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and firmness unite to spare the mother, yet reprove the offence; and whatever were the other questions and answers of this celebrated conference, those which are on record will remain an everlasting monument of the perfect union of wisdom and harmlessness, which distinguished the Son of God from every other.

The Sun, having shone forth in this temporary effulgence, again hid its face in clouds, and submitted to an eclipse of eighteen years longer; He divested himself of all authority; He sought not glory from man; He became of no reputation, He took on him the form of a servant. "He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them ;" and by this voluntary humiliation of himself, by this retreat into the shade, more than by ten thousand precepts and arguments, He has inculcated the practice of humility on his disciples. A few short words contain the history of many years, even so, holy Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight; "Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.' Let us not presume to draw aside the veil which infinite wisdom has spread, nor seek to be wise above what is written, these things the angels desire to look into, and some of these things, though now they are hidden from us, we may be permitted to know hereafter.

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About the period of this passover, when Christ was shewing himself in the temple, after this extraordinary manner, as the Son of God, Augustus Cæsar, the emperor of Rome, dies, and is succeeded in the throne by Tiberius. About six years after, Josephus, called Caiaphas, was made high priest of the Jews, through the partial favour of Valerius Gratus, the Roman governor. Towards the end of the twelfth year from that period, Pontius Pilate was sent into Palestine as procurator of Judea, in the room of Valerius Gratus, and John Baptist entered on the exercise of his public ministry. Those names are now stripped of all their glory; those stations are now fallen into disuse, those events are now stripped of all their importance, save what they derive from the relation which they bear to yonder babe in the stable, that child in the midst of the doctors, that gentle, obscure, unassuming youth of Nazareth of Galilee. So differently do objects weigh when examined by the scale of the world, and tried by the balance of the sanctuary. In the next Lecture we will proceed, if God permit, to the history of Christ's baptism, and of the illustrious testimony then given from the most excellent glory to Jesus Christ, as God's well-beloved Son.

"Let us with Mary keep all these sayings in our heart." Let us, from the example of this pious pair, regularly attend the worship of God's house, "not forsaking the assembling of ourselves as the manner of some is:" and thus shall we 66 go from strength to strength" till we appear before God in Zion. Let us carefully attend to the proper mode of treatment of children, suited to age, to capacity, to temper and disposition. The discipline adapted to childhood is by no means suited to a more advanced state; and when the youth has become a man, and "put away childish things," he must be treated as a man. It is of importance to know when the stimulus, when the bridle is to be employed. What would overwhelm the timid, may prove hardly a crub to the headstrong; the slow of speech and understanding must not be urged into the speed of the acute and impetuous. Parents rejoice in a forward display of faculties in their children; they encourage it, and they not seldoin repent it. The opposite error is not common, and is therefore less an object of caution. The difficulties which daily present themselves, in managing the progress of the human mind, are frequently insurmountable by the ordinary powers of man, which therefore stand in need of the illumination of " wisdom from above;"" if any of you," then, "lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him."

Vol. vii.

9

Let the young be instructed how to rise into eminence and distinction. Covet not, pursue not premature honour and applause. Extorted praise is gratifying neither to the giver nor the receiver; a free-will offering of approbation is "twice blest; it blesseth him that gives, and him that takes." Meditate on the familiar image, which, no doubt, has frequently been suggested to you honour, like the shadow, pursues the flyer, and flies from the pursuer. Demand less than your due, and men will be disposed to give you the more. My young friends, "be not children in understanding: howbeit, in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men."

HISTORY OF JESUS CHRIST.

LECTURE IX.

LUKE III. 21, 22, 23.

Now, when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape, like a dove, upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased. And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli.

THE declared purpose of our Evangelist, in undertaking to write this histo ry, is that his most excellent friend Theophilus, and with him every lover of God and truth, "might know the certainty of those things wherein he had been instructed." This "certainty" is demonstrable from the spirit which Christianity breathes, and from the external evidence by which its divine original was confirmed. The religion of Jesus Christ proves that it came down from heaven, from the Father of lights, by the character of the great Author and Finisher of our Faith, by the example of all righteousness which he set, by the purity and heavenly-mindedness which he displayed and recom mended, by the labours of mercy and love which he performed, by the suffer ings which he patiently underwent, and by "the glory that followed." To these Providence was pleased to superadd proofs that reach the understanding through the medium of sense; namely signal, supernatural and frequently-re peated testimonics, exhibited in the presence of a cloud of witnesses, who produced a clear, concurring, consistent mass of evidence, respecting facts which fell under the personal observation of their own eyes and ears and which were never contradicted nor even called in question.

At this distance of time and place, the last mentioned species of evidence, that of external circumstances, must of necessity be transmitted to us through the channel of history, and its validity must rest on the veracity of the historian. The other sort of evidence is the same yesterday, and to-day, and forThis counsel approves itself to be of God, to the conviction of every one who seriously examines it, at whatever distance of time and place, from its indelible characters, from the universality of the field which it embraces, and from the glorious and godlike end at which it aims: in a word, from its

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congeniality to the feelings, to the wishes, and to the wants of human nature. Had no prediction taught the world to expect a Deliverer; had no miracle declared Him the great Lord of the Universe; had no voice from Heaven proclaimed Him the beloved Son of God, He must have stood confessed, the predicted Emanuel, God with us, in his compassion to the miserable, in his patience with the froward, in his forbearance toward the evil and unthankful, in his clemency to the guilty. The gospel breathes "peace on earth and good will to men;" its unbounded liberality diffuses its influence over the whole world of mankind; its professed aim and end are to confer all possibly attainable happiness on every human being in the life which now is, and perfect and everlasting felicity in that which is to come. The object which Christianity proposes to itself is to reform, to purify, to exalt our fallen nature, by making us partakers of a divine nature; it is to rear the fabric of present and everlasting blessedness on the solid foundation of wisdom, truth and virtue. It penetrates and pervades every principle of our nature, and enters completely into the detail of human life and conduct: it informs the understanding, melts the heart, overawes the conscience, and brings the trembling, guilty, helpless, desponding creature unto God. If these are not the characters of a Revelation from the God and Father of all men, What characters are sufficient to produce belief? If the spirit and tendency of the Gospel work not conviction, the descent of an angel from heaven, or the return of one from the regions of the dead would be equally inefficacious.

