three reflections we shall employ all the moments of attention with which you shall think proper to indulge us.

I Let us justify the idea, which Jesus Christ gives us of his kingdom, and let us prove the truth of this proposition, My kingdom is not of this world. To tiese ends. let us remark the end of this king, his maxims, his exploits, his arms, his courtiers, and his rewards.

of betraying the truth. Ah! why did not the maxims of such as Hobbes and Machiavel vanish with the impure authors of them! Must the Christian world produce partisans and apologists for the policy of hell! These are some of their maxims. Every way is right that leads to a throne. Sincerity, fidelity, and gratitude, are not the virtues of public men, but of people in private life. The safety of the people is the supreme law. Religion is a bridle to subjects; but kings are free from its restraints. There are some illus trious crimes.'

1. Remark the end, the design of this king. What is the end of the kingdoms of the world? They are directed to as many different ends as there are different passions, which prevail over the minds of those who are elevated to the government of them. In a Sardanapalus, it is to wallow in sensuality. In a Sennacherib, it is to display pomp and vain glory. In an Alexander, it is to conquer the whole world. But let us not be ingenious to present society to view by its disagreeable sides. To render a state respectable, to make trade flourish, to establish peace, to conquer in a just war, to procure a life of quiet and tranquillity for the subjects, these are the ends of the kingdoms of this world. Ends worthy of Sovereigns, I own. But, after all, what are all these advantages in comparison of the grand sentiments which the Creator has engraven on our souls? What relation do they bear to that unquenchable thirst for happiness, which all intelligent beings feel? What are they when the lightning darts, and the thunder rolls in the air? What are they when conscience awakes? What are they when we meet death, or what is their value when we lie in the tomb? Benevolence, yea, humanity, I grant, should make us wish our successors happy but strictly speaking, when I die, all dies with me. Whether so ciety enjoys the tranquil warmth of peace, or burns with the rage of faction and war; whether commerce flourish or decline; whe- The exploits of the Messiah completely ther armies conquer their foes, or be led cap-effect the end of his reign. He came, we tives themselves: each is the same to me. just now observed, to dissipate prejudice by "The dead know not any thing. Their love, demonstration, and he has gloriously accomand their hatred, and their envy, is perished: plished his end. Before the coming of Jesus neither have they any more a portion for Christ, philosophers were brute beasts: since ever in any thing that is under the sun,' his coming, brute beasts are become philosoEccles. ix. 5, 6. phers. Jesus Christ came to conquer our tyrannical passions, and he has entirely effected his design. He renovated disciples, who rose above the appetites of sense, the ties of nature, and the love of self; disciples who, at his word, courageously forsook their property, their parents, and their children, and voluntarily went into exile; disciples, who crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts,' Gal. v. 24; generous disciples, who sacrificed their lives for their brethren, and sometimes for their persecutors; disciples who triumphed over all the horrors, while they suffered all the pains, of gibbets, and racks, and fires. Jesus Christ came to calm conscience, and to disarm divine justice, and his design has been perfectly answered. The church perpetually resounds with 'grace, grace unto it, Zech. iv. 7. The penitent is cited before no other tribunal than that of mercy. For thee, converted sinner! there are only declarations of absolution and grace. Jesus Christ came to conquer death, and he has manifestly fulfilled his purpose. Shall we

The maxims of Jesus Christ are very different. Justice and judgment are the bases of a throne. Render unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's, and unto God the things that are God's. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all other things shall be added to you. Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them. Let your communication be yea, yea, and nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil,' Psal. lxxx. 14. Matt. xxii. 21. vi. 33. vii. 12. and v. 37.

3. The exploits of the kingdom of Jesus Christ accomplish his designs. He does not employ such artillery as the kings of the earth do to reduce whole cities to ashes. His soldiers are none of those formidable engines of death in his wars, which are called, the final reasons of kings. His forces are strangers to that desperate avidity of conquest, which makes worldly generals aim to attain inaccessible mountains, and to penetrate the climes that have never been trodden by the footsteps of men. His exploits are, neither the forcing of intrenchments, nor the colouring of rivers with blood; not the covering of whole countries with carcasses, nor the filling of the world with carnage, and terror and death.

The end of the kingdom of Jesus Christ is of another kind. Represent to yourselves the divine Saviour in the bosom of God, himself the blessed God.' He cast his eyes down on this earth. He saw prejudices blinding the miserable sons of Adam, passions tyrannizing over them, conscience condemning them, divine vengeance pursuing them, death seizing and devouring them, the gulfs of hell yawning to swallow them up. Forth he came, to make prejudice yield to demonstration, darkness to light, passion to reason. He came to calm conscience, to disarm the vengeance of heaven, to swallow up death in victory,' 1 Cor. xv. 54, to close the mouth of the infernal abyss. These are the designs of the king Messiah; designs too noble, too sublime, for earthly kings. My kingdom is not of this world.'

