other than acts of juftice, which God himself deigned to execute for a contravention of his law? It was a difrespect fhown to the house of the Lord, to change his dwelling into a market for buyers and fellers. And although the Sanhedrim and its priests might permit this traffic for the greater convenience of their facrifices; yet the God to whom thefe facrifices were offered, might, doubtless, though under a human fhape, overturn this profane practice. In the fame manner might he punish those who brought into the country whole troops of thofe animals which were prohibited by that law, of which he himself deigned to be an obferver. These two examples then have not the leaft connection with perfecution for religion-fake; and the spirit of non-toleration must certainly be founded upon very false principles, when it every where feeks fuch idle pretexts.

Christ, in almost every other part of his gofpel, both by his words and actions, preaches up mildness, forbearance, and indulgence. Witnefs the father who receives his prodigal fon ; and the workman who comes at the last hour, and yet is paid as much as the others; witness the charitable Samaritan; and Chrift himself,

who

who excufes his difciples for not fafting; who pardons the woman who had finned; and only recommends fidelity for the future to the woman caught in adultery. He even condescends to partake of the innocent mirth of those who are met at the marriage-feast in Cana, and who being already warmed with wine, and wanting ftill more, Chrift is pleased to perform a miracle in their favour, by changing their water into wine. He is not even incensed against Judas, who he knew to be about to betray him; he commands Peter never to make use of the fword, and reprimands the fons of Zebedee, who, after the example of Elias, wanted to call down fire from heaven to confume a town in which they had been refufed a lodging. In a word, he himself died a victim to malice and perfecution; and, if one might dare to compare God with a mortal, and facred things with prophane, his death, humanly speaking, had a great refemblance to that of Socrates. The Greek philofopher fuffered by the hatred of the fophifts, the priests, and the heads of the people; the Chriftian law-giver by that of the Scribes, Pharifees, and priefts. Socrates might have avoided death, but would not; Christ offered himself a voluntary facrifice. The Greek philofopher not only pardoned his falfe accufers

and

and iniquitous judges, he even defired them to treat his children as they had done himself, should they be one day happy enough, like him, to deferve their hatred. The Chriftian lawgiver, infinitely fuperior to the heathen, befought his father to forgive his enemies. If Christ seemed to fear death, and that the agonies he was in at its approach, drew from him sweat mixed with blood, which is the moft violent and rare of all fymptoms, it was because he condescended to fubmit to every weakness of the human frame which he had taken upon him; his body trembled, but his foul was unfhaken. By his example we may learn, that true fortitude and greatnefs confift in fupporting thofe evils at which our nature shrinks. It is the heighth of courage to meet death at the fame time that we fear it.

Socrates accused the fophifts of ignorance, and convicted them of falfhood: Jefus, in his Godlike character, accufed the Scribes and Pharifees of being hypocrites, blind guides and fools, and a race of vipers and ferpents.

Socrates was not accused of attempting to found a new fect; nor was Christ charged with endeavouring to introduce a new one.

We are

told

told in St. Matthew, that the great men and the priests, and all the council, fought falfe witness against Jefus to put him to death.

Now, if they were obliged to feek for falfe witneffes, they could not charge him with having preached openly against the law; befides, it was evident, that he complied in every refpect with the Mofaic law, from his birth to his death. He was circumcifed the eighth day like other Jewish children; he was baptized in Jordan, agreeable to a ceremony held facred among the Jews, and among all the other people of the East. All impurities of the law were cleanfed by baptifm; it was in this manner their priests were confecrated at the folemn feaft of the expiation, every one plunged himself in the water, and all new-made profelytes underwent the fame ceremony.

Moreover, Jefus obferved all the points of the law; he feafted every fabbath-day, and he abstained from forbidden meats; he kept all the festivals, and even before his death, he celebrated that of the paffover; he was not accufed of embracing any new opinion, nor of obferving any strange rites. Born an Ifraelite, he always lived as an Ifraelite.

He

He was accused indeed by two witneffes, of having faid that he could deftroy the temple, and build it up again in three days; a speech algether unintelligible to the carnal Jews, but which did not amount to an accufation of seeking to found a new fect.

When he was examined before the highprieft, this latter faid to him, "I command "you, in the name of the living God, to tell us "if thou art Chrift, the fon of God." We are not told what the high-prieft meant by the fon of God. This expreffion was fometimes made ufe of to fignify a juft or upright man *, in the

* It was indeed very difficult, not to fay impoffible, for the Jews to comprehend, without an immediate revelation, the ineffable mystery of the incarnation of God, the fon of God. In the fixth chapter of Genefis, we find the fons of great men called the fons of God." In like manner the royal Pfalmift calls the tall cedars," the ce"dars of God." Samuel fays, "the fear of God "fell upon the people;" that is, a violent fear feized them. A great tempeft is called the wind of the Lord, and Saul's diftemper, the melancholy of the Lord. Nevertheless, the Jews feemed to

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