evidence and fixed principles, was an excellent prefervative from the mischiefs, that might have arifen from the fcepticism of the Academics and Pyrrhonifts, if unopposed; and their zealous defence of a particular providence, a valuable antidote to the atheistical fcheme of Epicurus. To this may be added, that their strict no fadly failed in fome) and the lives of feveral among them, muft contribute a good deal to preferve luxurious states from an abfolutely univerfal diffolutenefs; and the fubjects of arbitrary government, from a wretched and contemptible pufillanimity. recompence; and agreeably to that, forbad fuicide. It doth not belong to the prefent fubject to fhow, how much even this beft fyftem is excelled by Chriftianity. It is fufficient juft to obferve, that the author of it died in a profeffion, which he had always made of his belief in the popular deities, whofe fuperftitions, and impure worship was the great fource of corruptions of virtue in most points, (for they tion in the Heathen world; and the laft words he uttered, were a direction to his friend, for the performance of an idclatrous ceremony. This melancholy instance of ignorance and error, in the moft illuftrious character for wisdom and virtue in all heathen antiquity, is not mentioned as a reflection on his memory, but as a proof of human weaknefs in general. Whether reafon could have difcovered the great truths, which in thefe days are afcribed to it, because now feen fo clearly by the light of the Gofpel, may be a quef tion; but that it never did, is an undeniable fact; and that is enough to teach us thankfulness for the bleffing of a better information. Socrates, who had, of all mankind, the fairest pretenfions to fet up for an inftructor, and reformer of the world, confeffed that he knew nothing, referred to tradition, and acknowledged the want of a fuperior guide: and there is a remarkable paffage in Epictetus, in which he reprefents it, as the office of his fupreme God, or of one deputed by him, to appear among mankind, as a teacher and example. Upon the whole, the feveral fects of Heathen philofophy ferve, as fo many ftriking inftances of the imperfection of human wisdom; and of the extreme need of a divine affiftance, to rectify the mistakes of depraved reafon, and to replace natural religion on its true foundation. The Stoics every where teftify the nobleft zeal for virtue, and the honour of God; but they attempted to establish them on principles inconfiftent with the nature of man, and contradictory to truth and experience. By a direct confequence of thefe principles, they were liable to be feduced, and in fact, often were feduced into pride, hard-heartedness, and the laft dreadful extremity of human guilt, felf-murder. But however indefenfible the philofophy of the Stoics in feveral inftances may be, it appears to have been of very important ufe, in the heathen world; and they are, on many accounts, to be confidered in a very refpectable light. Their doctrine of Even now, their compofitions may be read with great advantage, as containing excellent rules of felf-government, and of focial behaviour; of a noble reliance on the aid and protection of heaven, and of a perfect refignation and fubmiffion to the divine will; points, which are treated with great clearnefs, and with admirable spirit, in the leffons of the Stoics; and though their directions are feldom practicable on their principles, in trying cafes, may be rendered highly useful in fubordination to Chriftian reflections. If, among thofe, who are fo unhappy as to remain unconvinced of the truth of Chriftianity, any are prejudiced against it by the influence of unwarrantable inclinations; fuch persons will find very little ad vantage in rejecting the doctrines of the New Teftament for those of the Portico; unless they think it an advantage to be laid under moral restraints, almoft equal to thofe of the Gospel, while they are depriv ed of its encouragements and fupports. Deviations from the rules of fobriety, juftice, and piety, meet with small indulgence in the ftoic writings; and they, who profefs to admire Epictetus, unless they pursue that fevercly virtuous conduct which he every where prescribes, will find themselves treated by him with the utmost degree of fcorn and contempt. An immoral cha racter is indeed, more or less, the out-cast of all fects of philofophy; and Seneca quotes even Epicurus, to prove the univerfal obligation of a virtuous life. Of this great truth, God never left himself without witness. Perfons of diftinguished talents and opportunities feem to have been raised, from time to time, by Providence, to check the torrent of corruption, and to preferve the fenfe of moral obligations on the minds of the multitude, to whom whom the various occupations of life left but little leisure to form deductions of their own. But then they wanted a proper commiffion to enforce their precepts; they intermixed with them, through falfe reafoning, many grofs mistakes; and their unavoidable ignorance, in feveral important points, entangled them with doubts, which easily degenerated into pernicious errors. If there are others, who reject Chriftianity, from motives of diflike to its peculiar doctrines, they will fcarcely fail of entertaining more favourable impreffions of it, if they can be prevailed on, with impartiality, to compare the Holy Scriptures, from whence alone the chriftian religion is to be learned, with the ftoic writings; and then fairly to confider, whether there is any thing to be met with in the difcoveries of our bleffed Saviour, in the writings of his apostles, or even in the obfcureft parts of the prophetic books, by which, equitably