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the Jewish high priest offered up atonement for himself and all his family, so too the Captain of our salvation, when about to finish his course, notwithstanding that his priesthood was superior to that of Moses, inasmuch as it was not successional, but everlasting, interceded solemnly once for all his followers in that affecting prayer contained in the seventeenth chapter of St. John 2. So fully did the prophecy of Isaiah receive its completion, The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable3.'

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V. The last characteristic of the ministry of Christ which need be mentioned in connexion with this subject, the authority with which he spoke, was in a great measure the natural result of those peculiarities which have been already considered. This qualification was observed in an early stage of his labours, and seems to have excited more attention than any of the other external advantages of his teaching. 'The

2 Levit. xvi. 17. Rom. vi. 10.

3 Is. xlii. 21.

Heb. ix. 26.

people were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the Scribes '.'

Our Lord once said to the Jews, Ye are from beneath, I am from above; ye are of this world, I am not of this world.' It is precisely this distinction which gives a weight to his instructions, which those of every human teacher of religion cannot acquire. The earthly vessel must in some degree defile the doctrine which it contains, whatever may be the purity of its heavenly original. And yet if even the man Stephen were so filled with power by the Holy Ghost, that his enemies were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit with which he spake"," what must have been the mighty effect of our Saviour's language, proceeding from the lips of him who was Master and Head of all, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven! Truly, as the spirit of prophecy spoke concerning him, his word was like as a fire, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces".

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4 Matt. vii. 29. 5 Acts, vi. 10.

6 Jer. xxiii. 29.

God had of old given the law from Mount Sinai, and the terrors with which its delivery were accompanied, were sufficient to shew the sanctity and awe with which its precepts were to be regarded. But Jesus, speaking with still more authority, though not with the voice which shook the earth, vindicates to himself a power from which there is no appeal; which extends or limits, which enforces or annuls, as the case may require, whatever has been sanctioned by the will of previous legislators, whether human or divine. He speaks in the style and character of a sovereign', and where the word of a king is, there is power, and who may say unto him, What doest thou?' 'Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not kill-thou shalt not commit adultery-thou shalt not forswear thyself-but I say unto you,' that the spiritual import of these commands

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7 So Jerome and Theophylact and others explain the authority with which Christ spoke. Others, however, affirm, that this would be contrary to his prophetic office, and to the declaration that his doctrine was not his own, but his that sent him. See John, vii. 16-18. viii. 28. xii. 49. xiv. 10.

8 Eccles. viii. 4.

has a much more extensive signification than you conceive, and forbids not only murder and adultery and perjury, but all anger, all impurity of the heart, all extra-judicial appeals to God in confirmation of testimony. This was indeed the commanding voice of the beloved Son, to whom his Father had solemnly invited all the peoples of the earth to listen. "Hear ye him.' And well might the Apostle to the Hebrews call on them to see that they refused not him that speaketh; for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more' should not those escape who turn away from him that speaketh from heaven'.'

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But notwithstanding the eminent qualifications which thus remarkably distinguished the ministry of our Lord, the small number of his actual disciples will not surprise any one who has attended to the nature of the human heart, and to the dominion which is exercised over it by the influence of things present. If we look

9 Matt. xvii. 5.

'Heb. xii. 25.

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to the success of the most eminent preachers, we shall find a result very disproportionate to what might have been expected from their labours, even from the earliest periods of sacred history. We know that Noah, though a preacher of righteousness,' had so little effect upon the wickedness of the world around him, that when God looked upon the earth, all flesh had corrupted his way upon it,' and he only and his family were found righteous before the Lord in the whole of that generation. We know that though just Lot,' dwelling among the wicked, 'vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds,' yet he was so far from prevailing in any degree to turn them from the error of their ways, that there were not ten righteous men found in all Sodom to redeem the city from destruction 3.

It was a similar defection of the people which rendered the duty of the prophets so discouraging. In the time of Elijah, one only

22 Pet. ii. 5. Gen. vi. 12. vii. 1.

32 Pet. ii. 7, 8.

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