IX. LECT. fold like Jofeph, hath like him received favour and dominion; that he who hath been affronted and refused and thruft away by us as Mofes was, is the true lawgiver, whom we have thus conformed in all things to the example of our prophet; even of that Mofes, who faid, a prophet fhall the Lord your God raise up like unto me; and we have done all that was wanting on our part to make the likeness complete." Thus must they have reasoned, on whom St. Stephen's argument had the proper effect; and thus would the Jews reason at this day, who know the Old Teftament, and have heard the hiftory of Jefus Christ, if they were not under a judicial infatuation, which God can remove when it is just and fit. We who are not under the like blindness can see how plainly and irresistibly these figures of the Old Testament fhew the certainty of those things wherein we have been inftructed. When Stephen difputed with the Jews, he took advantage of this evidence, and they were not able to refift the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spake. When IX. When we hear of the effect of this difpu- LECT. tation, and find nothing in his speech but a mere narrative of facts compiled from the fcripture, we wonder how the Jews could be fo provoked by it, more than by reading the bible according to their daily custom: but when we fee how all this is pointed as a teftimony to the fufferings and exaltation of Jefus of Nazareth, the wonder ceases G and it is no longer strange, that they whose hearts were not turned to good by it, should be provoked to rage and perfecution. This fubject will fuggeft fome important reflections, which I must beg of you to take into your ferious confideration, and lay hearts as long as you livė. them up in your 1. From the cafes of Jofeph and Mofes, and more particularly from that of Chrift himself, we are to learn, that the qualifications which recommend a perfon to God, will not make him acceptable or refpectable with men, but often the contrary; for amongst men, innocence is envied, godliness is defpifed, zeal difcouraged, and R 2 juftice LECT. justice hated. Whence it has been estabIX. lished by wife and virtuous men as a maxim founded on experience, that the voice of the multitude is never to be regarded as a teft of truth or merit. Fashionable error is a dreadful enemy to the advocates of truth: and there never was an age or country in which error did not get into fashion, and take the direction of men's minds; fo that truth has but a poor chance without an overruling Providence to fecond and enforce it. We have a famous paffage to this effect from the greatest moral philofopher of the Greeks, who declared with a kind of prescience, that if a man perfectly just were to come upon earth, he would be impoverished, and Scourged, and bound as a criminal, and, when he had suffered all manner of indignities, would be put to the Shameful death of fufpenfion or crucifixion *. *Several of the fathers have taken notice of this extraordinary paffage in Plato; looking upon it as a prediction of the fufferings of the Juft one Jefus Chrift; and after them it is noted by Grotius de verit. Lib. 4. fect. 12. Cafaubon (Merick) has a learned and excellent Criticifm upon it, in his Treatife Of Credulity and Incredulity, p. 135, &c. There IX. There is not a more spotless character in LECT. the scripture than that of Joseph: yet his brethren hated him, and their envy had no reft till they had sent him out of their fight as a flave. Mofes was a pattern of meeknefs, and with a struggle of diffidence undertook his commiffion; a commiffion, with which he should have been received by a poor oppreffed people, like, what he was in fact, a meffenger from heaven. But they railed at him, as if he had only made that condition worse which was bad enough before; fo had provoked those who were already enraged, and had put a fword into their bands to flay them. Thus the fearful and unbelieving (who are sometimes found amongst the wife ones of this world) are always difpofed to difcourage and condemn a zeal for the cause of God and the rights of his religion, as indifcreet, unfeasonable and dangerous. Whence it follows, that if we are called upon to act in any public character, we must do people good against their will, and take the chance of being ungratefully or even defpitefully treated for it. None but the mean-fpirited, or the ambitious, R 3 IX. LECT. tious, or the infipid, or the hypocritical, are spoken well of by all men; and popular applause is the grand object of a vain or knavish difpofition. Therefore the Christian is wifely admonished, to feek that praise which cometh only from God; which is never bestowed upon falfe merit, and will never be wanting to the true. 2. From the example of the Jews, whọ were only irritated by St. Stephen's arguments, when they ought to have been converted; we see what a dreadful thing it is to have our reafons for hating and rejecting the truth. It is of infinite confequence that we should enquire what that meaneth-they received not the love of the truth, that they might be fuved. What can be plainer than truth? And what is more annable? And if it faves us, what in all the world is half fo valuable? Yet that faving truth is the only truth men cannot of themselves understand: and if they do not understand it, what fearful commotions are raised by it! It is a pow erful drug, which will either embitter and inflame |