and his opinion of the manner in which the most unreasonable opponents ought to be treated, or at least of the manner in which they ought not to be treated. The terms, in which his rebuke was conveyed, deserve to be noticed:-' Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of."1

VIII. Lastly, amongst the negative qualities of our religion, as it came out of the hands of its founder and his apostles, we may reckon its complete abstraction from all views either of ecclesiastical or civil policy; or, to meet a language much in fashion with some men, from the politics of either priests or statesmen. Christ's declaration, that 'his kingdom was not of this world,' recorded by John; his evasion of the question, whether it was lawful or not to give tribute unto Cæsar, mentioned by the three other evangelists; his reply to an application that was made to him, to interpose his authority in a question of property, 'Man, who made me a ruler or a judge over you?' ascribed to him by St. Luke; his declining to exercise the office of a criminal judge in the case of the woman taken in adultery, as related by John, are all intelligible significations of our Saviour's sentiments upon this head. And with respect to politics, in the usual sense of that word, or discussions concerning different forms of government, Christianity declines every question upon the subject. Whilst politicians are disputing about monarchies, aristocracies, and republics, the Gospel is alike applicable, useful, and friendly to them all; inasmuch as, Ist, it tends to make men virtuous, and as it is easier to govern good men than bad men under any constitution: as, 2ndly, it states obedience to government in ordinary cases, to be not merely a submission to force, but a duty of conscience: as, 3rdly, it induces dispositions favourable to public tranquillity, a Christian's chief care being to pass quietly through this world to a better: as, 4thly, it prays for communities, and for the governors of communities, of whatever description or denomination they be, with a solicitude and fervency proportioned to the influence which they possess upon human happiness. All which, in my opinion, is just as it should be. Had there been more to be found in scripture of a political nature, or convertible to political purposes, the

1 Luke ix. 55.

worst use would have been made of it, on whichever side it seemed to lie.

When, therefore, we consider Christ as a moral teacher (remembering that this was only a secondary part of his office; and that morality, by the nature of the subject, does not admit of discovery, properly so called); when we consider either what he taught, or what he did not teach, either the substance or the manner of his instruction; his preference of solid to popular virtues, of a character which is commonly despised, to a character which is universally extolled; his placing, in our licentious vices, the check in the right place, viz., upon the thoughts; his collecting of human duty into two well-devised rules, his repetition of these rules, the stress he laid upon them, especially in comparison with positive duties, and his fixing thereby the sentiments of his followers; his exclusion of all regard to reputation in our devotion and alms, and, by parity of reason, in our other virtues: when we consider that his instructions were delivered in a form calculated for impression, the precise purpose in his situation to be consulted; and that they were illustrated by parables, the choice and structure of which would have been admired in any composition whatever : when we observe him free from the usual symptoms of enthusiasm, heat and vehemence in devotion, austerity in institutions, and a wild particularity in the descriptions of a future state; free also from the depravities of his age and country; without superstition amongst the most superstitious of men, yet not decrying positive distinctions or external observances, but soberly recalling them to the principle of their establishment, and to their place in the scale of human duties; without sophistry or trifling, amidst teachers remarkable for nothing so much, as frivolous subtleties and quibbling expositions; candid and liberal in his judgment of the rest of mankind, although belonging to a people, who affected a separate claim to divine favour, and, in consequence of that opinion, prone to uncharitableness, partiality, and restriction: when we find, in his religion, no scheme of building up a hierarchy, or of ministering to the views of human governments: in a word, when we compare Christianity, as it came from its author, either with other religions, or with itself in other hands, the most reluctant understanding will be induced to acknowledge the

probity, I think also the good sense, of those to whom it owes its origin; and that some regard is due to the testimony of such men, when they declare their knowledge that the religion proceeded from God; and when they appeal, for the truth of their assertion, to miracles which they wrought, or which they saw.

Perhaps the qualities which we observe in the religion, may be thought to prove something more. They would have been extraordinary, had the religion come from any person; from the person from whom it did come, they are exceedingly so. What was Jesus in external appearance? A Jewish peasant, the son of a carpenter, living with his father and mother in a remote province of Palestine, until the time that he produced himself in his public character. He had no master to instruct or prompt him. He had read no books, but the works of Moses and the Prophets. He had visited no polished cities. He had received no lessons from Socrates or Plato; nothing to form in him a taste or judgment, different from that of the rest of his countrymen, and of persons of the same rank of life with himself. Supposing it to be true, which it is not, that all his points of morality might be picked out of Greek and Roman writings, they were writings which he had never seen. Supposing them to be no more than what some or other had taught in various times and places, he could not collect them together.

