Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament

⁴ This one thing is that which the Lord intimates that He designed to signify by what He did. What else is there? He comes to the tree being hungry, and seeks fruit. Did He not know that it was not the time for it? What the cultivator of the tree knew, did not its Creator know? He seeks on the tree then for fruit which it had not yet. Does He really seek for it, or rather make a pretence of seeking it? For if He really sought it, He was mistaken. But this be far from Him, to be mistaken!

He made then a pretence of seeking it. Fearing to allow this, that he makes a pretence, you confess that He was mistaken. Again, you turn away from the idea of His being mistaken, and so run into that of His making a pretence. We are parched up between the two. If we are parched, let us beg for rain, that we may grow green, lest in saying anything unworthy of the Lord, we rather wither away. The Evangelist indeed says, “He came to the tree, and found no fruit on it.” “He found none,” would not be said of Him, unless He had either really sought for it, or made a pretence of seeking, though He knew that there was none there.

Wherefore we do not hesitate, let us by no means say that Christ was mistaken. What then? Shall we say He made a pretence? Shall we say this? How shall we get out of this difficulty? Let us say what, if the Evangelist had not said of the Lord in another place, we should not of ourselves dare to say. Let us say what the Evangelist has written, and when we have said, let us understand it. But in order that we may understand it, let us first believe. For, “unless ye believe,” says the Prophet, “you shall not understand.” The Lord Christ after His Resurrection, was walking in the way with two of His disciples, by whom He was not yet recognised, and with whom He joined company as a third traveller.

They came to the place whither they were going, and the Evangelist says, “But He made a pretence as though He would have gone further.” But they kept Him, saying, in the spirit of a courteous kindness, that it was already drawing toward evening, and praying Him to tarry there with them; being received and entertained by them, He breaks Bread, and is known of them in blessing and breaking of the Bread. So then, let us not now fear to say, that He made a pretence of seeking, if He made a pretence of going further.

But here there arises another question. Yesterday I insisted at some length on the truth which is in the Apostles; how then do we find any “pretence” in the Lord Himself? Therefore, Brethren, I must tell you, and teach you according to my poor abilities, which the Lord gives me for your benefit, and must convey to you what ye may hold as a rule in the interpretation of all Scripture. Everything that is said or done is to be understood either in its literal signification, or else it signifies something figuratively; or at least contains both of these at once, both its own literal interpretation, and a figurative signification also.

Thus I have set forth three things, examples of them must now be given; and from whence, but from the Holy Scriptures? It is said in its literal acceptation, that the Lord suffered, that He rose again, and ascended into heaven; that we shall rise again at the end of the world, that we shall reign with Him for ever, if we do not despise Him. Take all this as spoken literally, and look not out for figures; as it is expressed, so it really is. And so also with various actions. The Apostle went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, the Apostle actually did this, it actually took place, it was an action peculiar to himself.

It is a fact which he tells you; a simple fact according to its literal meaning. “The stone which the builders refused, has become the Head of the corner,” is spoken in a figure. If we take “the stone” literally, what “stone did the builders refuse, which became the Head of the corner”? If we take “the stone” literally, of what corner is this “stone” become the Head? If we admit that it was figuratively expressed, and take it figuratively, the Cornerstone is Christ: the head of the corner, is the Head of the Church.

Why is the Church the Corner? Because she has called the Jews from one side, and the Gentiles from another, and these two walls as it were coming from different quarters, and meeting together in one, she has bound together by the grace of her peace. For, “He is our peace, who has made both one.”