force and energy to his instructions, all the principal duties respecting God, our neighbour, and ourselves. Whenever he made use of the common didactic method, as in his discourse from the Mount, the doctrines he taught, and the precepts he delivered, were short, sententious, solemn, important, full of wisdom and of dignity, yet intelligible and clear. But sensible how much this formal mode of teaching was apt to weary the attention, and die away out of the memory, he added two others, much better calculated to make deep and lasting impressions on the mind. The first was, conveying his instructions under the cover of similitudes and parables, drawn from the most obvious appearances of nature, or the most familiar occurrences of life. The other was, the use of certain significant emblematic actions, such as that of washing his disciples' feet, by which he expressed his meaning more clearly and emphatically than by any words he could have employed for that purpose.

3. Another circumstance which gave force and efficacy to our Saviour's preaching was,

that he appeared to be perfectly impartial, and to have no respeet to persons. He reproved vice in every station, wherever he found it, with the same freedom and boldness. He paid no court either to the multitude on the one hand, or to the great and wealthy on the other. Though he ate and drank, and conversed with publicans and sinners, yet it was not to encourage and indulge them in their vices, but to reprove and correct them; it was because they were sick, and wanted a physician, and that physician he was. In the same manner, while he taught the people to render unto Cæsar the things that were Cæsar's, to honour those to whom honour was due, and to pay all proper respect and obedience to those who sat in Moses' seat, yet this did not prevent him from rebuking the Elders and the Rulers, the Scribes and the Pharisees, with the greatest plainness, and with the utmost severity, for their hypocrisy and insincerity, their rapacity and extortion, their zeal for trifles, and their neglect of the weightier matters of the law. This intrepidity and impartiality in his instructions, and in the

distribution of his censures and his admonitions, evidently showed that he had no private ends to serve, that the salvation of men was his only object, and that he was not to be deterred from pursuing it by the fear of consequences. All which could not fail to impress his followers with the utmost respect, awe, and reverence, both for his person and his doctrines.

4. Every one that hopes to work any material change, any effectual reformation in the hearts of those whom he addresses, must endeavour to find out, as well as he is able, their real sentiments and habits of thinking, their tempers and dispositions, their peculiar failings and infirmities, their secret wickednesses, and unwitnessed transgressions.

There are a thousand artifices by which men are able to conceal their corruption and depravity from the eyes of others, and sometimes, alas! even from their own. And it has been affirmed by some very sagacious observers of human nature, that no one ever yet discovered the bottom of his heart, even to his most intimate and bosom friend. But it was impossible for any wickedness, how

ever secret, or however artfully disguised, to escape the all-seeing eye of the Son of God. He saw, at one glance, the inmost recesses of the soul. He discovered every thought as it rose in the mind. He detected every irregular desire before it ripened into action. Hence he was always enabled to adapt his discourses to the particular circumstances and situation of every individual that heard him, and to apply such remedies, and give such directions, as the peculiar exigencies of their case required. Hence, too, his answers to their questions and enquiries were frequently accommodated more to what they thought than what they said; and we find them going away from him astonished, at perceiving that he was perfectly well acquainted with every thing that passed within their breasts; and filled with admiration of a teacher possessed of such extraordinary powers, to whom all hearts were open, and from whom no secrets were hid. It is evident what a command this must give him over the affections of his hearers, and what attention and obedience it must secure to all his precepts and exhortations.

5. The same effects must, in some degree, be produced by the various proofs he gave of the most perfect wisdom in solving the difficulties that were proposed to him, and of the most consummate prudence and address, in escaping all the snares that were laid for him. Even when he was but twelve years of age, he was able to converse and to dispute with the most learned expounders of the law, and all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and his answers. Afterwards, during the whole course of his ministry, the Rulers, and Scribes, and Pharisees, that is, the men of the greatest learning and ability amongst the Jews, were perpetually endeavouring to entangle him in his talk, to perplex and harass him with insidious questions, and to draw him into absurd conclusions, and hazardous situations. But he constantly found means to disengage himself both from the dilemma and the danger; to form his determinations with such exquisite sagacity and judgment, and sometimes to propose to them, in his turn, difficulties so much beyond their ingenuity to