doth, from a consciousness of superior knowledge: but the scorn was to themselves; for they laughed only because they were not wise enough to comprehend the meaning of his language. Neither was it much better understood by his own disciples, though it was received with more decency. The death of Lazarus gave him an opportunity of using the same expression; "Our friend Lazarus "sleepeth, but I go that I may awake him "out of Sleep".". Nothing can be plainer than that Christ, by the Sleep of Lazarus, signified his Death; and by his dwaking, his resurrection which was shortly to follow. How mean and irrational was it to imagine, that the Saviour of the world should solemnly enter upon a dangerous journey (for such it was) only to disturb a sick friend in that Sleep, which might contribute much to his recovery! Yet such was the mistake of his disciples they answered "Lord, if he sleep he shall do well; thinking that he spake of taking rest in Sleep." They had been habituated, as Jews, to rest in the bare literal sense of the scripture, and therefore listened to the discourses of their master with Jewish

prejudice and ignorance. When he delivered "Be

to them that figurative admonition,

ware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of "the Sadducees," we find them applying it to the insignificant occasion of their own improvidence, because they had omitted to lay in a proper store of bread. On which occasion he thus appealed to them; "O ye of "little faith, why reason ye among your"selves because ye have brought no bread ? "how is it, that ye do not yet under"stand, that I spake it not to you con"cerning bread, that ye should beware of "the leaven of the Pharisees and of the "Sadduces?" Their error being corrected, and their attention excited by this rebuke, they discovered at length, that leaven signified false doctrine. The same persons, who were thus slow of apprehension, had received ocular demonstration, that a divine power was present with Christ to supply all their necessities. They had seen a few loaves of bread, by passing through his hands, become sufficient to feed a vast multitude in the wilderness. But they had either forgot the miracle, or knew not how to apply the

a Matth. xvi. II.

remem

remembrance of it. Their faith had forsaken them, and therefore their senses were deficient; for faith would have instructed them, that the literal sense of the expression was mean in itself, and injurious to the speaker; and thence they might have collected, that the leaven of the Pharisees, against which they had frequently been cautioned in plainer language, was that hypocrisy and pride which had inflated that class of men with error, and spoiled the whole mass of their doctrines.

V. When the death of Lazarus was spoken of under a like figure, the expression was misunderstood for want of a proper degree of faith in the hearers. It is observed of the inhabitants of the East, that they were accustomed from time immemorial to figurative and elevated language, even in their common discourse. This might be true: yet there were cases, in which this practice, however common, gave very little help to the understanding. The reception which the discourses of Christ so frequently met with from those of his own time, is sufficient to convince us, that when the figures of his speech were pointed toward spiritual and invisible objects, a principle of faith was want

ing; without which the men of Palestine were no better prepared to discern his meaning, than if they had been born under the frigid zone. So that this instance of slowness of apprehension in the disciples might have been rebuked, (as that other was) in such words as these; "O ye of little faith; "how is it that ye do not understand, that "I spake it not of Sleep but of Death; "since all shall awake in the morning of "the resurrection? The dead do not perish;

they only fall asleep and as the Sleep of "the night delivers men up to the light of "the succeeding day, so the rest of Death " is but a prelude to immortality." The expression ought not to have been unintelligible nor even strange to those, who had been accustomed to the language of the scriptures: where it was said of David, of Solomon, and of other kings of Israel, that when they died they slept with their fathers. The prophet Daniel had warned them, that they who

sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, .66 some to everlasting life, and some to shame "and everlasting contempt." Such was the style of the Old Testament: and being

* Dan. xii. 2.

SO

so agreeable to the nature of things, it is adopted and used more familiarly by the writers in the New Testament. St. Paul speaks of departed christians, as of those who sleep in Jesus; and where he enlarges on the great topic of the resurrection, he describes our Redeemer to us as the first fruits of them that slept; opening it as a new mystery, that we shall not all sleep; that is, we shall not all die, or be laid in the grave; inasmuch as many shall be alive at the Lord's coming, and undergo that blessed change instantaneously, the usual passage to which is through the dark valley and shadow of Death.

The general design of the foregoing expressions being too plain to be farther insisted upon, we must now consider the propriety with which they are applied to the subjects of Death and the resurrection: in doing which, I shall follow the steps of a learned writer of the last century; departing from his plan occasionally, where it seems to be capable of improvement.

VI. When Sleep and Death are compared, the likeness holds through every member of

& I Thess. iv. 14.

I Cor. xv. 20.

Y 4

the