to every one, who hears these words, how similar they are to the tenor of John's preaching in Judea, and probably, therefore, to his more recent preaching in Galilee. Yet it is never said, by any Evangelist, that "the glad tidings of the kingdom" were preached by the Baptist; for the proclamation of the Gospel itself was peculiar to that office, to which Jesus was anointed; as he himself expressly stated shortly afterwards in the synagogue at Nazareth. Both Jesus and his forerunner announced the approaching establishment of the kingdom of heaven; and urged it as a motive to repentance. But Jesus advanced still further, when he said, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand." We may suppose that he enlarged upon those "signs of the times," which, when compared with the intimations given by the prophets, shewed that the season marked out by them for the advent of him whom they predicted had fully come. The kingdom of God was therefore not only near at hand; but the glad tidings of it, which explained its nature and object, as well as its approach, were then to be proclaimed. Jesus himself was the anointed herald, of whom John had already said to his disciples, that he "spoke the words of God, and testified that which he had seen and heard, and that God had Jesus, therefore,

given all things into his hand."

did not only continue to urge the call to repentance, but also demanded a ready belief of the glad tidings which he proclaimed. But, because his hearers had erroneous views of the nature of the Messiah's kingdom, he did not on that account adopt another term; for the term itself was perfectly proper. It was his principal aim to lead them to affix right ideas to it, and to attend also to the other characteristics by which the future dispensation, and its author, had been described.

Probably the discourse at Nazareth is only a specimen of the method which he adopted in other places. But we know that there, at least, he taught his hearers to expect and seek after spiritual blessings; and to consider him as appointed to proclaim the offer, and to accomplish the bestowment, of them. Having, on the sabbath-day, stood up to read in the synagogue of his native city, he found the place of the prophet Isaiah, where it is written, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord"."

a Luke iv. 16-22. Isai, lxi. 1-3.

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Well might Jesus begin to say, when he had closed the book, "This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears." For never did circumstances more accurately correspond to prophetic description, than the condescension, doctrine, and beneficent works of Jesus to these anticipations of Isaiah. I say, anticipations; for surely Isaiah spoke not these things of himself, but of some other" and greater man; even of him, who was the fruitful and animating theme both of himself and all the other prophets. From this Scripture, therefore, may we begin and preach Jesus as the Christ; that is, as the word signifies, as the Anointed; as him " upon whom is the Spirit of Jehovah, because Jehovah hath anointed him to preach the Gospel to the poor, and the acceptable year of the Lord" to those whom he, as the Son, can make free, and translate them into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

If, then, we listen to the statements, which our Lord and Master advanced respecting himself, principally by applying to himself the predictions of the prophets, we cannot be ignorant that he claimed a divine commission, as "anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power," to give liberty, light, and salvation, to all that feel, and lament, and acknowledge, the slavery, darkness, and peril of sin;-that he came in that fulness of the season which God had foreseen, appointed, and

prepared, and which the prophets had circumstantially described;—and that he was no other than the promised Messiah, the desire of all nations, the Saviour of the world. Of the certainty of these momentous and consolatory truths God hath, "by many infallible proofs," "given assurance unto all men ;" and it will shortly be our endeavour to point out to you, and to elucidate, several passages of our Lord's discourses, in which he appeals to, and enforces, the evidences of his divine authority.

But allow me, before I conclude this Lecture, to call your attention to one remarkable circumstance, with regard to these appeals and reasonings of our Lord. They were not advanced in the earliest part of his ministry; nor at all, until the opposition and objections of the Jews was excited against him; and scarcely ever publicly but upon such occasions. And those particulars, the public notice of which was not called forth in this manner, were pointed out to his disciples in private, more especially towards the close of his ministry. But both at the beginning, and during the whole course, of his ministry, the evidences themselves were furnished in great abundance. For while he proclaimed in their synagogues "the glad tidings of the kingdom," he also "healed all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease among the people." But he left these mighty

works, and the other divine attestations to his mission, to speak for themselves; until either a denial of his claims rendered it necessary to appeal to them, or cavils against the reality and conclusiveness of those evidences led him to refute the objectors. He did not, like the Arabian impostor, boldly claim a divine mission for which no sufficient proof appeared; nor did he vauntingly magnify and set off some seeming evidence, which, without such a special notice, might never have been observed. He was too well aware of the justice of his pretensions, of the publicity and splendour of his miracles, of the notoriety of the prophecies, and of their manifest fulfilment in himself, to think any such laboured and suspicious proceeding necessary. He was ready to allow that sufficient evidence might justly be expected; and, accordingly, one of his earliest remarks on this subject, was that which he made previously to his cure of the nobleman's son at Capernaum; "Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe." Signs and wonders he did therefore perform; but I find not that he expressly connected his miracles with his doctrine, so as to argue with those who saw the miracles, until he wrought the cure of the paralytic, for the purpose of proving his right to say to him, "Son, thy sins