they are the children of God, and that they are entitled, through that august title, to more real and more solid riches than all those of which the world can ever despoil them.
Secondly. Jesus Christ promises to his disciples the keys of. heaven and of hell, and the power of remitting sins. What! my brethren, the Jews are deeply offended when he pretends to remit them himself, and when he seems to attribute to himself a power reserved to God alone; but how will all nations of the earth be scandalized when they shall read in his Gospel that he hath even delegated his power to his disciples! And, if he be not God, hath the mind of man ever imagined such an instance of temerity and folly! What right, in effect, hath he over consciences, to bind or unbind them at his pleasure, and to tranfer to weak men a power which he himself could not exercise without blasphemy!
Thirdly. But this is not all: he promises to his disciples the gift likewise of miracles; that, in his name, they should raise up the dead; that they should restore sight to the blind, health to the sick, and speech to the dumb; that they should be masters of all nature. Moses promises not to his disciples the gifts with which the Lord had favoured him: he is sensible that the power is not his own, and that the Lord alone can bestow it on whomsoever he may think fit. Thus, after his death, when Joshua arrests the sun in the middle of his course, in order to complete the victory over the enemies of the people of God, it is not in the name of Moses that he commands that planet to stand still; it is not of him that he holds the power of making even the stars obedient to him; when he wishes to exercise it, it is not to him that he addresses himself: but the disciples of Jesus Christ can operate nothing but in the name of their Master; it is in his name that they raise up the dead and make the lame to walk; and, without the assistance of that divine name, they are equally weak as the rest of men. The ministry and the power of Moses terminate with his life; the ministry and the power of Jesus Christ only begin, as I may say, after his death, and we are assured that his reign is to be eternal.
What more shall I say? He promises to his disciples the conversion of the universe, the triumph of the cross, the compliance of all the nations of the earth, of philosophers, of Caesars, of tyrants; and that his Gospel shall be received by the whole world: but, doth he hold the hearts of all men in his hands thus to answer for a change of which the world had hitherto no example? You will, no doubt, tell us, that God layeth open the future to his servant. But you are mistaken: if he be not God, he is not even a prophet; his predictions are dreams and chimeras: it is a false spirit which seduces him, and which is concerned in his knowledge of the future, and the sequel hath belied the truth of his promises: he prophesies that all nations, seated under the shadow of death, shall open their eyes to the light; and he sees not that they are on the point of falling into a more criminal blindness in worshipping him: he prophesies that his Father shall be glorified, and that his Gospel shall every where form to him worshippers in spirit and in
