forth the hand, and tasted." But soon the exterminating angel dispossessed them of their Paradise, and they died the death. Since the ascension of Christ, the Heathen world has been converted to the Gospel, and that desert has become the garden of the Lord. But in this garden, also, is there no tree of death? no specious fruit held forth to entice the unwise to perdition? What is the doctrine, which, in some parts of Christendom, gives adoration to beings that are not God; or that, which, in others, denies it to Him who is so? What is the scheme that asserts the non-necessity of a divine revelation, claiming to man the right, and attributing to him the power, of making a religion for himself, and prescribing to his Maker the terms of his own acceptance? What is the atheistical policy, which excludes the Creator from the care of his works, and his providence from the kingdoms of the earth? What is that system of Paganism, revived under the name and notion of philosophy, as opposed to Christianity, and every thing that is called religion, by which either the Deity is materialized, or matter deified? What is that unbounded licentiousness in principles and manners, daily growing more and more into vogue, and shamelessly, by some of the new philosophers, defended in form? What is the luxury, the splendor, the extravagance, the dissipation, the abandoned profligacy, and ungodliness of the age? Behold the flourishing state of the fatal tree! View the extent of its branches, and the abundance of its fruit, in these latter days! But remember, that, still-the end is death; to a nation, excision; to individuals, without repentance and faith, destruction everlasting from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, when he shall descend into his garden to make inquisition, and call offenders to their final account. Be not ye, therefore, deceived and seduced, however the temptation may seem "fair to the sight, and good for food;" however" desirable " it may be represented "to make you wise." Take your direction, through life, from the word of God, and be not prevailed upon to falsify and transgress it. The conflict may be sharp, but it will be soon over; bear up resolutely under it; and, for your consolation and encouragement in the hour of trial, when strongly solicited to taste the tree of death, listen to that strength-conferring voice, which crieth from the eternal throne, in words that will bear a repetition-" To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” DISCOURSE V. THE PRINCE OF PEACE. ZECHARIAH, IX. 9, 10. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even unto sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth. THIS prophecy was delivered by Zechariah, | necessary to show its connexion with the five hundred years before the advent of Christ. preceding part of the chapter wherein it And St. Matthew, in the Gospel appointed stands. In this ninth chapter of his prophecy, for this day, affirmeth it to have had its ac- Zechariah denounceth some of the divine complishment when our Lord entered Jeru- judgments which were executed by that salem, in the manner here described, amidst scourge of heaven, Alexander the Great, the acclamations of the attending multitude: when he overran Syria, took Damascus, burnt "All this was done, that it might be fulfilled Tyre, destroyed Gaza, and, in imitation of which was spoken by the prophet, saying, his favorite hero, dragged the governor thereof Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold thy at his chariot wheels. "The burden of the King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting word of the Lord in the land of Hadrach, upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass." and Damascus shall be the rest thereof.-And The prediction is of the literal kind, and it Hamath also shall border thereby; Tyrus, was literally and most exactly fulfilled in and Sidon, though it be very wise. And Jesus of Nazareth. No other king, with Tyrus did build herself a strong hold, and these characteristic marks about him, ever and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold thus came to Sion before him; and since the as the mire of the streets. Behold, the Lord Jews rejected him, they have lost their tem- will cast her out, and he will smite her power ple, their city, and their country; nor has in the sea, and she shall be devoured with there been any Sion to which their king fire. Askelon shall see it, and fear; Gaza might come. Jerusalem would not rejoice also shall see it, and shall be sorrowful; on the day when the prophet had enjoined and Ekron, for her expectation, shall be her to rejoice, and therefore she hath cause to mourn from that day to this. The rulers of Sion were vexed and chagrined at beholding a scene which would have excited them to shout aloud for joy. The disciples, indeed, exulted, and sang Hosannah to the Son of David. Could Messiah enter his capital unacknowledged? That was impossible. Had men been silent upon this occasion, the buildings and pavements of the city must have supplied the defect, and bore their attestation to the promised and long-expected King of Israel. "I tell you," replied our Lord to the Pharisees, who desired him to rebuke his disciples-"I tell you, that if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out." That we may perceive the full force and beauty of the prophecy before us, it will be ashamed, and the king shall perish from Gaza, and Askelon shall not