disciples; and, above all, in the divine character of the Saviour himself. It may be useful to give a very rapid sketch of the qualities and characteristics of the morals of the Gospel, before proceeding to expand, illustrate, and apply the system in its details.

And manThe works

(1.) The Mosaic dispensation was a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things;* but life and immortality are, in a preeminent sense, brought to light through the Gospel. The writings of the Old Testament were less clear and definite in regard to a future life than might be wished; and one chief design of Christianity, as a revelation, was to influence the conduct of human life, by giving unquestionable proof of a future state of rewards and punishments. The direct object, therefore, of the design was to furnish motives to moral conduct rather than rules; sanctions rather than precepts. kind stood most in need of motives and sanctions. of the Greek and Roman moralists show, that the members of society can, in all ordinary cases, judge very well what their duty is; but, without a future state, or, what is the same thing, without accredited evidence of such a state, they want a motive to their duty; at least they want strength of motive sufficient to bear up against the force of passion and the temptation of immediate interest. The rules of the ancient moralists were without sanctions and authority. In conveying to the world, therefore, unquestionable assurances of a future existence, Christianity supplied precisely what was most needed by mankind, and rendered the very service, which it might have been expected à priori would be, so far as morals were concerned, the chief end and office of a revelation from God.‡

(2.) Again; Christianity is the only religion, which has ever contemplated extending itself and its blessings through the earth by peaceable means; which has made its duties and obligations universally binding; and which has imparted its encouragements, its hopes, its prospects, its consolations, and its renovating and purifying power, to men of all conditions and circumstances of life.§

• Effigies solida et expressa." - Cicero, De Officiis, Lib. III. c. 17. See also Heb. x. 1.

+ 2 Tim. i. 10.

See Paley's Evidences of Christianity, p. 224.

§ See Mat. viii. 11; x. 18; xiii. 38; xxviii. 19, 20; Mark, xvi. 15, 16; John, x. 16.

Mahomet and his successors contemplated making his religion universal; but they relied for success on the power of the sword. A brief historical review will convince us, that this characteristic of the Gospel is much more extraordinary than we are accustomed to suppose; and that, before the time of Christ, it had not entered into the mind of any one, that the extension of a single religion throughout the earth was either possible or desirable; much less, that it could become the duty of each individual to contribute to this extension according to his ability, or that it was the moral duty of each one to regard the whole human race as his brethren, and to consult their welfare and interest as occasion might occur and opportunity be presented. The Jewish religion was exclusive and even repulsive in its spirit, and several of its provisions unfitted it to extend over more than a small tract of country.*

Before the coming of Christ, as well as since, almost no age has been destitute of individuals, who, looking beyond mere kindred and self-interest, have been willing to contribute the fruit of their labor and genius to the good of mankind. The number of such men, with whom Providence has from time to time blessed the earth, has been considerable, and they shed a lustre over the ages to which they respectively belong. But as disinterested as was the aim of these individuals, as exalted as was their purpose, and as expansive as their benevolence might be ; they never reached more than a part, and usually a very small part of mankind. No one, even in the utmost ardor of his zeal, ever thought of embracing all men within the ample sphere of his good-will, and still less entertained a serious design of benefiting, either morally or physically, the entire human race. We may understand, indeed, how far such a design was from being entertained even by the best men, from the saying of Cicero, himself, next to Socrates, the most perfect example of expansive good-will up to his time; to wit, that a man's country embraced all the affections of every man. This he says, not by way of censure, but of approbation, and as the utmost stretch to which the good-will of any man ought to expand itself. Probably even

* Exod. xxiii. 14, 17; Deut. xvi. 16.

De Officiis, Lib. I. c. 17.

this distinguished man would have viewed a further extension of good-will as overstepping the bounds of reason and patriotism. The design, then, of benefiting morally and religiously the whole human race, without regard to complexion, country, climate, or other circumstances, a design which enters into the very essence and heart of Christianity, had occurred to no one before the advent of the Saviour of mankind. But this is a most important feature of Christianity, and will be seen still more manifestly and impressively, if we inspect ancient history and ancient writings somewhat more minutely.

His mind must be infected with incurable prejudice, who has studied the writings of the ancient Greeks and Romans, without kindling with admiration of the moral and intellectual qualities of many of the patriots and statesmen whose names adorn the annals of these celebrated nations. Their actions and writings, and the traits of personal character which those writings make known to us, contain much, very much, that is worthy of our admiration; and his taste and judgment are not to be envied, who can hold them in light estimation. Still it is doing no injustice to these illustrious authors, patriots, and statesmen, to say, that no one had attained the comprehensiveness of good-will, which led him to entertain the design, or to devise a plan of benefiting all men without discrimination.

