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and unable to appeal to miracles which give the moft certain proofs of a teacher fent from God, he extended his faith by force, and reared his bloody crefcent amid captives, who were the victims of his paffions, and cities that were defolated by his fword h

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The contrast between our Lord and the Prophet of Arabia is drawn in a style of fuch rich and appropriate eloquence by Ar bishop Sherlock, that I cannot deny myself the pleasure of present. ing it to my readers.

"Make the appeal to natural religion, or, which is the fame thing, to the reafon of man. Set before her Mahomet, and his difciples, arrayed in armour and in blood, riding in triumph over the spoils of thousands and tens of thousands, who fell by his victorious fword. Shew her the cities which he fet in flames, the countries which he ravaged and deftroyed, and the miferable diftrefs of all the inhabitants of the earth. When the has viewed him in this fcene, carry her into his retirements; fhew her the prophet's chamber, his wives and con cubines; let her fee his adulteries, and hear him alledge revelation and his divine commiffion to justify his luft and oppreffion. When she is tired with this fcene, then fhew her the bleffed Jefus, humble and meek; doing good to all the fouls of men, patiently inftructing both the ignorant and perverse. Let her fee him in his moft retired privacies; let her follow him to the mount, and hear his devotions and fupplications to his God. Carry her to his table, to view his poor fare, and hear his heavenly difcourfe. Let her fee him injured, but not provoked. Let her attend him to the tribunal, and confider the patience with which he endured the fcoffs and reproaches of his enemies. Lead her to the crofs, and let her view him in the agonies of death, and hear his laft prayer for his perfecutors; Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!--When natural religion hath viewed both, afk her, which is the prophet of God? But her anfwer, we have already heard, when

In the character of Chrift we behold the moft complete and prompt refignation to the will of God. So pure and fo perfect was the whole tenour of his conduct, as to defy calumny, although it excited jealoufy, and inflamed malice. His moft bitter and inveterate enemies, even when fuborned to be his public accufers, could not make good a fingle charge againft his moral character. He was equally free from the ambition of an impoftor, and the infatuation of an enthufiaft; for when the people fought to place the crown of Ifrael on his head, he conveyed himself away by a miracle. Whenever he condefcended to difcourfe upon any important point, or to anfwer any objections of his adverfaries, he overcame their oppofition with the irresistible power of truth, and his words were the words of unerring wifdom. Upon all occafions he difplayed the foundnefs and moderation of calm judgment, and the steadiness of heroic intrepidity. There was no wild enthusiasm in his devotions, no rigid aufterity in his conduct, no frivolous fubtlety or intemperate vehemence in his arguments. Of all the virtues, which adorned his mind, and gave a refiftlefs grace and lovelinefs to every action of his life, humility, patience, and the most ardent and univerfal love of mankind, were, upon every

when the faw part of this scene through the eyes of the cen turion who attended at the crofs; by him fhe fpoke and faid, Truly this was the Son of God." Sherlock's Ninth Difcourfe, vol. i. See Paley's Evidences, vol. iii. p. 70; Taylor's Moral Demonftrations, vol. ii. p. 383; and Prideaux's Life of Ma homet.

occafion,

occafion, predominant. The perfect benevolence of his character, indeed, is fully evinced by the tendency of his miracles, which, far from being hurtful or vindictive, were directed to fome beneficial end. His courage was equally remote from oftentation and from rafhnefs, and his meeknefs and condefcenfion never make him appear abject. Tried by the greatest afflictions of life, affailed by hunger, expofed to poverty, deferted by his friends, and condemned to fuffer an igno minious death, he is never degraded; the greatness of his character is in no refpect diminished-he preferves the fame air of mildnefs and dignity, and appears in the fame highly venerable light as the Saviour of the world, who fubmits to an ignoble station, and conceals his majesty in an humble garb, for the most important purposes. It is thus the glorious profpects of nature are fometimes enveloped in the mifts of the morning; or the great luminary of day is deprived of his beams and his brightness, by the temporary darknefs of an eclipfe.

And here let us paufe to admire the manner in which this moft fublime of all characters is introduced to us. We are not left to form an idea of it from vague accounts or loofe panegyric, but from actions and events; and this circumftance proves undeniably the veracity of the Biographers of our Lord. The qualities of his mind are displayed by a detail of actions, the more ftriking as they are more exact. All his actions are left to recommend themselves

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themfelves by their own intrinfic merit, to captivate by their unaffected beauty, and to fhine by their native luftre. The Evangelifts have no where profeffedly drawn an elaborate or highly finished character of the Saviour of the world. We are not told in a vague and indefinite manner, that he was eminently bountiful, compaffionate, or wife. It is no where expreffed in terms of general affertion, that he poffeffed the greatest virtues that can adorn and dignify the nature of man; or that he was endued with a power to control, or to counteract the general laws of nature. But these inferences we are fully enabled to draw from regu lar statements of facts. We learn from lively and affecting anecdotes diftinctly and circumftantially related, among many other aftonishing inftances of his divine power, that with a portion of food, the moft difproportionate to their wants, he fatisfied the hungry multitudes in the wildernefs, that he calmed the violence of a ftorm at a word, and raised the fon of the widow to life'.

Ignorant and illiterate as the Evangelifts were, they have drawn a character fuperior to any that is elsewhere to be met with in the hiftory of mankind. This character they were no lefs unable than unwilling to invent: the only method of folving this difficulty is to acknowledge that they wrote from the immediate impreffions of reality. They faw, they converfed with the Saviour of mankind, and

VOL. I.

i Matt. xiv.

Mark iv. Luke vii.

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heard

heard from his facred lips the words of eternal life. They felt the power of truth upon their minds, and they exhibited it with proportionable clearnefs and ftrength. To state well-known facts, and record the leffons of divine Revelation, were the great objects of their labours. Hence they were confiftent as well as circumftantial and accurate; and their uniformity of representation is an additional proof of the reality of the perfon defcribed, as their divine Mafter. Every particular is introduced in an artlefs and undefigning manner; and this circumftance itself, of not bringing our Lord forward in an oftentatious point of view, affords a remarkable evidence to confirm the truth of the Gofpels. To complete the perfection of his character, his conduct was the exact counterpart of his inftructions. He prefented to the world that lively image of moral perfection, which had indeed filled and elevated the imagination of Plato and Cicero; but which they as well as all other ancient philofophers in the wideft circle of their obfervation had fought for in vain. The heavenly Teacher not only fpoke as never man fpoke, with refpect to the fublime leffons, which he taught, the lively images, by which he illuftrated, and the awful and impreffive manner, in which he inculcated them; but at once to combine the efficacy of example with the perfection of precept, became the unerring guide to all that was

Formam quidem ipfam, & tanquam faciem honefti vides; quæ fi oculis cerneretur, mirabiles amores, ut ait Plato, excitaret fapientiæ. Cicero de Officiis.

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