2. The maxims of this kingdom agree with its end. What are the maxims of the kingdoms of this world? I am ashamed to repeat them; and I am afraid, if I suppress them,

ble, incorruptible, and disinterested. But, may I venture to say it? This morality is fit only for a hamlet now-a-days; it is impracticable on the great theatres of the world, and, so great is the corruption of these times, we must adopt a contrary style. Who would acquire a fortune? Let him be treacherous, and unjust, let him be concentred in his own interest. Who would become popular, and have a crowded levee? Let him be a shallow, intriguing, self-admiren Who would occupy the first posts in the army? Let him flatter, let him excel in the art of substituting protection and favour in the place of real

merit.

What conclusion must we draw from all these melancholy truths? The text is the conclusion, 'my kingdom is not of this world.' No, Christian, by imitating thy Saviour, thou wilt acquire neither riches, nor rank: thou wilt meet with contempt and shame, poverty and pain! But peace of conscience, a crown of martyrdom, an eternal mansion in the Father's house,' John xiv. 2, the society of angels, the heavenly Jerusalem, these are the rewards which Jesus Christ himself reaped, and these, he has promised, thou shalt reap!

II. We have proved that the kingdom of Jesus Christ is not of this world, we will proceed now to prove, that it is therefore kingdom of truth. Thou sayest that I am a king; to this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.'

What is this truth? Two ideas may be formed of it. It may be considered, either in regard to the Jews who accused Christ before Pilate; or in regard to Pilate himself, before whom Jesus Christ was accused.

If we consider it in regard to the Jews, this truth will respect the grand question, which was then in dispute between Jesus Christ and them; that is, Whether he were the Messiah whom the prophets had foretold. If we consider it in regard to Pilate, and to the Pagan societies, to which this Roman governor belonged, a more general notion must be formed of it. The Pagan philosophers pretended to inquire for truth; some of them affected to have discovered it, and others affirmed that it could not be discovered, that all was uncertain, that finite minds could not be sure of any thing, except that they were sure of nothing. This was particularly the doctrine of Socrates. Learned men have thought the last was Pilate's system; and, by this hypothesis, they explain his reply to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ said to him, I came to bear witness to the truth. Pilate answered, 'What is truth? Can frail men distinguish truth from falsehood? How should they know truth?

Whether this be only a conjecture, or not, I affirm, that, let the term truth be taken in which of the two senses it will, Jesus Christ came to bear witness to truth, in both senses, and that his is a kingdom of truth, because it is not a kingdom of thisworld: whence it follows, that there are some truths of which we have infallible evidence.

The kingdom of Jesus Christ, 'is not of this world, therefore Jesus Christ is the

promised Messiah. The Jews meet with nothing in Christianity equal in difficulty to this; and their error on this article, it must be acknowledged, claims our patience and pity.

The prophets have attributed a sceptre to Jesus Christ, an emblem of the regal autho rity of temporal kings: Thou shalt break them with a sceptre of iron." They attributed to him a throne, the seat of temporal kings: 'thy throne, O God! is for ever and ever; the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre,' Ps. xlv. 6. They attributed to him the armies of a temporal king: Thy people shall be willing in the day when thou shalt assemble thine army in holy pomp,' Ps. cx. 3. They attributed to him homages like those which are rendered to a temporal king: They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust,' Ps. lxxii. 9. They attributed to him the subjects of a temporal king: 'Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession,' Ps. ii. 8. They attributed to him the prosperity of a temporal king: The kings of Tarshish and of the isles, shall bring presents; the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts,' Ps. lxxii. 10. They attributed to him the exploits of temporal kings: He shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath; he shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies, he shall wound the heads over many countries,' Ps. cx. 5, 6. They even foretold that the king promised to the Jews should carry the glory of his nation to a higher degree than it had ever attained under its most successful princes.

How could the Jews know our Jesus by these descriptions, for he was only called a king in derision, or at most, only the vile populace seriously called him so? Our Jesus had no other sceptre than a reed, no other crown than a crown of thorns, no other throne than a cross; and the same may be said of the rest. Never was an objection seemingly more unanswerable, my brethren: never was an ob jection really more capable of a full, entire, and conclusive solution. Attend to the following considerations:

1. Those predictions, which are most incontestable in the ancient prophecies, are, that the sceptre of the Messiah was to be 'a sceptre of righteousness,' Ps. xlv. 6, Heb. i. 8; and that they, who would enjoy the felicities of his kingdom, must devote themselves to virtue. They must be humble, and in lowliness of mind, each must esteem an other better than himself,' Phil. ii. 3. They must be clement towards their enemies, do. good to them that hate them, and pray for

*Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Our author uses the French version, Tu les froisseras avec un sceptre de fer. The Hebrew word is put literally for a common walking-stick, Exod. xxi. 19; a rod of correction, Prov. x. 13; the staff, that was carried by the head of a tribe, or by a ma gistrate, as an ensign of his office, Gen. xlix. 10; the sceptre of a prince, and indeed for a rod, or staff, of any kind. It is put figuratively for support, affliction, power, &c. The epithet iron is added to express a penal exercise of power, as that of golden is to signify a mild use of it.