be inhabited." The prophet next fortelleth the mixture and incorporation of the Philistines, when thus humbled by Alexander, with their old enemies the Jews: "And a bastard," or an alien generation (yes, say the LXX.) " shall dwell in Ashdod; and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines; and I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth; but he that remaineth, even he shall be for our God, and he shall be as a governor in Judah and Ekron as a Jebusite." Amidst these revolutions and alterations of affairs in the world, God promiseth, in the next verse, to preserve his temple, while so many castles and strong holds about Jerusalem were overturned, so many cities swept of their inhabitants by the Desom of destruction: "And I will encamp than can accompany the prosperous success about mine house, because of the army, because of wars, or any victory stained with blood. of him that passeth by, and because of him that What king of Judah or Israel did ever levy returneth and no oppressor shall pass through an army, though in just defence of their them any more; for now have I seen with mine country and people, on so fair terms, that no eyes." Then followeth the prophecy in my poor amongst them were pinched with taxes text-" Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion; for the supply? What victory did they ever shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy obtain so cheap, that many of their children King cometh unto thee; he is just, and having were not forced to sit down with loss, many salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, wounded, others maimed, and some always and a colt, the foal of an ass. And I will slain? But, lo, now I bring thee unusual cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the matter of exultation and joy. For, behold, horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow thy King cometh unto thee, whensoever he shall be cut off; and he shall speak peace cometh, attended with justice for his guide, unto the heathen; and his dominion shall be and salvation for his train. He shall execute from sea even to sea, and from the river to judgment without oppression: he shall save the ends of the earth." As if the prophet thee, so thou wilt be saved, without destroyhad spoken in more words to Jerusalem thus ing any, being able to make thy lame to go, "Thine eyes, in the generations following, to give life to thy dead, without hazard either shall behold the flourishing pride of sundry of life or limb to any that rests within thy nations, each endeavoring to overtop others territories. Such shall be the manner of his in height of glory and temporal state; each coming, and such his presence, that the poorstriving to keep others under, by human est wretch among thy children may think policy, or strength of war. And whilst the himself more happy than any king of Judah sight of their mutual conquests shall possess or Israel which was before him, so he will thy thoughts, thou wilt be ready, in the pride but conform himself to the temper and deof thine heart, to say, Jerusalem and Judah meanor of his Saviour. For he cometh unto one day shall have their turn, and in that day thee, poor and lowly, riding upon an ass, to shall the sons of Jacob, the seed of Abraham wean thee from the vain hopes of the Heaand David, be like the monarchs of Greece then, from which the prophets have so often and Persia, far exalted above the kings of dehorted thy forefathers. Some put their other nations; every one able to bear arms, trust in horses, and some in chariots; but thy glistering with his golden shield, and leading confidence must be in the Lord thy God, who the princes of the heathen, as prisoners, will always be thy King, to defend thee, to bound in chains, and their nobles in fetters protect thee, to strengthen thee through this of iron. The beauty and riches of their weakness."* costly temples shall deck the chariots of my children, which their captives shall draw in triumph. But thou shouldest remember, that the promised prince of peace, of benignity, and justice, should not be sought among the tumultuous hosts of war: nor canst thou hope that He, who is the Desire of all nations, should be thy Leader or General, to destroy those nations. It is glory and honor enough for thee, glory and honor greater than the greatest conqueror on earth could ever compass, that the King of kings and Lord of lords shall be anointed and proclaimed King upon the hill of Sion: that the inviolable decrees of everlasting justice shall be given to all the nations under heaven from thy courts. And, therefore, while horses and chariots, and other glorious preparations of war, shall present themselves to thy view, suffer them to pass as they come; and rest assured, that thy King, of whose coming thou hast often been admonished by the prophets, is not among them. The manner of his coming to thee, so thou wilt mark it, bodes far better tidings to thee, and all the nations besides, Having thus taken a general view of the prophecy, proceed we to make some observations and reflections upon the several parts of it, in the order in which they lie. Beautiful and striking is the manner in which it is introduced. The prophet doth not coldly inform Jerusalem, that her King should come to her, and that, when he did come, she ought to rejoice. Rapt into future times, he seems to have been present at the glorious scene. Standing upon Mount Olivet, he hears the