SERMON XLV.

CHRIST A PROPHET.-HIS PERSONAL PREACHING. THE THINGS WHICH HE TAUGHT.

JOHN vii. 46.—The officers answered, Never man spake like this Man.

IN the last discourse, I proposed to consider the Character of Christ as a Prophet; or as the great Preacher of Truth and Righteousness; under the following heads.

I. The Necessity of his preaching the Gospel:
II. The Things which he taught:

III. The Manner of his preaching: and,

IV. The Consequences of his preaching.

The first of these subjects I discussed at that time. I shall now proceed to an Examination of the

II. Viz. The Things which he taught.

In the context we are informed, that the Sanhedrim sent officers to take Christ, as he was preaching in the temple, and bring him before them. When they returned without him, they were asked by the Sanhedrim, why they had not brought him. They answered in the words of the text: Never man spake like this man; (that is) "The things which he said, and the manner in which he said them, were such, as never before were exhibited by any human being."

These words were uttered by Jews, his enemies; by officers and dependents of the Sanhedrim, his most bitter enemies; by those officers, when commissioned to seize him for trial and punishment; by those officers, therefore, when under the strongest motives to take him, as being exposed to danger and punishment, if they did not take him; and, finally, are uttered, as containing the only reason why they did not take him. All these facts teach us, that the things which Christ spoke, and the manner in which he spoke them, were singularly excellent and impressive; so excellent and impressive, as to induce these Jews to allege it as the only reason why they had not performed their official duty. It is not easy to conceive how a more convincing testimony could have been given to the unrivalled excellency of Christ's preaching. Particularly will this appear, if we remember that the doctrines and precepts of Christ violated all the prejudices of the human heart; especially of Jews; and that there was nothing in his manner, of the kind which is usually called popular; or calculated to catch, for the moment, the applause of his audience, and produce a favourable bias towards the Speaker. In the consideration of this and the following heads, we shall have opportunity to examine, in some measure,

how far the things, recorded of Christ, will warrant us to entertain the same opinion.

Among other things taught by Christ, I shall mention

I. The Abolition of the peculiarities of the Mosaic system. The Mosaic system consisted of three great parts; the Moral, the Judicial or Political, and the Ceremonial. All the peculiarities of this system belong to the two last; the first being in its own nature applicable to mankind, generally, in all circumstances. That these peculiarities were one day to be abolished was often indicated by the prophets of the Old Testament, from the days of Moses down to those of Malachi. This seems to be sufficiently indicated by our Saviour himself in his discourse to the disciples, going to Emmaus. Luke xxiv. 25, &c. Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, he expounded unto them, in all the Scriptures, the things concerning himself. things concerning Christ are here asserted to have been spoken by Moses and all the prophets: viz. his life, death, and exaltation. But with these, we know, was interwoven a change in the Mosaic system; a change, therefore, more or less exhibited by Moses, and all the succeeding prophets; by some of them expressly; by others only in hint, allusion, or inference.

The

St. Paul, who informs us, that Christ hath blotted out his handwriting of ordinances, which was against us, and contrary to us; taken it out of the way, and nailed it to his cross, who declares that Christ hath made both Jews and Gentiles one; and broken down the middle wall of partition, abolished in his flesh the enmity between them, even the law of commandments, contained in ordinances; argues this fact, also, at length, as declared by the Prophet Jeremiah. For, saith he, if that first Covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. But finding fault, he saith, Behold the days come, saith the Lord, when I will complete a new Covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, &c. By saying A new Covenant, he hath made the former old. Now that which decayeth, and waxeth old, is ready to vanish.* Jer. xxxi. 31, &c. Heb. viii. 7, &c.

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The Mosaic system, therefore, was originally designed in part, (viz. that part of it, which consisted of the commandments contained in Ordinances) to be abolished, at some future period. It was also to be abolished, when the New Covenant was to be completed; the Covenant, originally published to Abraham, but completed under the Christian dispensation.

That it was to be abolished by Christ is indicated in the prophecy concerning him, dwelt on so largely in the preceding discourse. I will raise up unto them a Prophet like unto thee, that is,

* Macknight.

a Prophet, who, like thee, shall bring into the Church a new dis pensation, and change whatever needs alteration in the old; even as thou hast done with respect to the patriarchal dispensation.

The same truth is, also, abundantly declared by preceding Prophets, especially Isaiah; who describes at large the very changes, actually made by Christ in this dispensation, almost as distinctly as the Apostles; at least in several particulars.

Christ published this abolition of the peculiarities of the Mosaic

system.

In the first place, by teaching, that the Gentiles, as well as the Jews, were henceforth to be the people of God.

And, I, saith he, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me. John xii. 32. Again; And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold; them, also, must I bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one Shepherd.

The Jews, under the dispensation of Moses, were the only people of God. All others, who became members of the Church, became such by being proselyted to the Jewish religion, and obeying the Jewish laws throughout; in other words, by becoming Jews in every thing except blood. But Christ here declares, that the Gentiles, as such, shall become members of his Church, and belong to his fold; hear, and follow him; and thus constitute a part of the people of God.

Secondly. By teaching the uselessness of external rites.

Christ exhibited in many ways the emptiness of external rites. particularly by declaring, that meats and washings, and other things of the like nature, neither purified on the one hand, nor on the other defiled, the man; and universally by showing, that internal purity and integrity constituted the only object of the divine approbation, and the only title to the kingdom of God.

