ence pervades all space, and whose goodness is as boundless as his own existence; a God who created the heavens, and earth, and seas-who is the Father of all spirits, of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things. Is there not a grandeur in these conceptions with regard to the Deity which infinitely surpasses the low and degrading views which the heathen entertained respecting their numerous gods? And what with regard to his worship? These Scriptures assure us that it does not consist in sacrifice, but in the affections, in the endeavor to make ourselves like unto him -wise because he is wise, just because he is just, good because he is good, and holy because he is holy. How far this beyond the offerings of gold and silver, of wine, and flour, and slaughtered bullocks, and human blood, which characterised the worship of the Pagan deities! And whence came this superiority of the Christian faith? How is it that this should have been so much more spiritual and refined? How is it that a few poor fishermen and mechanics of Judea should have presented the world with a religion so far exalted above all that the sages of Egypt, and Greece, and Rome, ever produced? We press the question-How is it that these obscure and unlettered men could have conceived a religion so ennobling in its views of the Supreme Being, a religion simple enough for the humblest, and sublime enough for the loftiest minds? Such mechanics, such fishermen, never lived before, and have surely never lived since.

4. If we turn to the morality of the Christian religion, we shall discover the same superiority, we shall

find a purity and perfection which that age of itself never could have produced. The writings of the wisest and best who flourished before, and at the time of, the advent of Christ, show plainly that they were altogether unable to reach the elevated standard of Gospel morality without assistance, that they were incapable of forming a system so correct, so harmonious in all its principles and precepts. The beauty and excellency of Christianity in this respect are indeed beyond praise, and it carries upon its very face the impress of its divine original. It has no communion with that morality which regulates only the exterior, which restrains only the outward action, while it leaves the affections untouched. It goes farther than this-it seeks to purify the fountain from corruption, it aims to correct the principles, to regulate the heart, and to form the lives of men by forming their dispositions. Many things which the world approves, or at least refuses to condemn, are forbidden in the most express terms by the Gospel-as the inordinate love of power and wealth, the extravagant devotion to pleasure, pride, ambition, envy, the cherishing unholy passions and appetites. All these are unhestitatingly denounced in every form, and degree by the Christian faith. "It prohibits the adultery of the eye, and the murder of the heart; and commands the desire to be strangled in its birth. Neither the hands, the tongue, the head, nor the heart, must be guilty of one iniquity. However the world may applaud the heroic ambition of one, the love of glory in another, the successful pursuit of affluence in a third, the high-minded pride, the glowing patriotism which

would compel all neighboring nations to bow the neck, the steady pursuit of revenge for injuries received, and a sovereign contempt of the rude and ignoble vulgar,Christianity condemns them all, and enjoins its disciples to crucify them without delay. Not one is to be spared, though dear as a right eye for use or pleasure, or even necessary as a right hand for defence or labor. The Gospel does not press men to consider what their fellow men may think of them, or how it will affect their temporal interests; but what is right." * Such is the morality of the New Testament.

5. Now we ask here where the Jewish fishermen obtained this admirable code of morals, if their story be not true? They tell us that they received these things from Jesus, who was sent of God to proclaim them to the world, and to whom God communicated without measure, the spirit of wisdom, and knowledge, and understanding. If we refuse to believe their story, how shall we account for it that, ignorant and unskilled as they were in the learning and philosophy of the age, they were nevertheless able to give to the world a religion whose morality, in its purity and adaptation to the wants of men, far exceeded any thing the world had known before? We see not how this question can be answered without, on the one hand, involving what may be pronounced an impossibility, or on the other the admission of the truth of the Gospel history. Men situated as these writers were, could not have produced, from their own observation and knowledge, the moral sys

* Horne's Intro. v. i. p. 418.

tem of the New Testament; they could not, surrounded with the corruptions of the age in which they lived, have acquired of themselves such correct conceptions of the great principles of ethics, such exalted and perfect views of human duty as they have unfolded in their works.* There is proof, then, in this unquestionable fact, of the truth of the history they have given us, which history satisfactorily accounts for the sublimity of their religion, and the excellency of their moral principles and precepts.

6. Another evidence of the truth of the Gospel history is the character of Jesus Christ. It is wholly original, altogether unlike any that had ever been portrayed before, and as pure and perfect as the religion of which he was the founder. There is nothing about him which partakes of the age in which he lived; he is as free from its prejudices, its follies, and errors, as if he were the inhabitant of another world. Though a Jew, it is but in name; he had none of the bigotry or selfishness, none of the narrow feelings of a Jew; his views of things ran far beyond the bounds of Judea, burst out from the trammels of the Mosaic institutions, and took in those that were near, and those that were afar off. He lived not for himself, not for a single peo

*"That a system so just, so liberal, so comprehensive and complete, should have been invented and published by a combination of the efforts and researches of the wisest and best men in any age and country, would have been the subject of just admiration ; but that it should have been introduced, and taught, and inculcated, without any ostentation or parade, by a small number of unlearned men, who had been educated in all the narrow bigotry and malignant. prejudices of Pharisaic Jews, is surely to the last degree incredible, not to say absolutely impossible, if the supposition of divine instruction, and supernatural illumination should be denied." Belsham's Evidences, pp. 95, 96,

ple, but for the world, and for the world he labored and taught. His expansive mind, his generous affections, could not be confined within the contracted limits of name or party; he sought the good of the great whole, and found his own happiness in promoting the happiness of his race. This was not the characteristic of the age, it was a feeling, a principle, centuries in advance of those around him; yea, it was a stream from the fountain of divinity.

7. He was of humble birth, the son of a carpenter, a native of the obscure village of Nazareth; he had no powerful friends, no wealth, no patronage, or rank, or education, fitting him for the mighty work which he undertook. And yet this young man, starting under all these disadvantages and discouragements, forms the stupendous plan of overturning "the time-hallowed and deep-rooted religions of the world," and establishing a new and better faith and practice! This was an attempt never yet made; all other religions had been for a single people, for particular nations. The most extravagant ambition had never aimed at so great an acquisition as the bringing the world into one common faith. But the humble, unlettered, and unknown Nazarene, unsupported and alone, stands forth as a leader in this mighty enterprise, and announces a religion intended for all, a religion which is to supersede every other, and to be received by all nations, and climes, and tongues! *

8. And how does he sustain his new and difficult po

* See on this particular the eloquent language of Channing, in his dudleian Lecture.