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success of yours is an earnest, which the preaching of the gospel shall shortly gain over all these rebel powers, which even in their highest strength and glory, were so incapable of opposing the arm of God.

and with ascension bright

Captivity led captive through the air ;

Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive. Ps. lxviii. 18.

192 And to the Woman this his sentence turn'd.

"He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." In this declaration was conveyed, in obscure terms, the promise of the Messiah, who as the seed of the woman, should crush the head of the old serpent, or destroy his usurped dominion over the souls of men, and procure their

eternal salvation.

197 On Adam last this judgment he pronounced.

Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it : cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee: and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Gen. iii. 17, 18, 19.

215 As when he wash'd his servants feet,

He poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. John xiii. 5.

Let us turn our eyes to him whom we justly call our Teacher and our Lord; for surely, if anything can effect a cure, it must be actions and words like these. The great Heir of all things, invested with universal dominion, and just returning to his heavenly Father to undertake the administration of it—in what a habit, in what an attitude, do we see him! Whom would a stranger have taken for the lowest of the company, but him who was high over all created nature? Blessed Jesus, it was not so much any personal attachment to these thy servants, as a regard to the edification of thy whole church, which engaged thee to this astonishing action; that all thy ministers, that all thy people, in conformity to thy example,

might learn a readiness to serve each other in love!

216 As father of his family he clad

Their nakedness with skins of beasts,

221

Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them. Gen. iii. 21.

but inward nakedness, much more Opprobrious, with his robe of righteousness, He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteIsa. lxi. 4.

ousness.

251 For Death from sin no pow'r can separate.

For the wages of sin is death. Rom. vi. 23. For eternal death is the proper wages of sin, and is all the gain which its wretched slave will have to show from the hand of his tyrannical master in the great day of future account.

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So round me press'd, exulting at my sight,
With cries and agonies of wild delight,
The weeping sailors; nor less fierce their joy,
Than if returned to Ithaca or Troy,

HOMER'S ODYSSEY.

hath God then said that of the fruit

Of all these garden trees ye shall not eat,

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Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? Gen. iii. 1.

Of each tree in the garden we may eat,

We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, ye shall not eat of it; neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. Gen. iii. 1.

he knows that in the day Ye eat thereof, your eyes that seem so clear

For God doth know, that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened: and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Gen.

iii. 5.

733 He ended, and his words replete with guile

Exhort one another daily, while it is called, to day; lest any of you be hardened, through the deceitfulness of sin. Heb. iii. 13. You are surrounded with many temptations to do this; but exhort one another daily, while you are under this dispensation of grace, whilst it is called, to day and the deserved judgments of God are suspended; that no one of you may, by insensible degrees and artful insinuations, be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, and its fallacious

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advances on the mind; whereby, if you are not resolutely on your guard, you may be seduced finally, to forfeit the invaluable blessings which are so freely offered, and which have so long been set before you.

this fruit divine

Fair to the eye, inviting to the taste,

The woman saw that the tree was good for food; and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make them wise. Gen. iii. 6. Heav'n is high,

High, and remote to see from thence distinct

Yet they say, The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall he not see? Psalms, civ. 7, 9.

835 But first low reverence done, as to the Power That dwelt therein,

Worshipped and served the creature, more than the Creator. Rom. i. 25. Let us give the most attentive heed, and be much upon our guard, against those vain and sophistical reasonings to which they who, knowing God, are ready to fly ; lest we approve ourselves fools in proportion to the degree in which we profess to be wise, and provoke God to give us up to an injudicious mind, and to leave us to that reciprocal influence, which evil principles and evil actions have to render each other more inveterate and incurable. 996 She gave him of that fair enticing fruit With liberal hand:

She took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and

gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. Gen. iii. 6.

1059

So rose the Danite strong

Herculean Samson

Samson was a Danite: that is, one of the tribe of Dan, a judge: he was the twelfth of the Judges of Israel: he succeeded Abdon, and judged the people twenty years: Delilah was his mistress and betrayer. Judges, xvi. 4.

1103 In Malabar or Decan spreads her arms Branching so broad and long,

The Indian fig, likewise called the banyan and the wonder tree, is sometimes of an amazing size, as it is continually increasing, every branch proceeding from the trunk, throws out long fibres which take root in the ground, and shoot out new branches, which again throw out fibres, that take root and continue in this state of progression, as long as they find soil to nourish them, Malabar and Decan are places in the East Indies, where they flourish.

1115 Columbus found th' American so giri With feather'd cincture,

Christopher Columbus, a native of Genoa, was the first who undertook to extend the boundaries of the world. He sailed from Spain, in the year 1492, with a fleet of three ships, after a voyage of thirty-three days, amidst the murmurs of a discontented mutinous crew he landed on one of those islands now called Bahamas, in a rich dress, and with a naked sword in his hand. His men followed, and, kneeling down, they kissed the ground which they had so long desired