infirmity; and thus, too, shall I no longer be of the number of the adversaries of the GREAT SAVIOUR, but rather rank in the number of those friends, of whom it is written, That they rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him. AMEN.

243

THE DROPSY CURED.

LUKE xiv. 1 to 7.

And it came to pass, as He went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath-day, that they watched Him. And behold, there was a certain man before Him which had the dropsy, &c. &c.

YOU have already told me, in the explana tion of a former miracle, what is figured and represented by the sabbath-day, and why, on ac count of that representation, the BLESSED JESUS wrought so many of His miracles on that day. Can you now tell me what is here to be understood by a certain man which had the dropsy?

A. According to the letter of the history, by a certain man who had a dropsy, is meant one who was afflicted with a bodily distemper called by that name, and consisting in a super-abundance of water formed in different parts of the body; but according to the spiritual sense containet in this, as in the other miracles which the LORD wrought, by a certain man who had a dropsy, is figured the state of the Jewish church at that period, in its perversion of all heavenly good and truth, and

particularly in this perversion, that natural knowledge had gained the ascendancy over spiritual, and that thus all spiritual life of love and charity was in danger of being destroyed by the superabundance of mere natural speculation and thought. For such is the correspondence between the natural distemper called the dropsy, and the spiritual perversion of heavenly good and truth here adverted to, all the difference between them consisting in this, that the natural distemper is occasioned by a superfluity of natural water, whereas the perversion hath its rise in a superfluity of what is signified and represented by water, viz. natural truth; in other words, truth apprehended naturally, and not spiritually. It is said of the above man who had the dropsy, that he was before him (JESUS,) denoting, according to the spiritual idea, that the above perversion of all heavenly good and truth in the Jewish church at that period was under divine inspection, being both seen and noted by the divine wisdom.

Q. But it is written on this occasion, that JESUS answering, spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath-day?what do you conceive to be the force and meaning of the question here proposed by the BLESSED JESUS to the lawyers and Pharisees?

A. By this interesting question it would appear to be the LORD's intention to call the lawyers and Pharisees, and through them all succeeding generations of mankind, to the very im

portant consideration of the sabbath-day, both as to what it is in itself, as to what it figures and represents, and further as to the duties which it requires, that so it might be discovered, agreeable to what was shown in explaining a former miracle, that the sabbath is in itself most holy, as being representative of the divine and heavenly mar riage of good and truth, and that therefore the duties which it requires are all such acts of mercy, of charity, of instruction, and of piety, &c. &c. as have a tendency to rescue man from the do minion of the powers of darkness and the influence of selfish and worldly love, that he may be at liberty to pursue and regain his lost life and happiness in the love and favour of His HEA VENLY FATHER.

Q. Can you see any reason then why the BLESSED JESUS, without waiting for an answer to His question, immediately took the man, and healed him, and let him go?

A. It was not necessary for the BLESSED JESUS to be determined by the opinions of men as to the propriety of his own conduct, and therefore, without waiting to know the sentiments of the lawyers and Pharisees on the occasion, He gives the best possible answer Himself to His own question, by manifesting His mercy and omnipotence in the removal of bodily disease, proving thus that it was lawful to heal on the sabbathday, because that the Son of Man is LORD also of the sabbath.

Q. And how do you understand the expressions by which this act of mercy and omnipo

tence is described-He took him and healed him, and let him go?

A. According to the literal sense of the letter, these expressions are to be understood literally, as relating to the man who had a dropsy; but according to the spiritual sense, they are to be understood spiritually, as relating to the perversion of good and truth in the church, or to the spiritual dropsy occasioned by a super-abundance of natural knowledge, and of proportionable defect of spiritual life; and agreeable to this latter sense, by taking him is to be understood the application of the divine wisdom or truth, according to what was observed concerning this expression in the explication of the miracle of the loaves and fishes; and by healing him, is further to be understood the application of the di vine mercy or love, for all spiritual healing is from that source; and lastly, by letting him go, is to be understood the effect produced in the disordered church by the two-fold application as above, in consequence of which the church was at once relieved from the perversion under which it had laboured, and was enabled freely and of itself to walk in the ways of righteousness, by keeping the commandments of GOD.

Q. But it follows, that when JESUS had thus taken and healed the sick man, and let him go, He then proposed another question, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath-day ?. what do you conceive