relate concerning his death, refurrection, and afcenfion; which were the great perfuasives to believe in his Godhead, and in that mighty work which he came in the flesh to do for our fake.

Our Saviour, I say, did not frequently bear record to himself; but continuing the train of prophecy of that by which we also have become the children of Abraham, the Israel of God, even of that which all the prophets had in view, the redemption of makind, he very frequently foretells his own fufferings, that "the Son of man shall be lifted up as Moses lifted up the ferpent in the wilderness;" that " he will raise the temple in three days, and this he spake of his body;" and " that he will go before us into heaven." That this great event, attended by such mighty consequences to us, confolatory in every woe of Ifrael, and making all men heirs of salvation, should be the object of prophecy, and of the subsequent teftimony of the Holy Ghost, no man surely can doubt, when, in order to enable us to become partakers of the benefits thence derived to mankind, it is necessary that we believe in Chrift, "who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time," 1 Tim. ii. 6. "How beautiful then upon the mountains are the feet of those who bring good tidings of good!" A preacher, even the Holy Spirit, has instructed us in the salvation which is of God, and "faid unto Zion, thy God reigneth."

This then is the line of teftimony; this the object of revelation, namely, that "Christ, by being made perfect, has become the author of eternal falvation unto all them that obey him;" that he hath been the Redeemer of mankind by the full accomplishment of all that he came to do for us; and not, according to Mr. Lindsey, that he has merely come into the world as a teacher, teacher, the truth of whose doctrines were to be wits neffed by his death. And let not this be considered as an unsupported suggestion of my own, it is authorised by St. Luke in the first chapter of the Acts; where, speaking of that history which he had before set forth of the life of our Saviour, he is so far from confidering it as the manifestation of Christ, that he says, "The former treatise have I made; O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, until the day in which he was taken up:" so that all the life of our Lord in the flesh was but a commencement of that which was afterwards to be revealed: In the moment of his afcent too, the same apostle presents Chrift telling his disciples that "ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerufalen, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth," Acts i. 8. Of what were they to be witnesses unto him? of that which he had already died to testify? Was his death then so defective a testimony to those who had seen it in Jerufalem, and who had also seen his refurrection? If these were intended but as a mere testimony that he had lived, wrought miracles, and taught among them, we must declare that they have come very short of answering the purpose, if there' still remained a neceffity of appointing farther witnesses to concur in proving their object. Was it ever before heard of, that the breathless corpse of a man is a better evidence of his having been born into the world than his living and active body, that our Saviour's death should be confidered only as a proof of his life? Did a continued series of miracles, performed before the eyes of the multitude, stand in need of one more, to prove, to those who had seen them, that they had been performed? or are those moral doctrines, which our bleffed Redeemer delivered to mankind, of such a dubious nature, hature, that any man should entertain a doubt of their justice, requiring so strong an engine as the death and refurrection of the preacher, in order to remove it? No, but on the contrary, so obvious is their rectitude, so far from requiring any testimony whatsoever to their indisputable truth, that many who never became Christians allowed their value; and even Trajan, who persecuted those "who called upon Chrift as God," adopted from his fermons that charitable doctrine of returning good for evil. But of what were they to be witnesses unto him? of his death and refurrection? What? to Jerufalem, and all Judea, and to Samaria? did Chrift hang invisible on a cross at Jerufalem, that a witness shall be wanting to testify it? or was his death t

and, refurrection a transaction carried on in secret? On the contrary, at the very time when he was dragged * from judgment to pour out his foul unto death; when he was numbered with the transgressors, and made intercession for the transgressors," Ifaiah liii. all Judea were eye-witnesses of the fact; for it was at the time of the passover, when all Judea had come up to Jerufalem, the scene of the transaction, to celebrate that feaft: nay, farther, where all Judea, as if to fill up the measure of her rebellions, and justify her approaching desolation, had, with one voice, cried out, "crucify him, crucify him." Of this then they were not to be witnesses unto him; but of that which the prophets had hot made manifest, of that which the life and lessons of our Saviour himself had not made manifest, without farther explanation. They were to be witnesses unto him that he was the expected Christ, and that the Christ was the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace;" that the Godhead of him, whom their own eyes had seen, so far from being a great king, that he was actually in " the form of a fervant," and an ignominious sufferer, was the royalty which

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which they had looked for in the expected king of If rael; that he was indeed a "king who had all things put under his feet, who had led captivity captive, and hath given to us the victory over death and the grave; a king, whose throne endureth for ever, and the fceptre of whose kingdom is a right fceptre." To these witnesses of Jesus Chrift the Holy Ghoft was given, even the spirit of truth, to shew forth the means of our redemption, by which his infinite mercy had reconciled mankind to his infinite juftice: whatsoever the prophets had faid was given to them to understand, to open, and to reconcile: and whatsoever our Lord had done and said in the flesh, was given to their remembrance to corroborate that which they should themfelves declare; and these they have accordingly called upon, and shewed to be a testimony bearing toward the truth, which it was their appointment to render fully manifeft, even this great truth, that the blood which streamed from a supposed malefactor, dying for imputed blafphemy upon a cross, was the blood of God himself, Acts xx. 28. "poured out for our tranfgreffions," and " by which we have received the atonement." This is the full manifestation of Chrift to mankind; till the work was finished it could not be related, and, when done, so portentous was the deed in itself, fo above the reach of all human intellect, that it requi red and obtained a miraculous teftimony; a teftimony precisely adequate to that which is required of those who receive it, our belief, which alone is called for as the terms upon which this great falvation is offered to us, " that eternal salvation of which, by being made perfect, he became the author unto all them that obey him," Heb. v. 9.

The prophecies waited for their explanation till all which they had predicted should have come to pass,

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and therefore were not evidence to those who lived before the event. The four gospels relate, that a man had come into the world endowed with a power of working miracles, which he was perpetually exerting in acts of benevolence; instructing mankind in virtue, by lessons superior to those of any other man; speaking of the kingdom of God, and saying, that he was the door by which it was to be entered; inculcating faith in God, and the hope in his mercies, arifing from the cultivation of piety toward him, and goodwill toward man; testifying that he was the object of former prophecy; foreshewing things which the hearers remembered, when they came to pass, to have heard of, but not to have understood before; dying upon a crofs, arifing from the grave, and ascending into heaven; that is, the gospels relate the history of Jesus Chrift in the flesh, but have by no means revealed him, nor de- + clared finally who or what he is, wherefore he died, arose, and afcended. They tell us that he did the work for which he came, but the full import of this work, and why undertaken by this man who finished it, was not the object of the historian to reveal; and till it was finished it could not be revealed to what end it had been done. From our Saviour we are not to expect this revelation, for his ascension into heaven being a part, the final part of his work, he continued not among men to declare its end. Another testimony then must be found, and that such as must be very powerful; we accordingly now find the apostolic body come forth in the strength of the Lord, endowed with miraculous powers to be exerted before all hearers, and blessed with elocution in every language, that all hearers might understand and believe; and thus the end of all that has been done is declared; that our falvation was the object is revealed; that for our fins Christ died, and that for our juftification he rose again; that

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