fickness, he told his disciples that he was refolved to go into Judea, and invited them to go with him, informing them, at the fame time, of the death of Lazarus. The words in which he gave this information are a little remarkable. Ver. 11. Our friend Lazarus fleepeth, and I go to awake him out of fleep. He does not fay, Lazarus is dead. That would have been too harsh. Nor does he fay; I go to raise him from the dead, and thus to difplay my great power. A deceiver would, probably, have used fome boasting language of this kind. But he, avoiding all oftentation, expreffes himself in the gentleft and fimpleft language, faying only, "that Lazarus was afleep, and that he was going to wake him."Another circumftance to the fame purpose, is his ordering the ftone to be removed from the mouth of the fepulchre just before he ordered Lazarus to come forth. He might, undoubtedly, have commanded the stone to roll away of itself; and, perhaps, a bold impoftor would have been reprefented as doing this. But our Lord did not multiply miracles needlefsly, or do any thing for the fake only of fhew and parade. Again; the manner in which he refers this miracle to the will and power of God, requires our attention. After the stone was taken away, he made, we are told, a folemn addrefs to God; and, lifting up his eyes,

faid,

faid, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. This implies, that his ability to work this miracle was the confequence of his having prayed for it. Throughout his whole ministry, he was careful to direct the regards of men to the Deity, as the fountain of all his power. His language was; The Father who dwelleth in me, he doth the works. I can of mine own felf do nothing. I came to do the will of him that fent me.

Thirdly. We should take notice in the account of this miracle, of the tenderness and benevolence of our Saviour's difpofition. It is faid, that when he faw Mary weeping, and the Jews alfo weeping, he groaned in his fpirit, and was troubled. And it is added, as a circumftance particularly obfervable, that HE likewife wept. JESUS WEPT. Ver. 35.

The remarks which, we are told, the fpectators made on this, are very natural. Some, imagining that his tears flowed from his concern for the death of his friend, faid, Behold how he loved him. Others, wondering that, as Lazarus was his friend, he had not exerted the miraculous powers, by which he had cured others, in curing him, said; Could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind, have caufed that even this man fhould not have died? Ver. 37. The reason of his weeping could not be his forrow for the death of Lazarus; for he well knew that

he

he fhould foon restore him to life: But, moft probably, his fympathy with the forrow of Lazarus's friends, heightened by reflections, to which, on this occafion, he might be led, on death and its attendant evils. He. might, likewise, be much impreffed (as we find he was at other times) by obferving the perverfenefs difcovered by fome of the Jews who furrounded him, and by his forefight of the calamities that threatened them. We have an account of his weeping, on another occafion, in Luke xix. 41. where it is faid, that when he came near to Jerufalem and beheld it, he wept over it. In these instances we fee plainly the workings of an ardent benevolence; and we may infer from them, that it is by no means below the character of a wife man to be, on certain occafions, fo far overcome by his affectionate feelings, as to be forced into tears. This happened to our Saviour on the occafions I have mentioned; and he only appears to us the more. amiable for it. Wretched, indeed, is that. philosophy which teaches us to fuppress our tender feelings. Such a philofophy, by aiming at elevating us above human nature, finks us below it. Our Saviour was greater than any human being; and yet we find that even he wept. How foolish then would it be in us to be afhamed of any fimilar tenderness into which we may be forced? A

ftoical

toical infenfibility is certainly rather a vice than a virtue. At no time does a person appear more lovely than when conquered by his kind affections, and melted by them into tears. Let us then learn to despise all pretenfions to a wifdom which would take from us any of our natural fenfibilities; remembering, however, to take care to keep them always, as far as we can, under proper reftraint. It is neither a fin nor a weakness to fall into tears.; but it is wrong to weep like perfons who have no hope, or who are not fatisfied with God's will. Our paffions have been wifely and kindly given us; and our duty is, not to eradicate but to regulate them, by fo watching over them, as never to fuffer them to lead us into any exceffes that would betray an impotence of mind, and a diffidence of Providence.

Fourthly. The DIGNITY of Christ, in working this miracle, deferves our attention. How great did he appear in his converfation with Martha before he got to the fepulchre ; and, particularly, when he declared of himfelf that he was the RESURRECTION and the LIFE, and that he who believeth in him, though he were dead, yet fhall he live? How great did he appear when, after addreffing himself to the Deity, he cried out with a loud voice, at the fepulchre, LAZARUS COME FORTH? And when, in confequence of I 2 this

this call, Lazarus immediately awoke from death, and fhewed himself in perfect health? What a manifeftation was this of his glory, and how evidently did it prove that the pow er of God dwelt in him?

But this leads me to defire you to attend to the affurance this miracle gives us of the Divine mission of Christ. We can fcarcely conceive of a more wonderful exertion of power, than the inftantaneous restoration. to life and health of a perfon whofe body was putrifying in the grave. He that did this must have been fent of God. It is wholly inconceivable, that a deceiver should be able to produce fuch credentials. It is only the power which gave life that can thus reftore it, and re-unite our fouls and bodies: after a feparation. We may, therefore, affure ourselves, that the person who worked this miracle, and who poffeffed fuch an abfolute command over nature as Chrift dif covered, was indeed, what he declared him-felf to be, a Meffenger from heaven to fave: mankind, and that great Meffiah whofe coming had been promised from the beginning of the world.

It has been urged by unbelievers, that, granting the reality of miracles, they are no proof of the truth of doctrines, there being no connexion between a display of fupernatural power and truth. The ftrefs

which