interpreted, either their fenfes, or their reafon are contradicted, as they are by the paradoxes of thefe philofophers and if not, whether notices from above, of things in which, though we comprehend them but imperfectly, we poffibly much more interested, than at prefent we difcern, ought not to be received with implicit veneration; as ufeful exercifes and trials of that duty, which finite understandings owe to infinite wisdom. Mifs Carter. are The more we read, the more we meditate on the Holy Scriptures, the more we fhall discover in them an inexhaustible fource of light, and of all manner of inftruction; that their language is not the language of men, nor the fubject a production of their ingenuity; that they have a character peculiar to themselves, and different from the compofitions even of the greatest and beft men; that they are exempt from all vulgar paffions and interefts, and to the ordinary views of human prudence and forecast; in fine, that no man ever raised himself so much above humanity as to produce a work, in which all is fo fuperior to man. The most accurate of the Pagan authors are juftly charged with errors, dark nefs, and uncertainties, with respect both to facts and doctrine: but it became the wife and great Being, who infpired the facred penmen, to exempt their works from all fuch imputations; and, accordingly, he has favoured them with every argument of truth and perfuafion, adorned them with the graces of language and fentiment, lighted up and enlivened them with the brighteft examples of virtue and fanctity, annexed to their study and meditation fuch helps and communications of his Holy Spirit as cannot be described, and made the belief and practice of them the only foundation of true peace and happiness. Every one readily allows no fubje&t can be equal to the life of our Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift; that is, to the incarnation and birth; the miracles and doctrine; the sufferings and death; the refurrection and afcenfion of a God become man to reform and fave a finful and loft world: And whoever imagines this hiftory can be better wrote than it is by the Evangelifts, has it yet to learn. But though it becomes a Christian to be particularly converfant in this and the other writings of the New Teftament, yet there is not any part of the Old which does not furnish ample matter of inftruction.-The book of Genefis, in the account it gives of the creation, of the fall and punishment of our first parents, of the righteousness of Noah, of the deluge, of the wonderful obedience of Abraham, and the promise made by God to reward it, of the deftruction of Sodom, and the providence of God over the patriarch Jofeph, prefents to our minds the most fuitable fubjects to fill them with every chriftian fentiment of reverence for the Supreme Being and his laws, love of his goodness, and dread of his justice. When we go on to Exodus, we fee the wonders wrought by the Almighty in favour of his people, the impenitence of Pharaoh, and the various chaftifements by which the murmurings and idolatry of the Ifraelites in the defart were punished. Leviticus and Numbers fet forth the accuracy which God exacts in his worship: Deuteronomy, the fanctity of his laws; Jofhua, the accomplishment of his promifes. In the book of Judges, we fee the strength and weakness of Sampfon; in that of Ruth, the plain-dealing and equity of Boaz; in thofe of Kings, the holiness of Samuel, of Elijah, of Elifha, and the other prophets; the reprobation of Saul; the fall and re pentance pentance of David, his mildness and pa in the Scriptures. One of the strongest and most affecting inftances of a faithful attachment to be met with in hiftory, occurs in the friendfhip which fubfifted between two females. The inftance alluded to, is recorded in the Jewish annals, and moft pathetically related by one of the facred pen-men. The reader need not be told, that this is the friendship of Naomi and Ruth. Two very remarkable inftances of friendfhip occur, in the hiftory of our Saviour's life: it may not perhaps be altogether unneceffary to ftate them in all their striking circumftances. tience; the wifdom and fin of Solomon; § zcg. Beautiful inftances of Friendship the piety of Hezekiah and Jofiah. In Efdras, the zeal for the law of God; in Tobit, the conduct of a holy family; in Judith, the power of grace; in Efther, prudence; in Job, a pattern of admirable patience. The Maccabees afford fuch inftances of perfonal and national bravery; fuch an exalted and generous love of our country, and all this grounded on the true principles of valour and patriotism, as the moft boasted atchievements in profane story are perfect ftrangers to. The Proverbs and Ecclefiaftes, and the other two books which go under the title of the Wifdom of Solomon and of the Son of Sirach, teach a more useful and sublime philofophy than all the writings which Greece and Rome have published. The noble images and reflections, the profound reafonings on human actions, and excellent precepts for the government of life, fufficiently witnefs their infpired origin. This treasure, indeed, is thrown together in a confused magnificence, above all order, that every one may collect and digeft fuch obfervations as chiefly tend to his own particular inftruction. And though it behoves us to reverence the doctrine of the Holy Ghoft, rather than pretend to affign the reafons for his difpenfing it in this or that manner, yet, I think, we perceive the fitnefs of the method here taken, in setting forth the nature, fubftance, and end of our obligations; and, without entering on minute difcuffions, in taking in the whole compass of duty; for by