CENT. us from enjoying the direction and influence of I. his vital and salutary beams.

PART I.

The ac

ven of

Christ dur

youth.

II. Four inspired writers, who have transmitted to us an account of the life and actions of counts gi- Jesus Christ, mention particularly his birth, his lineage, his family, and his parents; but they ing his in- say very little concerning his infancy and his fancy and earlier youth. Not long after his birth, he was conducted by his parents into Egypt, that he might be there out of the reach of Herod's cruelty [c]. When he was but twelve years old, he disputed, in the temple, with the most learned of the Jewish doctors, concerning the sublime truths of religion. And the rest of his life, until the thirtieth year of his age, was spent in the obscurity of a private condition, and consecrated to the duties of filial obedience [d]. This is all that the wisdom of God hath permitted us to know, with certainty, of Christ, before he entered upon his public ministry; nor is the story of his having followed the trade of his adopted father Joseph built upon any sure foundation. There have been, indeed, several writers, who, either through the levity of a wanton imagination, or with a design to attract the admiration of the multitude, have invented a series of the most extravagant and ridiculous fables, in order to give an account of this obscure part of the Saviour's life [e].

John, the fore-runner of the Messiah.

III. Jesus began his public ministry in the thirtieth year of his age; and to render it more solemn and affecting to the Jews, a man, whose name was John, the son of a Jewish priest, a person

[c] Matt. ii. 13.

[d] Luke ii. 51, 52.

[e] See the account which the above-mentioned Albert Fabricius has given of these romantic triflers, in his Codex Apocryphus, N. T. tom. i.

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PART I.

person of great gravity also, and much respected CENT. on account of the austere dignity of his life and manners, was commanded by God to proclaim to the people the coming of the Messiah, that had been promised to their fathers. This extraordinary man called himself the fore-runner of the Messiah. Filled with a holy zeal and a divine fervour, he cried aloud to the Jewish nation, to depart from their transgression, and to purify their hearts, that they might thus partake of the blessings which the Son of God was now come to offer to the world. The exhortations of this respectable messenger were not without effect; and those who, moved by his solemn admonitions, had formed the resolution of correcting their evil dispositions and amending their lives, were initiated into the kingdom of the Redeemer by the ceremony of immersion, or baptism [ƒ]. Christ himself, before he began his ministry, desired to be solemnly baptized by John in the waters of Jordan, that he might not, in any point, neglect to answer the demands of the Jewish law.

IV. It is not necessary to enter here into a The life of particular detail of the life and actions of Jesus Christ. Christ. All Christians must be perfectly well acquainted with them. They must know, that, during the space of three years, and amidst the deepest trials of affliction and distress, he instructed the Jewish nation in the will and counsels of the Most High, and omitted nothing, in the course of his ministry, that could contribute either to gain the multitude, or to charm the wise. Every one knows, that his life was a continued scene of the most perfect sanctity, and the purest and most active virtue; not only without spot, but also beyond the reach of suspicion. And it is also well known, that by miracles of the most stupen

E 4

[f] Matt. iii. 6. John i. 22.

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CENT. stupendous kind, and not more stupendous than salutary and beneficent, he displayed to the universe the truth of that religion which he brought with him from above, and demonstrated the reality of his divine commission in the most illustrious

The elec

tion of the apostles, and of the LXX disciples.

manner.

V. As this divine religion was to be propagated to the utmost ends of the earth, it was necessary that Christ should choose a certain number of persons to accompany him constantly through the whole course of his ministry; that thus they might be faithful and respectable witnesses of the sanctity of his life, and the grandeur of his miracles, to the remotest nations; and also transmit to the latest posterity a genuine account of his sublime doctrines, and of the nature and end of the gospel dispensation. Therefore Jesus chose, out of the multitude that attended his discourses, twelve persons whom he separated from the rest by the name of Apostles. These men were illiterate, poor, and of mean extraction, and such alone were truly proper to answer the views of the divine Saviour. He avoided making use of the ministry of persons endowed with the advantages of fortune and birth, or enriched with the treasures of eloquence and learning, lest the fruits of this embassy, and the progress of the gospel, should be attributed to human and natural causes [g]. These apostles were sent but once to preach to the Jews during the life of Christ [h]. He chose to keep them about his own person, that they might be thoroughly instructed in the affairs of his kingdom. That the multitude however, might not be destitute of teachers to enlighten them with the knowledge of the truth, Christ appointed seventy disciples to preach the glad tidings of life eternal throughout the whole province of Judea [i].