Thirdly. By instituting a new Ministry in the Church.

This he did by Commissioning the Apostles, and all other ministers, Matt. xxviii. 18, &c. to go into all the World, preaching the Gospel, and discipling all nations, and baptizing them in, or into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. In this Commission he invested a new set of men, in the place of Jewish Priests and Levites, with all the authority, and offices, of ministers in the future Church of God. The Jewish Ministry was therefore, henceforth done away.

Fourthly. By substituting Baptism and the Lord's Supper for the Jewish Sacraments of Circumcision and the Passover.

Christ made Baptism the initiatory ordinance of the Christian Church, and the Lord's Supper the confirmatory one. Circumcision, therefore, and the Passover, ceased of course. Besides, the Death of Christ the Antitype of the Passover, having taken place; the Passover, which typified it, ceased of course.

Fifthly. By substituting a new, simple, and spiritual, worship for the ceremonial worship of the Jews. In his discourse with the SamaVOL. II.

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ritan woman, Christ said, The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worhippers shall worship the Father, in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

In the parable of the sower, also, he declares, that they, who received the seed in good ground, are such as receive the word in an honest and good heart; and that these only are either fruitful or accepted.

Sixthly. By teaching that God was to be worshipped, acceptably, wherever he was sincerely worshipped, and not in the temple at Jerusalem only.

In the abovementioned conversation with the Samaritan woman, Christ said, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. He also, as you well know, predicted the destruction of Jerusalem, the temple, and its services; declaring, that not one stone of the temple should be left upon another, which should not be thrown down; that Jerusalem should be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled; and that all these things should come to pass during the continuance of the then existing generation. In the mean time, he declared to his disciples, that wherever two or three of them should be met together in his name, there he would be in the midst of them.

It needs no proof, that in these declarations he caused the saerifice and the oblation to cease; and put a final end to the peculiarities of the Mosaic system.

II. Christ taught the same system of Religion, which was taught by Moses.

The system of Religion, taught in the Old and New-Testament, is one, and the same. This Christ has himself sufficiently declared in his sermon on the Mount. One of the first declarations in it, is this: Think not, I am come to destroy the law and the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

The system of Natural Religion, taught in the Scriptures, is one, and unchangeable. Sooner shall heaven and earth pass away than one jot, or one tittle, of the Law, on which it is founded, and by which the duties of it are required. As the Law is unchangeable; so the duties, which it requires, are unchangeable also. The Relations, on which this Law is founded, and whence these duties arise, are eternal and immutable. Of course, the Law itself, the duties which it requires, and the conditions of acceptance and rejection, together with all the truths, or doctrines, which in Natural Religion, or the Religion founded on mere Law, are the proper, obligatory objects of Faith, must for ever be the same. Accordingly, our Saviour, when the Lawyer asked him, Which is the first and great commandment of the Law? declared, after reciting the two great commands, that on these two hang all the Law and the Prophets; or the system of Religion contained in the Old Testament. At the same time, he

recited these commands, as being those, on which was also suspended his own religion; which were still in full force, and the foundation of all Virtue or Moral Excellence.

Nor is the Christian system substantially different in the New Testament from what it is in the Old. By the Christian system I intend the system of doctrines and duties, by means of which apostate creatures are restored to obedience and favour. The Gospel, says St. Paul, was preached to Abraham. It was also disclosed to our first parents. Christ, says St. Peter, preached, (that is, by the Voice of Noah) to the spirits in prison: viz, the rebellious world, imprisoned under the divine sentence, during one hundred and twenty years preceding the Deluge. Your father Abraham, says our Saviour to the Jews, rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad. All these, says St. Paul, speaking of the Old Testament Witnesses from Abel to Daniel and his companions, died in Faith: that is, the Faith of the Gospel. Now therefore, says the same Apostle again to the Ephesian Christians, Ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God: And are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets; Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone. It would be useless to recite more passages to this purpose; although many more might easily be recited. These prove in the most decisive manner, that there is One system of Religion, only, taught in the Old and the New Testament; one Law, on which the whole is ultimately founded; one system of doctrines and duties of what is called natural religion; one system of doctrines and duties of the Christian system, appropriately so called: that the Gospel was preached not only to Abraham, but to the Jewish and Patriarchal churches in every age: that good men have always died in the faith of the Gospel: that the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles is the same: and that of both, Jesus Christ is the chief corner-stone.

III. Christ taught all the fundamental doctrines of this system. By the fundamental doctrines of the Christian system, I intend those, which are necessary to be believed, and obeyed, in order to the attainment of salvation. Such, for example, are the existence and perfections of the one God; the law of God; its righteous and reasonable character; the rebellion, apostacy, and corruption, ot man; the impossibility of justification by the works of the Law; Christ's own divine character as the Son of God, and the Saviour of men; justification by faith in him; the nature and necessity of regeneration, faith, repentance, and holiness of heart and life; a future state; a judgment; and a recompense of reward to the righteous and the wicked beyond the grave.

I will not say, that the belief of every one of these is indispensable to salvation, but they are all essential parts of one system; and within this list is found whatever is thus necessary to be believed. That Christ taught all these things will not, I suppose, be questioned by any man, who admits that they are at all taught in the Scrip

tures.