who teach the Christian religion would conscientiously observe the precept given them here by their Master!

These are the several branches of the righteousness which the reformers of mankind ought to practise; yet, to render their labours successful, there must be in mankind, a willingness to receive instruction; if that is wanting, it is needless to attempt reclaiming them. Wherefore, our Lord added, Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you. Do not reprove persons of a snarling or sottish disposition, because the effect, which advice has upon such, is generally bad. They will be provoked by it to do you a mischief, or, at least, will despise both you and your admonition. Persons of this kind will not be instructed, far less will they receive a direct rebuke. You may warn others against them, you may weep over them, and you may pray for them; but you cannot reprove them with success and safety: for which cause they are, by all means, to be avoided.

But lest the disciples should have imagined that his precepts were above the reach of human attainment, he directed them to seek from God the aids of his spirit, with all the other blessings necessary to their salvation. Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Withal he encouraged them to pray for these things with earnestness and perseverance, from the consideration of the divine goodness, the blessed operations of which attribute, he illustrateth by what proceedeth from the feeble goodness of men. For every one that asketh, viz. from God, receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom, if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? Will he deny him the necessary food that he asks, or give him, in its stead, something useless or hurtful? The words, which of you, are emphatical, giving great strength to our Lord's argument. If, said he, the wicked wretches among yourselves, the most peevish, weak, and ill-natured of you all, will readily give good gifts to your children when they cry for them, how much rather will the great God, infinite in goodness, bestow blessings on his children, who endeavour to resemble him in his perfections, and, for that end, ask the assistance of his Holy Spirit! If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father, which is in heaven, give good things, [Luke xi. 13, the Holy Spirit to them that ask him! And, because he was referring them to what passed within themselves, he took occasion to ingraft upon those feelings the noblest precept of morality that ever was delivered by any teacher. Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them. Look inward, and consider what sentiment the doing or not doing to others the things about which you deliberate would raise in you towards them, were you in their situation, and they in yours think seriously what you would, in these circumstances, approve of as just and equitable, and what you would think yourselves entitled to demand. Consult, I say, with your own hearts; and, on all occasions, do to others as you would be done to. This rule has a peculiar advantage above all other rules of morality whatever. For, by making the selfish passions operate in behalf of others, it altogether changes the influence of their suggestions and so these passions, instead of prejudicing us, and Rendering us blind to the rights and interests of others, become so many powerful advocates in their favour. Our self-love thus changes its object for a little, and presents to our view every humane sentiment that can be urged in behalf of our neighbour. Properly speaking, therefore, this is not so much a rule of action as a method,

both of preparing our understandings for the impartial discernment, and of disposing our hearts unto the sincere approbation of what is just and honourable in life. For this is the law and the prophets. This is the voice both of the law and of the prophets; it is the sum and substance of the moral precepts contained in them.

Having thus spoken, he exhorted them, in a humble dependance on the assistance of the Spirit, to strive to enter in at the strait gate, that is, vigorously to attempt the work of religion, how difficult soever it may appear. Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat; because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. As if he had said, vice, it is true, though nearly allied to destruction, is adorned with many false beauties, promises much, and has numberless votaries; whilst an austere and mortified course of life, though the safest, looks stern, and invites but few. Nevertheless, in your choice of the way to happiness, you are to consider, not how much pleasure it is attended with, but how certainly it will bring you to your desired end; neither are you to regard the numbers, but the manners of them you would accompany.

But

But because the difficulties of religion are oftentimes greatly increased by false teachers, who, under pretence of conducting men in the road to happiness, lead the simple astray; our Lord cautioned his disciples to beware of them, and proposed marks to know them by. Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. False teachers will come to you with a mortified air, pale countenances, emaciated bodies, and mean clothing. They will pray loud and long, bestow largely on the poor, and seem earnest to give the people right instruction; in a word, they will assume the most specious appearance of humility, piety, and innocence. So disfigured, and so disguised, you may be apt to take them for sheep, persons very innocent and useful; while, in reality, they are ravening, though concealed, wolves, whose intention is to tear the flock in pieces, that they may gorge themselves with their carcases. ye shall know them by the nature and tendency of their doctrine, and by the more secret actions of their lives, better than by those showy qualities, whose value depend entirely on the right application of them. Accordingly, if you look more narrowly at this sort of teachers, you shall discern them to be wolves; for you will find them to be immensely proud, revengeful, pleasers of themselves,; sometimes, also, addicted to their belly, and always, at the conclusion, much more employed in doing their own work than God's. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore, by their fruits ye shall know them. Remember to judge of teachers by the nature and tendency of their doctrine, rather than by the more public actions of their lives; for even some of those whom I have commissioned to teach, and enabled to work miracles, shall, by the wickedness of their lives, fall under condemnation.