them which persecute them,' Matt. v. 44. They must subdue the rebellion of the senses, subject them to the empire of reason, and crucify the flesh with its affections, and lusts,' Gal. v. 24. But of all the means that can be used to subjugate us to those virtues, that which we have supposed is the most eligible; I mean, the giving of a spiritual and metaphorical sense to the ancient prophecies. What would be the complexion of the kingdom of the Messiah, were it to afford us all those objects which are capable of flattering and of gratifying our passions? Riches would irritate our avarice. Ease would indulge our sloth and indolence. Pomp would produce arrogance and pride. Reputation would excite hatred and revenge. In order to mortify these passions, the objects must be removed by which they are occasioned or fomented. For the purpose of such a mortification, a cross is to be preferred before a bed of down, labour before ease, humiliation before grandeur, poverty before wealth.

is the unprejudiced man, who does not perceive that these passages are clews to the prophecies, in which the Messiah is represented as exercising a temporal dominion on earth?

4. If there be any thin literal in what the prophets have foretold of the eminent degree of temporal glory to which the Mes siah was to raise the Jewish nation; if the distinction of St. Paul, of Israel after the flesh, 1 Cor. x. 18, from Israel after the Spirit, Rom. ix. 3. 6, be verified in this respect; if the saying of John the Baptist, God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham,' Matt. iii. 9; if, in one word, as we said before, there be any thing literal in those prophecies, we expect a literal accomplishment of them. Yes! we expect a period, in which the king Messiah will elevate the Jewish nation to a more eminent degree of glory, than any to which its most glorious kings have ever elevated it. The heralds of the kingdom of our Messiah, far from contesting the pretensions of the Jews on this article, urged the truth and the equity of them. 'I say then (these are the words of St. Paul, writing on the rejection of the Jews), I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall?' Rom. xi. Î1, 12. God forbid! But rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?'

2. To give a literal meaning to the prophecies which announce the kingdom of Christ, is to make them contradict themselves. Were terrestrial pomp, were riches, and human grandeurs always to attend the Messiah, what would become of those parts of the prophecies which speak with so much energy of his humiliation and sufferings? What would become of the prophecy, which God himself gave to the first man,The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head:' but indeed 'the serpent shall bruise his heel?' What would become of this prophetic saying St. Paul establishes in these words two of the psalmist, 'I am a worm, and no man; callings of the Gentiles: a calling which was a reproach of men, and despised of the peo- a reproach to the Jewish nation, and a calling ple? Ps. xxii. 6. What would become of which shall be the glory of that nation. That this prophecy of Isaiah, 'He hath no form calling which was a reproach to the Jews, nor comeliness; when we shall see him, there was occasioned by their infidelity; the fall is no beauty, that we should desire him; he of them was the riches of the world, and the was despised, and we esteemed him not,' diminishing of them the riches of the Genchap. liii. 2, 3. Whether, to free ourselves tiles:' that is to say, the apostles, disgusted at from this difficulty, we say, with some Jews, the unbelief of the Jews, preached the gospel that the prophets speak of two Messiahs? to the Pagan world. or with others, dispute the sense in which even the traditions of the ancient Rabbins explained these prophecies, and deny that they speak of the Messiah at all: in either case, we plunge ourselves into an ocean of difficulties. It is only the kingdom of our Jesus, that unites the grandeur and the meanness, the glory and the ignominy, the immortality and the death, which, the ancient prophets foretold, would be found in the kingdom, and in the person of the Messiah. 3. The prophets themselves have given the keys of their prophecies concerning the Messiah. Behold! the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah. I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts,' Jer. xxxi. 31. And again, I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the Lord their God; and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen,' Hos. i. 7. What is that covenant, which engageth to put the divine law in the hearts of them with whom it is made? What is this salvation which is procured 'neither by bow nor by sword? Where

But here is a second calling mentioned, which will be glorious to the Jews, and this calling will be occasioned by the return of the Jews to the covenant, and by their embra cing the gospel. The Gentiles, to whom the gospel had not been preached before, will be so stricken to see the accomplishment of those prophecies which had foretold it; they will be so affected to see the most cruel enemies of Jesus Christ become his most zealous disciples, that they will be converted through the influence of the example of the Jews. If the fall of them,' if the fall of the Jews, were the riches of the world, and the dimin ishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fulness?' This is an ar ticle of faith in the Christian church.

This furnishes us also with an answer to one of the greatest objections that was ever made against the Christian system, touching the spiritual reign of the Messiah. A very ingenious Jew has urged this objection; mean the celebrated Isaac Orobio. learned man, through policy, had professed the Catholic religion in Spain: but, after the fear of death had made him declare himself a Christian, in spite of the most cruel tortures

This