as of inviolable authority, and a complete standard of conduct ftill. When the Apoftle juft now named exposes the extreme folly of fuch tranfgreffors of the law as ftood felfcondemned; or complains of the rigour of its requifitions; or declares the impoffibility of yielding meritorious obedience to it, and confequently of obtaining Salvation under it, its fubfiftence and obligation are fuppofed beyond all poffible contradiction. That it could not make the comers thereunto perfect, was an argument of its own intrinfic perfection. The fame great Apoftle, preffing upon his Roman converts the duties of brotherly love, and univerfal charity, recites almost all the commandments of the fecond table; and fubjoins that comprehenfive precept of Mofes just now mentioned, which he no doubt confidered as inclufive of every evangelical precept, even that of loving our enemies, thou fhalt love thy neighbour as thyself. St. James calls this very precept, this great focial principle, the royal law; and when he argues against the folly and prefumption of a partial James ii. 8. obedience obedience to the divine commandments, and a commuting as it were for iniquities, refts his argument wholly in that fupreme authority by which the law of Mofes was enacted: be that faid, do not commit adultery, faid also, do not kill. In short, both our Lord and his Apostles inculcated, and enlarged upon many things of practical importance, as circumftances admitted, and occafions required; but they taught nothing of this kind but what was reducible to the Mofaic inftitutions, or to fome general head of Jewish, or natural morality. I add of natural morality; because the law of nature, the law of Mofes, and the law of Christ are, in point of morality, one and the fame; the latter illuftrating, explaining, enforcing, and recommending the two former, but neither adding to, nor diminishing from them. For the reafon or fitness of things is abfolutely unalterable; and whatever is in its own nature morally good or evil, has always been fo, and will for ever continue fo to be. The moral law which was once written upon tables of ftone was origi † James ii. 11. nally nally engraved upon the fleshly tables of man's beart.(u) To maintain or to imagine otherwife, is to charge God foolishly; and to fuppose both the law and the Gospel to prescribe a practice in fome inftances unnatural and unreasonable. St. Paul's descriptions of the grofs ignorance and depravity of the heathen world are equally animated and just.† But notwithstanding this, the irradiations of reason and confcience are fometimes beautifully vifible amidst this blackness of spiritual darkness. We might extract from the writings of Pagan authors, philofophers and others, of different times, and in different places, a moral fyftem, against which, collectively taken, should lie no fair exception; and produce from them fentiments finely coinciding with the moft exalted principles, and moft refined doctrines of Chriftianity. In these writings we find the purest piety, the exactest justice, the trueft benevolence, the firmeft fortitude, the nobleft difintereftedness, and the meekeft patience, most explicitly taught, and earnestly inculcated. (w) + Rom. i. 21, &c. Tully Tully divides the duty of man as we do at this day; viz. into that which is due, first, to God; fecondly, to our neighbour; and thirdly, to ourselves. Hac (philofophia) nos primum ad Deorum cultum, deinde ad jus hominum, quod fitum eft in generis humani focietate, tum ad modeftiam, magnitudinemque animi erudivit. * The golden rule of equity, whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, &c. (Matt. vii. 12.) obtained, as many have obferved, both among Jews and Gentiles, and was delivered by them as well negatively as positively, and under various modes of expreffion. That to intend wickedness is to commit it, is the express doctrine of Seneca, as quoted by LeClerc in his note on the 12th Chapter of the 4th. book of Grotius; and, which is still more remarkable, he inftances in cafes of luft and fenfuality: Incefta eft etiam fine ftupro, quæ cupit ftuprum. Even fo great a debauchee as Ovid speculates well upon this fubject: * Tufc. Q. 1. I. 26. See Whitby in loc. L Qua Quæ quia non licuit, non facit, illa facit. This is precifely the morality of our Divine Legislator. Forgiveness of enemies, &c. is a great point of morality which the heathens were far from being unacquainted with. According to Plutarch, it was a prayer of the Lacedæmonians, that the gods would enable them to bear injuries. And we are informed by the fame great biographer, that Dion maintained true philofophy to confift, not in fhewing kindness to friends, but in forgiving injuries, and pardoning offences. Menander is clearly of the fame opinion in the following fine paffage ; Ουτος κρατιςος επ' άνηρ, ω Γοργία, 2 Ος τις αδικεισθαι πλης επιςαται Βρίτων. * Some of the philofophers argued against prefent folicitude, and the taking too much thought for the morrow, precisely as our Saviour does in his difcourfe on the mount. A philofopher, or wife man, ought not to be anxious about these things, viz. food, &c. &c. * See Le Clerc's Note above referred to. δεδοικως |