SERMON I. THE OFFERING OF THE WISE MEN; OR, LOVE, FAITH, AND OBEDIENCE, UNITED, THE ONLY TRUE SACRIFICE. MATT. ii. 11. And when they had opened their treasures, they prefented unto him gifts, gold, and frankincenfe, and myrrh. THERE is no part of the holy word but what is full of inftruction; every line of it is written for our advantage; the wifdom contained in it is inexhaustible; and eternity itself is too fhort for finite minds to fathom all its truths. We have been too much accustomed to confine ourselves to the mere letter of the word, and have not confidered its internal and spiritual meaning; in confequence of which, fome have entertained but very low ideas of that word, and others have established every kind of falfe doctrine upon it. Whereas, if it were understood in its true internal fenfe, it would then appear as it is; that is, as the word of the living B God, God, full of wisdom and truth divine; and that every verfe and line contains useful and heavenly inftruction. The fcience of correfpondence, by which it is written, has long been unknown and hid from the minds of men, in confequence of that falsehood and evil which has fo long prevailed, and fo much abounded; but is in these last days opened again from the Lord, for the benefit and inftruction of mankind. By that science we are led to underftand that every word has a spiritual meaning; what that meaning is; and that where natural things are mentioned, spiritual things are fignified. According to this science I intend to open the text before us. We are told in the beginning of the chapter, that wife men came from the East to Jerufalem: the occafion of their journey was to find out that perfonage who was born King of the Jews. For they had seen his star in the Eaft, and they came to worship him; and by this ftar they were directed to the very spot where Jefus was. That there actually were wife men who took that journey, and were fo directed, we need not doubt; nor can we doubt their offering gold, frankincenfe, and myrrh; but then what is fpiritually understood by all these circumftances, is the matter under confideration. And, firft, By wife men. Some have imagined that they were aftronomers, well acquainted with the heavenly bodies, or the planetary system; and alfo with aftrology, or the influence of those planets. How |