The great fame of Hercules has been celebrated from the earliest dawn of history to the present hour, yet he did no more than wander over the earth; by his great strength, ridding the inhabitants, wherever he came, of the monsters which afflicted them. This he did, moreover, impelled (it is said) by the anger of Juno, and not from his spontaneous good-will. He is not said, even by tradition, to have formed any plan for instructing, reforming, or otherwise morally improving the human race, or any part of it. The design of such men as Sesostris, Alexander, Pyrrhus, and Cæsar, was in no other sense universal, than as they wished to devastate the earth universally, and subject all mankind to military domination and despotic sway.

The early founders of cities, too, who, themselves rising above the ignorance and barbarism of their times, had the skill and address to assemble men in considerable numbers, and to put them

in the way of becoming civilized, by introducing agriculture, commerce, manufactures, the arts, letters, and government among them, are well entitled to much praise and admiration; still their enterprises, as meritorious as they were, admit of contrast rather than comparison with the founding of that great commonwealth of righteousness and peace, into which the author of Christianity proposed to bring all men wherever scattered over the face of the earth. We must form the same judgment of those men, who by their personal valor and military skill defended their country in ancient times. The history of the Greeks and Romans is full of examples of this kind; Miltiades, Themistocles, Leonidas, Agesilaus, Epaminondas, Philopomen, Brutus, Fabricius, Camillus, Marcellus, the Scipios, and many others. Who does not know, and who can forget, their splendid achievements, their elevation of mind, and their intense love of country? But in illustrating the point before us, it cannot be necessary to do more than refer to men of this class. Amidst all their greatness, they never looked beyond the interests of their own country. Instead of wishing to benefit all mankind, or as many as possible, the object of their achievements could only be accomplished by the overthrow and destruction of all opposed to them. And, moreover, the motive from which they acted was of a mixed nature, composed quite as much of a desire of personal fame as of the pure love of country.

Nor, if we turn to the ancient lawgivers, salutary and praiseworthy as their labors were, shall we find any one who had formed a plan of extending the benefit of his labors to all mankind. Their laws are filled with no doubtful or indistinct traces of narrow and selfish views, and not unfrequently manifest a jealous and hostile spirit towards all other nations. To the class of lawgivers belong the Seven Wise Men of Greece, so called by reason of the wisdom supposed to be manifested in the laws and maxims which they wrote and promulgated. It was the pervading policy of all the ancient States, and especially those of Lacedæmon and Rome, to make the citizens warriors, and to encourage and inspire them with the spirit of conquest and the lust of domination. Even in time of peace, one nation did not look upon another with a friendly eye. The Roman law

lays it down as a settled principle, with respect to nations with whom the Romans were at peace, but had no particular alliance, that whoever passed from one country to the other, immediately became a slave. The views of them all were comparatively exclusive, contracted, and selfish.

If, moreover, we resort to the ancient philosophers, who flourished before the coming of Christ, and make ourselves acquainted with their lives and writings, we shall still be unsuccessful in finding any one who raised his mind above his immediate sphere, or whose good-will was much more expansive than that which we have ascribed to the ancient lawgivers and founders of cities. Some of them admit, indeed, that there is a certain degree of relationship (societas) among all mankind, the bond of which consists in reason and speech; and that men are not born for themselves alone, but that they may be useful to each other; but we search the writings of the ancient philosophers in vain for any plan of benevolence embracing all mankind, and for any trace of that fraternal love, by which the Saviour sought to unite all the families of the earth in unity of faith, and in the bonds of righteousness and peace.

If we regard practical wisdom, good-will to man, ardor and zeal in instructing and benefiting as many as possible, Socrates is confessedly the chief of the ancient philosophers. What scholar can peruse his defence of himself and his instructions, as given by his celebrated disciple Plato,‡ without being strongly affected, and moved with admiration of that greatness of mind, which, in prosecuting his salutary and disinterested design, led him to disregard and despise all the objects usually esteemed most valuable among men. He declares in presence of his judges, that he will not be deterred, by the fear of any punishment which they can inflict, from maintaining his accustomed intercourse with his fellow-citizens, in which his habit had been to avail himself of every opportunity to exhort them to the practice of honor and virtue. He professes, that he will not yield obedience to their decrees, if they attempt to prevent him from instructing his countrymen in the way of truth and

+ Cicero, De Legibus, Lib. I., and De Officiis, Lib. I.

+ Apologia Socr.