Some of these I fhall endeavour to enumerate and illuftrate as concifely as I can.

1. The first was, the infinite importance and dignity of the subjects he difcourfed

upon. He did not, like many ancient and many modern philofophers, confume his own time, and that of his hearers, with idle, fruitless fpeculations, with ingenious effays, and elaborate difquifitions on matters of no real use or moment, with fcholastic distinctions, and unintelligible refinements; nor did he, like the Jewish rabbins, content himself with dealing out ceremonies and traditions, with difcourfing on mint and cummin, and estimating the breadth of a phylactery; but he drew off the attention of his followers from thefe trivial, contemptible things, to the greatest and nobleft objects that could engage the notice, or intereft the heart of

man.

He taught, in the first place, the existence of one Supreme Almighty Being, the creator, preferver, and governor of the universe. To this great Being he taught men how to pray, to worship him in fpirit and in truth, in holiness and purity of life. He laid open all the depravity of human nature; he pointed out

the

the only effectual remedy for it; belief in himfelf, the way, the truth, and the life; repentance and amendment; an entire and abfolutę renovation of heart, and an unreserved fubmiffion to the will and the law of God.

The morality he taught was the pureft, the foundeft, the fublimeft, the most rational, the most perfect, that had ever before entered into the imagination, or proceeded from the lips of man. And the uniform tendency of all his doctrines, and all his precepts, was to make the whole human race virtuous and happy; to compose them into refignation and content; to inspire them with fentiments of justice, equity, mildness, moderation, compaffion, and affection towards each other; and to fill them with fure hope and truft in God for pardon of their fins, on moft equitable terms, and the affiftance of his holy fpirit to regulate their future conduct.

And, finally, to give irresistible force to his commands, he added the most awful fanctions, the doctrines of a future refurrection, a day of judgment and of retribution, a promise of eternal rewards to the good, and a denunciation

of

of the most tremendous punishments to the wicked.

2. Such was the general matter of his instructions; and, in the next place, his manner of conveying them was no less excellent, and no less conducive to their fuccefs.

What, for instance, could be more noble, more affecting, than the very first opening of his divine commiffion? "The fpirit of the "Lord is upon me; because he hath anointed "me to preach the Gospel to the poor, he "hath fent me to heal the broken-hearted, to

preach deliverance to the captives, and re"covering of fight to the blind, to fet at li'berty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord *"

66

very

These were the gracious declarations with which he began his ministry, and in the same fpirit he continued it to the last. Though he invited all men, without diftinction, high and low, rich and poor, to embrace the gracious offers of falvation; yet he addreffed himself principally to the ignorant, the indigent, the publican, and the finner.

"He broke not

"the bruised reed, nor quenched the smoak

Luke iv. 18.

"ing flax; that is, he bore not hard on any that were bowed down with a fenfe of their unworthiness, nor extinguished by difcouragement the fainteft fpark of returning virtue, but, on the contrary, invited to him thofe "that were heavy laden with fin, that he might "give them reft."

His difcourfes were perfectly adapted to these gracious purposes. They were mild, tender, encouraging. They were fuch as the most learned and best informed might liften to with benefit and delight, yet fuch as the weakest and most ignorant might eafily comprehend. He did not deliver a regular, dry, methodical fyftem of ethics, nor did he enter into all the little minute divifions and fubdivifions of virtue. But he laid down, in the first place, the two great leading fundamental principles of love to God, and love to mankind, and thence deduced, as occafions prefented themselves, and incidents occurred, which gave peculiar force and energy to his inftructions, all the principal duties refpecting God, our neighbour, and ourfelves. Whenever he made ufe of the common didactic method, as in his dif+ Matth. xii. 20:

courfe

fen

courfe from the mount, the doctrines he taught, and the precepts he delivered, were short, sententious, folemn, important, full of wisdom and of dignity, yet intelligible and clear. But fible how much this formal mode of teaching was apt to weary the attention, and die away out of the memory, he added two others, much better calculated to make deep and lasting impreffions on the mind. The firft was, conveying his inftructions under the cover of fimilitudes and parables, drawn from the most obvious appearances of nature, or the most familiar occurrences of life. The other was the ufe of certain fignificant emblematic actions, such as that of washing his difciples feet, by which he expreffed his meaning more clearly and emphatically than by any words he could have employed for that purpose.

3. Another circumstance which gave force and efficacy to our Saviour's preaching was, that he appeared to be perfectly impartial, and to have no respect to perfons. He reproved vice in every station, wherever he found it, with the fame freedom and boldness. He paid no court either to the multitude on the one hand, or to the great and wealthy on the VOL. II. other.

R