That his conclufion went at leaft fo far as this, will appear highly probable from confidering the two distinct grounds on which it was founded.

The firft was, the attention with which the centurion appears to have marked the whole behaviour of our Lord during the dreadful fcene he paffed through, from the beginning to the end of his fufferings upon the crofs. He placed himself, as St. Mark informs us, over against Jefus. From that station he kept his eye conftantly fixed upon him, and obferved, with anxious care, every thing he said or did. And when he saw the meekness, the patience, the refignation, the firmness, with which our Lord endured the moft excruciating torments; when he heard him at one time praying fervently for his murderers; at another difpofing, with dignity and authority, of a place in paradife, to one of his fellow-fufferers; and, at length, with that confidence which nothing but conscious virtue, and confcious divinity, could, at such a time, infpire, recommending his spirit into the hands of his heavenly Father; from thefe circumstances, what other inference could the centurion draw than that

Jefus

Jefus was not merely a righteous but a heavenlyborn perfon?

But there was another, and that a still more powerful proof of our Lord's celeftial origin, which offered itself to the centurion's notice; I mean, the astonishing events that took place when Jefus expired; the agitation into which all nature feemed to be thrown, the darkness, the earthquake, the rending of rocks, the opening of graves, miracles which the centurion conceived, and justly conceived, were not likely to be wrought on the death of a mere mortal*.

And, indeed, it must be acknowledged, that the miracles recorded, and the prophecies accomplished, in the hiftory of Chrift, are the two great pillars on which our faith in him must principally reft. But as an enquiry into this fort of proof, would lead us into an argument much too extenfive and too complex for our prefent purpose, I fhall content myself with enlarging a little on that other kind of evidence. above-mentioned, the character and conduct of our divine Mafter. Of this the centurion faw

See Dr. Doddridge's note from Elfner in his expofition

of this paffage,

nothing

nothing more, perhaps, than the clofing scene. And if this operated so forcibly, as it seems to have done, on his mind, how powerfully muft ours be affected, by taking into the account the virtues which Jefus displayed through life, as well as thofe he manifested at his death? We may reasonably expect, that it will at once confirm the faith of those who believe, and produce conviction in those who do not,

Were we only to fay of our Saviour, what even Pilate faid of him, that we can find no. fault in him, that the whole temper of his foul, and the whole tenour of his life, were abfolutely blameless throughout; that from the first moment of his birth, to his last agony on the cross, he never once fell into the smallest error of conduct, never once fpake unadvifedly with his lips; were we, I fay, to confine ourselves folely to this negative kind of excellence, it is more than can be faid of any other person that ever yet came into the world. But great and uncommon as even this fort of perfection is, it forms but a very small part of that which belonged to Jefus. He was not

only

only exempt from every the flightest failing, but he poffefled and practised every imaginable virtue that was confiftent with his fituation; and that, too, in the highest degree of excellence to which virtue is capable of being exaited. That idea of complete goodness which the ancient philofophers took fo much fruitless pains to defcribe, and which they justly thought would fo ftrongly attract the affections of men if it could be made vifible, was in the perfon of the Holy Jefus, and in him only, fince the world began, prefented to the eyes of mankind. His ardent love for God, his zeal for the fervice, his refignation to the will, his unreferved obedience to the commands of his heavenly Father; the compaffion, the kindness, the folicitude, the tenderness, he fhowed for the whole human race, even for the worst of finners and the bittereft of his enemies; the perfect command he had over his own paffions; the confummate prudence with which he eluded all the fnares that were laid for him; the wisdom, the juftness, the delicacy of his replies; the purity and the gentleness of his manners; the fweetness yet? dignity

dignity of his deportment; the mildness with which he reproved the mistakes, the prejudices, and the failings of his difciples; the temper he preferved under the feverest provocations from his enemies; the patience, the compofure, the meekness, with which he endured the cruelieft infults, and the groffeft indignities; the fortitude he difplayed under the most painful and ignominious death that human ingenuity could devife, or human malignity inflict; and that divinely charitable prayer which he put up for his murderers in the very midst of his agony; "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do," all these, and a multitude of other peculiar excellencies in his character, (which it is im poffible here to enumerate) concur to render him, beyond comparison, the greatest, the wifeft, and the best, of men,

Confidered more particularly as A PUBLIC TEACHER, what an understanding must that have been, and whence enlightened, from which so fublime and perfect a fyftem of piety and morals as that of the Gospel, proceeded, excelling not only all the discoveries of men, and the most perfect fyftems of Pagan morality,