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ject or of time ; although to efich of them the date . of the composition is very properly affixed . Our extracts will serve to shew what Mr . Lindsey was as an expositor
of the Scriptures , ala advocate of divine truth , a consistent Protestant and a faithful , affectionate preacher of righteousness . » In numbers xvi . xvii . xx . xxiii .
xxiv . xxv * of vol . I , and numbers ii . v . f xiv . xv , J xxk xxii § of vol . II . we have examples of that scriptural criticism which explains difficult terms and passages with sober freedom , with remarkable correctness and perspicuity a ** d with constant reference to the
end of public religious instruction . There is no writer of sermons who , in our judgment , equals Mr . Lindsey in a combination of these qualities . We transcribe some of his observations in the first of those discourses which we have just enumerated : y
" The expression [ a thorn in the flesh ] » sometimes proverbial ; as in Numb . xxxiii , 55 , where Moses told the Israelites « that if they suffered the heathen inhabitants of Canaan to remain among them , they would be thorns in their
sides . ' And , in general , it signifies any thing that is very troublesome , or that gives lively and acute paint as it is called c a thorn in the flesh , ' it probably was some bodily disorder or infirmity , ¦ which was very inconvenient and humbling to our Apostle . "
** That no evil passion or desire , nothings of any immoral tendency , was in-* Mr . L . is of opinion that the madness was transferred from the man to the herd * + The-preacher takes the same view of Christ ' s temptation with the late Mr . Farmer .
f The " adversary" is here stated to fce persecution . , § " To be baptized for the dead" Mr . I * , conceives to mean embracing Christianity on account of the exemplary sufftring * ofihM % vbo ** ucrc martyrs fit it .
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tended , is most plain hence , because such things are never immediately sent by God , but always brought on men by their own bad conduct ; and , moreover , evil and vicious desires are alwayVto be lamented by a good mind , because they tend to lead to misery and ruin , though by being- resisted and overcome they may not actually lead to it .
" Whereas that which St . Paul here mentions , so far from lamenting , you observe that he glories in it ; counts it a happiness that it was sent to him from God , however painful and humiliating it was to him /* " And the most likely conclusion of all others made concerning it , is , that it was some bodily deEqct , perhaps a
paralytic affection , which tended to undermine and lessen him in the eyes of those who judged of things from the outward appearance , and which thereby had a -tendency to check that too great opinion of himself and vanity which he might otherwise have been in danger of failing into , from the very singular divine favours and communications to him . *
" So we find it to have been understood by the early Christian writers , who might probably have learned it from a tradition preserved in those places where St . Paul had preached . But what chiefly confirms it , is , that the Apostle himself seems so to explain it in other parts of his Epistles *• *
The leading doctrines of Christianity are illustrated and enforced by Mr . Lindsey with considerable success ' irr numbers i . v . xii , xv . xxii of the first , and in numbers iv . vi and xxiii of the second volume .
In his discourse on repentance he gives the following concise and instructive description of that future state of happiness which is the object of hope to contrite believers in Jesus Christ :
«« _ what is heaven itself ! _ Not a place or company ( though both most enraptured and delightful ; : but it is an enlightened mind , a purified conscience , a sanctified , benevolent heart , full of God and good works , desiring earnestly - - - . Mi 1 ¦ 1 ¦ n . ¦ .. lii _ 1 _ . . •_ _ . _
* x Con ii . 3 »— - * Cor , x * xo , ~~ Gal , iv * 13 , 14 . *
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Review . ' —jLindseys Sermons . 43
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1811, page 43, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2412/page/43/
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