versal 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.

Our

Such an union of pretensions was never heard of before or since amongst men. 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 completion—the 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 his more peculiar character as MEDIATOR In his private character and PERSONAL EXCELIn his public and exalted character

LENCIES.

as THE FOUNDER OF THE CHRISTIAN REVE

LATION.

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 a 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.

But here a difficulty presents itself; not arising from any intricacy in the subject to be discussed, but from the incompetency of man to do justice to it: for who can set forth the character of Christ? It demands much of the sanctity of Jesus to comprehend his unspeakable dignity and holiness. What mind can fully embrace such a theme? And where are the hearers who are sufficiently acquainted with

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the gospel history? Who has studied, as he should, the records of the life of the Son of God? Our argument can only be estimated in proportion as the copious references, on which it rests, meet with the well-informed mind.

Grant me, then, at least, your attention; and may God vouchsafe to us grace to study, with a docile and impartial temper, the divine character of his well-beloved Son!

We are first to point out the conduct of our Lord in HIS MORE PECULIAR CHARACTER AS MEDIATOR.

This will include his deportment as the Son of God and Saviour of the world; as a divine teacher; as appearing in a state of humiliation; and promising a heavenly recompense to his disciples.

1. Observe, then, the manner in which our Lord sustained his high claims of being THE SON

OF GOD AND THE SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD.

Here we may first remark, that they are not put forth ostentatiously, but only as occasions called for them. There are, indeed, explicit declarations of his exalted origin. He called God his Father, in the sense of making himself equal with God.' He asserted, Before Abraham was, I am.2

But these and many similar claims sprang from the circumstances in which he was placed, and were not made for the mere purpose of asserting his own dignity. It is incidentally, rather than formally, that you see divinity breaking forth. You hear him command angels and devils; you see him work miracles in his own name; you observe how he forgives sins, assumes to be greater than Solomon, replies to the thoughts of his hearers, and calls on men to believe in and honour him, even as they believed and honoured the Father.

Yet he enters into no details on these points, no explanations of the mode of his union with the Father. He leaves these to be inferred. He speaks of them with the ease and naturalness with which one, born a prince, would speak of his father's court and attendants-without surprise, without introduction, without effort, without detailed description. The invisible world, mansions in paradise, legions of angels, his own advent in glory to judge the world, are evidently matters with which he is familiar. The astonishing scene at his baptism, the splendours of the transfiguration, the various offices performed towards him by angels, the repeated testimonies from his Father by a voice from heaven, pass as matters of course, and create

no extraordinary emotion, in the mind of the Son of God.

In the mean time, every thing has an evident reference to his undertaking, as the promised Messiah and Saviour of mankind. With what dignity and wisdom is all made to bear on that one object. With what majesty, and yet unaffected simplicity and compassion, did he open the book in the synagogue of Nazareth, and, having read the prophetic description of his office, declare, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.1 With what a mixture of authority and tenderness did he, on another occasion, claim that All things were delivered to him of his Father; and that no man knew who the Son was, save the Father, nor who the Father was, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son should reveal him; and then soften the claim and adapt it to the purposes of his mission, by inviting the weary and heavy laden to come unto him for rest? With what dignity did he call on those who applied to him, to entertain the highest thoughts of his power, to repose their faith in his word, and to expect relief in proportion to their honourable conceptions of his office and person.

And how remarkably does he mingle his own name with his Father's, his own works with his

1 Luke iv. 21.

Matt. xi. 26-28.