splendors of this world, between which, and the things that they seek, there is little similarity. It is the mind, and not the eye which appreciates their excellence; but then this satisfies them. The saints also have their empire, their renown, their greatness, and their victories, and need not either sensual or intellectual splendor, to make them great. Such things are not of their order, and neither increase nor diminish the greatness which they seek. God and his angels discern them, whilst to the bodily eye, or the philosophic mind, they are alike invisible; but to them, God is every thing. Archimedes is venerated independently of the distinction of his birth. He won no battles; but he has given some wonderful inventions to the world. How great, how illustrious, is he to the scientific mind! Jesus Christ, without wealth, without the adventitious distinction of scientific discovery, comes in his order-that of holiness. He publishes no inventions, he wears no crown; but he was humble, patient, holy in the sight of God, terrible to wicked spirits, and free from sin. But in what mighty splendor, and with what prodigious magnificence has he come forth before the eyes of the heart-the optics of true wisdom. Although Archimedes was of princely birth, it would have been idle to have brought this forward in his book of geometry. It had been useless also for our Lord Jesus Christ to come on earth as a monarch, in order to add dignity to the reign of holiness.* But how becoming is the peculiar lustre of his own order. It is folly indeed to be offended at the low condition of Jesus Christ, as if that meanness were of the same order with the glory that he came to manifest. Contemplate that grandeur in his life, in his passion, in his That is, holiness exhibited alone and independent of all adventitious distinctions, obscurity, in his death, in the choice of his disciples, in their forsaking him, in his unseen resurection, and all the other circumstances of his case; you will find him so truly great, that there is little cause to complain of meanness. It has no existence. But there are men who can only admire the distinctions of external pomp, to the exclusion of all mental excellence. And there are others who reverence only intellectual greatness as if in the true wisdom there were not a far loftier worth. All organized bodies, the heavens, the earth, the stars, taken together, are not equal in value to the meanest mind; for mind knows these things; it knows itself: but matter knows nothing. And all bodies, and all minds united, are not worth one emotion of love. It is of an order of excellence infinitely higher. We cannot elicit from universal matter a single thought. It is impossible. Thought is of a higher order of creation. Again, all bodies, and all spirits combined, could not give birth to a single emotion of real love. This is also impossible. Love is of another and still higher order of being. It is supernatural. 2. Jesus Christ lived in such obscurity, (we use the word in the worldly sense) that historians who record none but important events, scarcely discerned him. 3. What man ever had more renown than Jesus Christ? The whole Jewish people foretold his coming. The Gentiles when he came, adored him. Both Jews and Gentiles look to him as their centre. And yet what man ever enjoyed so little of such a fame. Out of thirty-three years, he passed thirty unseen; and the remaining three, he was accounted an impostor. The priests and rulers of his nation rejected him. His friends and relations despised him and at length, betrayed by one of his disciples, denied by another, and abandoned by all, he died an ignominious death. In how much, then, of this splendor did he participate? No man was ever so illustrious; no man was ever so degraded: but all this lustre was for our sakes, that we might know him; none for his own. 4. Jesus Christ speaks of the most sublime subjects with such simplicity, that he seems not to have thought on them; and yet with such accuracy, that what he thought is distinctly brought out. This union of artlessness with perspicuity, is perfectly beautiful. Who taught the evangelists the qualities of a truly heroic mind, that they should paint it to such perfection in Jesus Christ? Why have they told of his weakness during his agony? Could they not describe a resolute death? .Undoubtedly. St. Luke himself paints St. Stephen's death with more of fortitude than that of Christ. They have shewn him to be capable of fear, before the hour of death was come; but afterwards perfectly calm. When they tell of his being in affliction, that sorrow proceeded from himself; but when men afflicted him, he was unmoved. The church has at times had to prove to those who denied it, that Jesus Christ was man, as well as that he was God; and appearances were as much against the one truth as against the other. Jesus Christ is a God to whom we can approach without pride; and before whom we abase ourselves without despair. 5. The conversion of the heathen was reserved for the grace of the Messiah. Either the Jews did not All that Solomon try it, or they were unsuccessful. and the prophets said on this subject, was vain. Their wise men, also, as Plato and Socrates, could not lead them to worship the one true God. The gospel speaks only of the virginity of Mary, up to the period of the Saviour's birth. Every thing has reference to Jesus Christ. The two Testaments contemplate Jesus Christ; the one as its expectation; the other as its exemplar; both as their centre. The prophets predict, but were not predicted. The saints were predicted, but do not predict. Jesus Christ predicts, and is predicted. PROPHETICAL PROOFS OF JESUS CHRIST. Jesus Christ for all men; Moses for one people. The Jews are blessed in that bless thee. Gen. xii. 3. in his seed. Gen. xviii. 18. Gentiles. Luke ii. 32. 163 Abraham; I will bless them He has not done so to any nation, (Psalm cxlvii. 20.) said David, when speaking of the law. But in speaking of Jesus Christ, we may say, He hath done so to all nations. Jesus Christ is an universal blessing. The church limits her sacramental services to the apparently faithful. Christ gave himself a ransom for all. Let us then open our arms to our Redeemer, who, having been promised for 4000 years, is come at length to suffer and to die for us, at the period, and under all the circumstances predicted. And while, through his grace, we await a peaceful death, in the hope of being united to him for ever, let us receive with joy either the prosperities which it pleases him to give, or the trials that he sends for our profit, and which, from his own example, we learn to endure. CHAPTER XV. PROPHETICAL PROOFS OF JESUS CHRIST. THE most powerful evidence in favor of Jesus Christ, is the prophecies; and to them also God appears to have had the most special regard; for the occurrence of those events which fulfil them, is a miracle which has subsisted from the beginning of the church to the end. God raised up a succession of prophets, during a period of 1600 years, and during four subsequent centuries, he scattered these prophecies, with the Jews who possessed them, throughout all parts of the world. Such, then, was the preparation for the birth of Christ; for as his gospel was to be believed by all the world, it required not only that there should be prophecies to render it credible, but that these prophecies should be diffused throughout the world, in order that all the world might believe. If one individual only had written a volume of predictions respecting Jesus Christ, and the time and manner of his coming, and then Jesus Christ had come, in accordance to these predictions, the proof would be infinitely powerful. But we have more than this. In this case there is a series of men for 4000 years, who constantly and without discrepancy foretel the same advent. He is announced by a whole people, who subsist for 4000 years, to yield a successive cumulative testimony to their certain expectation of his coming; and from which neither threat nor persecution could turn them. This is much ampler proof. 2. The appointed period was predicted by the state of the Jews, by the state of the heathen, by the state of the temple, and by the precise number of years. The prophets having given several signs which should happen at the coming of Messiah, it follows that all signs should occur at the same time; and hence it followed, that the fourth monarchy should be come at the expiration of the seventy weeks of Daniel; that the sceptre should then depart from Judah; and that then Messiah should come. At that very crisis, Jesus Christ came, and declared himself the Messiah. It is predicted, that during the fourth monarchy, before the destruction of the second temple, before the dominion of the Jews had ceased, and in the seventieth week of Daniel, the heathen should be instructed and led to the knowledge of that God, whom the Jews worshipped, and they who loved him, should be delivered from their enemies, and filled with his love and his fear. And it did happen, that during the fourth monarchy and before the destruction of the second temple, multitudes of the heathen worshipped God, and lived a heavenly life; women devoted to God their virginity, and their whole life: men renounced a life of pleasure; and that which Plato could not accomplish with a few chosen and well disciplined individuals, was now ef |