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but he that doth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? We preached by virtue of power and authority from thec, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works. Bad men, ou some occasions, have, in the wisdom of providence, been commissioned by God to signify his pleasure, and have been furnished with powers to prove their mission; witness Judas Iscariot, who was admitted

into the college of apostles by our Lord himself. Prophecying, ejection of devila, and other miracles, arc mentioned, to shew that no gift, endowment, or accomplish ment whatsoever, without faith and holiness, will avail to our acceptance with God a caution very proper in those days, when the gifts of the Spirit were to be bestowed, in such plenty, on them who made profession of Christianity. He added, And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me ye that work iniquity. Though I call you to be my servant, and you professed yourselves such, I never knew you to be such, nor approved of you. I knew, indeed, that you were the slaves of other masters, mammon, your own belly, and ambition; wherefore, as your lives have been contrary both to my precepts and your own profession, begone; I will have nothing to do with you. That this is the true meaning of the expression, I never kuew you, will appear, if the appellation, Lord, Lord, wherewith these wicked mer: addressed the judge, is attended to; for, in this connection, it is as if they had sai, Master, dost thou not know thine own servants? Did not we preach by thy authority, and by thy power foretel future events, and cast out devils, and work many miracles? Because Jesus had now spoken a great deal, he concluded his discourse with the parable of the houses built on different foundations. Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doth them, I will liken him unto a wise inan, which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. In calm serene weather any edifice will stand: but it is the wintry blasts that try the strength of a structure. The wise man, foreseeing these, provides against them by building his house upon a rock, where it stands immoveable in the midst of hurricanes. But the fool, not thinking of winter, is so charmed with the beauty of a particular situation, that, without considering, he builds his house there, even though it be a hillock of loose sand. The winter comes, heavy showers of rain fall, an impetuous torrent, from a neighbouring mountain, rushes by, and saps the foundation of his building. The storms beat upon it, the house shakes, it totters, it falls with a terrible noise, and makes the whole circumjacent plain to resound. He who hears my precepts, and puts them in practice, may be compared to the wise man, that built his house upon a rock, He provides for himself a place of shelter and accommodation that will subsist in the wreck of the world. On the other hand, he who hears my precepts, and does them not, may be compared to the fool who built his house upon the sand. The edifice which he has reared for his future accommodation being built upon a bad foundation, will quickly fall. By this parable, therefore, our Lord has taught us, that the bare knowledge of true religion, or the simple hearing of the divinest lessons of morality that ever were delivered by men, nay, the belief of these instructions, if possible, without the practice of them, is of no importance at all. It is doing of the precepts of religion alone which can establish a man so stedfastly that he shall neither be shaken with the temptations, afflictions, and persecutions of the present life, nor by the terrors of the future. Whereas, whosoever heareth and doth them not will be overwhelmed and oppressed by the storms of both worlds; oppressed in this life, and utterly overwhelmed in that which is to come.

And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. The words of Christ made a wonderful impression on the minds of his auditors, who

never had heard the like before. They began to relish the holy sweetness of truth, and were astonished at the freedom and boldness with which he spake. For he taught them as one having authority immediately from God, and, consequently, did not teach them as the scribes, whose lectures, for the most part, were absolutely trifling, being drawn from traditions from the comments of other doctors, which these ignorant and corrupt teachers substituted in the place of scripture, reason, and truth.

X

CHAPTER VI.

FROM THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT TO THE FIRST MISSION OF THE APOSTLES.

The cure of the leper---the centurion's servant or son---the demoniac in the synagogue of Capernaum---Peter's wife's mother---the miraculous draught of fishes---Christ stills a storm---cures the demoniacs of Gadara--herd of swine perish-returns to Capernaum---the paralytic borne by four--calls Levi, or Matthew---whether they were the same---heals the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda--vindicates his discipies for rubbing the ears of corn---recovers the man with a withered hand--retires from the persecution of his enemies---chooses the apostles-their names and characters.

WE are now arrived at a part of the history of Jesus which has much exercised the abilities of critics and composers of Harmonies. We do not, therefore, wish to be considered as affirming, in every instance, the order in which the facts, here recorded, succeeded each other; but have arranged them according to the most probable opinion we have been able, after a careful examination, to form. It is, however, with great satisfaction we observe, that though it appears, in many instances, impossible to compose a perfect harmony of the four evangelists; yet, if their expressions be candidly compared, they will not be found to contradict each other, or to make any other variations than might be expected from faithful witnesses, who had not consulted together upon the precise manner of delivering their evidence.

Immediately after the sermon upon the mount there was performed the cure of the leper, mentioned by Matthew in the eighth chapter of his gospel. We shall give the story in the translation of Dr. Campbell, and afterwards subjoin a few explanatory remarks.

Being come down from the mountain, followed by a great multitude, a leper came, who, prostrating himself before him, said, Sir, if thou wilt, thou canst cleanse me. Jesus stretched out his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou cleansed. Immediately he was cured of his leprosy. Then Jesus said to him, See thou tell nobody; but go, shew thyself to the priest, and make the oblation prescribed by Moses for notifying (the cure) to the people.

1. It is remarkable that, in many instances, as Dr. Macknight justly observes, our Lord was at the greatest pains to conceal his miracles. Perhaps he did not intend that he should be universally believed on during his own life-time. He was, indeed, to fulfil the whole prophetical characters of the Messiah; that when the time appointed for erecting his kingdom came, the foundation, on which it was to rest, might want nothing of the strength and solidity that was necessary to support so great a fabrie