[g] 1 Cor. i. 21.

VI.

[h] Mat. x. 7. [i] Luke x. 1.

I.

PART I.

was fixed to

disciples to

VI. The researches of the learned have been CENT. employed to find out the reason of Christ's fixing the number of the apostles to twelve, and that of the disciples to seventy, and various conWhy the jectures have been applied to the solution of this number of question. But since it is manifest, from the words the apostles of our Saviour himself [k], that he intended the XII. and number of the twelve apostles as an allusion to that that of the of the tribes of Israel; it can scarcely be doubted, LXX. that he was willing to insinuate by this appointment that he was the supreme lord and high-priest of these twelve tribes, into which the Jewish nation was divided. And as the number of disciples answers evidently to that of the senators, of whom the council of the people, or the sanhedrim was composed, there is a high degree of probability in the conjecture of those, who think that Christ, by the choice of the seventy, designed to admonish the Jews, that the authority of their sanhedrim was now at an end, and that all power, with respect to religious matters, was vested in him alone.

tends be

VII. The ministry of the divine Saviour was Christ's confined to the Jews; nor while he remained fame exupon earth, did he permit his apostles or disci-yond Juples to extend their labours beyond this distin- dea guished nation [7]. At the same time, if we consider the illustrious acts of mercy and omnipotence, that were performed by Christ, it will be natural to conclude, that his fame must have been very soon spread abroad in other countries. We learn from writers of no small note, that Abgarus, king of Edessa, being seized with a severe and dangerous illness, wrote to our blessed Lord to implore his assistance; and that Jesus not only sent him a gracious answer, but also accompanied it with his picture, as a mark of

[k] Matth. xix. 28. Luke xxii. 30. [] Matth. x. 5, 6. xv. 24.

his

PART I.

CENT. his esteem for that pious prince [m]. These letI. ters are still extant. But they are justly looked upon as fictitious by most writers, who also go yet farther, and treat the whole story of Abgarus as entirely fabulous, and unworthy of credit [n]. I will not pretend to insert the genuineness of these letters; but I see no reason of sufficient weight to destroy the credibility of the whole story, which is supposed to have given occasion to them [o].

VIII.

[m] Euseb. Hist. Eccl. lib. 1. cap. xiii. p. 21. Jo. Albert Fabric. Codex Apocryphus N. T. tom. i. p. 317.

[n] See Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, vol. i. cap. xviii. p. 500. As also Theoph. Sigf. Bayerus, Historia Edessena et Osroëna, lib. iii. p. 104. Jos. Simon Assemanus, Biblioth. Oriental. Clement. Vaticano, tom. i. p. 554.

[o] There is no author who has discussed this question (concerning the authenticity of the letters of Christ and Abgarus, and the truth of the whole story) with such learning and judgment, as the late Mr. Jones, in the second volume of his excellent work, entitled, A New and Full Method of settling the Canonical Authority of the New Testament. Notwithstanding the opinions of such celebrated names, as Parker, Cave, and Grabe, in favour of these letters, and the history to which they relate, Mr. Jones has offered reasons to prove the whole fictitious, which seem unanswerable, independent of the authorities of Rivet, Chemnitius, Walther, Simon, Du Pin, Wake, Spanheim, Fabricius, and Le Clerc, which he opposes to the three above mentioned. It is remarkable that this story is not mentioned by any writer before Eusebius; that it is but little taken notice of by succeeding writers; that the whole affair was unknown to Christ's apostles, and to the Christians their contemporaries, as is manifest from the early disputes about the method of receiving Gentile converts into the church, which this story, had it been true, must have entirely decided. As to the letters, no doubt can be made of their spuriousness; since, if Christ had written a letter to Abgarus, it would have been a part of sacred Scripture, and would have been placed at the head of all the books of the New Testament. See Lardner's Collection of Ancient Jewish, and Heathen Testimonies, vol. i. p. 297, &c. It must be observed in behalf of Eusebius, that he relates this story as drawn from the archives of Edessa.