and attractive virtues of the speaker, penetrating and possessing the heart of the hearers, and clearly reflecting back the mild lustre of an amiable character: than which natural species of eloquence none is more persuasive or delightful. The best illustrations of this may be taken from our Lord's addresses to the companions of his ministry, and the future preachers of his gospel, on the night before his crucifixion.

He thus comforts them on his departure: "Let not your heart be troubled: believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you : I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also.” "I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, that he may abide with you d for ever. I will not leave you in an orphan state : I will come unto you.' "" "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth,

ante omnia bonitate commendabitur: non solum mite ac placidum, sed plerumque blandum et humanum, et audientibus amabile atque jucundum in quo exprimendo summa virtus ea est, ut fluere omnia ex natura rerum hominumque videantur, quo mores dicentis ex oratione pelluceant, & quodammodo agnoscantur. Quod est proculdubio inter conjunctas maxime personas, quoties perferimus, ignoscimus, satisfacimus, monemus, procul ab ira, procul ab odio. Quinct. vi. 2. b John xiv. 1, 2, 3, 16, 18, 27. < Hence Christ himself was also

παράκλητος: and he is called so 1 John ii. 1. Παρακαλειν signifies to comfort and to exhort. Wetstein's note is "Glossarium, advocatus, Tagántos" and he quotes Asconius in Cic. in Q. Cæc. advocatus, si aut jus suggerit, aut præsentiam suam commodat amico. See also Bishop Pearce. d Quamdiu vivitis. Wetstein. Bishop Pearce. Phi

lem. 15.

give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

e

He thus arms them against the persecutions which they were to undergo. "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own ; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. All these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me." "They will put you out of the synagogues: yea the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. But these things have I told you, that, when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them."

He thus exhorts them to the discharge of their duty as his disciples. "If ye love me, keep my f commandments. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father; and I will love him, and will manifest myself unto him." "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit: so shall ye be my disciples. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love: even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. This is my commandment; that ye love one another, as I have loved you. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you."

And he thus supports and animates them, in the prayer with which he concludes these affectionate

c. xv. 18, 19, 21. xvi. 2, 4. 8, 10, 12, 14.

fc. xiv. 15, 21.

& C. XV.

discourses. "Glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee. As thou hast given him power over all flesh; that he should give everlasting life to as many as thou hast given him. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world."

But our Lord occasionally moves as well as persuades; and commands our passions as well as conciliates our affections. This will appear from the following instances; in which pity, terror, and hatred of vice, are strongly excited.

"Q Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathereth her brood under her wings; and ye would not? Behold your house is left unto you desolate." "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace: But now they are hidden from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, when thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation." "Wo' unto them that are with child, and unto them that give suck, in those days." Behold, the days are coming in which they shall

:

* Luke xix. 42.

say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the breasts which never gave suck."

"Fear not them who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." "Nation • shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows," "Immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken." "And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken." "Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us and to the hills, Cover us." "Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the land mourn; and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a trumpet of a great sound, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other,"

S

"O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the

:

"Every" plant which planted shall be rooted

heart the mouth speaketh." my heavenly Father hath not up." "Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." "O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky but can ye not discern the signs of the times? A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign: and there shall be no sign given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas." "Ye are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father ye seek to do: he was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it."

X

But in our Lord's last address to the Scribes and Pharisees we have the most remarkable example of grave and sharp reproof, dictated by so perfect a knowledge of the heart, that every word must have ştung the conscience of his hearers to the quick; and uttered, we may well suppose, with an earnestness and vehemence becoming the justest indignation against vice, and the dignity of a rejected and persecuted prophet.

The audience consisted of the disciples, the persons reproved, and all the people. The scene was the temple; now last filled with a glory by the presence of Jesus. The time was the paschal week, the fourth day before our Lord's crucifixion, and that on which he concluded his public instructions.

" Malt. xv. 13, 14. Matt. xxiii.

w Matt. xvi. 3, 4.

* John viii. 44.

2 ib. 1, 13, 14. Luke xx. 45.

* Haggai ii. 7.