dience. The peculiar doctrines of the gospel relieve me, add consolation to me, soften the yoke of obedience, make the path of duty practicable and easy. I will, therefore, cleave to this holy doctrine, which has formed so many virtuous fathers, faithful wives, docile children, upright magistrates, modest scholars, generous nobles, resigned sufferers. I will cleave to this holy doctrine, which makes the rich benevolent, the exalted meek, the powerful considerate, the learned humble, the lowly contented. I will cleave to this holy doctrine, which works by implanting every virtuous principle in the heart, and which is sustained by all the motives of the stupendous Redemption of the Son and Spirit of God, and which refers every human action to an eternal judgment. No; I will never renounce the Christian religion. It is this which binds my conscience, restrains my appetites, subdues my passions. It is this which has made me all I now am, little as my attainments are. If I did but love holiness more, and practise my duties more consistently, I should be more happy. I have peace within only when I do so. Let me employ all the aids of Revelation to strengthen me in this course, and I shall have more and more the testimony of my conscience, in addition to all the external and internal evidences, to assure me that a religion with such a morality cannot but be divine.'

86

LECTURE XVII,

THE PRE-EMINENT CHARACTER AND CONDUCT OF OUR LORD.

MARK Vii. 37.

And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well.

IN reviewing the constituent parts of Christianity, it is natural to ask if any light can be cast upon them from the character of the founder of the religion? Did he appear publicly before men? What was his deportment? How did he support the claims which he advanced ?

These questions lead us to consider the conduct of our Lord as the Divine Author of the Christian faith.

We have already adverted more than once to this subject,' but we enter on it expressly now, as furnishing a powerful internal evidence of the truth of the Revelation which bears his name.

To consider it aright, we must first distinctly call to mind what manner of person our Lord professed to be-what were the offices and relations which he undertook to sustain.

1 Lectures VI. VII. IX.

For Christ, be it remembered, was not merely the founder of a religion; but he appeared publicly as such amongst the people to whom the Scripture prophecies had for four thousand years promised his advent, and at the exact time designated by those prophecies. He claimed, not only to be a messenger sent from God, but to be the MESSIAH, the Son of God and Saviour of mankind.

We may well suppose, then, that this peculiar character involved qualities new, various, and exalted. This is, in truth, the case; and a just estimate of the argument derived from our Lord's conduct, will depend on a consideration of the number and difficulty of the relations he bore, and of the manner in which he sustained them.

What, then, were the chief claims which he advanced?

Professing himself to be the Messiah, he assumed the titles of the Saviour, the Redeemer, the great Prophet of the church, the King of Israel, the appointed Judge of quick and dead. He declared himself also, for the same reason, to be the Lord of David, the Mighty God, the Prince of Peace, Jehovah our Righteousness. He performed in these characters, moreover, miraculous works, in support of his pretensions he healed the sick, raised the dead, expelled demons, suspended the laws of nature, and exercised in his own person a creative power. Again, he assumed, as the consequence of all this, to be the teacher of truth, the light of the world, the expounder and vindicator of the moral law, the authoritative legislator of mankind.

Notwithstanding these exalted pretensions, his office as the Messiah involved the most apparently contradictory characteristics. It required him to be the Son of man, the servant and messenger of his heavenly

2 Lecture IX.

Father, subject to human infirmities and sorrows, obedient to all the ceremonial requirements and moral injunctions of the Mosaic law-"a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." All this, therefore, our Lord professed himself to be.

Still he scrupled not to hold forth to his followers a heavenly reward, the presence and enjoyment of God, a recompence for their sufferings in his cause, which should in this life be a hundred fold beyond their sacrifices, and should in another, consist of perfect holiness and inconceivable bliss.

Claims so numerous and so various, necessarily implied correspondent relations as arising out of them. He had to conduct himself as the Son of God and Messiah, in all the elevated and all the lowly offices involved in those titles. He had, at the same time, to sustain all the relations that sprung from the peculiar characters belonging to him as Redeemer, teacher, and rewarder of his disciples.

But this is not all besides these offices, our Lord assumed another and distinct function, demanding an apparently different conduct and deportment. He proposed himself as the pattern and example of every human excellence to his followers. He assumed to embody the moral precepts of his religion in his own. life, and to be himself all that he required of his followers. He reduced all his rules to the one direction of following his steps.

Finally, he claimed, on the footing of all these qualities and testimonies, to be the FOUNDER OF THE CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION, the Author and Finisher of the faith of the Gospel; to introduce the last and most perfect and universal form of revealed truth; fulfilling all the preparatory economy, and carrying out every branch of religion to its utmost extent, and with the greatest advantage.

3 Isaiah liii. 3.

Such an union of pretensions was never heard of before or since, amongst men. Our Lord is beyond comparison the most extraordinary personage that ever advanced his claims on earth. In the whole business of man's redemption, wonderful in all its parts-in its beginning, its progress, its completionthe most wonderful part is the diversified names and offices of our Lord, as compared with his actual conduct in fulfilling them.

By every part of these pretensions he laid himself open to the scrutiny of mankind. By every one of them, he exposed a surface for investigation wide as the various and distinct duties springing from them. And by the combination of the whole, he has furnished materials for the internal confirmation of his religion, which are as new as they are inexhaustible, which the study of ages only incompletely develops, and which remain to the present hour in all their freshness and beauty, for the admiration of every humble and obedient inquirer.

Let us, then, consider the life and conduct of our Lord, as compared with his pretensions.

In

In his more peculiar character as MEDIATOR. his private character and PERSONAL EXCELLENCIES. In his public and exalted character as THE FOUNDER OF THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION.

In the first, he is the promised MESSIAH of the church; in the second, he is the model and Example of his disciples; in the third, he is the divine AUTHOR of an universal religion. In all, his deportment will be found to furnish á subsidiary but irresistible argument in favour of Christianity.

Our object, of course, in considering these points, will not be to bring out the external evidences as involved in them, but the internal proofs arising from such divine excellencies in Christ's character as they were the occasion of displaying.