The whole system of bodies, the firmament, the stars, the earth, and the kingdoms of it, are inferior in value to the meanest of spirits; because a spirit is capable of knowing all this, and itself also, which body is not. And the whole system of bodies and spirits together, is unequal to the least motion of charity; for it is of an order infinitely more exalted. From all bodies together, we could not extract a single thought; it is impossible, for thought is quite of a different order. Again, all bodies and spirits together are unable to produce one movement of real charity. This is likewise impossible, for charity is of another order, entirely supernatural.

Jesus Christ lived in so much obscurity (as the world terms obscurity,) that historians who record only things of importance, have scarcely taken any notice of him.

Yet what man ever possessed so much glory as Jesus Christ? The whole Jewish nation predicted him before his coming; the Gentile world adore him since his coming. Both Jews and Gentiles regard him as their centre. And yet who ever enjoyed so little of so much glory? Of thirty-three years, he spent thirty in privacy. During the other three he passed for an impostor, the priests and rulers of his nation rejected him, his friends and his kinsmen despised him; and, at last, he died an ignominious death, betrayed by one of his attendants, denied by another, and deserted by all.

What share then had he in this glory? No man had ever so much, and yet no man was ever in a meaner condition. All his glory was therefore for our sakes, to render him evident to us; but was not intended to aggrandize himself.

Jesus Christ speaks of the sublimest subjects in a manner as simple as if he had never considered them, but nevertheless his expressions are so exact, as to shew that he had thoroughly weighed them Such accuracy with such simplicity is admirable.

Who made the evangelists acquainted with the qualities of a soul truly heroic, that they should paint it so perfectly as they have done in Jesus Christ? Why do they describe him as weak in his agony? Did they not know how to describe a courageous death? Yes, certainly; for St. Luke describes that of St. Stephen more forcibly in this respect, than he has done that of our Lord. They therefore represent him as capable of fear before his death actually arrived, but as dauntless afterward when it came. When he is described as afflicted, his affliction is from himself; but when troubled by men, he is unmoved.

The church has been obliged to prove that Christ was man, against those who have denied it, as well as to prove that he was God; for appearances were as much against the one as against the other.

Jesus Christ is a God to whom we approach without pride, and before whom we are humbled without despair.

The conversion of the heathen was reserved for the grace of the Messiah. The Jews either did not attempt it, or their attempts were unsuccessful. All that the prophets and Solomon had said on the subject was unavailing. Their wise men, as Plato and Socrates, could not persuade them to worship the true God alone.

The gospel says nothing of the early life of the Virgin Mary, but what relates to the birth of Jesus Christ, that every thing might bear reference to him.

Both Testaments refer to Jesus Christ, the former as its hope; the latter as its example; and both as their centre.

The prophets had the gift of foretelling; but never were foretold themselves; the saints, which followed were foretold, but had not the power of foretelling; Jesus Christ both prophesied, and was prophesied of. Jesus Christ for all mankind; Moses for a single nation.

The Jews were blessed in Abraham: "I will bless them that bless thee," Gen. xii. 2. But all nations are blessed in Abraham's seed; "A light to lighten the Gentiles," &c. Luke ii. 32. "He has not done so

to any nation," says David, speaking of the law, Psalm cxlvii. 20. He has done so to all nations,' may we say, speaking of Jesus Christ.

Thus it is the prerogative of Jesus Christ to be an universal blessing. The church offers sacrifice only for believers; Jesus Christ offered that of the cross for all.

Let us then stretch out our arms to our deliverer; who, having been promised four thousand years, came at length to suffer and to die for us, at the time, and under all the circumstances that were foretold; and waiting by his grace to die in peace, in the hope of being eternally united to him, let us in the meanwhile live with comfort; both among the good things which it may please him to give us, and among the evil things which he may send us for our good, and which, by his own example, he has taught us to endure.

CHAPTER XV.

THE EVIDENCES OF JESUS CHRIST FROM THE
PROPHECIES.

THE most striking evidences of Jesus Christ are the prophecies; and therefore God has ordered them with peculiar care. For the full accomplishment of them is a miracle which extends from the beginning of the church to the end. Sixteen hundred years together God raised up a succession of prophets; and in the four hundred years following, he dispersed their prophecies along with the Jews, who carried them into all parts of the world. Such was the preparation for the birth of Jesus Christ! As his gospel was to be believed by all nations, it was necessary, not only that there should be prophecies to gain it this belief, but likewise that they should be diffused through all the world, that all the world might receive him.

If only one single man had left a book of predictions concerning Jesus Christ, as to the time and manner of his coming, and he had come agreeably to those predictions, it would have infinite weight. But here is much more. Here is a succession of men, for four thousand years, who regularly, and without variation, succeed one another to foretel the same event. A whole people are his harbingers; and they subsist four thousand years, to testify in a body, the assurances they have respecting him, from

which no threats or persecutions could oblige them to depart. This is in every view remarkable.

The exact time was pointed out in the predictions by the state of the Jews, by that of the heathen world, by that of the temples, and by the number of years.

The prophets having given various signs which were all to concur at the coming of the Messiah, it was necessary they should all meet at the same period. Thus it was necessary that the fourth monarchy should be established at the expiration of Daniel's seventy weeks; that the sceptre should then be taken from Judah, and then that the Messiah should appear. And at that juncture Jesus Christ appeared, and declared himself to be the Messiah.

It is foretold, that under the fourth monarchy, before the destruction of the second temple, before the dominion of the Jews was taken away, and in the seventieth of Daniel's weeks, the heathens should be instructed, and brought to the knowledge of the God who was adored by the Jews; that those who loved him should be delivered from their enemies, and be filled with his fear and love.

And it happened that in the time of the fourth monarchy, before the destruction of the second temple, &c. the Pagans in multitudes adored the true God, and led an angelic life; women consecrated to religion their virginity, and their lives; men voluntarily renounced all the pleasures of sense. That which Plato was unable to persuade a few of the wisest and best informed men of his time to do, a secret power, by means of a few words, now effected in thousands of uneducated men.

What can all this mean?

It is that which was

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"I will pour out my

foretold many ages before. spirit upon all flesh." Joel ii. 28. All nations lay in infidelity and lust. All the world now becomes burning with charity; princes renounce their grandeur; even young women suffer martyrdom; chil