In this "doctrine according to godliness," Men and Brethren, we behold genuine philosophy, not carelessly slumbering over fancied plans of improvement, not coldly suggesting ideas of reform, not bewildering herself in the peradventures of doubtful disputation, but philosophy alive, awake and in action; philosophy doing good and diffusing happiness, the divine philosophy which brings God down to dwell with men upon earth, and which raises men from earth to heaven. In its great Author we behold not the sullen, supercilious recluse, looking with affected contempt on the weakness and ignorance of mankind, talking and arguing sagely, and effecting nothing, but the beneficent friend of man, mixing with society, looking with complacency on harmless enjoyment, stretching forth the hand to relieve distress, with patience and condescension instructing the ignorant, outrunning the expectations and even the desires of the humble, and overcoming evil with good. At every period, and in every condition of life, we behold Him a perfect pattern of every possible excellence.

We have already contemplated the blessed Jesus in his original glory, before the world was, and in all the wonders of his humiliation to the level of humanity we have beheld Him in all the affecting interest of infancy and childhood, born in a stable, laid in a manger, aimed at by the dagger of a ruffian, driven into exile, meekly retiring into obscurity, silently increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. From the age of twelve to thirty years, that is for more than half the period which He tabernacled among men, Providence has seen meet to withhold all traces of his history. Within the short space of about three years is comprized the detail of all the things which Jesus did, and taught, and suffered as the Saviour of mankind. To this eventful era we are now brought forward, and we enter on the contemplation of it with mixed emotions of wonder, reverence and joy.

Stand by, ye princes and potentates of the earth; the King of kings is about to make his public entry. What is the consecration of a prelate, the coronation of an emperor, the voice of a trumpet, the anointing with oil, compared to the majesty, solemnity and importance of the scene displayed on the banks of the Jordan! Bend your heads and cover your faces, "ye angels that excel in strength," He whom you are all commanded to worship is here.

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drawn into a precedent, nor established as a general rule. A public character is concerned to study his own dignity, and the propriety and consistency of his conduct. The question is not what he may do, but what it becomes him to do. Things lovely and of good report" must be thought of together with things that are "true, honest, just and pure." It became Him to give public testimony to the baptism of John, the baptism of repentance, because it led directly to his own mission, and to the kingdom which He was about to establish in the world. It became him to put respect on every institution, ceremonial as well as moral, that had the sanction of divine authority, of general use, or of obvious utility. The ceremonial law required "divers washings," and the immersion of the body in water was by no means a novel practice introduced by John, but transmitted through the succeeding ages of the legal dispensation, and compliance with it our Lord considers as part of "the fulfilling of all righteousness," and therefore as incumbent on himself, being the great pattern of propriety. We find him, on another occasion, submitting to an arbitrary imposition, that he might not seem to give offence, in the matter of the tribute money, and performing a miracle rather than shew disrespect to government. "Lest we should offend them," says he to Peter, "go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee." Thus he not only "fulfilled," to an iota, "all righteousness," prescribed by the law, but submitted himself to the "ordinance of man, for the Lord's sake."

But there was a farther view in this solemn transaction. The Messiah must be publicly set apart to the execution of his high prophetic office, and He prefers the baptism of John as the mode of performing that august ceremony. He passes through the water into the reign of Grace; the kingdom of heaven was now come, and such was his humble entry into it. But this voluntary descent is to be immediately followed by a rise into glory which eclipses all the glory of this world. Samuel anointed Saul with a vial, and afterwards David with a horn of material oil; the Prince "upon the throne of David, of the increase of whose government and peace there should be no end," is anointed with the Holy Spirit. The numerous and sounding titles of earthly potentates are at their inauguration, proclaimed by sound of trumpet; the simple title of the King of kings, and Lord of lords is proclaimed by a voice from heaven. The eyes and ears of the spectators at once bear witness to the declaration of the Son of God. "It came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape, like a dove, upon him, and a voice came from heaven which said, thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased." Painters have presumed to represent this descent of the Holy Ghost under the form of a material dove. The descending, hovering motion, not the bodily shape of that bird, is surely all that the expression in the Evangelists conveys to the mind. As well might art attempt to paint the dazzling lustre of flaming fire, or the sound of the voice that spake, or the motion of the splendid appearance which then filled the sky, as pretend to give precise and permanent form to an apparition of Deity, which, having fulfilled its purpose, passed

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Thus, Christians, was consecrated to the noblest work ever undertaken, the great"Prophet that should come into the world,"- -"The Prince of the kings of the earth," The Apostle and High Priest of our profession," God" also bearing witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will." And thus was fulfilled the Scripture which saith: "There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and branch shall grow out of his roots and the Spirit of the Lord

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