clearer and more expreffive way, than through the operations of nature; yet he does not break upon us, as he did under the ministry of the Law, in the overwhelming splendours of his divinity; but he comes before us in a more endearing and familiar form. The Word of God, the organ of divine counsels, the effusion of his glory, the image of his perfon, condescends to dwell among us. Shrouding the severities of the Godhead from human eye, he prefents himself to our con-. templation in the form and character of man and this not by a temporary femblance, but by an entire affumption of our nature, not in occafional appearance, but through all the stages of human life. In this combination of the divine and human nature, though the divine glory was veiled, yet the divine energy remained. In him dwelt bodily all the fulness of the Godhead. But to engage the affection, as well as the veneration of men, to draw them by the bonds of gratitude and love, as well as to control them by the power of his authority, he fubmitted to pass through life like one of us; and he took the most interesting and affecting means to induce our allegiance to his government and our obedience to his law.

What

What engages our attention first in the history of his human life is his active and unwearied application to promote the good and welfare of mankind. Though fameness of character might difpofe him to perpetual converse with his heavenly Father, yet while he dwelt on earth, he promoted the counsel, he performed the will of God by a free and conftant intercourfe with men. He went about doing good: he spared no labour, he omitted no opportunity, to teach them the way of truth, and to guide them in the path to everlasting life.

I. The leading purpofe of our Saviour's miffion, whether we regard him in his prophetic or his kingly character, was to publish the good tidings, or to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom; that is, to proclaim and to communicate a new Difpenfation of divine grace and truth, which had been foretold from earlieft times, and had been the final theme of all preceding revelation. Of this great order Jefus Chrift himself was both the Prophet and the King. He came to be the light and the life of men. He unfolded all the myfteries of divine knowledge; he imparted all the treasures of divine grace. While he expofed the corruption, the error, the insuffi

ciency

ciency of men, he offered himself to them a Phyfician, a Guide, and an Affiftant. He gave them the confolation of fpiritual health upon repentance toward God and faith in him. He directed them in that way of holinefs, which terminates in happiness. He affured them on their prayers of the free grace of heaven, to strengthen and support them in all their labours after righteousness. And on condition of their allegiance to his government, he set before them the adoption of fons into the household of God, and the inheritance of fons in the kingdom of heaven. Thus all his acts and offices on earth have been directed to this beneficial end, to turn men from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God.

The fame wisdom and benevolence, fo confpicuous in all his doctrines, may be traced in the method or economy employed in communicating his Gofpel to the world. To enlarge the fphere of his beneficence he frequented the places of public worship. He taught in their fynagogues, being glorified of all. But the exercife of his ministry was not limited to time or place. As he went about doing good, he made ufe of all times and places and opportunities. In the city, or in the wilderness, on a mountain, or on the

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fea-fhore, in the public temple, or in the private house, with his chofen difciples, or with a promifcuous multitude, among the rich and great, and among the poor and humble, with Pharifees and Scribes, and with Publicans and finners, he was equally employed in executing that work, for which he came into the world.

On fome occafions he delivered his doctrines in a more profeffed and continued form of difcourfe; especially in the Sermon on the Mount; wherein he aftonished the people with his doctrine, for he taught them in a manner very different from the Scribes, and in a tone of authority as an immediate Minifter of God. In the opening of his fermon he fhews himself a Teacher of a far fuperior kind, fince he pronounces the beatitudes of his kingdom on tempers or difpofitions very different from thofe, which usually engage the cultivation and attract the applause of men, on difpofitions productive of vital holinefs, and conducive to genuine and fubstantial happiness. But while he inculcates more godlike difpofitions and propofes a more heavenly recompence than the customary teachers of the Jews, he disclaims all intention of abrogating or even impairing the fpirit of the Mofaic Law. He had no defign

to establish a religion altogether new, but to give life and energy to the old, to fulfil the typical, to illuftrate and improve the moral. In particular what the Law forbade in act, he forbade in meditation and in thought; what the Law enjoined in the letter, he enjoined in the fpirit; and what was cultivated in the form, he established in the heart. He taught the people, what they could not learn from those who were Mafters in Ifrael, to lay up treasures not on earth, but in heaven; to give their service not to Mammon, but to God; and instead of a fretful folicitude for the neceffaries of this life, to feek before all other things the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and to confide in his providence for the fupply of every need. He taught them not to truft to a mere profeffion of their faith, but to fhew their profeffion in their practice for not the callers on his name, but the doers of his will fhould have admiffion into his heavenly kingdom.

But his common way of teaching was by eafy and familiar converfation; in which he was always ready to avail himself of inevery cidental circumstance, which might be made fubfervient to the purpose of inftruction. Whatever scene appeared in view, whatever topic of discourse arose, he rendered it an ar

gument