ly his ignominious death, has been sometimes urged as a great objection: And it was matter of great offence at firft both to Jews and Gentiles. But confidering the defign upon which he came into the world, this is a very unreafonable prejudice; and proceeds purely from too great a value for the outward things of this world, and too little concern, and too low an opinion of a Future ftate; to rectify which mistaken notions of things was one great end of his coming. If the Jews would have confulted their own Scriptures impartially, they might have known, that many of their own Prophets and holy men, whom they acknowledged to have been Messengers of God, were men of fuffering, and grievously perfecuted, fometimes even unto death; and farther they might have known, from those very Prophets who foretold his coming, that he was to be a man of forrows, and acquainted with grief, and that his foul, or life, was to be made an offering for fin. This therefore ought not to have offended them. The Gentiles alfo might have learned, from fome of their most esteemed Philofophers, That outward pomp and greatnefs, power and riches of the world, are rather to be despised than admired, by a truly great and wife man; That

no good man is the lefs beloved of God, for being placed in a state of poverty and contempt, as Epictetus, and other excellent perfsons were; or for being hated and put to death, by his Fellow-citizens, as Socrates, one of the brightest inftances of Heathen virtue, was; That the most eminent examples of virtue, and fuch as were fittest to teach and reform the world, had been fuch as were tried in the furnace of affliction; That mifery and fuffering is so far from being inconsistent with the greatest Virtue and Goodness, that according to Plato's reafoning (in the perfon of Glaucoe) to make the character of a truly Righteous man unquestionably perfect, he must be ftript of all things in the world, even of the credit and reputation of being a Righteous

man;

e Τὸν δίκαιον ἰσῶμῳ τῷ λόγῳ, ἄνδρα, ἁπλῶν καὶ γυναῖον, καλ ̓ *Αιχύλον, ὦ δοκεῖν ἀλλ ̓ εἶναι ἀγαθὸν ἐθέλοντα. ̓Αφαιρετέον δὴ τὸ δοκεῖν, εἰ δ' δόξει δίκαι@ εἶναι, ἔσον αὐτῷ τιμαί εἰς δωρεαί, δου κάντι τοιέτῳ εἶναι· ἄδηλον ἐν εἴτε ξ δικαίς, είτε ἳ δωρεῶν τε καὶ τιμῶν ἕνεκα, τοιςτο εἴη γυμνωτές δὴ πάντων, πλίω δικαι οσεύης, και ποιητές εναντίως Διακείμπρο των προτέρω (αδίκῳ (c.) μηδὲν δ' ἀδικῶν, δόξαν ἐχέτω τ' μεγίσω ἀδικίας· ἵν' ᾗ βίβασα νισμλύου εἰς δικαιοσμύην τῷ μὴ τέν Γεως ὑπὸ κακοδοξίας, και ὑπ' αὐτῆς γινομθύων· ἀλλ ̓ ἤτω ἀμελάσαλο μέχρι θανάτε δο τῶν μὲ εἶναι ἄδικα ale βία, ὢν ἢ δικαι ἐρεσιἢ τάδε ὅτι ἔξω ακείθρα ὁ δίκαιο ματιγώσει, τρεβλώσεις, δεδήσει, ἐκκαυθήσει το 'φθαλμών τελόυτῶν, πάντα κακὰ παθών, αναχίνδυν λουθήσε). Plato de Repub. lib.z. pag. 361.

and

man; because if he be thought a just perfon by the world, Honour and worldly advantage will be his portion, and then it cannot be known, whether it be real virtue, or the advantages of it, which he pursues; he must therefore be reckoned wicked and unjust, while he retains the strictest justice and integrity unshaken, even unto death then the confequence of this will be, (even in the opinion of those who follow only the appearances of virtue or juftice) that fuch a juft man will be expofed to all manner of suffering and ill-treatment, and at last be put to a cruel death, or crucified. Now if this be the utmost pitch of real virtue, and not pretended, then certainly the fuffering state of our Saviour, ought not in Reafon to be an offence to those who confider him as a perfon coming to give the most perfect example of the most difficult virtues: And especially one who comes to teach men to expect another life after this, in comparison of which all the fufferings of this world would vanish, and be as nothing. For could any state of life be more proper to teach men this, than that which he voluntarily took upon him? Or could he more effectually recommend humility, patience, contempt of the world, and obedience to the

will of God, even unto death, any other way than this? If suffering unjustly was that which brought the greatest Glory to the Characters of divers eminent perfons, even in the Pagan world, it ought not by them to have been thought unworthy of God, to make the Captain of our Salvation perfect through fufferings.

2. It has likewise been alledged, as a prejudice against him, that he should promise eternal life to his followers, who was not able to rescue himself from temporal death. But this prejudice fuppofes him not to have died upon choice but neceffity, as it is supposed that none of those great men of former times, who are celebrated for being willing to fuffer death, rather than ftain their character of virtue, would have chofen this part, if both their life and their character could have been preferved together: and therefore if he had not power enough to do both thefe, why should we, fay they, believe him able to make good fuch a promise, as none of those great men or Philofophers ever offered to make? This objection, I fay, fuppofes, that he had not power both to lay down his own life, again, as he declares he had. power, he gave

really had this

and to take it

And that he

this plain de

monftration

་་

monstration in fact, that he rofe again from the dead. Now could any inftance poffible be given more proper to convince men, that he had power to raise others, and make good his promife of giving them eternal life, than this raifing of himself from death? This is an evidence which needs no long deductions of reasoning to make it good; but is plain to every capacity that owns his Refurrection; of which we have fuch affurance from a fufficient number of competent witneffes, as makes it impoffible for any reasonable man to deny it. If his voluntary fuffering of death therefore, befides the other great ends of it, carries his example as far as poffible, his Refurrection fecures us of the Truth of all his Promises. But,

3. That he should likewise be declared to be the Son of God, who thus fuffered and died for mankind, is what fome are yet more offended at. So great a Condefcenfion in God Almighty feems to them unbecoming the Divine Majefty, and is therefore incredible. As in one case they object against the state of his Humiliation, fo here they object against the Dignity of his Perfon. This prejudice arifes from hence, that the goodness of God in this dispensation, and his love to mankind