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ness. Let not any false doctrines of human pride keep me ignorant of myself, nor any pleasures of the world tempt me to neglect so great a salvation; that having received the blessings of thy visitation, and followed thy example in doing good according to my ability, I may be rewarded by thy mercy out of thy heavenly treasures; for I believe that thou shalt come again, according to thy promise, to repay me and every man for what we shall have done, in all those things, and toward all those persons, which thou hast committed to our charge, Amen.

THE QUESTIONS.

Q. What do we learn from the parable of the Good Samaritan?

A. The fall of man, and his salvation, and our own duty.

Q. How is his fall signified?

A. As a going down from Jerusalem to Je

richo.

Q. What is Jerusalem?

A. The holy city, or life of paradise.
Q. What is Jericho?

A. A city under a curse, like this world of sin.

1

Q. What

Q. What is it to go down from Jerusalem to Jericho?

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A. To depart from paradise into this world.

Q. What happens to man in the one to the other?

A. He falls among thieves.

Q. Who are they?

A. The devil and all evil spirits.
Q. What do they do to him?

A. They strip him of his raiment.

way from

Q. What happened to Adam, when he fell into sin?

A. He found himself naked.

Q. What did they do besides?

A. They wounded him.

Q. With what?

A. With sin, which is the sting of death.

Q. Why are they said to have left him half dead?

A. Because man, when he fell into sin, did not then die in body, but in spirit, in the better half of him.

Q. Who are the Priest and Levite that see. him, and pass by?

A. The ministers of the law, who were to pass away, because their sacrifices could not take away sin.

Q. Who

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Q. Who comes after them, to do what the law could not?

A. Jesus Christ, the Saviour of fallen

man.

Q. Why does he call himself a Samaritan?

A. Because he was hated by the Jews, as the Samaritans were; and they reviled him. under the name of a Samaritan; (probably, after the delivery of this parable).

Q. What doth this Samaritan do?

A. He hath compassion on him, and goes

to save him.

Q. What does he apply, when he binds his wounds?

up

A. Oil and wine; the spirit of life, and the blood of redemption.

Q. What is oil remarkable for?

A. It cures the bite of a serpent.

Q. What is the Inn to which the wounded

man is carried?

A. The Church.

Q. Who is the Hest of it?

A. The Minister.

Q. What charge is given to him?

A. To take care of those who are committed to him.

Q. And what is he to expect?

A. That

A. That he who calls himself the Samaritan, will come again to repay him.

Q. What duty are you to learn from this story?

A. To go and do likewise; that is, to shew mercy to others, as Jesus Christ hath shewed mercy to me.

THE TEXT.

Luke x. ver. 25-38.

XIV. THE CHAPTER OF THE PATRIARCH

JOSEPH.

NEXT to the history of our blessed Saviour himself, the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis is most wonderful and affecting. When we read, how wise and innocent he was, how his father loved him, how his brethren persecuted him, we cannot help pitying and loving him. Even the distress of his wicked brethren is attended with such remorse and perplexity, that we pity them also. But when Judah pleads for Benjamin, and Joseph discovers himself, the scene is so affect

ing, that we cannot refrain from tears. In the three greatest lines of his character and history, he was a most exact figure of our blessed Saviour. He was innocent; he was persecuted; he was exalted: and the life of every servant of God is, and will be, more or less, after the same pattern.

When St. Stephen pleaded before the Jews, he pointed this story of Joseph against them in such words, that they saw their own wickedness in that of Joseph's brethren, and fell into a rage; gnashing upon him with their teeth for bringing their wickedness home to them in such plain terms. For such as Joseph had been, such was Jesus Christ, whom they had lately crucified: they had done unto him. as their forefathers had done to the Patriarch Joseph; whose character, in every part of it, bears the strongest testimony to the history of Jesus Christ: so strong, that the Jews, who heard it, were not able to bear it. For, saith St. Stephen, the Patriarchs (his own brethren), moved with envy (as the High Priests were afterwards), sold Joseph (as Judas sold our Saviour) into Egypt; (delivering him to the Gentiles to be evil entreated and punished as a malefactor and a slave.) The Patriarch Judah was the seller of Joseph; and his name

VOL. XI.

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sake,

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