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THE EPICUREAN SCHOOL.

[LECT.

Epicurus refined again, and although we might detect many shades of difference in the morality of the Greek sects, they will all, as far as any principle is concerned, concentre in the Epicurean school, which may be considered, after all, as the established religion of Pagan Rome. Epicurus, no doubt, taught a refined indulgence, which, if followed up, ensured an absolute temperance and continency and all those who had any pretensions to wisdom, spake of what was honest and praiseworthy in conformity with his views they followed the law of nature (I speak of the wisest and best of them, who were but few in number,) the principle of more enlarged enjoyment: justice was taught and recommended, because it was a bond of social union. Nevertheless we find Theodorus declaring, that a wise man might, upon a proper occasion, commit theft, adultery, and sacrilege, for that none of those things were disgraceful in themselves, if that opinion of them, which was agreed upon for the sake of restraining fools, were taken away. Truth, they further taught, was highly desirable because it was useful; nevertheless, we read in some of their writings, that a man may speak falsely, provided he select a fitting or a needful So much for their social duties of life: this was their public virtue; but with regard to

upon

season.

11.] SELFISH MOTIVES OF PRIVATE VIRTUES. 47 their morals of a more private nature,-excess was to be avoided in every thing, because it clogged the soul with vice and pollution, gave cause for much uneasiness, and ended in misery. Personal virtue was therefore highly desirable, because in that consisted the most refined happiness. In short, it is in vain to search for a higher principle than that of self, in all the virtue of the heathen world'. This accounts for the absence of those excellent virtues inculcated by our religion, such as doing good to others, and giving to those that need, not for the sake of removing inconvenience from our sight, but for the sake of "Him who loved us, and gave Himself for us." But you will easily perceive, brethren, that upon the heathen principle of egotism, you might have a man of soberness, temperance, and chastity in truth, we have many such in our own age upon the epicurean or stoical principle, and upon no other. It was at Athens, as we read, where Paul encountered some philosophers of those two sects, who mocked, and said they would hear him

1 The morality and physics of the Epicurean school may be found in Lucian, in Catullus, and other poets of that class; and will be familiar to every reader of Horace. I forbear to make any further references in illustration of the text; but the moral treatises of Cicero, if read in a proper spirit, will not fail to enhance the value of the code of Christianity.

48

GREAT OPERATION OF

[LECT.

again when he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection.

It is not my intention to bring before you, in the course of these lectures, more of the wisdom of the Greeks" than is necessary for establishing our positions, which we desire to maintain for a more important purpose; we shall, therefore, leave this wide field of heathen morality, and come to some general application.

If then it appear that there was a law of nature, written in the hearts of the heathen, which, if they had followed, would, as St. Paul saith, have become the standard of their judgment, the justice of God is manifest; but if, on the other hand, they became "vain in their imaginations, and worked all uncleanness with greediness," thereby extinguishing the light which glimmered, however faintly, in their consciences, the condemnation of the world is just. "Let then God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, that thou mightest be justified in thy saying, and mightest overcome when thou art judged." The result of all this is, that either the world must perish, or God must again exert His power, and devise a remedy for the restoration of that corrupt nature, which in its own strength had so miserably failed. Two things were necessary, the first was to be an act of universal application, so that all the guilty world might at once

II.]

CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.

49

be lifted up from the depths of perdition to the hope of salvation. "God therefore so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life," which is the substance of Divine revelation. The second act was to be, more properly speaking, of a moral nature, viz. a work on the heart of man, by infusing into it a pure principle to which he had hitherto been a stranger; for it would not have been enough to have excited in the fallen man the hope of salvation, unless also his spiritual condition had been so changed, as to have enabled him, with the new powers conferred, both to apprehend and lay hold on it. The work of the new covenant therefore is this, "I will put my laws into their hearts, and write them on their minds," and whatever there may be of virtue after this, it is clearly of a totally different nature, because the whole principle of action is changed; and whilst, in the heathen world, there could be no permanent virtue, because there was no adequate motive for producing and preserving it, the practice of every virtue can now be ensured upon a higher and more heavenly principle: egotism is for ever excluded, and that expediency of action, which only "counts its gains," can find no place in the genuine spirit of Christianity, "it is not I that live, but Christ that liveth in me.”

E

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MORAL INFLUENCE OF THE GOSPEL. [LECT. Previously to the coming of Christ, the state of the heathen world was truly deplorable, and shows at once the total inefficiency of every system of moral teaching which had, up to that period, been proposed. But the pure morality of the Christian dispensation, which so many, who acknowledge not its Divine origin, admire, is but a small part of the mystery of godliness. We may easily conceive another Plato, who might have improved on the system of his predecessor; but even Christian morality without Christian principles to enforce it, would have been a dead letter: the precepts of Christianity published without the doctrine of a crucified Saviour, would have been of small avail; and therefore, in leading your minds, my brethren, to the contemplation of the superior purity of Christian virtue, I cannot do so without also pointing out "the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world." This is the life of religion, this produces morality, but cannot be produced by it. Faith, without works, is truly said to be dead; but works, without faith, are equally so, and the heathen world is my witness. In this view St. Augustine called the virtues of some pagans, only splendid vices, because they were wanting in this life-giving principle. The sanctification of the heart, therefore, by the Holy Spirit, and the purifying thereof, by the blood of sprinkling,