REMNANTS Of TIME. 469 neither adore nor destroy the saints. ,A principie of superstition might tempt some weaker souls to pay extravagant honours to the christian, if he carried heaven in his face, and it were visible in his countenance that he was the Son of God. On the other hand, the malicious and perverse part of mankind might imitate the rage of Satan, and attempt the sooner to destroy the saint. This was the case of the blessed Paul. When he had wrought a miracle at Lystra, and appeared with something divine about him, when he had healed the cripple by a mere word of command, the people cried out with exalted voices, " The Gods are come down to us in the likeness of men ;" immediately they made a Mercury of St. Paul, they turned Barnabas into Jupiter, and the priest brought oxen and garlands to the gates to have done sacrifice to them ; this was the humour of the superstitious Gentiles. But in several of the Jews their malice and envy wrought a very different effect ; for they persuaded the people into fury, so that they stoned the blessed Apostle, and drew him out of the city for dead. Acts xiv. Thus it fared with our Lord Jesus Christ himself in the days of his flesh : For the most part he lived unknown among men, he did not cry nor make his voice be heard in the streets ; but when he discovered himself to them on any special occasion, the people ran into different extremes. Once when the characters of the Messiah appeared with evidence upon him, they would have raised him to a throne, and made an earthly king of him. John vi. 15. At another time, when his holy conduct did not suit their humour, they were " filled with wrath, and led him to the brow of a hill to cast him down headlong." Luke iv. 29. Therefore our blessed Lord did not walk through the streets, and tell the world he was the Messiah ; but by degrees he let the characters of his mission appear upon him, and discovered himself in wisdom as his disciples and the world could bear it, and as the Father had appointed. Let us imitate our blessed Lord, and copy after so divine a pattern ; let our works bear a bright and growing witness to our inward and real christianity. This is such a gentle sort of evi- dence, that though it may work conviction in the hearts of specta- tors, yet it does not strike the sense with so glaring a light as to dazzle the weaker sort who behold it, into superstitious folly ; nor does it give such provocation to the envy of the malicious, as if the saints had borne the sign of their high dignity in some more surprising manner in their figure or countenance. I might acid also, There is something in thi. sort of evidence of their saintsltip, that carries more true honour in it, than if some heavenly name had been written in their forehead, or their skin had shone like the face of Moses when he came down from Vol.. tx. I t
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