that believers, as the members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones, are already risen in their head; that at last he will actually change their vile body into the similitude of his glorious body, and make them, in his own more immediate presence, partakers of that life and immortality which he has brought to light through the gospel. How then can men prevail with themselves to reject this gospel, which appears to be so worthy of God, and so beneficial to mankind! Surely if they impartially weigh the grounds upon which it stands, together with the advantages which it proposes, they cannot think the Author of it was an impostor, or a wicked man; but must conclude, that he was a Person of the greatest goodness, as well as a Prophet of the greatest dignity; and in truth what he pretended to be, even Jesus the Son of God, declared to be so with power, by the resurrection from the dead.

y Ephes. v. 30. and Col. ii. 12.

- 2 Phil. iii. 21. and 2 Tim. i. 10.

a Rom. i. 4.

1

SERMON III.

MATT. vii. 16.

Ye shall know them by their fruits.

IN the verse before the text, our Lord gives his disciples a caution to beware of false prophets. And as he adds, that these prophets would come with great appearances of innocence, and great pretences to sanctity, would come in sheep's clothing, professing only to promote the cause of truth and virtue, and the happiness of their followers, while inwardly they were ravening wolves, intending only to promote the ends of their own avarice and ambition; it was necessary for him to annex some rule, in order to enable his disciples to judge in the case; because deceivers, with these qualifications, and these pretences, might easily impose upon the simple, who are not always upon their guard. The rule therefore he lays down in the text; Ye shall know them by their fruits. You judge not of a fruit-tree immediately by its fair outside and flourishing appearance, but suspend your opinion till you see what it produces; do the same in the case before us; trust not immediately to fair words and plausible pretences, but wait a while, till you see what these new teachers design, and what are the effects and consequences of their doctrine; for by their fruits ye shall know them.

By the word fruits some understand the lives and conversation of these false prophets; but others, the

SERM. III. The good Fruits of Christianity, &c. 41 natural pernicious tendency and wicked consequences of their principles and doctrines. I shall consider the words in both these senses as briefly as I can, whilst I try the Christian religion by its own test, and examine whether its fruits be corrupt or good, in order to form a true judgment of the tree; not doubting but that our Lord was willing to abide by his own rule, and that the inquiry will turn out to the honour and advantage of his religion.

I. In the first place then, taking fruits to signify the life and conversation of the prophet, we must examine those of Christ and his apostles, as he was the Author of our faith, and they the principal instruments of planting it in the world. I am not going to transcribe the gospel history, which a man must do in effect, to give a just account of the life of Jesus Christ. We all know from thence how holy and exemplary it was, a perfect pattern of every virtue he taught, and in a manner wholly spent in prayer to God, and doing good to men. But it may perhaps be suspected, that he undoubtedly had his faults, though his historians have not been ingenuous enough to relate them. To remove this suspicion, let it be remembered, that these historians have recorded their own faults, and the faults of one another, without any reserve. And though it is not absolutely impossible but that they might be kinder to their Master than to themselves, and consult his honour more than their own; yet, considering the plain and artless simplicity of the men, I cannot but think that, if they had known any private wickedness, they would have mentioned it, either by design or accident; and that therefore this suspicion of secret faults is utterly without foundation. If they had

not recorded them directly in the course of their narration, yet they would have come to light from the accusations of his enemies, and from what they said his adversaries laid to his charge. But his adversaries charge him with nothing save the ridiculous falsehood of being a Samaritan and a demoniac, or of conversing too familiarly with publicans and sinners; a mode of conduct which his public character required, as he came to seek and to save them that were lost, and not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance b.

If we follow him to the tribunal, where we may reasonably expect to hear every thing that could possibly be alleged against him, we shall find him even there accused only of what is either false or frivolous. While he stood before the high priest, two false witnesses deposed, that they heard him threaten to destroy the temple. But this was only a villainous misapplication of something he had said about raising up the temple of his body. For want therefore of other matter, the high priest was forced to adjure him, by an unwarrantable exercise of his power, to tell them whether he was the Christ the Son of God; which he no sooner had done, but they all adjudged him to be guilty of blasphemy, and therefore worthy to be put to death. But before this their unjust sentence could be executed, there was another obstacle to be got over. The culprit's cause must be heard before the Roman governor, where they knew such allegations would have but little weight. Here therefore they bring a quite different accusation, and charge him with being a disturber of the public

a Luke xix. 10.

b Matt. ix. 13.

peace, a mover of sedition, forbidding to give tribute to Cæsar, and pretending that he himself was the King of the Jews. But upon examination, Pilate found all this to be false, or nothing to the purpose. He had neither raised nor encouraged any sedition; he had forbidden no man to give tribute to Cæsar, but on the contrary had directed them to pay it; and as for his pretensions to a kingdom, they were not at all inconsistent with the rights of Cæsar, forasmuch as his kingdom was not of this world. The governor therefore, fully sensible of his innocence, was determined to let him go; to prevent which they were obliged to have recourse to a very prevailing argument, and plainly to tell him, that if he did let him go, they should esteem and represent it as a mark of disaffection to the emperor; which would infallibly cost him his place at least, and perhaps his life; If thou let this man go, thou art not Cæsar's friend. He perfectly understood their meaning; and intimidated by this threat, as well as fearing an immediate insurrection, he complied with their desires, and condemned Jesus to be crucified; declaring however at the same time, that he was innocent, and that he found no fault in him.

There can hardly be a stronger proof of the innocence and integrity of any man's life, than the testimony of the judge himself, who is compelled by the clamours of a riotous multitude to take it away. And yet in our Saviour's case there is the testimony of another person, which upon some accounts seems preferable even to that of Pilate; it is the testimony of Judas who betrayed him. For this man had been so long with Jesus, and followed him as a disciple

c John xix. 12.