lieved by him, was the national and religious enemy of his benefactor. of his benefactor. Our Lord declared the equity of the divine administration, when he told the Jews (what, probably, they were surprised to hear) "That many should come from the east and weft, and should fit down with Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven, but that the children of the kingdom should be caft into outer darkness *." His reproof of the hafty zeal of his difciples, who would needs call down fire from heaven to revenge an affront put upon their Master, shews the lenity of his character, and of his religion; and his opinion of the manner in which the moft 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, deferve to be noticed:-" Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of t.” VIII. Laftly, amongst the negative quali * Mat. viii. 11. + Luke ix. 55. 1 ties of our religion, as it came out of the hands of its founder and his apostles, we may reckon its complete abftraction from all views either of ecclefiaftical or civil policy; or, to meet a language much in fashion with fome men, from the politics either of priests or statesmen. Chrift's declaration, that "his kingdom was not of this world," recorded by John; his evasion of the queftion, whether it was lawful or not to give tribute unto Cæfar, mentioned by the three other evangelists; his reply to an application that was made to him, to interpofe his authority in a queftion of property, « Man, who made me a ruler or a judge over you?" afcribed to him by St. Luke; his declining to exercise the office of a criminal judge in the cafe of the woman taken in adultery, as related by John, are all intelligible fignifications of our Saviour's fentiments upon this head. And with respect to politics, in the usual sense of that word, or difcuffions concerning different forms of government, Christianity declines every queftion upon the fubject. Whilft politicians are disputing F 3 about about monarchies, ariftocracies, and republics, the Gospel is alike applicable, useful, and friendly to them all; inafmuch as, Ift, it tends to make men virtuous, and as it is eafier to govern good men than bad men under any conftitution: as, 2dly, it ftates obedience to government in ordinary cafes, to be not merely a fubmiffion to force, but a duty of confcience: as, 3dly, it induces difpofitions favourable to public tranquillity, a Chriftian'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 defcription or denomination they be, with a folicitude and fervency proportioned to the influence which they poffefs upon human happiness. All which, in my opinion, is juft as it should be. Had there been more to be found in fcripture of a political nature, or convertible to political purposes, the worst ufe would have been made of it, on whichever fide it feemed to lie. When, therefore, we confider Chrift as a moral moral teacher (remembering that this was only a fecondary part of his office ;` and that morality, by the nature of the fubject, does not admit of difcovery, properly fo called); when we confider either what he taught, or what he did not teach, either the fubftance or the manner of his inftruction; his preference of folid to popular virtues, of a character which is commonly despised, to a character which is univerfally extolled; his placing, in our licentious vices, the check in the right place, viz. upon the thoughts; his collecting of human duty into two welldevised rules, his repetition of these rules, the ftrefs he laid upon them, especially in comparison with pofitive duties, and his fixing thereby the fentiments of his followers; his exclufion of all regard to reputation in our devotion and alms, and, by parity of reafon, in our other virtues: when we confider that his inftructions were delivered in a form calculated for impreffion, the precife purpose in his fituation to be confulted; and that they were illuftrated by parables, the choice and ftructure of which would F4 would have been admired in any compofition whatever: when we obferve him free from the usual fymptoms of enthusiasm, heat and vehemence in devotion, aufterity in inftitutions, and a wild particularity in the descriptions of a future ftate; free also from the depravities of his age and country; without fuperftition amongst the most fuperftitious of men, yet not decrying pofitive diftinctions or external obfervances, but foberly recalling them to the principle of their establishment, and to their place in the scale of human duties; without fophiftry or trifling, amidst teachers remarkable for nothing fo much, as frivolous fubtleties and quibbling expofitions; candid and liberal in his judgement of the reft of mankind, although belonging to a people, who affected a feparate claim to divine favour, and, in confequence of that opinion, pronę to uncharitablenefs, partiality, and reftriction: when we find, in his religion, no fcheme of building up a hierarchy, or of ministering to the views of human governments: in a word, when we compare Chrif tianity, |