tality; that heroic benignity which induced him to act fo generous a part, by which he used with the utmost tenderness all he converfed with, fmiled at the infirmities of his friends, forgave the malice of his enemies, and expired in a ge nerous prayer for their pardon : I fay, it was this heroic good-will, fo free and unmerited, that charmed the Evangelift, excited his admiration of Jefus, and fixed his whole foul to the. contemplation of fo heavenly a character.

2. Having explained what is meant here by grace, I proceed to illuftrate what is denoted by truth. Truth may not improperly be diftinguifhed into the following branches: truth with regard to opinion or doctrine, truth with regard to profeffion, and truth with regard to action or conduct.

Truth with regard to opinion or doctrine, is, when our notions answer to things, when our opinious coincide with the life, and when there is fomething in nature with which our ideas may be faid to quadrate and correfpond. To apply this to our Lord, is to fay, that all the doc-. trines he taught were truths ftrictly fo called; the dictates of unerring wifdom, flowing from the Father of lights, the great fountain of truth, with whom is no deception, nor any poffibility of error.

Truth with regard to profeffion, is when our fpecious appearances are of a piece with our inward complexion.

This kind of truth takes place in that man who fpeaks his real fentiments, and fays no

thing on any occafion but what his confcience dictates; who abhors diffimulation, and hates a lie as the fouleft reproach that can be thrown upon human nature; who abominates all diftinctions between a public confcience and private; whofe behaviour above board is an authentic copy of his heart; the man in whom every fhow of devotion to God, every fhow of kindness to men, every fhow of zeal against vice, is derived from those parts whofe fenfations God only can found. This acceptation of truth commonly goes under the name of fincerity; it is a foundation-virtue, a virtue of the nobleft kind, highly ornamental to every foul where it refides. To apply this to our Lord, is to fay, there was a perfect harmony between what he really was, and what he outwardly profeffed to be. He profeffed to be a friend to all kinds of virtue, an enemy to all kinds of vice, an enemy to avarice and deceit, to malice and cruelty, to formality and fuperftition, to dark enthufiafm, and hollow hypocrify; all this he profeffed; all this he appeared to be; to fay, therefore, he was full of truth, is at least to affirm, that thefe goodly profeffions did perfectly correfpond with his unfeen difpofitions.

Laft of all on this part of our fubject, there is truth with regard to action or conduct; as when we fay a man is true to his charge, true to the office and character with which he is vefted. This acceptation of truth takes place in that man, who inviolately adheres to what he engages; whofe attachment to his duty nei

ther

ther the charms of gain nor the fear of lofs can diffolve; who faithfully endeavours to execute that part which he lawfully affumed to himself, or which may be affigned him by a proper conftituent, or which his condition may call for, and which God and the world are intitled to at his hand; the man whom no temptation can bias to the fide of dishonesty, from whofe eyes no vail can hide the blacknefs of trea chery, and to whofe foul nothing that is base can find an avenue, though under the mask of prudence and interest. This is the man of truth: he is true to his duty, true to his con→ fcience, true to the part of a reasonable, and re ligious agent. To apply this to our Lord, is to fay, that he faithfully discharged every part of that great function which had been affigned him by the Parent of nature.

Thus I have briefly explained what is meant here by grace, and what by truth. Thefe are comprehenfive qualifications; it may be faid, they are the fum of moral excellencies, as they contain within them the united beauties of ho linefs and candour, of charity, mercy, and friendship. But, in this degenerate world, how few are there who, in life, can make pretenfion to them! and as to thofe few who may be faid, in fome degree, to poffefs them, how lame at best are their exertions of goodness and candour! One indeed there was, who practifed them in perfection; whofe foul both grace and truth, in their fulleft luftre, combined to ennoble.

11. THIS

II. THIS brings me to the fecond thing that was propofed; to fhew, That these two in con junction formed the character of the Meffiah.

1. He was full of grace. He came into the world upon the most gracious errand: "For "this purpose was the Son of God manifested, "that he might deftroy the works of the de, "vil *;" that he might refine human nature, that he might restore man to the image of God, and put him into a new connection with the fource of his being and happiness. As he came into the world on the most falutary defign, he gave an unremitting attention to it. His whole life was one uniform prosecution of the most benevolent plan.

The laws he gave, the leffons he taught, all spoke him to be the friend of man. I know not one precept, or one inftruction, he ever deliver. ed, but what tended to make men more virtuous, more happy, more in love with God, more in love with each other, fuperior to ava rice, fuperior to envy, fuperior to all the low influences of a perishing world. He pronounced the most gracious laws in the most gracious manner; he enforced them by the most gra cious motives; for the moft part he chused promife rather than threatening, being most adapted to win the heart, and operate on the fofter movements of human nature. Thus we may fay he was full of grace in the capacity of a teacher and legislator.

Of the fame precife ftamp were all the ac

• 1 John iii. 8.

tions he daily performed. His whole entire life, his fteady and habitual conduct, carried the moft lively characters of fympathy and favour imprinted upon it: he went always about doing good: he spent his life, not in fruitless endeavours, but in effectual good offices, in the highest degree beneficial to the fouls and bodies of men. In him every other quality mi niftered to goodness, he made all the pomp of power a fervant to mercy, and feldom or never exerted any fhowy endowment, but in order to gratify the impulfes of love: e. g. he caft out devils, and relieved an infinite number of poor wretches from their domination; he made the fick whole, the blind to fee, the deaf to hear, and the lame to walk; nay, he made the dead to rife, and re-eftablished the vital union between foul and body after it had been diffolved. Thefe things he performed, not once or twice, or a limited number of times: his deeds of this kind were fo numerous, and furpaffed all computation fo infinitely, that this Evangelift ufes: an hyperbolical figure to exprefs the multiplicity of them *.

As his daily and conftant walk carried the law of kindness ftamped upon it, fo did his behaviour, on every particular emergency, breathe an uncommon benignity of fpirit: e. g. how. full of lenity was his conference with the Samaritan woman, whom he accidentally met at the well! Inftead of harfhly upbraiding that perfon,

or