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My meat is to do the will of him that sent "me, and to finish his work." He assigns

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to those persons the first place in his affections who co-operate with him in this great purpose;" Whosoever shall do the will of 66 my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and motherf." We discover nothing of this kind in heathen legislators or instructors. Either their own personal interest, or some feeling of vainglory in being distinguished as the benefactors of mankind, may generally be discerned as the motive of their most laudable exertions. Christ alone continually manifested a mind intent upon God's will, and devoted to His service. "Father," says he, at the awful hour when his ministry was about to close, "I have glorified Thee on the earth; I have "finished the work which Thou gavest me to "do." Neither did he, in the furtherance of that work, neglect any of the ordinary duties of religion. It was his maxim, in these, as in other respects, to "fulfil all righteousness"." Though he needed no regeneration, he submitted to the rite of baptism. Though he was "Lord of the sabbath," he sanctified it by his own observance. Though he taught

men to worship God " in spirit and in truth," he did not depreciate external ordinances. We find him constant in his attendance on public worship; not only at the temple-service, ordained by the Mosaic Law, but at that of the synagogue; a service of later institution and of inferior authority. Those festivals of the Jewish church which had been superadded to the great feasts appointed by Moses were sanctioned by his presence. His reverence for places of public worship was further signalized by a remarkable exertion of miraculous power in driving out from the temple those who had profaned the house of God.

Yet notwithstanding this attention to every external act of piety, and the genuine fervour which appears to have accompanied his performance of such duties, no indication can be discovered of the weakness of superstition, or of any undue stress laid upon the mere formalities of religious service. The part which our Lord had to perform in this respect was one of singular difficulty. Not only was the Jewish ceremonial Law itself a very burthensome service, and a service, moreover, which, by his own fulfilment of its purpose, was shortly to be superseded and annulled; but

i John iv. 23.

ance,

it was overloaded, at the time of his appearwith additional observances, and encumbered with needless perplexities, by those who had "taught for doctrines the commandments "of men." To separate these, when necessity required it, from duties of higher obligation, was both an ungracious and a hazardous task. But it consisted not with the real sanctity of our Lord's character, that "the "weightier matters of the Law, judgment, "justice, and righteousness," or the works of mercy and benevolence more especially characteristic of his divine mission, should be made to yield to the less necessary, however blameless usages, which had been arbitrarily engrafted upon the Law itself. Hence the frequent cavils he had to encounter, and the obloquy he suffered in performing deeds of mercy on the sabbath-day; in vindicating his authority so to do, even by the exercise of miraculous power; in contending with the deep-rooted prejudices of the priests and the people, respecting the intrinsic worth of ordinances in which they deemed the whole of religion to consist; and in teaching them by his own practice the true meaning of that divine maxim which they so little understood, "I will have mercy, and not sacri

k Matth. xx. 9.

VOL. I.

Y

1 Matth. xxiii. 23.

"fice m" In effecting this arduous purpose, occasion is continually presented to us in his history, of admiring that extraordinary discretion, firmness, conciliation, and forbearance, by which he manifested his zeal for God's glory, and his reverence for every sacred institution, while he discountenanced that spurious or pretended sanctity, which would confound things circumstantial or indifferent with things essential to religion, and render piety itself subversive of the highest moral obligations.

If further demonstrations of our Lord's piety were requisite, the Evangelists have supplied them in the various instances they record of his private as well as public devotions. Though continually occupied among crowds of followers, and ever intent upon extending to the wretched and helpless, to the ignorant and depraved, the blessings of health and strength, of instruction and reformation; large portions of his time appear to have been set apart for secret meditation and prayer, for spiritual communion with his heavenly Father, and for strengthening Himself by these means in the further progress of his ministry. Here, again, we see the perfection of that humility so conspicuous in all his

m Matth. ix. 13.

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conduct. He who had no sins of his own to be forgiven, he who knew that the Father heard him always, he who on every occasion gave such abundant demonstration of the spirit and the power abiding in him for the high purpose he had undertaken; yet deemed it incumbent upon him in his human nature, “in every thing by prayer and supplication to make known his requests "unto God"." And not only was this done at stated times and seasons, or at intervals of privacy and retirement, but, when occasion called for it, in the presence of others; when, for the sake of example to those around him, or to give them assurance that God was with him, he either invoked the Divine blessing upon an act to be performed, or gave glory to God for its success.

But our admiration of this feature in the portrait must not draw off our attention from one equally striking, and equally deserving of our contemplation; that love of man, that

that pure and unbounded benevolence, which, blending itself with this unsophisticated piety, rendered him a still brighter model of excellence, a still worthier object of imitation.

With reference more especially to this

n Phil. iv. 6.