But before we entirely quit the confideration of this precept, we must take some notice of the obfervation subjoined to it, which will require a little explanation.

"Whatsoever ye would that men fhould do to you, do ye even fo to them; for this is the law and the prophets."

The concluding claufe, this is the law and the prophets, has by fome been interpreted to mean, this is the fum and fubftance of all religion; as if religion confifted folely in behaving juftly and kindly to our fellow creatures, and beyond this no other duty was required at our hands. But this conclufion is as groundless as it is dangerous and unfcriptural.

There are duties furely of another order, equally ne. ceffary at least, and equally important with those we owe to our neighbor.

There are duties, in the firft place, owing to our Crea tor, whom we are bound to honor, to venerate, to worfhip, to obey, and to love with all our hearts and fouls, and mind, and ftrength. There are duties owing to our Redeemer, of affection, attachment, gratitude, faith in hisdivine miffion, and reliance on the atonement he made for us on the crofs. There are laftly, acts of difcipline and felf-government to be exercised over our corrupt propenfities and irregular defires. Accordingly, in the very chapter we have just been confidering, we are commanded to feek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. We are in another place informed, that the love of God is the firft and great commandment, and the love of our neighbor only the fecond; and we are taught by St. James that one main branch of religion is to keep ourselves unfpotted from the world. It is impoffible, therefore, that our bleffed Lord could here mean to fay, that our duty towards our neighbor was the whole of his religion; he fays nothing in fact of his religion; he fpeaks only of the Jewish religion, the law and the prophets; and of thefe he only fays that one of the great objects they have in view is

* James i. 27.

to inculcate that fame equitable conduct towards our brethren, which he here recommendedt.

Let no one then indulge the vain imagination that a juft, and generous, and compaffionate conduct towards his fellow creatures conftitutes the whole of his duty, and will compenfate for the want of every other Chriftian virtue.

This is a most fatal delufion; and yet in the present times a very common one. Benevolence is the favorite, the fashionable virtue of the age; it is universally cried up by infidels and libertines as the first and only duty of man; and even many who pretend to the name of Chrif tians, are too apt to rest upon it as the most effential part of their religion, and the chief basis of their title to the rewards of the gospel. But that gospel, as we have just feen, prescribes to us feveral other duties, which require from us the fame attention as those we owe to our neighbor; and if we fail in any of them, we can have no hope of sharing in the benefits procured for us by the facrifice of our Redeemer. What then God and nature, as well as Chrift and his apoftles, have joined together, let no man dare to put asunder. Let no one flatter himself with obtaining the rewards, or even escaping the punishments of the Gospel, by performing only one branch of his duty; nor let him ever fuppofe that under the fhelter of benevolence he can either on one hand evade the first and great command, the love of his Maker; or on the other hand that he can fecurely indulge his favorite paffions, can compound as it were with God for his fenfuality by acts of generofity, and purchase by his wealth a general licence to fin. This may be very good pagan morality, may be very good moder philofophy, but it is not Chriftian godliness.

As it is my purpose to touch only on the most important and most generally ufeful parts of our Saviour's discourse, I fhall pass over what remains of it, and haften to the conclufion, which is expreffed by the facred hiftorian in these words: "And it came to pass, that when Jesus had

† See chap, xxii. 40. Rom. xiii. 8. Gal. v. 14. and Grotius on this verfe.

finished these fayings, the people were aftonished at his doctrine; for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the fcribes*." Both his matter and his manner were infinitely beyond any thing they had ever heard before. He did not, like the heathen philofophers, entertain his hearers with dry metaphyfical discourses on the nature of the fupreme good, and the several divifions and fubdivifions of virtue; nor did he, like the Jewish rabbies, content himself with dealing out ceremonies and traditions, with difcourfing on mint and cummin, and estimating the breadth of a phylactery; but he drew off their attention from thefe trivial and contemptible things to the greatest and the noblest objects; the exiftence of one fupreme Almighty Being, the Creator, Preferver, and Governor of the universe: the first formation of man; his fall from original innocence; the confequent corruption and depravity of his nature; the remedy provided for him by the goodness of our Maker and the death of our Redeemer; the nature of that divine religion which he himself came to reveal to mankind; the purity of heart and fanctity of life which he required; the communications of God's holy spirit to affift our own feeble endeavours here, and a crown of immortal glory to recompenfe us hereafter.

The morality he taught was the pureft, the foundeft, the fublimeft, the most perfect that had ever before entered into the imagination, or proceeded from the lips of man. And this he delivered in a manner the most striking and impreffive; in fhort, fententious, folemn, important, ponderous rules and maxims, or in familiar, natural, affecting fimilitudes and parables. He fhewed alfo a moft confummate knowledge of the human heart, and dragged to light all its artifices, fubtleties, and evafions. He dif covered every thought as it arofe in the mind; he detected every irregular defire before it ripened into action. He manifefted at the fame time the moft perfect impartiality. He had no refpect of perfons. He reproved vice in every ftation wherever he found it, with the fame freedom and boldness; and he added to the whole the weight, the irre* Matth. vii. 28, 29.

fiftable weight of his own example. He and he only of all the fons of men, acted up in every the minutest instance to what he taught; and his life exhibited a perfect portrait of his religion. But what completed the whole was, that he taught, as the evangelift expreffes it, with authority, with the authority of a divine teacher. The ancient philofophers could do nothing more than give good advice to their followers; they had no means of enforcing that advice; but our great Lawgiver's precepts are all DIVINE COMMANDS. He spoke in the name of God: he called himself the Son of God. He spoke in a tone of fuperiority and authority, which no one before had the courage or the right to affume: and finally, he enforced every thing he taught by the moft folemn and awful fanctions, by a promife of eternal felicity to thofe who obeyed him, and a denunciation of the most tremendous punishment to those who rejected him.

These were the circumstances which gave our blessed Lord the authority with which he fpake. No wonder then that the people "were astonished at his doctrines; and that they all declared he spake as never man fpake*

* John vii. 46.