Messiah should not lift up, nor cry, nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets; that is, should not use the artifices of those who sought for popularity. It should seem., Jesus Christ used very little action; but that little was just, natural, grave, and expressive. He sometimes wept, and always felt; but he never expressed his emotions in a theatrical manner, much less did he preach as a drowsy pedant declaims, who has no emotions to

express.

The success, that accompanied the ministry of our Emanuel, was truly astonishing. My soul overflows with joy, my eyes with tears of pleasure, while I transcribe it. When this Sun of righteousness arose with healing under his wings, the disinterested populace, who lay all neglected and forlorn, benighted with ignorance and benumbed with vice, saw the light, and hailed the brightness of its rising. Up they sprang, and after him in multitudes men, women, and children went. Was he to pass a road, they climbed the trees to see him, yea the blind sat by the way side to hear him go by. Was he in a house, they unroofed the building to come at him. As if they could never get near enough to hear the soft accents of his voice, they pressed, they crouded, they trod upon one another to surround him. When he retired into the wilderness, they thought him another Moses, and would have made him a king. It was the finest thing they could think of. He, greater than the greatest monarch, despised worldly grandeur; but to fulfil prophecy, sitting upon a borrowed ass's colt, rode into Jerusalem

the Son of the Highest, and allowed the transported multitude to strew the way with garments and branches, and to arouse the insensible metropolis by acclamations, the very children shouting, Hosannah! Hosannah in the highest! Hosannah to the son of David! Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord!

The Rabbies pretended, the populace knew not the law, and were cursed; and it is certain they knew not those glosses of the law, which traditionists affected to teach; but this ignorance was their happiness. It would have been well for the teachers, had they never known them. The populace did know the law, and often quoted it in its true sense. What mystery is there in the ten commandments! or what erudition is requisite to determine, whether he, who opened the eyes of the blind, were a worshipper of God, or a sinner! It is a high privilege of poverty, that it is a state degagé, disengaged, detached, unbiassed, and nearest of all others to free inquiry. The populace are not worth poisoning by ecclesiastical quacks, for they cannot pay for the drugs. Their senses of seeing and hearing, their faculties of observing, reflecting, and reasoning, are all as equal to religious topicks as those of their superiors, and more so, because unsophisticated. If they apply themselves to examine, their attestation is a high degree of probability, if not a demonstration. It was gloriously said by a blind beggar to a bench of curmudgeons, Why! herein is a marvellous thing, that ye, with all your great books and broad phylacteries, long

titles and hard names, wise looks and academical habits, know not whence Jesus is, and yet he hath opened my eyes. Now we, blind beggars, we cursed people, who know not the law, we who are altogether born in sin, we know that God heareth not sinners....If this man were not of God, he could do nothing.

This popularity, obtained by publick preaching, supported by a course of beneficent actions, many of which were miraculous, excited the envy of the leading churchmen, and they determined to destroy Jesus. They dared not appeal to the people, his constant auditors and companions; but they pretended loyalty to Cæsar, and love to their country, and taxed the PRINCE OF PEACE with stirring up sedition. We know the issue. Let us draw a vail over this horrid part of the history of mankind, and let us pass on to the principal object of our attention.

Jesus Christ taught no secrets, and he had commanded his apostles to publish upon the house tops what they had heard in private conversation. He charged them not to decline the publick preaching of the divine word after his death; but to preach it to every creature. He promised them extraordinary assistance for this extraordinary work, and he fulfilled his promise, and exceeded their expectations, about six weeks after his crucifixion.

The birth, life, doctrine, example, miracles, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Christ; made a large addition to the old subjects of preach

ing. The old œconomy was a rude delineation, the new was a finished piece. It was no new doctrine, it was an old plan brought to perfection, and set in finished excellence to last for ever. It was the religion of love to God and man, made obvious and universal.

Christ, in the course of his ministry, had likened publick preaching to a concert of musick, the grave deep tones of John the baptist were all in perfect harmony with the soft and lively airs of his successors; a method of instruction contemned by the partial, but justified by the sons of true wisdom. Agreeably to this notion, he gave the holy Spirit so as to form a variety of perfect preachers, each excelling in his own sphere. James and John were sons of thunder. Barnabas was a son of consolation. Peter was formed to preach to Jews, and Paul to convict and convert Gentiles. By this admirable œconomy the wolf dwelt with the lamb, the leopard lay down with the kid, the calf, the young lion, and the fatling associated together, and a little child might have led them. Assuredly they, who have made themselves standards of excellence, and have required of all others uniformity to themselves, have neither understood the world of nature nor the œconomy of redemption.

The apostles exactly copied their divine master. They confined their attention to religion, and left the schools to dispute, and politicians to intrigue. Their doctrines were a set of facts of two sorts. The first were within every man's observa

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tion, and they appealed for the truth of them to common sense and experience. The others were facts, which from their nature could be known only by testimony. To the truth of these they bore witness, and avowed the credibility of their evidence. The first required reasoning, the last faith. These doctrines they supported entirely by evidence, and neither had, nor required, such assistance as human laws or worldly policy, the eloquence of the schools or the terror of arms, the charms of money or the tricks of tradesmen could afford them. Their gospel was a simple tale, that any honest man might tell. As to all the circumstantials of publick preaching, time, place, gesture, style, habits, and so on, it was their glory to hold these indifferent, and to be governed in their choice by a supreme attention to general edification.

Great was the success of these venerable men. Their services were highly acceptable to God, to whom they were a sweet savour of Christ; they diffused the knowledge of him in every place, and made them always triumph in Christ: he opened doors, into which they entered, and preached Christ's gospel. They formed multitudes of religious societies, called churches, and they had the pleasure of seeing them choose from among themselves, honest and able men to preach the divine word, and to administer the standing ordinances of Jesus Christ, in the absence, and after the death of the apostles. These were called bishops, inspectors, or seers, as the old prophets were, and he, who wants to be informed that this primitive brother was