PULPIT ASSISTANT; CONTAINING THREE HUNDRED OUTLINES, OR Skeletons of Sermons: CHIEFLY EXTRACTED FROM VARIOUS AUTHORS. WITH AN ESSAY ON THE COMPOSITION OF A SERMON. Apply thyself to reading.-St. Paul. COMPLETE IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. III. FIRST AMERICAN, FROM THE FOURTH LONDON EDITION. London: PRINTED FOR WILLIAM BAYNES AND SON NEW-YORK: REPRINTED AND SOLD BY J. & J. HARPER, No. 327 Pearl-street. ....... THE Pulpit Assistant. JESUS CHRIST, THE MOST EXCELLENT of all Never man spake like this man.—John vii. 46. So said the officers, whom the pharisees and chief priests had sent to take Jesus Christ into custody, assigning this as a reason why they had not executed their commission. When these officers went to take Jesus Christ, he was standing in the temple, and speaking boldly of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive, when the Holy Ghost should be given, after he was glorified: very likely our Lord was expounding some of the prophecies, for he said, "if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink: he that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water." It must have been very delightful to hear Jesus Christ explain the prophecies, and particularly such as are contained in the 35th and 44th of Isaiah, the 2d chapter of Joel, and other places, where the Holy Spirit is spoken of under the similitude of a well, or a spring in the minds and hearts of inspired men; the mouth of a righteous man is a well of life, and Christian knowledge is a well of water springing up into everlasting life. Many of the people when they heard this discourse, were persuaded that the speaker was an extraordinary person, and others thought he was the promised Messiah; many said, Of a truth, this is the Prophet, i. e. the Prophet spoken of by Moses. Others said, This is the Christ; the officers ventured to say, in general, Never man spake like this man. We unite these opinions, and affirm, Jesus is the Prophet like Moses, he is the Christ, he is the man who spoke as no man ever did speak, Jesus Christ is the most excellent of all teachers. They who were so happy |