forerunner, but he at the fame time afferted his own just fuperiority, and that of the difpenfation which he introduced. Matt. xi. 11. "Verily I fay unto you, among them that are born of women there hath not arifen a greater than John the Baptift: notwithstanding, he that is leaft in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he."

4. Jefus was alfo careful to make a proper diftinction between his difciples and himself, and without fupercilioufnefs or arrogance. He fays to them, Matt. xxiii, 10. "Neither be ye called masters; for one is your master, even Chrift, and all ye are brethren." On other occafions he calls them his brethren. As when he fays to Mary Magdalene after his refurrection, John xx. 17. "Go to my brethren, and fay unte them, I afcend unto my Father, and your Father, to my God and your God." At the laft fupper, when he fhewed his condefcenfion by washing the feet of the apostles, he faid to them, John xiii. 13. "Ye call me master and Lord, and ye fay well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and master, have washed your feet, ye ought alfo to wash one another's feet." It appears alfo from the hiftory

I

history of the refurrection of Lazarus to have been customary with the difciples of Jefus to call him mafter. For on his arrival at Bethany, Martha, who had seen him first, says to her fifter Mary, John xi. 28. "The mafter is come, and calleth for thee."

and

In his parables alfo Jefus always makes a great diftinction between himself and his difciples. John x. 7. " Then faid Jefus unto them again, Verily, verily, I fay unto you, I am the door of the fheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. By me if any man entereth in, he shall be faved, and go in and in and out, find pasture." Changing his comparison, he fays, verse 11. "I am the good fhepherd. The good fhepherd giveth his life for the fheep. I am the good fhepherd, and know my fheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even fo know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the fheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold. Them alfo I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one flock, and one shepherd." A little before his death he made use of another parable, in which he preferved

preferved the fame diftinction between himfelf and his followers. John xv. 1. "I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit, he prunes, that it may bring forth more fruit." Purfuing the fame allufion, he faid, "Abide in me. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the fame bringeth forth much fruit; but without me ye can do nothing."

As Jefus always fpake of himself as Standing in a peculiarly near relation to God, as a fon with refpect to a father, he reprefents his difciples as ftanding in a fimilar relation to himself, thus placing himself in an intermediate ftate between God and them; as when he said, John xv. 9. "As the Father hath loved me, fo have I loved you. Continue ye in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." In his prayer for his disciples a little before his death, he says, John xvii. 18.

"As thou haft fent me into the world, fo have I also fent them into the world. And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one." Here it may be afked, how came men at least equal to Jefus in birth and education, and several of them fuperior to him in fortune, to bear these airs of fuperiority, if they had not been convinced that there was a real foundation for it; and that could only be his divine miffion, of which, therefore, they must have been fully perfuaded.

John the Baptift, being the fon of a priest, was by birth, and no doubt by education, greatly fuperior to Jefus, who was only the fon of a carpenter; and yet when John had acquired an established reputation, he acknowledged Jefus, when, according to one account, he had not fo much as seen him, and who was then altogether unknown to the country at large, to be his fuperior; fo much fo, that he faid he was not worthy to stoop down and loofe his fhoe. If both these men, and the apoftles alfo, were all impoftors (and if any of them were, they must all have been fo, fince they concurred

in carrying on the same scheme), whence arose this extraordinary deference to a man who was in every natural respect their inferior?

This continued after the death of Jesus, and to the end of their lives, without the leaft diminution of their attachment to him. They all preached, and worked miracles, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Before his death, feveral of them fhewed ftrong fymptoms of ambition, and fome feeds of diffention appeared among them afterwards; yet they never fwerved from their profeffed allegiance to their crucified master; a thing abfolutely unaccountable on the supposition of their being in the fecret of any imposture of his; and if there had been any thing of this kind, it could not have been concealed from them.

Though Jefus ufed great prudence and referve in affuming his highest title, that of the Meffiah, he did it on feveral occafions to his difciples, especially as they were going to Cæfarea Philippi; when, having asked them what was faid of him, and what they thought themfelves, and Peter had faid,

"Thou