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all their favourite rites and ceremonies, and, what was perhaps still dearer to them, their favourite vices and propensities, their hypocrisy, their rapaciousness, their voluptuousness. Instead of exterior forms, he prescribed sanctity of manners; instead of washing their hands, and making clean their platters, he commanded them to purify their hearts and reform their lives. Instead of indulging in ease and luxury, he called upon them to take up their cross and follow him through sorrows and suffering; to pluck out a right eye, and to cut off a right arm; to leave father, mother, brethren, and sisters, for his name's sake, and the gospel.-What now shall we say to doctrines such as these, delivered by such a person as our Lord appeared to be? Is it probable, is it possible, that the reputed son of a poor mechanic could, by the mere force of argument or persuasion, induce vast numbers of his countrymen to embrace opinions and practices, so directly opposite to every propensity of their hearts, to every sentiment they had imbibed, every principle they had acted upon from their earliest years? Yet the fact is, that he did prevail on multitudes to do so; and therefore, he must have had means of conviction superior to all human eloquence or reasoning: that is, he must have convinced his hearers, by the miracles he wrought, that all power in heaven and in earth was given to him, and that every precept he delivered, and every doctrine he taught, was the voice of God himself. Without this it is utterly impossible to give any rational account of his success. In order to set this argument in a still stronger point of view, let us consider what the effect actually was, in a case where a new religion was proposed without any support from miracles. The impostor Mahomet began his mission with every advantage that could arise from personal figure, from insinuating manners, from a commanding eloquence, from an ardent enterprising spirit, from considerable wealth, and from powerful connexions. Yet, with all these advantages, and with every artifice, and every dexterous contrivance to recommend his new religion to his countrymen, in the space of three years he made only about six converts, and those principally of his

own family, relations and most intimate friends. And his progress was but very slow for nine years after this, till he began to make use of force; and then his vic torious arms, not his arguments, carried his religion triumphantly over almost all the eastern world. It appears, therefore, that, without the assistance either of miracles or of the sword, no religion can be propagated with such rapidity, and to such an extent, as the Christian was, both during our Saviour's lifetime and after his death. For there is, I believe, no instance in the history of mankind of such an effect being produced, without either the one or the other. Now of force we know that Jesus never did make use: the unavoidable consequence is, that the miracles ascribed to him were actually wrought by him.

ON OUR SAVIOUR'S PREACHING.

Porteus.

BOTH Our Divine Master's matter and his manner were infinitely beyond any thing the world ever heard before. He did not, like the heathen philosophers, entertain his hearers with dry metaphysical discourses on the nature of the supreme good, and the several divisions and subdivisions of virtue; nor did he, like the Jewish rabbis, content himself with dealing out ceremonies and traditions, with discoursing on mint and cummin, and estimating the breadth of a phylactery. But he drew off their attention from these trivial and contemptible things to the greatest and the noblest objects, the existence of one supreme Almighty Being, the creator, preserver, and governor of the universe; the first formation of man; his fall from original innocence; the consequent corruption and depravity of his nature; the remedy provided for him by the goodness of our Maker, and the death of our Redeemer; the na ture of that divine religion, which he himself came to reveal to mankind; the purity of heart, and sanctity of life, which he required; the communications of God's Holy Spirit to assist our own feeble endeavours here; and a crown of immortal glory to recompense us hereafter. The morality he taught was the purest, the Soundest, the sublimest, the most perfect, that had ever

