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النشر الإلكتروني

JESUS never remained in one place a sufficient length of time for a sedition, much less for a conspiracy to gain consistency. For, whenever the people assembled in multitudes, it was his constant practice to retire speedily to some other city or village: so that, a sedition, although most terrible in a despotic government, in that it is never without cause, was not feared from the public carriage of JESUS, by the Roman authority in Judea.

IN this manner JESUS CHRIST travelled over the principal parts of his country, evidently devoted to some pursuit, the object of which, doubtless, in his own opinion, was superior to any of those attainments which usual

ly excite the passions of men. For in the ardour of his purposes, JESUS Overlooked all those objects, which were most dear to the great men of antiquity; and likewise money, the passion of the present day. With a mind at once solid and brilliant, which seemed to place its chief delight in conception of the sublimest moral truths, he left all his fame as a philosopher, to the treacherous ears of an ignorant multitude, or to the care of a few associates, who possibly could not write their names! With a courage that never turned from an enemy, and with a firmness that encountered the whole opposition of the Pharisees, this man submitted to be spit on, to be buffetted, to be smitten, and to be scourged..

With pretensions to arrogate every thing, this man claimed nothing; and only once complained that "the birds had nests, and the foxes holes, but that he had not where to lay his head." In the midst of a people who were ready to worship him as a GOD, he was content to be derided as an im

postor. In the midst of a people whose favor was ready to outstrip the wings of his expectation; JESUS sunk upon the public below Barabbas the robber. Yet what is no less extraordinary, he lived perfectly contented, neither envying the rich, nor despising the poor. Nor did he endeavor to ameliorate the severity of his condi tion; or even to shun the ignominy of his fate, a pathetic presentiment of

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which he expressed a short time be fore his death. Yet this man, always in the depths of poverty, was reputed to work miracles. But the greatest miracle of all is, he never wrought one in his own favor. In such a case would not any other man have exerted his power, sometimes, to have controuled his wants, or even to have insured his pleasures? Would not an oriental have turned his water into wine? Instead of a life of penance and penury, would not the congenial climate of Judea have inspired convivial gratifications? Instead of suffering an eternal and conflicting chastity, would not an oriental, whose blood usually flows in a fiery current, or trembles in a voluptuous languor, have converted the very

cedars of Lebanon into a haram? Yet this temperate Nazarene preferred the brook or the rivulet to the joys of the vintage. Yet this humble Nazarene travelled Judea on foot, and never rode but once; and then in a manner that seemed to court the contempt of the populace. Yet this self-denying Nazarene frequented the tables of a Wapping and St. Giles. Yet this cold blooded Nazarene was as exemplary in his affections, as though he had been dipped, every morning, in the river Cydnus.

THE fame of JESUS had now extended throughout. Judea. Many of the genteel people, including not a few of the chief rulers, publicly whisper. ed their doubts, "If the man was not H

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