and more particularly from that of Christ himself, we are to learn, that the qualifications which recommend a person to God, will not make him acceptable or respectable with men, but often the contrary; for among men, innocence is envied, godliness is despised, zeal discouraged, and justice hated. Whence it has been established by wise and virtuous men, as a maxim founded on experience, that the voice of the multitude is never to be regarded as a test of truth or merit.-Fashionable error is a dreadful enemy to the advocates of truth: and there never was an age or country in which error did not get into fashion, and take the direction of men's minds; so that truth has but a poor chance without an overruling Providence to second and enforce it. We have a famous passage to this effect from the greatest moral philosopher of the Greeks, who declared with a kind of prescience, that if a man perfectly just were to come upon earth, he would be impoverished, and scourged, and bound as a criminal, and, when he had suffered all manner of indignities, would be put to the shameful death of suspension or crucifixion.*

* Several of the Fathers have taken notice of this extraordinary passage in Plato; looking upon it as a prediction of the sufferings of the Just One, Jesus Christ; and

There is not a more spotless character in the scripture than that of Joseph; yet his brethren hated him, and their envy had no rest till they had sent him out of their sight as a slave. Moses was a pattern of meekness, and with a struggle of diffidence undertook his commission; a commission, with which he should have been received by a poor oppressed people, like, what he was, in fact, a messenger from heaven. But they railed at him, as if he had only made that condition worse, which was bad enough before; so had provoked those who were already enraged, and had put a sword into their hands to slay them. Thus the fearful and unbelieving (who are sometimes found among the wise ones of this world) are always disposed to discourage and condemn a zeal for the cause of God and the rights of his religion, as indiscreet, unseasonable, and dangerous. Whence it follows, that if we are called upon to act in any public character, we must do people good against their will, and take the chance of being ungratefully or even despitefully treated for it. None but the mean-spirited, or the ambitious, or the insipid,

after them it is noted by Grotius de Veritate, Lib. 4. sect. 12. Causabon (Merick) has a learned and excellent Criticism upon it, in his Treatise Of Credulity and Incredulity, p. 135, &c.

or the hypocritical, are spoken well of by all men; and popular applause is the grand object of a vain or knavish disposition. Therefore the Christian is wisely admonished, to seek that praise which cometh only from God; which is never bestowed upon false merit, and will never be wanting to the true.

2. From the example of the Jews, who were only irritated by St. Stephen's arguments, when they ought to have been converted, we see what a dreadful thing it is to have our reasons for hating and rejecting the truth. It is of infinite consequence that we should inquire what that meaneth,-they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. What can be plainer than truth? And what is more amiable? And if it saves us, what in all the world is half so valuable? Yet that saving truth is the only truth men cannot of themselves understand: and if they do not understand it, what fearful commotions are raised by it! It is a powerful drug, which will either embitter and inflame the mind,* or restore it to reason. The bigotted Jew, the ancient Heathen, the modern infidel, the man of levity and pleasure, are all upon a level, all equally adverse to the Christian plan

* Stultos facit insanos. TER.

of salvation; all equally restless and impatient when the proofs of it are laid before them. Even Paul himself (who from the part he took when the blood of the martyr Stephen was shed, must have been present at the trial) could hear the martyr's apology without being persuaded by it that very man, who afterwards struck into the same way of interpretation, and delighted to apply the figures of the law as a testimony to Jesus Christ. There was a time when he was not only deaf, but inveterate, and, as he said, exceedingly mad against the Christians and all their arguments. Stephen might look like an angel, and reason like an angel: nothing could touch him. He had an opinion that the Christians were wrong, and deserved to be persecuted: but opinion is that judgment which a man forms of the things of God without the grace of God. When Stephen had reasoned with his hearers, he prayed for them; and perhaps the conversion of that glorious instrument of God, the blessed Apostle St. Paul, might be granted in consequence of that prayer.

3. We are, lastly, to learn from the deliverance of the Hebrews under Moses, which God was pleased to accomplish by his hand, after all the contempt and opposition he had met with;

that, however the church, in bad times, may be corrupted and oppressed, and even averse to its own deliverance; yet the counsel of God is sure; and He who hath promised to be with it to the end of the world, will never forsake its interests. Kings, with their statesmen and politicians, may be jealous of its rights, and invade them without fear or shame: nay, the time may come, when the very idea of a divine authority, either in priests or kings, shall be as hateful among Christians, as Moses and Aaron were to Pharoah and the magicians of Egypt: and there are too many among us already, who cannot speak of it with patience. But the powers of the world can proceed no farther than God shall permit; and when things are at the worst, and seemingly past remedy, then will the time of the promise draw nigh; God shall interpose in what form and manner he sees best; and the church shall be conducted to glory and liberty, as the afflicted Hebrews were led forth to the possession of the land of Canaan.