of each place and time! When he gives sight to the blind, he speaks of himself as the light of the world; when little children are brought unto him, he makes them an example of humility; when he views the lilies of the field, he discourses of providence; when the produce of the earth appears before him, he bids his disciples to judge of men by their fruits; when he is seated at a feast, he speaks of the gospel entertainment; when he washes the disciples' feet, he discourses of purity of heart. Never was there a course of religious doctrines so familiar, so lovely in the manner of their being conveyed, as those of our Lord.

And why should I speak of the MATTER of them? What heart has not been affected with the GRANDEUR and yet FACILITY, the EARNESTNESS and yet WISDOM, apparent in the matter of our Saviour's doctrine ?

It was, indeed, in all the substance of it, full of GRANDEUR of the most majestic, novel, and weighty communications to man. Our divine Teacher fills and overwhelms the mind with the most sublime ideas, and pours out doctrines, which, to the ignorant and prejudiced Jews, were most surprising and strange. He unfolds the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven; he displays the riches of the gospel; he assumes the position of a legislator in expounding the law; he repels the pride and traditions of the scribes and pharisees with indignation; he converses on the subject of his sufferings with prophets, lawgivers, and angels; he opens the hidden meaning of the ancient predictions; he detects all the secrets of the human heart. All is so peculiar, so elevated, so divine, as to leave an impression of grandeur and infinite excellency on the mind.

And yet no doctrine was ever so INTELLIGIBLE AND SIMPLE as to its practical bearings and its results. It was precisely level to man's comprehensions;

it made religion clear, interesting, persuasive. The instructions are adapted to the habits of thinking of the poor, are opened and expanded for their capacities, separated from points of difficulty and abstraction, and presented only in the aspect which regarded their duty and hopes. The matter is such as not to gratify, but inform; not to smite with surprise, but love; not to impose by mere grandeur, but convey practical knowledge with condescension and grace.

Nor is the union of urgency and zeal, with forbearance and wisdom, less obvious in our Lord's instructions

for how ASSIDUOUS AND EARNEST was he in his doctrine! How solemn, how penetrating, how importunate! He was always inculcating his divine lessons. He went about from place to place preaching incessantly the gospel of the kingdom. He was always at work, always the teacher. He instructed men before, and during, and after his miracles. He undertook journies, and neglected ordinary accommodations, and even food, in order to teach particular sinners. It was "his meat and drink to do the will of him that sent him, and finish his work.”1 11 He never yielded in his efforts whilst any hope remained, but inculcated again and again the same lessons under various forms—sometimes accumulating three or four parables to enforce a single point. "The zeal of his Father's house consumed him," as it were and he was straitened till he had fully accomplished his ministry.

"12

And yet with what FORBEARANCE AND WISDOM was all the matter of his instructions tempered! How gradually did he introduce the more humiliating parts of his doctrine ! He first establishes his mission by his divine works, and then follows them by the simpler truths of the gospel. He begins with the call to repentance. He goes on enlarging the bound

11 John iv. 14.

12 John xi. 17.

13

ary of his lessons with the widening knowledge of the people. He reserves the doctrine of his sufferings till the one half of his ministry is expired. He leaves the details and consequences of his death for the dispensation of the Spirit. He knows how to vary his matter, sometimes communicating truth obliquely, sometimes directly; at one time in plain terms, at other times covertly, as wisdom pointed out and occasions suggested. He did not "put new wine into old bottles," or insert "a new cloth into an old garment," by teaching doctrines for which his disciples were not prepared: he hastened nothing; forestalled nothing; but taught precisely those lessons which a perfect wisdom dictated.

"" 14

Never was there such a teacher as Jesus Christ. I speak not now of the miraculous works which attended his doctrine; that is not our topic; but of those excellencies in sustaining his claims of a divine instructor, which win the heart-which give the impression, not only of the truth of the religion which he taught, but of that union of grandeur and condescension, of zeal and wisdom, of dignity and forbearance, of gentleness and authority, of sublimity and plainness, which was most exactly agreeable to the preceding parts of his character as the Son of God and the Saviour of the world, and which most clearly confirmed all the direct proofs of his mission.

3. But it may be asked, How did our Lord support the most difficult of all parts, THE STATE OF HUMILIATION to which he likewise professed himself to be called? Nothing is so rare as the bearing with dignity a continued state of sorrow, woe, degradation. Yet in nothing was our Lord's character more admirable, than in the whole manner in which he sustained his lowly condition upon earth. The ineffable dignity

13 Matt. xvi.

14 Matt. ix. 17.

and meekness' of all he did, were rendered more conspicuous by the very meanness of his circumstances, and even by those sufferings of his life and death, which would have tarnished or obscured the virtues of any one else. Mark the humble Saviour as he passes through his state of voluntary abasement. Observe him, before his public ministry, subject to his reputed parents. See him, at his entrance on it, led into the wilderness, to be tempted forty days of the devil. Follow him afterwards into his retirements, his solitude, his mountain-oratories. He shuns popularity and display. He dwells at the despised city of Nazareth, or the little fishing town of Capernaum. He refuses to be called rabbi. He commands those whom he had healed to conceal his mighty works. He rejects all appearances of flattery, not willing even to be called good, when the reason of the appellation was misconceived. Thus willingly and determinately does he descend into the valley of humiliation, and proceed in it throughout his ministry. We wonder no longer that the marks of his divine glory were no brighter nor more frequent; all is with him designed abasement and concealment. View the man of sor-. rows enduring the contradiction of sinners against himself! See him the object of contempt and scorn! Hear him calumniated as having a devil and being mad! Even his brethren reject him. Observe, he has not where to lay his head! Mark the people eager to cast him down from the precipice.-And notice how he sustains all this treatment, how he walks in the lowly tract of depression, without murmuring, without despondency, without degrading his divine person, his heavenly design, his heavenly Father, his heavenly home! From this very darkness, burst forth from time to time the softest rays of light and glory.

"

But who can meditate on the last scene of our Lord's sufferings, without perceiving the calm dignity

VOL. II.

H

with which he sustains them!

16

He lays aside his garment, he girds himself with a towel, he washes his disciples' feet," 15 at the moment when any other sufferer would have been wrapt in thought, and been working himself up to an effort of silent fortitude. He proceeds in the mighty woe. The garden of Gethsemane witnesses his agony, and the resignation which sustained it-the traitor approaches the bar of Pilate follows-Calvary closes the tragic scene.— And what meekness appears throughout, what composure, what faith, what self-possession, what pity for his disciples! Humiliation was never seen so deep, nor supported with such magnanimity. Search all the records of history, and nothing can be found so touching, nothing so elevated, as the manner in which our Saviour conducted himself during his state of abasement, and vindicated this part of the claims which he made.

4. But it is important to consider the conduct of our Lord as to the HEAVENLY REWARD THAT HE PROMISED TO HIS DISCIPLES. We cannot better judge of the bearing of any one's real character who professes to found a religion, than by considering the end which he sets before his followers; the reward he holds forth at the close of his undertaking. How then does the divine Jesus support his pretensions to the distribution of final recompenses? What is the sort of happiness which he proposes? What description does he present of it? How does it stand related to himself?

Now the very nature of the reward which our divine Lord proposes, is a confirmation of all his claims. For the happiness which he promises, is to flow exclusively from holiness, purity, an immediate access to God, the full attainment of that obedience which was 16 Bowdler.

15 John xiii. 2, &c.