backward, likewise we had before inferred from the present his life, death, and resurrection, according to the record of the evangelists.

The record of facts so preternatural would certainly require a more than common attestation to make them pass with persons who are justly scrupulous in bestowing their assent to pretensions affecting the honour of the Deity; and it would not be too much to presume, perhaps, that such persons might derive considerable, if not sufficient satisfaction from the line of evidence now immediately suggested, if they had the patience to eke it out with their observation; and that no positive miracle performed in their sight could entitle the author to credit for the future, more decidedly than the remote accomplishment of his predictions within their certain knowledge entitles an evangelist to credit for the wonders of which he professes himself to have been an eye-witness (John xxi. 24). This is such an evidence as man perhaps would never have thought of, and God alone can give, namely, AN EVIDENCE OF THE PAST BY THE PRESENT, AND OF THE FUTURE BY BOTH.

--5, If the most agreeable sort of pretension and evidence, as well as the most convincing, that the Subject displayed, or could, to mortal observation were to be sought, it would appear in his ordinary habits; and particularly in his going about doing good always, every where, to every person who would allow it, and in every possible shape; notwithstanding that disclaimer of the visible man, "Why callest thou me good?" (Matt. xix. 17), to one who addressed him incautiously by that epithet; because, as he said, "There is none good but one, that is, God" (Ibid). "For this (heavenly habit of thine) shall every one that is godly make his prayer unto thee" (Ps. xxxii. 7). It is for this especially that every one owes him the highest love and veneration; and that so many who are redeemed by him, being consequently tenacious of his credit, come forward successively as perpetual witnesses together from generation to generation of the divine nature and offices

to which he pretended. As for one man deifying another, or all the species deifying one, it were the height of presumption and arrogance, to supposé such a possibility: but if mankind were allowed to effect such a miracle by their united suffrages, would not the world ring with the sacred name of JESUS? Would not "all kings fall down before him, all nations do him service" (Ps. lxxii. 11), and have him for their God rather than the most admired hero of antiquity, or modern saint either? Would not the gentle, guileless Lamb be preferred as a Sovereign for the Kingdom of peace to the lion, the tiger, the wolf, or any voracious beast of a pretender?-as the prophet says, " All ye beasts of the field come to devour; yea, all ye beasts in the forest" (Isai. lvi. 9): and the Subject himself, "I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers* : but THE SHEEP DID NOT HEAR THEM (the proper test of a shepherd). I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill and to destroy: I am come, that they might have life, and that

⚫ It were of no use to inquire, who these " thieves and robbers" might have been; as the following clause denotes, that they were very evanescent characters and not worth remembering, although the expression, 66 are" would imply that they are still forthcoming for a future day, and being the most authentic reading is very remarkable. "BUT THE SHEEP DID NOT HEAR THEM": they made no impression; or no more than the fanatics and impostors that are starting up among ourselves continually, and of which if a man were required to name the ten that have figured most successfully in his time, he would not be able to name more than one or two perhaps, the others being already forgotten. They all come forward with their godly pretensions, but never a one is there of them all that can make his pretensions good. So, previously to the coming of our Lord, many had appeared no doubt, saying," Lo here is Christ, or, there" (Matt. xxiv. 23); and perhaps it might have suited either the political purposes of a party or the corruption of individuals, to give them encouragement: but it is clear that the elect would not own them; as he knew he should be owned. "I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep; and am known of mine (John x. 14), said he. The experience of eighteen hundred years has verified his prophetic assertion: we know him still, and have no higher ambi tion than to be known of him.

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they might have it more abundantly. I am the good Shepherd: THE GOOD SHEPHERD GIVETH HIS LIFE FOR THE SHEEP" (John x. 7, &c.).

And was not the miracle of his love in word and in deed, in life and in death more convincing than those of power which are particularly called Miracles? One should think so indeed. For these miracles, however great or numerous, and it is said, He wrought many (John xi. 47), were, with two or three exceptions, chiefly calculated to strike the eyes of the vulgar: the greater and more genuine proofs of our God and Saviour to sober judges are found in his general example and influence; in the life that he led, and the life that he gives. The perception of this last especially may be alone sufficient to establish the credit of the Subject and his religion, or of the Word either way, that is either in person or effect, against both the cavils of his enemies and the more injurious commendations of hollow friends and half believers*, who for their own carnal purposes have thought fit to support truth by falsehood, and to embellish facts with puerilities. His enemies were wont, as before observed, to charge him with the inconsistency of bearing record of himself (Ib. viii. 13): not having in their gross conception the possibility of one relation witnessing to another in the same person; as the Word of God to the Son for example-or contrariwise, the Son to the Word, and to the Father of both. But there does not seem any thing unnatural in an example of heavenly wisdom bearing witness to the Fountain of truth, of heavenly love bearing witness to a bountiful Creator, of preternatural sympathy bearing witness to the Saviour and Redeemer. For if it were not to be thus,