this means the paths of life are not only pointed out to each individual, and his perfonal character formed; but the minds of mankind, in general, are furnished and enriched with the beauty, copiousness, and variety of all virtues. The Prophets announce not only the promifes, but alfo the characteristic marks of the Meffiah, with the threats against finners, and those calamities which were to befal the Jews and other nations. The Pfalms unite in themselves the chief fubjects, and all the different excellencies of the Old Testament. In a word, every thing in the Sacred Writings will appear, as it truly is, holy, grand, and profitable, provided it be read with fuitable difpofi tions, Phillips. The Evangelift, in relating the miracles which Chrift performed at Bethany, by reftoring a perfon to life who had lain fome days in the grave, introduces his narrative by emphatically obferving, that "Jefus loved Lazarus;" intimating, it fhould feem, that the fentiments which Chrift entertained of Lazarus, were a distinct and peculiar fpecies of that general benevolence with which he was actuated towards all mankind. Agreeably to this explication of the facred historian's meaning, when the fifters of Lazarus fent to acquaint Jefus with the state in which their brother lay; they did not even mention his name; but pointed him out by a more honourable and equally notorious defignation; the terms of their meffage were, "behold! he whom thou loveft is fick !" Accordingly, when he informs his disciples of the notice he had thus received, his expreffion is, "our friend Lazarus · fleepeth." Now that Chrift did not upon this occafion use the word friend in its loofe undistinguishing acceptation, but in a restrained and ftrictly appropriated fenfe; is not only manifeft from this plain account of the fact itself, but appears farther evident from the fequcl. For, as he was advancing to the grave, accompanied with the relations of the deceased, he discovered the fame emotions of grief as fwelled the bofoms of thofe with whom Lazarus had been moft intimately connected; and fympathizing with their common forrow, he melted into tears. This circumstance was too remarkable to efcape particular obfervation and it drew from the fpecta. tors, what one fhould think it must neceffarily draw from every reader, this natural and and obvious reflection, "behold! how he loved him!" But in the concluding catastrophe of our Saviour's life, he gave a still more decifive proof, that fentiments of the strongest perfonal attachment and friendship, were not unworthy of being admitted into his facred bofom. They were too deeply, indeed, impreffed, to be extinguifhed even by the moft excruciating torments. In those dreadful moments, obferving among the afflicted witnesses of his painful and ignominious fufferings, that faithful follower, who is defcribed by the hiftorian as "the difciple whom he loved;" he diftinguifhed him by the most convincing inftance of fuperior confidence, esteem, and affection that ever was exhibited to the admiration of mankind. For, under circumftances of the moft agonizing torments, when it might be thought impoffible for human nature to retain any other fenfibility but that of its own inexpreffible fufferings; he recom mended to the care and protection of this his tried and approved friend, in terms of peculiar regard and endearment, the most tender and facred object of his private affections. But no language can reprefent this pathetic and affecting fcene, with a force and energy equal to the fublime fimplicity of the Evangelift's own narrative: Now there ftood by the cross of Jefus, his mother and his mother's fifter, and Mary Magdalene. When Jefus faw his mother, and the difciple by, whom he loved; he faith to his mother, Behold thy fon! Then he faith to the difciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that difciple took her to his own home." It may fafely be afferted, that among all thofe memorable examples of friendîhip, which have been celebrated with the higheft encomiums by the ancients; there cannot be produced a single instance, in which the most diftinguishing features of exalted amity are so strongly difplayed, as in the foregoing relation. The only one, perhaps, that bears even a faint refemblance to it, is that famous tranfaction, recorded by Lucian in his dialogue intitled ToxaEudamidas being on his death bed made his will, by which he bequeathed his aged mother to the care and protection of Aretheus; and his daughter to Charixenus, to be difpofed of in marriage according to his difcretion; injoining him, at the fame time, to give her as ample a portion as his circumftances would admit. He added, that in cafe either of the legatees fhould happen to die, he substituted the furvivor in his ftead. Charixenus died very foon after the teftator: in confequence of which, Aretheus took each of these fingularly confidential legacies to himself; and celebrating the marriage of his only daughter and that of his friend, on the fame day, he divided his fortune equally between them. When the very different circumstances attending thefe refpective examples, are duly confidered; it must be acknowledged, that the former rifes as much above the latter in the proof it exhibits of fublime friendship, as it does in the dignity of the characters concerned. Upon the whole then it appears, that the divine founder of the Chriftian religion, as well by his own example, as by the fpirit of his moral doctrine, has not only encouraged but confe crated friendship. Melmoth. $ 210. Fine Morality of the Gospel. Is it bigotry to believe the fublime trutha of the Gofpel with full affurance of faith? I glory in fuch bigotry: I would not part with it for a thousand worlds: I congratu late the man who is poffeffed of it; for, amidst all the viciffitudes and calamities of the prefent ftate, that man enjoys an inexhauftible fund of confolation, of which it is not in the power of fortune to deprive him. There is not a book on earth so favourable to all the kind, and all the fublime affections, or fo unfriendly to hatred and perfecution, to tyranny, injuftice, and every fort of malevolence as the Gofpel.