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. ་ 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 *Or. Ep. Cels. lib. iii. num. 36. ed. Bened. See many instances collected by Grotius, de Veritate Christianæ Religionis, in the notes to his second book, p. 116. Pocock's edition. 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 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. Thus we see the devoutness of his mind, in his frequent retirement to solitary prayer;* in his habitual giving of thanks ;† in his reference of the beauties and operations of nature to the bounty of Providence ;‡ 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;§§ 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 *Matt. xiv. 23. Luke ix. 28. + Matt. xi. 25. Mark viii. 6. Matt. vi. 26-28. John xi. 35. Matt. xxvi. 36. John vi. 23. § John xi. 41. ** Mark x. 16. §§ Mark xii. 42. Luke xxii. 17. || Matt. xxvi. 36-47. ++ Luke xix. 41. 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 ;t in his prayer for his enemies at the moment of his suffering, 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 on 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, T and in his repulse of the application which was made to him, to interpose his decision about a disputed inheritance:** his judicious, yet, as it should seem, unprepared answers, will be confessed in the case of the Roman tribute;tt in the difficulty concerning the interfering relations of a future state, as proposed to him in the instance of a woman who had married seven brethren;‡‡ and, more especially, in his reply to those who demanded from him an explanation of the authority by which he acted, which reply consisted, in propounding a question to them, situated between the very difficulties into which they were insidiously endeavouring to draw him.§§ Our Saviour's lessons, beside what has already been § Matt. xiv. 22. Luke v. 15, 16. John v. 13; vi. 15. Luke xxiii. 34. || Chap. xii. 19. ++ Matt. xxii. 19. remarked in them, touch, and that oftentimes by very affecting representations, upon some of the most interesting topics of human duty, and of human meditation; upon the principles, by which the decisions of the last day will be regulated;* upon the superior, or rather the supreme importance of religion;t upon penitence, by the most pressing calls and the most encouraging invitations; upon self-denial,§ watchfulness, placability,¶ confidence in God,** the value of spiritual, that is, of mental worship,†t the necessity of moral obedience, and the directing of that obedience to the spirit and principle of the law, instead of seeking for evasions in a technical construction of its terms.‡‡ If we extend our argument to other parts of the New Testament, we may offer, as amongst the best and shortest rules of life, or, which is the same thing, descriptions of virtue, that have ever been delivered, the following passages: "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."§§ "Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned."|||| "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world."¶¶ Enumerations of virtues and vices, and those suf * Matt. xxv.31. + Mark viii. 35. Matt. vi. 31-33. Luke xii. 4, 5, 16—21. Luke xv. § Matt. v. 29. || Mark xiii. 37. Matt. xxiv. 42; xxv. 13. ¶ Luke xvii. 4. Matt. xviii. 33, et seq. ++ John iv. 23, 24. |||| 1 Tim. i. 5. Matt. v. 21. 11 Tit. ii. 11, 12. ** Matt. vi. 25-30. §§ James i. 27. |