ary, they muft leave their corrupt appetite and their finful practices behind them." Put off thy fhoes from off thy "feet," faid God to Mofes from the burning bufh, "for the "place whereon thou ftandeft is holy ground."* Put off all thy vicious habits, fays Chrift to every one that aspires to be his disciple, for the religion thou art to embrace is a holy religion, and the God thou art to ferve is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot even look upon iniquity. In fome of the ancient fects of philofophy, before any one could be admitted into their schools, or initiated in their myfteries, he was obliged to undergo a certain course of preparation, a certain term of trial and probation, which however confifted of little more than a few fuperftitious ceremonies, or fome acts of external discipline and purification. But the preparation for receiving the Chriftian religion is the preparation of the heart. The difcipline required for a participation of its privileges, is the mortification of fin, the facrifice of every guilty propenfity and defire.

This facrifice however the great founder of our religion did not require for nothing. He promifed his followers a recompence infinitely beyond the indulgences they were to renounce; he promised them a place in his KINGDOM, a kingdom of which he was the fovereign; a kingdom of righteousness here, and of glory hereafter. Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

He then proceeds to felect and afsociate to himself a certain number of perfons, who were to be his affiftants and coadjutors in the establishment and the administration of his heavenly kingdom.

And here it was natural to expect, that in making this choice he should look to men of influence, authority, and weight; that being himself deftitute of all the advantages of rank, power, wealth, and learning, he should endeavor to compensate for those defects in his own person by the contrary qualities of his affociates, by connecting himself with fome of the moft powerful, moft opulent, moft learned, and most eloquent men of his time.

And this moft undoubtedly would have been his mode of proceeding, had his object been to establish his religion by mere human means, by influence or by force, by the charms of eloquence, by the powers of reafon, by the example, by the authority, by the fashion of the great. But these were not the inftruments which Chrift meant to make ufe of. He meant to fhow that he was above them all; that he had far other refources, far different auxiliaries, to call in to his fupport, in comparison of which all the wealth and magnificence, and power and wifdom of the world, were trivial and contemptible things. We find therefore that not the wife, not the mighty, not the noble were called* to co-operate with him; but men of the meanest birth, of the lowest occupations, of the humbleft talents, and moft uncultivated minds. "As he was walking by the fea of Galilee, St. Matthew tells us, he faw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the fea, for they were fifhers. And he faith unto them, follow me, and I will make you fifhers of men; and they ftraightway left their nets (that is in fact all their fubfiftence, all the little property they had in the world) and followed him. And going from thence he faw other two brethren, James the fon of Zebedee and John his brother, in a fhip with Zebedee their father mending their nets; and he called them, and they immediately left the fhip, and their father, and followed him+." Thefe were the mcn whom he selected for his companions and affiftants. Theie fishermen of Galilee were to be, under him, the inftruments of over-throwing the ftupendous and magnificent system of paganism and idolatry throughout the world, and producing the greatest change, the moft general and most important revolution in principles, in morals, and in religion, that ever took place on this globe. For this aftonishing work, thefe fimple, illiterate, humble men, were fingled out by our Lord. He chofe, as the apoftle expreffes it, "the foolish things of the world to confound the wife, and the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; that his religion might not be established by the enticing words of man's wifdom, but by demonstration x Cof. i. 27.

* I Cor. i. 26.

Matth. iv. 18-22

of the fpirit and of power; that our faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God *."

men.

Such were the affociates chofen by him, who was the del. egate of heaven, and whofe help was from above. We may expect therefore that an impoftor, who meant to rely on human means for fuccefs, would take a directly contrary courfe. And this we find in fact to be the cafe. Who were the companions and affiftants felected by the grand impoftor Mahomet? They were men of the moft weight and authority, and rank and influence, among his countryThe reafon is obvious; he wanted fuch fupports; Chrift did not; and hence the marked difference of their conduct in this inftance. It is the natural difference between truth and impofture. That the power of God and not of man was the foundation on which our Lord meant to erect his new system, very foon appeared; for the next thing we hear of him is, that he "went about all Galilee teaching in their fynagogues, and preaching the gofpel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the peoplet."

