There cannot be conceived any thing more likely to promote the ends of his ministry than such a course. It would make the fewest personal enemies, and conciliate most friends. It would leave such as were convicted by their own consciences, at liberty to come out from among their companions and to be separate, without bearing about them the taint of any reproach attached exclusively to their own individual character. They would have to surmount no private feelings or prejudices, because they had undergone no public disgrace, and had experienced no reproofs but those which they had shared in common with their sect at large.

Now compare this forbearance with the freedom with which Christ singled out objects of praise, and the difference will appear so striking that it cannot have arisen undesignedly. Of the centurion, whose servant he healed, he said, 'I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.' To the woman who touched the hem of his garment, 'Thy faith hath made thee whole.' Of John the Baptist among them that are born of

women, there hath not risen a greater.

Of the woman who anointed him- She hath wrought a good work upon me.' Of one of the Scribes, 'that he was not far from the kingdom of God.' Of the poor widow, that she had cast more in than all the others.' Of Nathanael-' Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile . It appears, therefore, that our Lord never hesitated to give personal praise, however systematically he refrained from personality in blame.

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It does not in the least affect the argument, that so few men of note among the Jews actually availed themselves of the easy terms on which they might have withdrawn from the fellowship of those on whom the woes were pronounced;-that Nicodemus among the rulers, and Joseph of Arimathea among the rich, should be almost the only names whose praise is in the churches as honourable exceptions to the general unbelief persisted in by others of their rank or opinions. Our estimate of the prudence of our Lord's conduct must be taken without refer

8 Matt. viii. 10. ix. 22. xi. 11. xxvi. 10. Mark, xii. 34. 43. John, i. 47.

ence to the success it met with; and the more judicious it proves to have been, the deeper was the guilt, and the greater the condemnation, of those who refused to hear the voice of the charmer, though he charmed never so wisely.

Again; there was an impartiality in Christ's discourses, which must have placed his character for independence on a high footing. He never spared the sin on account of the particular sinner, so that even his adversaries confessed in his favour- Thou carest not for any man, neither regardest thou the person of men '.' In the very next chapter it happens that eight several woes are pronounced against the chiefs of the Pharisees. But though thus bold in reproof when the essential interests of religion were at stake, his general custom was to take no notice of men or their opinions, unless they interfered with Christianity. He left the dead to bury their dead. He intermeddled with no unimportant matters, and suffered the men of the

• Matt. xxii. 17.

world to manage the things of this world according to the light of their own judgement in temporal affairs, without stepping out of his own proper province to legislate or decide in things indifferent.

This accounts for his silence on many subjects where his authority would have been gladly quoted; and it affords, at the same time, an useful opportunity for Christians to try their acquaintance with the spirit of religion by comparing particular cases with the comprehensive precepts of the Gospel. Our Lord gave no opinion on several points of the highest interest to a Christian community-he said nothing concerning slavery-nothing concerning political subjection to the Romans-nothing concerning the comparative expediency of particular forms of government, of particular professions, of particular modes of education-but he left it to the sagacity of his followers to collect from the general tenor of his doctrine, that it was the duty of every man to abide in the same calling

wherein he was called'; and that the new dispensation was intended to be applicable to the world at large, and not for an exclusive community of ascetics, whose principles would require them to hold no intercourse with the rest of mankind.

VI. But Christ had not merely to contend with the natural difficulties incidental to his ministry as the prophet of a new covenant. The Evangelists mention, that on several occasions questions were proposed with the express intention of leading him to commit himself by the delivery of some opinions which should offend one or other of the contending parties.

St. Matthew tells us, that the Pharisees and Herodians, after consulting together how they might entangle him in his talk, referred to his arbitration the controversy respecting the right of paying tribute to Cæsar. Our Lord, taking their own admissions as the basis of his answer,

11 Cor. vii. 20.