who left the place in disgust, deserted his treacherous wife, and had the mortification to find her afterwards in the embraces of one, who had just before professed himself his greatest friend. Would to God that every gambler in the universe would duly consider this history !]
We will now proceed to consider the riddle, II. As applicable to other subjects —
We mean not to assert that it was intended to be applied to other subjects ; though, considering the nature of that dispensation, and the peculiar circum- stances of his history, it seems highly probable that every thing related of him had either a typical aspect cr a mysterious import. We wish, however, always to lean to the safer side, and to suggest only in an accommodated sense any observations, which would admit of doubt, if applied to the Scripture as expres- sive of its real import.
With this caution we think the riddle may be applied,
1. To the Lord Jesus Christ himself —
[We know that he came down from the bosom of his Father, assumed our nature, sojourned many years upon the earth, and was at last put to death, even the accursed death of the cross. Now what good could we expect to result from this? Must we not rather suppose that the greatest possible evil must accrue from it, even the more aggravated condemnation of the whole world? Yet behold, " out of the eater came forth meat ; " out of that, which we should have imagined woidd prove the de- struction of the whole human race, has proceeded the salvation of ruined man ! In this light was this mystery announced to Adam in Paradise ; "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed : it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel*^." Here the very wounds which Satan should inflict on the Lord Jesus, are spoken of as the means of effecting his oion destruction. Isaiah speaks to the same effect, that the Messiah, by making his own soul an offering for sin, should secure to himself a seed who should live for ever^. In the New Testament, the same mysterious re- presentations are given us of Christ: " He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, that he might condemn sin in the flesh''; " and " that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver those who through
f Gen. iii. 15. -' Isai. liii. 10, 12. h ^om. viii. ■).
274.1 Samson's riddlk. 71
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage'" Amazing ! that his death should be our life ; his suf- ferings, our happiness ; his luuniliation, our glory ! Yet so it is ; for when he appeared to have been utterly vanquished, he rescued us from the hand of his gi'eat adversary, and spoiled all the principalities and powers of hell, and triumphed over them openly on his cross."]
2. To every member of his mystical body —
[Great and multiplied are the trials of the Lord's people ; yet the very billows that threaten to overwhelm them, bear them forward to their desired haven. View the trials which they have in common with the rest of mankind; these are sent them by God for their good'', to improve their graces', and eventually to augment the eternal weight of glory that shall be
given them at their departui-e hence™ View the trials
which they meet with on account of their Christian profession ; these are rather a ground of joy than of sorrow", and are occa- sions of holy glorying, inasmuch as they are the means of bringing to us much richer communications of divine aid", and of advancing that very cause which they are intended to repress p. Whether therefore the riddle was intended to comprehend these things or not, sure we are that it was not more appli- cable to the occasion on which it was used, than it is to the trials and deliverances of the Lord's people. But, in order to unravel this mystery, we must plough with the Lord's heifer, and seek the teachings of his Spirit *i.]