-It breathes nothing throughout but mercy, benevolence, and peace. Poetry is fublime, when it awakens in the mind any great and good affection, as piety, or patriotifm. This is one of the nobleft effects of the heart. The Pfalms are remarkable, beyond all other writings, for their power of infpiring devout emotions. But it is not in this refpect only that they are fublime. Of the Divine nature they contain the moft magnificent defcriptions that the foul of man can comprehend. The hundred and fourth Pfalm, in particular, difplays the power and goodnefs of Providence, in creating and preferving the world, and the various tribes of animals in it, with fuch majestic brevity and beauty, as it is vain to look for in any human compofition.- Such Such of the doctrines of the Gospel as are level to human capacity appear to be agreeable to the pureft truth and the foundeft morality. All the genius and learning. of the Heathen world; all the penetration of Pythagoras, Socrates, and Aristotle, had never been able to produce fuch a fyftem of moral duty, and fo rational an account of providence and of man, as is to be found in the New Teftament. Compared, indeed, to this, all other moral and theological wisdom Lofes discountenanced, and like folly fhews. Beattie. 211. Beneficence to the poor more forcibly enjoined by the Gospel, than by any other writings. upon The Christian Scriptures are more copious and explicit upon our obligation to beftow relief upon the poor than almost any other. The defcription which Chrift hath left us of the proceedings of the last day, establishes the obligation of bounty, fo far as his authority can be depended upon, beyond controverfy. "When the Son of man fhall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then fhall he fit the throne of his glory, and before him fhall be gathered all nations; and he shall feparate them one from another. Then fhall the king fay unto them on his right hand, Come ye bleffed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirty, and ye gave me drink: I was a ftranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was fick, and ye vifited me: I was in prifon, and ye came unto me. And inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the leaft of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." It is not neceflary to understand this paffage as a literal account of what will actually pass on that day. Suppofing it only a fcenical defcription of the rules and principles, by which the fupreme arbiter of our destiny will regulate his decifions, it conveys the fame leffon to us; it equally demonftrates of how great value and importance these duties in the fight of God are, and what stress will be laid upon them. The apoftles alfo defcribe this virtue as propitiating the divine favour in an eminent degree: and thefe recommendations have produced their effect. It does not appear that before the times of Christianity, a hofpital, infirmary, or public charity of any kind, existed in the world; whereas most countries in Christendom have long abounded with thefe inftitutions. To which may be added, that a spirit of private liberality seems to flourish amidft the decay of many other virtues: not to mention the legal provifion for the poor, which obtains in this country, and which was unknown and unthought of by the most polifhed nations of antiquity. Rev. W. Paley. § 212. The fimplicity of the Gofpel gives it an air of fublimity. The graceful negligence of nature always pleases beyond the trueft ornaments that art can devife. Indeed, they are then trueft, when they approach the nearest to this negligence. To attain it, is the very triumph of art. The wife artist, therefore, always compleats his ftudies in the great fchool of creation, where the forms of elegance lie fcattered in an endless variety: and the writer who wishes to poffefs fome portion of that fovereign excellence, fimplicity, even though he were an infidel, would have recourfe to the Scriptures, and make them his model. The pathetic and fublime fimplicity of our Saviour's whole description of the last. judgment cannot be paralleled in any writing of any age. In the Gofpel we find no pompous difplays of reasoning; no laboured and difficult diftinctions; no long and learned enquiries concerning the nature and kinds of virtue; but virtue itself reprefented to the life; in examples, and precepts, which are level to the plainest understandings; in familiar occurrences; in fhort and fimple narrations; in actions, or difcourses, real or imagined. And perhaps, among other things, it is this unfyftematic form, this neglect of art and method, which produces that graceful ease, that venerable, majestic fimplicity, that air of truth and originality, which diftinguish the Scriptures from all human writings. Rev. F. Mainwaring. $213. The Bible, as a very curious and ancient hiftory, worthy our attention. Were the Bible but confidered impartially and attentively, in its most advantageous lights; as it contains all the written revelation of God's will now extant; as it is the bafis of our national religion, and gives vigour and spirit to all our focial laws; as it is the most ancient, and con fequently, |