Tent-makers, was Chriftianity diffufed over. the whole World; fo that the greatest Wits and Scholars, Orators, Grammarians, Rhetoricians, Lawyers, Physicians and Philofophers, have quitted their formerly dear and beloved Sentiments, and fincerely embraced the Precepts and Doctrines of the Gospel. * If a Man, fays Plato (quoted by + Tillotfon) would be a perfect Pattern of Justice and Righteousness, and approved by God and Men, he must be stripped of all the things of this World, he must be poor and difgraced, and be accounted a wicked and unjust Person; he must be whipped, and tormented, and crucified as a MalefactorArrian (cited by the fame Writer) in his Epistle, describing a Man proper to intro-, duce a New Religion, and to reform the World, fays, "The Apostle, the Meffen-: ger, the Preacher and Minister of God, "must be without House or Harbour and "all worldly Accommodations; he must be "armed with the greatest Patience for Suf"ferings, as if he were a Stone and void of "Senfe, he must be a Spectacle of Misery "and Contempt to the World." * Plato de Legib. lib. 2. + Tillotson's Serg. Fol. Edit. Vol. 2. Serm. 85. If IF a certain Air of Majefty (fay the Writers of this fide) if a Grace in fpeaking and a Power in perfuading, contribute to the Perfections of a Man; it cannot be denied but Chrift had thofe Accomplishments in the highest degree. The Gofpel furnishes us with many Examples; * When the Merchants and Money-Changers fled out of the Temple, He who had neither Army nor Authority, obliged them to depart without Refiftance. It must, says † St. Jerome, have been the Majefty of his Person, and the astonishing Luftre of his Face, that terrified the Merchants, and drove them out of his Father's House. The Effect of his august Appearance was the fame in the O. live Garden, when a Troop of Soldiers came to apprehend him, he defeated them all by a fingle Word; they went backward, and fell to the ground: The Jews fent others to take him, while he was preach * Matt. xxi. 12. + Ferom. in Matt. xxi. K 2 ing Nifi enim habuiffet & in Vultu quiddam Oculifque fidereum, nunquam ftatim eum fecuti fuiffent Apoftoli, nec ad comprehendendum eum miffi corruiffent. John xviii. 6. ing to the Soldiers, but none of them durft lay hands on him; they returned to thofe that fent them, faying, * Never Man spake like this Man †. IT is farther faid, that the greatest Enemies to Chrift and his Religion, never reproach'd him with Unhandsomeness or Deformity. Julian the Apoftate, the Jews and Heathens, never reviled him upon that account. They accufed him indeed of be ing the Son of an Adulterefs, being an ignorant Man and without Learning, a Ma❤ gician and a Seducer, a Madman and pof feffed with the Devil, one that worked false Miracles, a Glutton and a Drunkard. The Jews have invented monstrous Relations of his Birth, his Life, his Miracles, and his Death; but he was never reproach'd with an ill Shape or a forbidding Countenance : which proves, that the greatest of his Enemies had no grounds that carried the leaft Proba John vii. 46. + The Argument would have been ftronger, if the Answer had been, Never any Man looked like this Man. + Tertull. de Spec. Toledos Jefu or the Life of Jesus. Probability of Truth, to form such an Accusation against him. THESE are the Arguments that are offer'd in Defence of the Majefty, the Beauty and Gracefulness of our Saviour's Perfon. They are stated in their full force, and the Weight of them must be determined by the Reader's Judgment: What is commonly faid to support the contrary Opinion, will be the Subject of the Second Part of this Inquiry. บ THE THE SECOND PART. HE Reverence that is juftly due to the Body of the Meffiah, requires, that this Subject fhould be treated with the greatest Decency and Referve; I am fenfible of the Danger there is of faying too much or too little. "I WOULD have it known, (fays a lear❝ned*Writer upon the fame occafion) that "I reverence and adore whatever was Hu"man in the Perfon of Christ, nor can I "without horror, endure any Expressions to be applied to the Son of God, that are "inconfiftent with his divine Majefty: But "fince Truth alone is the Foundation of "the Chriftian Religion, how vain and un<< worthy are we, when we force it from |