before entered into the imagination, or proceeded from the lips of man. And this he delivered in a manner the most striking and impressive; in short, sententious, solemn, important, ponderous rules and maxims, or in familiar, natural, affecting similitudes and parables. He showed also a most consummate knowledge of the human heart, and dragged to light all its artifices, subtleties, and evasions. He discovered every thought, as it arose in the mind; he detected every irregular desire, before it ripened into action. He manifested, at the same time, the most perfect impartiality. He had no respect of persons. He reproved vice in every station, wherever he found it, with the same freedom and boldness; and he added to the whole the weightthe irresistible weight-of his own example. He and he only, of all the sons of men, acted up in every the minutest instance, to what he taught; and his life exhibited a perfect portrait of his religion. But what completed the whole was, that he taught, as the Evangelist expresses it, with authority, with the authority of a divine teacher. The ancient philosophers could do nothing more than give good advice to their followers; they had no means of enforcing that advice: but our great Lawgiver's precepts are all divine commands. He spoke in the name of God: he called himself the Son of God. He spoke in a tone of superiority and authority, which no one before had the courage or the right to assume; and finally, he enforced every thing he taught by the most solemn and awful sanctions; by a promise of eternal felicity to those who obeyed him, and a denunciation of the most tremendous punishment to those who rejected him. These were the circumstances, which gave our blessed Lord the authority with which he spake. No wonder then that the people were astonished at his doctrines; and that they all declared he spake as never man spake.

Porteus.

ON OUR LORD'S FAMILIAR METHOD OF INSTRUCTION.

THE manner of our Saviour's teaching was the most easy and natural that can be imagined. He generally draws his doctrine from the present occasion, and the

objects that surround him; from the most common occurrences and occupations; from the seasons of the year; the service of the Jewish synagogue, or their solemnities; from some extraordinary accidents, remarkable places or transactions, and the like. Thus upon curing a blind man, he styles himself the light of the world, and admonishes the Pharisees of their spiritual blindness and inexcusable obstinacy, in refusing to be cured and enlightened by him. On little children being brought to him, he recommends the innocence and humility of that state, as very proper qualities for all those, who would be true members of his church; and, under the same figure, intimates the privileges that belong to all such. Beholding the flowers of the field and fowls of the air, he teaches his disciples to frame right and worthy notions of that Providence, which supports them, and therefore will support beings of a rank so much superior to them. Taking notice of the behaviour of people at a feast, he first gives general advice therein, to both the master and his guests, and from thence brings them to the consideration of a better entertainment, to which they were all invited, but of which few among them would be persuaded to render themselves worthy. From meat and drink he leads them to the eating of his body, and drinking of his blood, in a spiritual sense; the being nourished with his doctrine, and partaking of his kingdom: from outward washing, to the purifying of the heart and cleansing the affections: from tasting of the fruit of the vine after the paschal supper, to the celebration of an eternal festival of freedom, rest, and happiness in another world. Those that were fishers he teaches how to catch men, and shows them how far this would resemble their former employment, in taking of all kinds both bad and good; which were at first inseparable, but would at length be carefully distinguished from each other. Upon the appearance of summer in the trees before him, he points out the evident signs of his approaching kingdom. When the harvest comes on, he reminds them of the spiritual harvest, or the gathering of his church, admonishes them to labour diligently in that work, and add their prayers to heaven for success.

B

From the Jewish ceremony of fetching water on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, in commemoration of the miracle wrought for their forefathers in the thirsty wilderness, he introduces an offer of that true living water, which would be unto them a well springing up unto everlasting life, the gospel of immortal happiness and salvation, and the plentiful effusion of the Holy Spirit, which they that believed on him were to receive. A similar allusion also was made by him to the woman of Samaria, who came to draw water at the well of Jacob. Upon hearing of some that were killed by the fall of a tower, and others put to death by the Roman governor in the midst of their sacrifices, he guards them against all misconstruction and rash censure in such cases, and exhorts all to take due warning by these visitations. Many more instances might be given, where Christ has formed his arguments and exhortations on such things, as offered themselves to him, applying each most amply to his present purpose. By these means he improved every thing into an useful moral, made every object and event serve for a constant monitor and remembrancer of his instructions, which must thus be more easily retained, than they could be by a long train of abstract reasoning, or under any artificial arrangement of a number of particulars laid down together. Law.

ON OUR LORD'S PARABLES.

THE mode of instruction by parables has many advantages over every other, more particularly in recommending virtue or reproving vice. In the first place, when divine and spiritual things are represented by objects well known and familiar to us, such as present themselves perpetually to our observation in the common occurrences of life, they are much more easily comprehended, especially by rude and uncultivated minds (that is, by the great bulk of mankind), than if they were proposed in their original form. In all ages of the world, there is nothing with which mankind hath been so much delighted, as with those little ficti

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