and simplicity, which, in the best productions of human genius, is the fruit only of a much exercised and well cultivated judgment.

"The Lord's prayer, for a succession of solemn thoughts, for fixing the attention upon a few great points, for suitableness to every condition, for sufficiency, for conciseness without obscurity, for the weight and real importance of its petitions, is without an equal or a rival." Now let us ask, whence did these things come? Did the evangelists invent them? Could such men surpass all ages before and after, in the delineation of greatness of character, in sublimity of moral conception, in excellence of composition? To suppose this is to suppose something more than a miracle, for it involves the idea that impostors did what was beyond their capacity, and acted in contradiction to all the motives which can be supposed to influence such persons.

The only conclusion to which a sound judgment can possibly come is, that such a being as Christ appeared, that the evangelists saw and heard him, and that they faithfully reported what they saw and heard. Considering this as clearly proved, let us now consider a little more attentively the character of Christ.

CHAPTER XIV.

The purity of Christ's character.

The character of Jesus Christ is without a blot. As represented by his friends and enemies, he is never charged with any vice. "Not a reflection upon his moral character, not an imputation or suspicion of any offence against perfect purity, 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. Aristotle maintained the general right of making war upon barbarians. The elder Cato was remarkable for the ill usage of his slaves. One loose principle is found in almost all the Pagan moralists; and is distinctly

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 purpose 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.

"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, and prudence.

"Thus we see the devoutness of his mind, in his frequent retirement to solitary prayer;' in his habitual giving of thanks; in his refer

1 Matt. xiv. 23. Luke ix. 28. Matt. xxvi. 36. 2 Matt. xi. 25. Mark viii. 6. John vi. 23. Luke xxii. 17.

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ence 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;2 and in the deep piety of his behavior 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;5 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 the author: the mildness and lenity of his character as discovered in his rebuke of the forward zeal of his disciples at the Samaritan village ;9 in his expostulation with Pilate; 10 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, altogether new.

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1 Matt. vi. 26-28.

2 John xi. 41. 3 Matt. xxvi. 36-47. Mark ix. 33. 5 Mark x. 16. Luke xix. 41. Mark xii. 42. 9Luke ix. 55. 10 John xix. 11.

John xi. 35. "Luke xxiii. 34.

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"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 Saint Matthew, of carrying on his ministry in quietness; his declining every species of interference with the civil affairs of the country, which disposition is manifested by his behavior in the case of the woman caught in adultery, 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; 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 pro

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2

'Matt. xiv. 22. Luke v. 15, 16. John v. 13. vi. 15. Chap. xii. 19. John viii. 1. Luke xii. 14. 5 Matt. xxii. 19. Matt. xxii. 28.