Who were his coadjutors in the undertaking, the persons into whose hands the religion came after his death? A few fishermen upon the lake of Tiberias, persons just as uneducated, and, for the purpose of framing rules of morality, as unpromising, as himself. Suppose the mission to be real, all this is accounted for; the unsuitableness of the authors to the production, of the characters to the undertaking, no longer surprises us; but, without reality, it is very difficult to explain, how such a system should proceed from such persons. Christ was not like any other carpenter; the apostles were not like any other fishermen.

But the subject is not exhausted by these observations. That portion of it, which is most reducible to points of argument, has been stated, and, I trust, truly. There are, however, some topics, of a more diffuse nature, which yet deserve to be proposed to the reader's attention.

E.C.

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The character of Christ is a part of the morality of the Gospel one strong observation upon which is, that, neither as represented by his followers, nor as attacked by his enemies, is he charged with any personal vice. This remark is as old as Origen: Though innumerable lies and calumnies had been forged against the venerable Jesus, none had dared to charge him with an intemperance." Not a reflection upon his moral character, not an imputation or suspicion of any offence against purity and chastity, appears for five hundred years after his birth. This faultlessness is more peculiar than we are apt to imagine. Some stain pollutes the morals or the morality of almost every other teacher, and of every other lawgiver." Zeno the stoic, and Diogenes the cynic, fell into the foulest impurities; of which also Socrates himself was more than suspected. Solon forbade unnatural crimes to slaves. Lycurgus tolerated theft as a part of education. Plato recommended a community of women. Aristotle maintained the general right

of making war upon Barbarians. The elder Cato was remarkable for the ill-usage of his slaves. The younger gave up the person of his wife. One loose principle is found in almost all the Pagan moralists; is distinctly, however, perceived in the writings of Plato, Xenophon, Cicero, Seneca, Epictetus, and that is, the allowing, and even the recommending to their disciples, a compliance with the religion, and with the religious rites, of every country into which they came. In speaking of the founders of new institutions, we cannot forget Mahomet. His licentious transgressions of his own licentious rules; his abuse of the character which he assumed, and of the power which he had acquired, for the purposes of personal and privileged indulgence; his avowed claim of a special permission from heaven of unlimited sensuality, is known to every reader, as it is confessed by every writer, of the Moslem story.

Secondly, in the histories which are left us of Jesus Christ, although very short, and although dealing in narrative, and not in observation or panegyric, we perceive, beside the absence of every appearance of vice, traces of devotion, humility, benignity, mildness, patience, prudence. I speak of traces of

1 Or. Ep. Cels. 1. 3. num. 36. ed. Bened.

2 See many instances collected by Grotius de Ver. in the notes to his second book, p. 116. Pocock's edition.

these qualities, because the qualities themselves are to be collected from incidents; inasmuch as the terms are never used of Christ in the gospels, nor is any formal character of him drawn in any part of the New Testament.

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Thus we see the devoutness of his mind, in his frequent retirement to solitary prayer;' in his habitual giving of thanks;2 in his reference of the beauties and operations of nature to the bounty of providence;3 in his earnest addresses to his Father, more particularly that short but solemn one before the raising of Lazarus from the dead; and in the deep piety of his behaviour in the garden, on the last evening of his life; his humility, in his constant reproof of contentions for superiority;" the benignity and affectionateness of his temper, in his kindness to children,' in the tears which he shed over his falling country, and upon the death of his friend; in his noticing of the widow's mite;10 in his parables of the good Samaritan, of the ungrateful servant, and of the Pharisee and publican, of which parables no one but a man of humanity could have been the author: the mildness and lenity of his character is discovered, in his rebuke of the forward zeal of his disciples at the Samaritan village; in his expostulation with Pilate; in his prayer for his enemies at the moment of his suffering,13 which, though it has been since very properly and frequently imitated, was then, I apprehend, new. His prudence is discerned, where prudence is most wanted, in his conduct upon trying occasions, and in answers to artful questions. Of these the following are examples :- His withdrawing, in various instances, from the first symptoms of tumult," and with the express care, as appears from St. Matthew, of carrying on his ministry in quietness; his declining of every species of interference with the civil affairs of the country, which disposition is manifested by his behaviour in the case of the woman caught in adultery," and in his repulse of the application which was made to him, to interpose his decision about a disputed inheritance :" his judi

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1 Matt. xiv. 23. ix. 28. xxvi. 36.

2 Matt. xi. 25. Mark viii. 6. John vi. 23. Luke xxii. 17.

4 John xi. 41.

7 Mark x. 16.

10 Mark xii. 42.

13 Luke xxiii. 34.

15 Matt. xii. 19.

5 Matt. xxvi. 36-47.

8 Luke xix. 41.

11 Luke ix. 55.

14 Matt. xiv. 22. Luke v. 15, 16.

16 John viii. I.

3 Matt. vi. 26, 28. 6 Mark ix. 33.

9 John xi. 35.

12 John xix. II.

John v. 13; vi. 15. 17 Luke xii. 14.