XII.

SER M. positions of Science fally so called, which fome

profeffing have erred concerning the Faith, 1 Tim. vi. 20, 21. Obey the command of God himself by the Prophet Jeremy, Stand

ye

in the Ways and fee, and ask for the old Paths, where is the good Way, and walk therein, and ye shall find Rest for your Souls, Jerem. vi. 16. Or as St. Jude subjoins to what I just now read to you from him, re, Beloved, building up yourselves on their most holy Faith, praying in the Holy Ghost: Keep yourselves in the Love of God, looking for the Mercy of the Lord Yesus Christ unto eternal Life. Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the Presence of his Glory with exceeding Foy; To the only wise God, our Saviour, be Glory and Majesty, Deminion and Power, both now and ever, Amen. Jude 20, 21, 24, 25.

SER

269

SERMON XIII.
The Mystery of the Marriage in Cana

explained.

JOHN Ü. 11.
'This Beginning of Miracles did Jesus in Cana

of Galilee.

TH

XIII.

HE first and principal End designed by serm.

our Blessed Saviour in the Miracles that he wrought, the Words immediately

following my Text declare to have been the Ś Manifestation of bis Glory, in order to per

fuade and induce his Disciples to believe on
him. But besides the Design of Miracles in
general, we must also suppose that there was
a further End proposed by our Saviour in the
Choice of the Miracles he was pleased to
make use of, to shew his Power. They were
all of them intended, we need not doubt,
both mystically to imply some hidden Truth
which our Lord had a mind to reveal to those

that had the Gift of discerning the Spirit of i

the

I

XIII.

ser M. the Gospel ; and also morally to propose some

Rules and Instructions for the Conduct of our Lives, and some good Example of Benefi cence and Charity to our Practice and Imitation. It is with a View to the first of these two last mentioned Ends that I propose to consider this Paffage of Scripture ; i. e, not to exhort

you to a Belief in Jesus from a Confi. deration of the Evidence that is given of his Truth by the Miracle it relates, (for this perhaps will be excused by those whose Faith is. already sufficiently confirmed) but my Meaning is, to explain what the Miracle in the inward or myftical Sense of it seems intended to imply

For, doubtless, there was some Reason, why our Lord would begin his Miracles at a Marriage Feast, and why at such a Feast by the especial Act of turning Water into Wine. And by this I presume our Saviour intended to intimate the Improvements, the Benefits and Advantages arising to his Church, by Virtue of his Marriage or Union with it. And that his Union with the Church is what he himself represents as a Marriage, is so evident to any one that knows the Holy Scriptures, that it would be wasting of Time to produce any Proof. It is upon this Account

XIII.

S

that Christ is so often in Scripture called the SERM.
Bridegroom, and the Church as often his Spouse
or Bride.. When our Blessed Lord therefore
works his first Miracle, at the Celebration of
a Marriage, which we know he himself had
appointed as a Type of his own Marriage or
Espousals with the Church ; may we not
suppose that the particular Miracle he was
pleased to work was designed to signify or re-
prefent that the State of the Church, from
the Time of his Marriage or Espousals with
her, should be much better and more im-
proved than it was before ? So far is certain
that if we make Use of this as a Key to open
and discover the inward and hidden Sense of
the Miracle : we shall find the several Cir-
cumstances of which the Miracle confifts har-
moniously agree.

It is particularly remarked in the Beginning
of the Whole, that this Marriage was cele-
brated the third Day. But from what Day,
the Day of the Marriage was the third, our
Commentators find it very difficult to settle.
And yet we fee it is mentioned by the Evan-
gelist as an Article of Importance, that it was
upon a third Day from some other Event.
The particular Mention therefore of the third
Day may not improperly be understood to in-

1

XIII.

SERM. timate that the Marriage of Christ and the

Church was celebrated in the third Age or Period of the World. For the first Age was before the Law, the second under it, and the third was the Christian. The Circumstance of the Time therefore exactly corresponds. Let us next consider the Miracle itself, and see whether that will agree as well.

Now the Miracle itself was the turning of Water into Wine ; which, if we consider it, will

appear not only to be an Improvement of the Element, but to be also a fit and proper Emblem of the Improvement of the Church under the Gospel State. The legal Dispensation we conceive to be here intended by the Water, the Cession of the Law to the Dispensation of the Gospel, by the Change of the Water into Wine. And what can better represent the State of the Church under the Law of Moses, than the Element of Water? Water is what we always use to wash and cleanse ourselves from all our external Pollutions and Filth. And what further Virtue, I beseech you, had the Law, than what the Epistle to the Hebrews intimates, viz. that of sanctifying only to the purifying of the Flesh? Heb. ix. 13. By the Water then, which is the Subject of our Saviour's Power and Might, the

Law