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pious, all that was good, and all that was truly and intrinfically great.

Preferving the fame character of dignity blended with mildness and affability, he accommodated himself to perfons of every rank and condition. Among the wife and the learned, the Doctors of the Sanhedrim, the haughty Pharifees, and the fceptical Sadducees, how does he fhine in detecting their malice, confuting their cavils againft his conduct and precepts, and establishing clear and ufeful truths! Among the publicans and finners, how does he diffeminate the pureft morality without unneceffary harfhnefs! Among the low and illiterate, the fishermen of Galilee and the populace of Jerufalem, how does he condefcend to their contracted understandings, and adapt his precepts to their habits of life. Even women and children, because confidered as capable of that inftruction which leads to eternal happiness, are particularly regarded by the univerfal Teacher of Mankind. Daughters of Jerufalem weep not for me, but for yourfelves and your children, was his benign address, when he wished to turn their attention from his own fufferings to the impending woes of their country. Suffer little children to come unto me, for of fuch is the kingdom of heaven. In this various accommodation to high and low, young and old, can we be inattentive to a quality of our Saviour's mind, which is peculiarly calculated to attach every feeling heart to his fervice-do we not remark

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remark that he was as amiable, as he was great. and wife'?

He who reflects with due attention and reverence upon the dignity, purity, and holiness of this divine character, will be fenfible of the great difficulty of doing juftice to the fubject, as the Saviour of the world is prefented to our obfervation, in a manner fo peculiarly ftriking. The infpired Evangelifts and Apostles can alone fatisfy our inquiries concerning him; and every other writer, confcious of his own incapacity to conceive, and his want of eloquence to defcribe fuch unparalleled excellence, muft point to the lively and expreffive portrait, which they alone, who faw the original, were qualified to draw.

It is reasonable to expect that fo extraordinary a perfonage, diftinguished as he was by every moral and intellectual quality, muft neceffarily make his teftimony concerning himself perfectly credible. The positive and direct proofs of his divine miffion are equally founded upon the prophecies, which foretold the moft remarkable circumftances of his birth, life, and death, and upon the miracles by which he proved to demonftration, that he was the promifed Meffiah of the Jews, the Mediator of a new covenant between God and man, and a divine Teacher fent to reform and fave a guilty world.

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III. The Prophecies.

The Old Teftament contains a long feries of predictions, which are expreffed with greater diftin&tnefs, and marked with a more striking and appropriate reference to a particular train of events, in proportion as the Prophets approached more nearly to the time of the Meffiah. As he was the great object of the general expectation of the Jews, fo was he the great end of the Prophecies. Sometimes he is portrayed as the innocent, patient, and unrepining fufferer, pierced with grief, and finking under unmerited calamity for the fake of mankind; He was defpifed and rejected of men, a man of forrows, and acquainted with grief, who hath borne our forrows, and was wounded for our tranfgreffionsTM; and fometimes, with all the fervour and vivid colours of Oriental poetry, are defcribed his temporal grandeur, the tranfcendent attributes of his divine character, and the glory and eternity of his kingdom. His name is called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlafting Father, the Prince of Peace". Thefe furprifing intimations that occur in the Prophets of various ages, like rays of light proceeding from different quarters, all meet in the fame point, and illuminate the fame object. Here is none of that latitude of interpretation, or ambiguity of expreffion, in which the oracles of the heathens were conveyed. The hiftory of Chrift, as related by the

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Ifaiah, liii, ·

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a faiah, ix. 6.

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Evangelifts, may be confidered as an enlarged and finished copy of the Prophecies, and the Prophecies themselves as the original fketches. The proportions and the outlines are uniformly preferved, and faithfully delineated. The colours indeed are more diftinct and glowing, the figures have their just animation, but ftill their character and expreffion are the fame. Ineffectual have been the endeavours of the Jews to pervert the true meaning of these Prophecies; their literal fenfe is peculiarly applicable to our Lord, and to him alone they muft neceffarily be referred. Without mistaking their object, or perverting their clear and obvious fenfe, they cannot be applied to any other perfon whatever. Whilft these predictions ftrike the mind of an attentive reader of Scripture, with various degrees of evidence, there are fome of them which cannot fail to imprefs him with the fulleft conviction, as they immediately relate to the miffion, miracles and character, as well as the exact time of the coming of Chrift. Ifaiah and Daniel more efpecially feem rather to defcribe the paft as Hiftorians, than to anticipate the future as Prophets. We know, from the authority of Scripture, that multitudes of Jews, who had diligently studied the Prophecies from their youth, and acknowledged

Stillingfleet's Orig. Sacræ, book ii. ch. v. &c. Paley's Evidences, vol. ii. p. 67. Grotius de Veritate, lib. v. c. 17, 18. Jortin's Remarks, vol. i. p. 73, 74. Prideaux's Connexions, vol. ii. p: 161. Jofephus de Bello Judaico, lib. vi. c. 4. fect. 5, 6, 7, 8. compared with the predictions that relate to the Temple, as recorded by the Evangelifts.

their divine authority, felt the force of their application to our Lord, and were converted to his religion. And not to appeal to other inftances, we alfo know that the fifty-third chapter of Ifaiah, fo circumftantially defcriptive of the fuffering Meffiah, effected the converfion of the Eunuch of Ethiopia, mentioned in the Acts of the Apoftles, and contributed greatly to produce a conviction of the truth of Chriftianity in the mind of the profligate Lord Rochester P.

The books, which contain thefe Prophecies, have been moft carefully preferved even by the enemies of Chriftianity. Such are the Jews, whose religious belief is founded upon an acknowledgment of the divine infpiration of the Prophets. Hence they are undefignedly the fupporters of that faith, to which they are confeffedly hoftile. A wide difference of opinion has prevailed among them in various ages; for their interpretations of the Prophets, before the coming of the Meffiah, agreed much better with thofe of the Chriftians, than any they have given fince the establishment of Chrif

P This fact is recorded by Bishop Burnet. "To him Lord Rochester laid open with great freedom the tenor of his opinions, and the courfe of his life, and from him he received fuch convic tion of the reasonableness of moral duty, and the truth of Chrif. tianity, as produced a total change both of his manners and opinions. The account of those falutary conferences is given by Burnet in a book, intituled, Some paffages of the Life and Death of John Earl of Rochefter; which the critic ought to read for its elegance, the philofopher for its arguments, and the faint for its piety." Jolinfon's Life of Rochester, vol, iv. p. 6. 12mo.

tianity.

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