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by proposing to our imitation the example of God himself: he exhorts us to follow his own fexample in acts of meekness and lowliness. He leads us to grateful obedience by exhibiting to us both the wonders of God's love, and his own no less astonishing acts of love in assuming our nature and laying down his life for us. And he gives us a most affecting inducement to observe his laws when he says, "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.' He has also unveiled to us the future world; and assured the righteous of everlasting life, and the wicked of everlasting punishment. He has graciously addressed himself to our imagination and senses on this subject; has' circumstantially described the awful scene; has taught men that he will confess or deny them in the presence of the angels and of his heavenly Father; and even that he will reward their benevolent actions, and punish their malevolent ones, as if he himself had been their immediate object.

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The means of performing our duty which Christ has granted us come next to be considered. The ordinance of baptism reminds such as are able to reflect on it of their covenant with God, of dying to sin, of having their hearts sprinkled from an evil The institution of eating bread and

conscience.

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drinking wine, in remembrance of Christ's body broken and of his blood shed for us, assists reflection, like the former positive rite, by presenting sensible images; and leads us to be duly affected by all that our legislator and benefactor taught and did and suffered. Christ has also assured us that our heav enly Father will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him, without any limitation of time and he thus expresses the same truth figuratively; "Every branch in me that beareth fruit, my Father'pruneth, that it may bring forth more fruit." Christ has also left us God's sanctifying word of truth; the words of eternal life spoken by himself, and dictated by that Spirit which he imparted to his disciples: whence may be learnt the most effectual means, and, I believe, all the means of attaining piety and virtue, and of avoiding every kind of moral evil.

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Luke xi. 13.

• John xv. 2.

* John xvii. 17. tib. vi. 68.

SECTION XI.

OF THE ARGUMENT FOR CHRIST'S DIVINE MISSION FROM THE NATURE OF HIS INSTRUCTIONS.

THE agreeableness of Christ's doctrines and precepts to the attributes of God, and to the reason of mankind, constitutes what is called the internal evidence for the reality of his divine mission: and this evidence is much corroborated by the consideration that, in the midst of a people addicted to ceremonial observances, the preeminence is strongly given to a pure and spiritual worship of the Deity, and to actions of moral obligation. But as it may not exceed the powers of the human mind, especially with the assistance of the Hebrew Scriptures, to frame a rational system of religion and morality, the very superior excellence of what our Lord taught affords only a strong presumption, and not a decisive proof, that he was an embassador of the most High God. The certainty of his heavenly mission is established by external evidence of the most satisfactory kind.

The argument for Christianity, arising from the nature and tendency of its doctrinal and preceptive parts, will appear in the strongest light to those who best understand the books which contain them; and it will always be impaired in proportion as unscriptural notions of them prevail. Misrepresentations of

them obstructed the reception of the gospel among mankind in general, and especially among philosophical and thinking men. It is rightly presumed that

a religion which claims God for its author must be suitable to our just conceptions of him, and to the nature and circumstances of those for whom it is designed that there can be no contradiction or inconsistency in God's proceedings: and that he cannot set his seal to what would disprove any of his perfections, or give a subsequent revealed law repugnant to a prior natural law. When therefore unreasonable doctrines are imputed to Christianity, there are many who, instead of carefully examining what ground there is for such an imputation, will reject the religion in the gross, notwithstanding the strength of its external proofs when duly examined. But prepossess men in favour of Christianity as agreeable to reason in every respect, in its new discoveries as well as its republications; in other words, give them a scriptural representation of it, and you dispose them to admit the evidence of miracles and prophecies; and to argue with rational Christians, that the subject matter of Christ's religion can both be defended on its own proper footing, and likewise appears to be true because it ultimately derives its origin from the God of truth.

CHAPTER II.

OF THE MANNER IN WHICH OUR LORD TAUGHT.

SECTION I

OF THE AUTHORITY WITH WHICH HE SPAKE.

OUR Lord's religious and moral lessons are not inferred from a train of reasoning, nor systematically arranged; but they are suited to the capacity of mankind in general, and are delivered with a majesty becoming a heavenly messenger. They are likewise transmitted to us in a manner most likely to gan attention, and to make a deep and lasting impression : for they are divine commands, comprised in a narrow compass, interwoven with an affecting history, exemplified by a perfect life, and enforced by the most powerful motives. The form, "I say unto you," so often repeated in the discourse on the mount, where our Lord's decision is opposed to that of Moses himself, and those solemn admonitions, "Take heed how ye hear," "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear," shew a consciousness of the high character with which he was invested. His general manner impressed his hearers with awe and

Matt. v. 22, 28, 32, 34, 44. 15. xiii. 9, and p. p.

Luke viii. 18.

Δεῖ ρό νυν, ἔαλά μοι, καθαρὰς ακοάς τε, πετάσσας.
Come, open now your ears, and your pure hearing.

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• Matt. xi.

Orpheus. poes phil. H. Steph. 96.

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