It is not here meant to be insinuated, that all the sacred writers of whatever class who have ever deviated from the line of gravity and good sense in their productions were hollow friends of the cause they professed, and actuated by corresponding motives, like those alluded to; any more than it is meant to be denied, that there have been those of all classes who have so deviated, and some otherwise exemplary characters among the rest, whose deviations or deflexions are elsewhere accounted for.

there is no knowing how it could have been otherwise. He certainly does and must bear record of himself; and his record will not be the less true on that account (Ib. 14), but Truth itself (Ib. xvii. 17), Supreme Adorable Truth. For if his Precursor bears witness of him, or if any of his prophets, as well as evangelists bear witness of him, the witness will still be his, and the truth be here; having nothing to do with the puerilities of fond advocates, nor with the impieties of others: it will be for them all, or their doings, neither better nor worse. Let us look always therefore honestly and dispassionately into our evidence without regarding these extraneous matters: and having observed what the Subject witnesses properly or directly as it were for himself; in the language of his emulators, "Whom makest thou thyself?" (Ib. viii. 53)-let us now proceed to a commoner sort of evidence, being what others witness concerning him, or the Word indirectly of himself by them, as he once asked the disciples," Whom DO MEN SAY, that I, the Son of man, am?" (Matt. xvi. 18.)

2. This indirect evidence as it was called being reflected as it were by the planets attending on the Sun of righteousness, and again by their satellites, in history or tradition, and viewed by experience, and reflected backward on their source by good works, may be distinguished by its tenses or times, like its Subject and Object, into three periods; past, present, and future: which is one period for prediction or the word of prophecy, and one for record or history, and another for experience-one to foreshew and describe a dispensation worthy of divine love, with a visi ble promoter and principal agent in this sublime dispensation," the Mediator of the New covenant" (Heb. xii, 24); one to shew forth, and describe by history the progress of that dispensation under the Mediator's auspices and institutions; and the other by comparing records with predictions to display and reduce to experience these two gigantic arms of evidence, which clasp and enfold the Subject so closely, that not all the efforts of the devil and

infidelity can tear him from their embrace. Thus one fact will foreshew Messiah to us; another, shew us Jesus; and another, Jesus Messiah; proving, that "this is THE CHRIST" (John vii. 41); or, "that this IS VERY CHRIST" (Acts ix. 22); as Saul began to do the moment that he was converted, and continued ever after "OUT OF THE SCRIPTURES; opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead; and THAT THIS JESUS WHOM I PREACH UNTO YOU IS CHRIST” (Ib. xvii. 2, 3).

For the Word of God being God himself in another word, whatever was really predicted of the Subject by that word must necessarily be fulfilled as a part of the divine purpose, supposing it to consist of parts. If any power can set aside a divine purpose, then may that which was divinely predicted of the Subject be set aside; but not else. And this may account for the stress that is every where laid in the Gospel itself on the fulfilment of every prediction relating to the Subject; as he said himself when he appeared to the disciples after his resurrection, "These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that

ALL THINGS MUST BE fulfilled WHICH WERE WRITTEN IN

THE LAW OF Moses, and in the Prophets, AND IN THE PSALMS CONCERNING ME" (Luke xxiv. 44). The honour of the Word and the veracity of its Author or Parent were concerned in this fulfilment: good reason therefore had He for fulfilling it, and that to the very letter: neither can there be any chance of what is similarly spoken by other means being ever set aside; except when in mercy to its object a divine sentence shall be revoked, modified, or suspended; as in the case of Ahab (Kings I. xxi. 29), of Nineveh (Jonah iii. 10) and in short of the whole world(Matt. xii. 41; Pet. II. iii. 9). So that of the moral certainty of the Word there can be no room to doubt: the only room here for doubt is, not respecting the certainty or authenticity of God's word, but its genuineness; not respecting its truth, but its reality.

And this which may be called the Letter of the Word,