Here then began that DEMONSTRATION OF THE SPIRIT AND OF POWER, which was to be the grand basis of his new kingdom, the great evidence of his heavenly miffion. It is indeed probable that the wisdom and the authority with which he fpake, and the weight and importance of the doctrines he taught, would of themselves make a deep impreffion on the minds of his hearers, and produce him fome followers. But had he ftopt here, had he given his new difciples nothing but words, their zeal and attachment to him would foon have abated. For it was natural for thefe converts to fay to him, "You have called upon us to repent and to reform;, you have commanded us to renounce our vices, to relinquish our favourite pleasures and pursuits, to give up the world and its enjoyments, and to take up our crofs and follow you; and in return for this you promise us diftinguished happiness and honour in your fpiritual kingdom. You fpake, it is true, moft forcibly to our confciences and to our hearts; and we feel strongly difpofed to obey + Matth. iv. 231

1 Cor. ii. 4, 5.

your injunctions, and to credit your promifes; but still the facrifice we are required to make is a great one, and the conflict we have to go through is a bitter one. We find it

a most painful struggle to fubdue confirmed habits, and to part at once with all our accustomed pleasures and indulgences. Before then we can entirely relinquifh thefe, and make a complete change in the temper of our fouls and the conduct of our lives, we must have some convincing proof that you have a right to require this compliance at our hands; that what you enjoin us is in reality the command of God himself; that you are actually fent from heaven, and commiffioned by him to teach us his will, and to instruct us in our duty; that the kingdom you hold out to us in another world is fomething more than mere imagination: that you are in short what you pretend to be, the SON OF GOD; and that you are able to make good the punishment you denounce against fin, and the rewards you promise to virtue,"

Our Lord well knew that this fort of reafoning muft occur to every man's mind. He knew that it was highly proper and indispensably neceffary to give fome evidence of his divine commiffion, to do soMETHING which fhould fatisfy the world that he was the Son of God, and the delegate of heaven. And how could he do this fo effectually as by performing works which it utterly exceeded all the strength and ability of man to accomplish, and which nothing lefs than the hand of God himself could poffibly bring to país? In other words, the proofs he gave of his miffion were thofe aftonishing miracles which are recorded in the Gospel, and which are here for the first time mentioned by St. Matthew in the 23d verse of this chapter: "And Jefus went about all Galilee, teaching in their fynagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of fick nefs and all manner of disease among the people."

This then is the primary, the fundamental evidence of his divine authority, which our Lord was pleased to give to his followers. His firft application, as we have feen, was (like that of his precursor, John the Baptift) to their hearts, REPENT YE," lay afide your vices and your prejudices,

Till this was done, till these grand obftacles to the admif fion of truth were removed, he well knew that all he could fay and all he could do would have no effect; they would not be moved either by his exhortations or his miracles, "they would not be perfuaded though one rose from the dead*." And in fact we find that feveral of the pharifees, men abandoned to vice and wickedness, did actually refift the miracles of Chrift, and the refurrection of a man from the grave; they ascribed his casting out devils to Beelzebub; they were not convinced by the cure of the blind man, and the raising of Lazarus from the dead, though they faw them both before their eyes, one reftored to fight, the other to life. This plainly proves how far the power of fin and of prejudice will go in clofing up all the avenues of the mind against conviction; and how wifely our Saviour acted in calling upon his hearers to repent, before he offered any evidence to their understandings. But the way being thus cleared, the evidence was then produced, and the ef fect it had was such as might be expected; for St. Matthew tells us, that his fame went throughout all Syria; and that there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerufalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan †; that is, from every quarter of his own country and the adjoining nations.

And indeed it can be no wonder that fuch multitudes were convinced and converted by what they faw. The wonder would have been if they had not. To those who were themselves eye-witnesses of his miracles, they must have been (except in a few inftances of inveterate depravity of heart) irrefiftible proofs of his divine miffion. When they faw him give eyes to the blind, feet to the lame, health to the fick, and even life to the dead, by fpeaking only a few words, what other conclufion could they poffibly draw than that which the centurion did, truly this was the Son of Godt. To us indeed who have not feen these mighty works, and who live at the distance of eighteen hundred years from the time when they were wrought, the force of this evidence is undoubtedly lefs than it was to an eye wit nefs. But if the reality of these miracles is proved to us Luke, xvi, 31. † Matth. iv. 24,. 25. Matth. xxvii. 54