of a flight piece of disrespect, to call fire down from heaven to confume a village of Samaritans. Christ's meekness changes, for a momont, into severity: "He turned, and rebuked them, and said, CC ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of, "for the Son of man is not come to destroy men's

lives, but to fave them." It is truly deplorable to find the whole eleven, as we fee in the context, fo dreadfully absorbed of the spirit of this world, after all that they had feen and known, of their master, after being eye-witneffes of his fufferings and of the glory that followed, ftill hankering after the dignities and emoluments of a temporeal kingdom, and expreffing an indecent curiofity about future events. With his native meekness, he repreffes the enquiry as improper and unprofitable, and by his answer inftructs them, and inftructs us, that, "It is not for man to know the "times or the seasons which the Father hath put "in his own power.

Ir, then, Jefus Christ has taught lessons of wifdom and morality suitable to all mankind, of every and nation; if they are obvious to the capaage city of every one poffeffed of common understanding, if they reconcile themselves, the moment that they are heard, to the radical principles of the human mind, if they have a manifest tendency to ameliorate the condition of the whole human race;

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and who can deny it? then, had he affumed no other character, had he acted in no other capaci ty, the whole world of mankind is laid under infinite obligations to to his wifdom and benovolence, and he ftands confeffed to every eye, except thofe of profligacy and prejudice, the dignified meffenger and visible reprefentative of the common Parent of the children of men. While, therefore, we think and fpeak refpectfully of the Jewish legiflator, and of the venerable inftructors of pagan antiquity, a Zoroafter, a Pythagoras, a Confucius, a Solon, a Lycurgus, a Socrates, a Plato, and a multitude that might be named, Can it be deemed a flight of enthufiafin, or condemned as a preju dice, if we venture to affirm, that the morality of the gofpel is purer, more fublime, more efficient; that it is better adapted to the nature of man, and more productive of real happinels to him, than that all thofe fages put together; and also that Providence has confirmed its fuperior excellency, by beltowing upon it a much wider range, and much longer duration? But there is a

II. SECOND character which Jefus Chrift fuftains, of univerfal, and perpetual, application and ufe to the human race, that of Interceffor, or "Mediator between God and man." One of the earlieft perceptions of the human mind is No. 12.

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confcious of criminality. The child finds he has been acting amifs, the moment he begins to reflect at all. As he grows up, he feels his propenfities to what is forbidden grow ftronger and ftronger. He goes on to fulfil the defires of "the flesh and of the mind;" the breach becomes wider and wider between him, and the party whom he has offended, whether that party be a fellow creature or the invisible God, against whom all offence ultimately points. As his inward uneafinefs increases, the wifh of remiffion and reconcileation increases with it. Invention goes to work, and the means of peace without, in order to restore tranquility within, are imagined. Forming an idea of his Maker from what he knows of himself, a Deity fevere, fanguinary, vindictive, prefents himself to his affrighted imagination.And what wild extravagances has not this produced? innumerable hecatombs have fhed their blood, and smoked upon the altar of an implacable God. Thousands of rams have yielded up their innocent lives, and ten thousands of rivulets of oil have flowed. Horrid human facrifices have been presented: The parent has given his "first-born for his tranfgreffion, the fruit of the

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body for the fin of the foul." The more that the feelings of nature have been violated, the more acceptable has the oblation appeared. Now,

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whatever horror and abfurdity may be in all this, it is the indication of an univerfal fentiment.It is the feeble effort of a helpless, or of a guilty creature, to fecure a friend, or to reconcile an enemy; and the generality of the practice is a direct proof of the generality of the feeling. Here again, then, Christianity comes in as the univerfal medicine, and introduces the trembling fuppliant, not to the prefence of an ever-thundering Jupiter, an earth-fhaking Neptune, a blood-stained Mars, a far-darting Apollo, every one clothed in his peculiar terror, through the medium of a furly selfish prieft, who divided the spoils of the votary with his worthlefs deity; but to a "God". who "fo loved the world that he gave his only

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begotten Son, that whofoever believeth in him "should not perish but have everlafting life," through the mediation of a brother, a friend, a "friend that fticketh clofer than a brother."What shall we fay? Even the God of Ifrael clothed himself in terrible majefty. When he defcended to promulgate his law from Sinia, the "mount burned with fire," and a great people approached, with fear and trembling, as near as they durft, "unto blackness, and darkness, and

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tempeft, and the found of a trumpet, and the "voice of words, which voice they that heard intreated, that the word fhould not be fpoken.

to them any more; and fo terrible was the "fight, that Mofes faid, I exceedingly fear and quake. 1091 of 15

IT was referved for the gofpel of peace, to announce to a guilty world, the one living and true God, as the God of love; it was referved for the Author and Finisher of the Chriftian faith to prefent to the devout worshippers of Jehovah at a throne of Grace, with thefe words of holy confidence in their mouths," Our Father which art

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in heaven." It was referved for John Baptift, the forerunner of Jefus, to point out to mankind one victim, which thould fuperfede myriads, "the Lamb of God which taketh away the fin," not of an individual, a family, a tribe, a whole nation, but" which taketh away the fin of the

world." Here, and here only, the troubled confcience finds what it longed and looked for, a real attonement which reaches every case, of every wretched individual, of every age, "to the

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uttermoft part of the earth." The spirit of every other known religion difcovered partialities and prejudices, fenced itself round with walls and hedges; which conferred exclufive privileges on all who were within the pale, and breathed deftruction to all who were without it. It is the glory of Chriftianity to have removed thofe ungracious fences, to have brought men nearer