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vanities and frolics of the age.—In any company where they happen to mix, they ſhould ſpeak and act in a ſuitableneſs to their ſacred and venerable character—they ſhould be as ſo many living Bibles ſcattered up and down the Chriſtian world, "that they who know not the word, may alſo, without the word; be won" by their holy and exemplary converſation (n)[1]
It was ſaid of one of the miniſters of the primitive church, that he thundered in his doctrine, and lightened in his life. And a greater than he was called "a burning and a ſhining light," viz John Baptiſt—He called himſelf, in his great humility, a voice; "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderneſs, Prepare ye the way of the Lord." A voice! the loweſt of entities, which owes its very being to the breath of the ſpeaker. And, indeed, he was all a voice;—voice in his converſation. If, then, we who are miniſters would commend Chriſt and his religion to the people, let us walk before them as he alſo walked; and thus we will preach to them by our lives, as well as by our lips.
III. I proceed now to the third thing propoſed, viz. To point out the excellency of the knowledge of Chriſt crucified above all other knowledge whatſoever. On this head I offer the following particulars:
1. The knowledge of Chriſt crucified excels all other knowledge in point of certainty. That ſuch a perſon as Jeſus of Nazareth appeared in Judea, in the reign of Tiberius, is agreed by all:—The birth of this perſon, his manner of life, his doctrine, and his death, exactly correſpond with the prophetic accounts of the Meſſiah to be found in the ancient Jewiſh records. He proved himſelf to be the ſame Meſſiah, the Son of God, and a divine perſon, by his doctrine, and by a ſeries of inconteſtible miracles, not done in a corner or ſome ſmall inconſiderable village, but done in Jeruſalem the capital of the nation;——and not before friends only, or a ſelect number of witneſſes, but publicly, in the preſence of thouſands, the moſt of whom were his bittereſt adverſaries, and had all the inclination imaginable to diſprove them,
- ↑ (n) 1 Peter iii. 1.
