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the miracles which He performed **.

They

named the sum for which He was sold, and the use to which that money was to be appro

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* Isaiah, xxxv. 5, 6. Matt. xi. 5.

* The miracles which Christ wrought, not only afforded proofs of his divinity, but they had also a figurative meaning: "Go," said he," and show John again those things which ye do hear and see. The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached unto them1." Isaiah, referring to the establishment of Christ's spiritual kingdom, says, "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing; for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert"." As Christ opened the eyes of the blind, so did He remove the spiritual blindness3 of those who had never beheld the "true Light 4," He opened the eyes of the understandings of those who were spiritually blind'. He unstopped the ears of the deaf; so did He, in a spiritual sense, open the ears of those who had never heard the voice of truth; who, having ears, heard not. He made the lame walk; and He healed those who were spiritually lame?, teaching those who walked in their own ways 10, 66 so to walk even as He walked," that they might no longer halt 12. He made the

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45; iv. 18.

12 1 Kings, xviii. 21. Micah,

6 Matt. xv. 14. John, ix. 40, iv. 6, 7. Zeph. iii. 19.

priated. They mentioned His imprisonment and trial; the false accusations which were brought against Him; the blamelessness of His

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dumb speak, and He made those who were spiritually dumb, speak His praise. He cleansed the lepers; and He cleansed those who were spiritually unclean. He healed the sick; and He was the physician who came to heal sinners 13; "Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses 14," "for "He bare our sins in his own body on the tree," and by His stripes we are healed. He raised the dead; and He suffered, that man should pass "from death to life 16;" He "hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light, through the Gospel "." He fed the multitude miraculously with a few loaves and He is that "bread of life," to which if a man come, he "shall never hunger 18 " He stilled the raging of the sea; so hath He stilled the raging of the spiritual sea: and as He walked on the sea, so did He put the spiritual sea, the empire of "the great dragon," under His feet. The miraculous draught of fishes which He produced after His resurrection, was a figure of the multitude of converts to Christianity which should be made through the ministry of those whom He had appointed as fishers of men 19; for they were "the fishers" standing upon the river of the water of life, who spread nets to catch "the fish of the great sea exceeding many

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life; the humiliation which He endured, in being scourged and bruised, smitten on the cheek, and spat upon; His conduct before His accusers &; His being numbered with the transgressors; the piercing His hands and feet; the shedding His blood, by the piercing of His side1; the taunting insults which He received as He hung on the cross; the giving Him vinegar and gall to drink'; the division of His garments, and the casting lots for His vesture m; His exclamation to GOD when on the cross"; the last words which He uttered on the cross; the preservation of His bones from being broken P; His burial; His resurrection'; and

Isaiah, liii. 9. Matt. xxvii. 4, 19, 24. Luke, xxiii. 22. John, xviii. 38; xix. 4. 2 Cor. v. 21. 1 Peter, ii. 22. 1 John, iii. 5.

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a Isaiah, l. 6; liii. 4, 5. xxvii. 35. Matt. xxvii. 26, 30. n Psalm xxii. 1.

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• Micah, v. 1. Matt. xxvii. xv. 34.

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h Isaiah, liii. 9, 12. Luke, xxvii. 57, 60. xxiii. 32, 33.

i Psalm xxii. 16. Zech. xii. 10. John, xix. 18, 34, 37;

Psalm xvi. 10; xl. 2. Isaiah, liii. 10, 12. Acts, ii. 31. 1 Cor. xv. 4. See Hosea,

His ascension to His seat at the right hand of GOD. They pointed Him out as the atonement for the iniquities of the whole of mankind", and they foretold the increase and the universality of His spiritual kingdom".

The history of Jonah presents a striking figure of the effects of Christ's passion, and it also affords figures of His abode in Hades, and of His resurrection. "There was a mighty tempest in the sea," and the sailors cast lots to find out for whose cause the evil was come upon them. And the lot fell upon Jonah*. "Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? And he said unto them, Take me up and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you"." "So they took Jonah and cast him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased from her raging." It has already been shown that the sea is a figure of the seat of the dominion of Satan and death; and the wicked are compared to "a troubled sea, whose waters cast up

s Psalm lxviii. 18. Eph. 17, 19. Isaiah, ix. 7. Dan. iv. 8. ii. 44; vii. 14, 27. Micah,

t Psalm cx. 1. Acts, ii. iv. 6, 7. Zech. ix. 10. Hebr. 33, 34. Hebr. x. 12.

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mire and dirt," "raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame." Christ has stilled the waves of the spiritual sea; for, though "the floods lift up their waves, the Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, than the mighty waves of the sead" When the sailors were about to cast Jonah into the sea, 66 they cried unto the Lord and said, We beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood";" and when Pilate was about to deliver up Christ to be crucified, "he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just personf." "Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights." Jonah thus afforded a sign of Christ's abode in Hades: " for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." The situation of Jonah in "the fish's belly," his prayer when there, and his deliverance thence, are recorded in terms precisely similar to those which are applied to Christ's abode in Hades, and to

b Isaiah, lvii. 20. ** Jude, 13.

◄ Psalm xciii. 3, 4.

f Matt. xxvii. 24.

Jonah, i. 17.

h Matt. xii. 40.

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