not have done it? how much rather then, when he faith unto thee, Wash, and be clean? Upon this gentle rebuke his ftomach came down, and he condefcended to follow the Prophet's direction; and his flesh came again like the flesh of a young child, and he was clean. Not unlike to Naaman's folly is theirs, who take offence at the poverty and meanness of the author of our redemption. His fentiments and theirs agree he expected to have feen fome furprifing wonder wrought for his cure; and, when he was bid only to wash, he thought there could be nothing of God in fo trifling a remedy. And is not this their sense, who think that so obfcure, so mean a perfon as Jefus, could never be the meffenger of God upon fo great an errand as the falvation of the world? who thus expoftulate, Why came he not in a majefty suitable to his employment, and then we would have believed him; but how can we expect to be raised to the glory of God by him who was himself the scorn and contempt of men?

If we fearch this prejudice to the bottom, we fhall find that it arifes from a falfe conception of the power and majefty of God, as if the fuccefs of his purposes depended upon the vifible fitnefs of the inftruments he made choice of. With men we know the cafe is fo; they muft ufe means which they can judge to be adapted to the end they aim. at, if they intend to profper in what they undertake: but with God it is otherwise. To stop the current even of the smallest river, banks must be raised, and fluices cut, when the work is done by man but in the hand of God the rod of Mofes was more than fufficient to curb the rage of the fea,

and force it to yield a paffage to his people. The foolishness of God, says the Apostle, is wifer than men, and the weakness of God is ftronger than men: teaching us that we should not prefume to fit in judgment upon the methods of providence; fince, how foolish or how weak foever they may feem to us, they will be found in his hand to be the wifeft and the ftrongest. And this reafoning the Apoftle applies to the cafe now before us: The cross of Chrift was a fumbling-block to the Jews, and to the Greeks foolishness; but unto all them that are called, the power of God, and the wisdom of God; because the foolishness of God is wifer than men, and the weakness of God Stronger than men. However the Jews, or however the Greeks, conceived of the crucified Jefus, yet to every believer he is the mighty power of God to falvation, becaufe God ordained him fo to be; and this ordination gives fall efficacy to the cross of Christ, however in itself contemptible, and to all human appearance unfit for the purpose. The waters of Jordan had no natural efficacy to cleanse a leper; in the rod of Mofes there was no power to divide the fea: but, when ordained by God to these purposes, the sea fled back at the touch of Mofes's rod, and the leprofy of Naaman was purged by the fo much despised waters of Ifrael. If we would judge truly, the more fimple and plain the methods of providence are, the more do they speak the power of the Almighty. When God faid, Let there be light, and there was light, his uncontrolable power more evidently appeared, than if all the angels of heaven had been employed to produce it. When our Lord faid, I will, be thou clean, and the

perfon was cleanfed, his divinity fhone forth more brightly, than if he had commanded all the powers above vifibly to affift him. So likewise, when God committed the redemption of the world to Jesus, a man of forrow and affliction, and of no form or comeliness, and gave him the power of doing fuch works as never man did, in confirmation of his commiffion, he appeared as plainly in him, as if he had clothed him with vifible majefty and power. If we confider him afflicted and tormented, and given up to a cruel death, it proves indeed that he was weak and mortal; but ftill God is ftrong, and not the less able to establish the word which he spoke by this weak, this mortal man.

As to this part of the offence then, so far as the majefty and power of God are concerned, it proceeds from very wrong notions in both cases, and supposes that the majefty of God wants the fame. little fupports of outward pomp and grandeur as that of men does, and that his power depends upon the fitness of inftrumental or material causes, as human power plainly does; whereas the majesty and power of God are never more clearly seen, than when he makes choice of the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.

Let us then in the next place confider, with respect to men, whether the advantages on their fide would have been greater, had Chrift appeared in greater splendour, and with more vifible power and authority.

How far the imaginations of fome men may rove upon fuch inquiries as these, or what degrees of fplendour and glory they would judge fufficient for

their purpose, I cannot tell. This we are fure of, that the majefty of the Almighty is not to be approached by human eyes; that therefore, whenever it defcends to treat with men, it must be veiled and obfcured under fuch representations as men can bear. This is true, you will fay; but is there no medium between the immediate prefence of God, and his appearing in the form of a fervant, and dying, not as the children of men commonly die, but as the vileft and most profligate criminal? Many degrees there are, no doubt, of vifible glory, in any of which Chrift might have appeared, but in none with greater advantage to religion than that in which he came. Suppofe he had come, as the Jews expected, in the form of a mighty prince, and in that fituation had propagated his faith and doctrine; what would the unbelievers then have faid? How often should we have been told before now, that our religion was the work of human policy, and that our prince's doctrine and dominions were extended by the fame fword? Was ever any religion the better thought of for having been preached at the head of an army? This is certain, that, to make religion a rational act of the mind, it cannot be conveyed to us in too eafy and familiar a manner : the less awe we have of our teacher, the more freedom we fhall exercise in weighing and examining his doctrines. And upon this account our Saviour's appearance was in the most proper form, as it gave to men the greatest scope and liberty of trying and fearching into his doctrines and pretences: and therefore his meannefs and poverty should leaft of all be objected by thofe who feem to contend

for nothing more than to clear religion from fears and prejudices.

But perhaps they will fay, we wanted him not to appear in worldly ftate and glory, or to exercise temporal dominion on earth; we would have been contented with a visible, though an inferior kind of manifestation of his divine authority. O fools, and flow of heart to believe all that the prophets have written! What think ye of giving fight to the blind; of opening the ears of the deaf; of loosening the tongue that was dumb; of restoring health to the fick; of raifing the dead to life again; of raifing even himself from the grave, and abolishing the scandal of the cross by a visible victory and triumph over death? What do ye call these things? What do they manifeft to you? Are these the works of that mean man, that wretched, that crucified mortal, of whom we have been speaking? Do flaves and fervants, nay, do princes and the greatest of the children of men, use to perform fuch works? If not, these are the very manifestations of divine power and authority which you require. Nor can it, I believe, enter into the heart of man to contrive any greater figns to ask of any person pretending to a divine commiffion, than these which our Saviour daily and publicly gave the world of his authority. Had he appeared with all the vifible power and glory which you can conceive, yet ftill you cannot imagine what greater works than these he could poffibly perform: and therefore the evidence now, under all the meanness of his appearance, is the fame for his divine authority and commiffion, as it would have been,