hosannas of the disciples, and beholds the procession approach towards the gates of Jerusalem: he turns himself to the city, and breaks forth in transport, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!" Religion, then, hath its joys; a prophet calleth us to exult and shout; and often as this holy season returneth, the church secondeth his call. Her services dispel the gloom of melancholy, and put gladness into the hearts of all her children. They are wonderfully calculated to * Dr. Jackson-vol. ii. p. 845. With how different sensations are the mem renew good impressions in our minds, to in- | an ignoble multitude, and soon nailed a SPIRcrease our faith, to invigorate our hope, to ITUAL monarch to the cross. blow up the sacred fires of devotion and charity, and to fill us with holy and heaven-bers of the Christian church affected when ly tempers. They produce a joy" which no they hear the words of Zechariah, "Behold, man taketh from us," and in which "a stran- thy King cometh unto thee," and read the ger intermeddleth not:" they inspire a plea- history of their accomplishment in the Gossure which no pain can overcome, of which pel for this day! With inexpressible delight no time can deprive us, and which death will we carry back our thoughts to that happy perfect and ensure to us for ever. Perverse æra, when the King of the Gentiles, as well Jerusalem rejected joy, and chose sorrow for as the Jews, made his appearance in the flesh. her portion. Glad tidings came to the Gen- We join his train, we attend him in his protiles, and were glady received. The Chris-gress towards Jerusalem, and seem to enter tian church, formed of them, is now the daughter of Sion, and the new Jerusalem. To her the promises are transferred and made good. She therefore obeyeth the prophet's injunctions; she continually, with the holy Virgin, "magnifieth the Lord, and her spirit rejoiceth in God her Saviour." with him into the holy city, while "the multitude of those who go before, and those who follow after, cry, Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord." When we behold this scene, as presented to our view at this season, we are taught to conceive by it a noble idea of The next words of our prophet assign the Messiah, at his first advent, ushered into the reason why Jerusalem was called upon to church as her Lord and King, the prophets rejoice, namely, the approach of her King: going before, and the apostles following after "Behold thy King cometh unto thee." A him, all proclaiming and bearing testimony to person was to visit Jerusalem, who should de- Jesus, all singing hosanna to the Son of David, serve to be emphatically styled "her King." all pronouncing the blessedness of him who The nations had their kings and conquerors, thus cometh in the name of Jehovah. We their Nebuchadnezzars and Cyruses, their know that this is He to whom all the proAlexanders and Cæsars; these appeared, in phets give witness, and that he hath fulfilled their turns, upon the stage, contending for the those things which were written of him. We empire of the world. Each performed the know that he hath overcome our enemies, and part assigned him by an all-directing Provi- triumphed gloriously; that he hath erected dence, and then vanished away. Sion beheld an universal and everlasting kingdom, and all these changes, and still survived the com-given laws to the world; nay, that he doth motions occasioned by them. The prophets govern all things in heaven and earth. Of had promised her a King, who should over-the manner in which he achieved his victocome her enemies, and triumph gloriously; ries, and of the nature and extent of his kingwho should erect, in the time of the fourth great monarchy, an universal and everlasting kingdom, and give laws to the world; nay, who should govern all things in heaven and earth. At the time predicted, not only Jerusalem looked for a completion of the prophecies, but the whole earth sat still, expecting that Judea should give her a king. And, lo, the promised King of the Jews is born of the royal house and lineage of David. All the circumstances of his birth, the words of his mouth, and the actions of his life, demonstrate him to be the Messias, foretold by the prophets from the beginning of the world. He cometh to his own, and Jerusalem is commanded to rejoice and shout; but his own receive him not, and Jerusalem turns a deaf ear to the voices of all her prophets, not suffering herself to believe that any thing said by them could refer to Jesus of Nazareth. Her heart was depraved and hardened: she demanded to be put in possession of the empire of this world; she despised the appearance of her King, with the acclamations of dom, we shall have occasion to speak, as we proceed to consider the character which our prophet hath drawn of this King of Israel: "He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding on an ass." Righteousness, Salvation, and Humility, distinguish the person and reign of Messiah. Righteousness leads the way. "He is just " or righteous. St. Stephen, in his apology to the Jews, affirmeth the prophets to have foreshown the coming of Jesus under the title of the Just One. "Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers." * David in spirit thus addresseth King Messiah, as we are assured by St. Paul's application of t he passage in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews: "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved *Acts, vii 52 |