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to inculcate that fame equitable conduct towards our brethren, which he here recommended+.

Let no one then indulge the vain imagination that a just, and generous, and compaffionate conduct towards his fel low creatures conftitutes the whole of his duty, and will compenfate for the want of every other Chriftian virtue.

This is a moft fatal delufion; and yet in the present times a very common one. Benevolence is the favorite, the fashionable virtue of the age; it is univerfally cried up by infidels and libertines as the first and only duty of man; and even many who pretend to the name of Chrif tians, are too apt to rest upon it as the most effential part of their religion, and the chief basis of their title to the rewards of the gofpel. But that gospel, as we have juft feen, prescribes to us several other duties, which require from us the fame attention as those we owe to our neighbor; and if we fail in any of them, we can have no hope of fharing in the benefits procured for us by the facrifice of our Redeemer. What then God and nature, as well as Chrift and his apoftles, have joined together, let no man dare to put afunder. Let no one flatter himself with obtaining the rewards, or even escaping the punishments of the Gofpel, by performing only one branch of his duty; nor let him ever fuppofe that under the fhelter of benevolence he can either on one hand evade the first and great command, the love of his Maker; or on the other hand that he can fecurely indulge his favorite paffions, can compound as it were with God for his fenfuality by acts of generofity, and purchase by his wealth a general licence to fin. This may be very good pagan morality, may be very good moder philofophy, but it is not Chrif tian godliness.

As it is my purpose to touch only on the most important and most generally useful parts of our Saviour's discourse, I fhall pass over what remains of it, and hasten to the conclufion, which is expreffed by the facred hiftorian in thefe words: "And it came to pass, that when Jefus had

† See chap. xxii. 40. Rom. xiii. 8. Gal: v. 14. and Grotius on this verfe.

finished thefe fayings, the people were aftonifhed at his doctrine; for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the fcribes*." Both his matter and his manner were infinitely beyond any thing they had ever heard before. He did not, like the heathen philofophers, entertain his hearers with dry metaphyfical difcourfes on the nature of the fupreme good, and the feveral divifions and fubdivifions of virtue; nor did he, like the Jewish rabbies, content himself with dealing out ceremonies and traditions, with difcourfing on mint and cummin, and eftimat ing the breadth of a phylactery; but he drew off their' attention from thefe trivial and contemptible things to the greatest and the nobleft objects; the exiftence of one fupreme Almighty Being, the Creator, Preferver, and Governor of the univerfe: the first formation of man; his fall from original innocence; the confequent corruption and depravity of his nature; the remedy provided for him by the goodness of our Maker and the death of our Redeemer; the nature of that divine religion which he himself came to reveal to mankind; the purity of heart and fanctity of life which he required; the communications of God's holy fpirit to aflift our own feeble endeavours here, and a crown of immortal glory to recompenfe us hereafter.

man.

The morality he taught was the pureft, the foundest, the fublimeft, the most perfect that had ever before entered into the imagination, or proceeded from the lips of And this he delivered in a manner the most striking and impreffive; in fhort, fententious, folemn, important, ponderous rules and maxims, or in familiar, natural, affecting fimilitudes and parables. He fhewed also a most confummate knowledge of the human heart, and dragged to light all its artifices, fubtleties, and evafions. He difcovered every thought as it arofe in the mind; he detected every irregular defire before it ripened into action. He manifefted at the fame time the moft perfect impartiality. He had no refpect of perfons. He reproved vice in every ftation wherever he found it, with the fame freedom and boldness; and he added to the whole the weight, the irre* Matth. vii. 28, 29.

fiftable weight of his own example. He and he only of all the fons of men, acted up in every the minutest inftance to what he taught; and his life exhibited a perfect portrait of his religion. But what completed the whole was, that he taught, as the evangelift expreffes it, with authority, with the authority of a divine teacher. The ancient philofophers could do nothing more than give good advice to their followers; they had no means of enforcing that advice; but our great Lawgiver's precepts are all DIVINE COMMANDS. He spoke in the name of God: he called himself the Son of God. He fpoke in a tone of fuperiority and authority, which no one before had the courage or the right to affume: and finally, he enforced every thing he taught by the most folemn and awful fanctions, by a promife of eternal felicity to thofe who obeyed him, and a denunciation of the most tremendous punishment to those who rejected him.

These were the circumftances which gave our blessed Lord the authority with which he fpake. No wonder then that the people 66 were astonished at his doctrines ; and that they all declared he spake as never man spake* **

* John vii. 46.

LECTURE VIII.

MATTH. viii.

THE

HE eighth chapter of St. Matthew, a part of which will be the fubject of this Lecture, begins with the miraculous cure of the leper, which is related in the fol lowing manner:

When our Lord was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him, and behold there came a leper and worshipped him, faying, Lord, if thou wilt thou canst make me clean. And Jefus put forth his hand and touched him, faying, I will; be thou clean and immediately his leprofy was cleanfed. And Jefus faith unto him, fee thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyfelf to the priest, and offer the gift that Mofes commanded, for a teftimony unto them."

:

The leprofy is a diforder of the most malignant and difgufting nature. It was once common in Europe. Thofe infected with it were called Lazars, who were feparated from all human fociety (the difeafe being highly contagious) and were confined in hofpitals called I azarettos, of which it is faid there were no less than nine thoufand at one time in Europe. For the laft two hundred years this diftemper has almost entirely vanished from this and other countries of Europe, and an instance of it now is but feldom to be met with. In the Eaft it ftill exifts to

a certain degree; and there in former ages it had its fource and origin, and raged for a great length of time with extraordinary violence.

In the law of Mofes, there are very particular directions given concerning the treatment of lepers, and a ceremonial appointed for the examination of them by the priest

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