more civilized and luxurious ages render necessary, and therefore in proportion as they had fewer relative duties to perform, they stood in need of fewer specific and individual charges. Till the preaching of John the Baptist', we do not find any separate class of men inquiring respecting their own particular duties; and nothing indicates that their probable ignorance of what they should do, had attracted the attention of their teachers.

The same deficiency of individual application is perceptible in all that is left to us of the heathen moralists. There is a perpetual attempt to define and describe abstract virtues, distinguishing them from their opposite vices, and laying down certain limits

Quos ultra citraque nefas consistere rectum.

But we find nothing addressed to the consciences of characters in particular stations, nothing which steps out of the broad line of ge

See Luke, iii. 10-14.

neralities, and constrains the reader to enter upon a course of self-examination, and bring home to his own heart those parts of a system of morals which bear upon his own case with more than common urgency. Among all the remains of antiquity there is not a single essay which attempts to give any thing like a treatise on the duties of men. Nor can an exception be made even in favour of that book, in which, from its professed object, we should most expect to meet with such a specification of the requirements of any given situation. are, it is true, certain cases of conscience which are solved, as in the instance of the Alexan drian merchant, and of the pretended fishery 2; but, generally speaking, Cicero aims at nothing more than a dry and vague exposition of abstract truths, which are rather calculated to form the basis of a legal code, than to alarm the conscience and inform the judgement of individual inquirers. The moralist seems to avoid committing himself, and never digresses into

There

2 Cic. de Off. lib. i. 12 and 14.

the character of one who advises with a view

to definite duties, or to a particular combination of circumstances.

t

It is in the pages of the satirists alone that anything exists which approaches to personal address. They did not hesitate to apply very closely general rules to specific persons; and consequently, their pen was more felt and caused a greater sensation than the elaborate moral disquisitions of their rivals the philosophers. Juvenal asks, after some general reflections on the nature of true nobility,

His ego quem monui-?

as if aware that no one ever applies to himself what may relate to all. He then singles out the character whom he had in view, and addresses him specially by name with a precision which could not fail of effect.

Tecum est mihi sermo, Rubelli

Blande 3.

3 Juv. viii 39.

The practice of Christ in this respect differed essentially from both the Jewish and Pagan teachers. The plain literalities of his precepts were such, that no class of persons could complain that they had been overlooked in the general system; and the exigencies of each case were provided for as carefully as if it were the sole and exclusive object of his legislation. It had been foretold by Isaiah that such should be the nature of his ministry.

The Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek,—he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn *.

According to the terms of this prophecy, close application was a requisite qualification of the preaching of the Messiah. It was foretold that he should suit his language to the wants

of the world at his coming. In fulfilment of this assurance, the good tidings which he announced to the meek were, that they were blessed, and should inherit the earth. The brokenhearted would require comfort, and Christ took away their heaviness, by declaring that there was joy in the presence of God over one sinner that repenteth. The captives would sigh after freedom from sin. Christ told them that the truth should make them free, and that if the Son made them free, then were they free indeed”. Those who sat in darkness would stand in need of light. Christ came as light into the world, that whosoever believeth on him should not abide in darkness. Those who were dead in trespasses and sin would require to be quickened again into life, and to be reanimated with a fresh spirit, enabling them to perform the functions of their new state of being. And, accordingly, Christ who is our life appeared, that believers might have life through his name.

5 Matt. v. 5.

6 Luke, xv. 10.

John, viii. 32, 36.

8 John, xii. 46.

9 John, xx. 31.