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The perpetual commemoration of his death was an appointment which had the nature of a dying injunction and the mode of admission into his church was not commanded till he had been vested with the

highest degree of authority by his resurrection from the dead.

He himself observes that he did not disclose many things to his disciples, because they were not able to bear them. I have been often struck with admiration at his conduct with respect to some particular points.

direct terms, they

Even as he was led same generality of

The excision of his countrymen was a topic of great delicacy and therefore in the course of his ministry he foretold it to the unbelieving Jews by parables; or, if he employed were very concise and general. out be crucified, he used the expression on this subject. An explicit and full prophecy of this event to the ruling Jews, like what hed delivered to his disciples, would have exasperated them beyond measure as a most flagrant instance of blasphemy and impiety: they could not have borne a perdiction that they should fall by the hands of the heathen, instead of having dominion over them.

Another point, to be treated with much nicety, was the abolition of the Mosaic ritual. Accordingly our Lord says that the great moral maxim, of acting

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* John xvi. 12. b Luke xiii. 35. Matt, xxiii. 38. ib. xxiii. 28-31. It may well be supposed that the words, Luke xix. 42—4. were spoken in the hearing of Jesus's disciples only.

dib. xvii. 22.

and Matt. xxiv. 4, &c. and p. p.

Acts vi. 13, 14.

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towards others as we desire that they should act towards us, was the sum and substance, the scope and completion, of "the law and the prophets :" he lays great stress on the words of Hosea, & I will have mercy and not sacrifice: he places judgment, mercy, and fidelity among the weightier matters of the law he teaches that on the two commandments which enjoined the love of God and of our neighbour all the law and the prophets depended, as leading principles. This was indirectly abating the reverence of the Jews for the ceremonial part of their law which our Lord may further be supposed to have intended, by healing on the sabbath, by vindicating his disciples for plucking ears of corn on the sabbath, by commanding the infirm man to take up his bed on that day, and by absenting himself from many of the legal feasts. It would have been matter of great offence to the Jews if he had not been born under the law, and if he had not conformed to it in general. In many places he mentions the observance of it as a duty. "If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there remember that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." His words to one whom he had healed of a leprosy were, "Go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer

gib. ix. 13. xii. 7. hib. xxiii. 23. f Matt. vii. 12. i c. xxii. 40. Γνῶθι σεαυ]όν· καὶ τὸ, Μηδὲν ἄγαν· ἐκ τόλων γὰρ ἤρθηται τὰ λοιπὰ πανία.

Know thyself: and, do nothing to excess: for on these every thing * Matt. v. 23, 4. else depends. Plut. quoted by Wetstein in loc.

c. viii. 4.

the gift that Moses commanded." And this was his general exhortation to the people : "m Whatsoever the Scribes and Pharisees command you to observe, that observe and do." There are also many occasions on which he speaks honourably of the law. "Think "not that I am come to destroy the law and the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." I am not come to abrogate it prematurely and unnaturally; but to accomplish its typical and prophetical declarations, and to supersede it by a law of grace and truth. "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than one tittle of the law to fail." "What is written in the law? how readest thou?" However, he plainly intimates the superior excellence of the gospel covenant. "Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he." When he observes that "all the prophets and the law prophesied until John," he asserts their subserviency to the gospel covenant. And when he says to the Pharisees in another place, "The law and the prophets were until John ;" there is a very remarkable implication that the ceremonial law subsisted no longer to the members of the kingdom of heaven. This was one of the truths which his disciples could not bear. Stephen was arraigned before the Jewish council for being supposed to advance it. But after Christ's death the Spirit clearly revealed that the Mosaical law was not

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obligatory on Christians: and the epistle to the Hebrews was written to shew the superiority of the Christian law above the Jewish.

Another subject, occasionally introduced by our Lord with the greatest wisdom, was the admission of the Gentiles into the church of God. This part of the divine counsels is early mentioned in the gospels, to shew that it was not an after thought on the rejection of Christ by the Jews. It was referred to by "Simeon, when the child Jesus was presented in the temple. The appearance of the star to the Arabian Magi shewed that the Gentiles had an interest in the birth of Christ: and John the Baptist alluded to the conversion of the heathen, when he taught the Pharisees and Sadducees that God was able of the very stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

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Our Lord's prophecies of this event both by parable and in express terms are elsewhere enumerated. The * most distinct of them was addressed to the Jews during the last week of his life. To his a disciples he was more explicit; and, especially, after his resurrection. It was made the subject of a to Peter, when he had received the Spirit. what a tumult was raised, when St. Paul represented Christ as saying, "I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles." To this apostle the gospel of the

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⚫ uncircumcision was committed; and he expressly

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assures us that the call of the Gentiles was God's

eternal purpose.

It must be observed also that the wise and lowly Jesus was not full and explicit on the subject of his own glorious nature and exalted offices. This light was too strong to be admitted at once. But after his resurrection and ascension and the descent of the Holy Spirit, after a gradual preparation of men for such magnificent truths, it was revealed by his apostles that he was from the beginning, that he was the h Word of God, that by him all things were created, that he was the image and representative of the invisible God, and that he was over all m God

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blessed for ever.

SECTION XIV.

A RECAPITULATION OF OUR LORD'S CHARACTER.

UPON the whole: when our Lord is considered as a teacher we find him delivering the justest and most sublime truths with respect to the divine nature, the duties of mankind, and a future state of existence; agreeable in every particular to reason, and to the wisest maxims of the wisest philosophers; without any mixture of that. alloy which so often debased their most perfect productions; and excellently adapted to mankind in general, by suggesting

f Eph. iii. 11. 1 Col. i. 16.

8 1 John i. 1. kib. v. 15.

b Johni. 1. 1 John i. 1. Rev. xix. S. 1 John i. 18. m Rom. ix. 5.

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