highly needful, for setting them in the most convincing light, and enforcing them by a divine authority. It appears from what has been observed, that the Christian revelation has done this to the greatest advantage. And if we should proceed farther to a particular consideration of those more peculiar doctrines of Christianity, which reason could not at all have discovered if they had not been revealed, especially those relating to the methods of our redemption through Jesus Christ, here a glorious scene would open to us, fitted to fill our minds with the highest admiration of the divine wisdom and righteousness, and love to mankind. Christianity considered in this view, is a dispensation of grace and joy, and hath brought the best, the happiest tidings that were ever published to the world. But I have already far exceeded the bounds I originally intended, and therefore shall, without farther enlargement, conclude with observing, that we, who have the benefit of the gospel revelation, are under indispensable obligations to endeavour to make a good use of our advantages, and to receive, with the greatest veneration and thankfulness, the glorious discoveries it brings. We should be grateful to Divine Providence for the other advantages we enjoy, for our trade and commerce, for the flourishing of arts and sciences among us, and for the enjoyment of civil liberty. But the most valuable of all our privileges is, that we have the holy Scriptures in our hands, and the Christian revelation clearly published amongst us, which hath instructed us in the right knowledge of the Deity, hath set our duty before us in its just extent, and furnished the noblest motives and assistances for the performance of it, and hath raised us to such sublime hopes of a complete eternal felicity. Surely this calls, in a particular manner, for our adoring thankfulness to God, to whose rich grace and mercy we owe it that we are called out of darkness into his marvellous light. It is astonishing to think that there should be persons found among us who seem desirous to extinguish this glorious light, and to return to the ancient darkness of Paganism again: who seem weary of the gospel, and with a preposterous zeal endeavour to
subvert its proofs and evidences, and to expose it, as far as in them lies, to the derision and contempt of mankind. the attempts of such men against our holy religion should only quicken our zeal and heighten our esteem for it, and make us more earnestly desirous to build up ourselves in our most holy faith, and to adorn it by an exemplary conversation becoming the gospel of Christ. Christianity is not a bare system of speculative opinions, but a practical institution; a spiritual and heavenly discipline, all whose doctrines, precepts, promises, and ordinances, are designed to form men to a holy and virtuous temper and practice. The most ef fectual way, therefore, we can take to promote its sacred interests, is to show the happy influence it has upon our own hearts and lives, by abounding in the fruits of piety, righte ousness and charity, and thus making an amiable representation of it to the world.
THE LETTER N. REFERS TO THE NOTES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE.
ANTONINUS, Marcus-the emperor and philosopher, speaks of the gods as the
authors of all good things, and that to them we ought to offer up our prayers for
assistance in duty, and our thanksgivings for the blessings we enjoy, page 136.
The goodness of his nature sometimes got the better of his Stoical principles,
146. He represents all sin and wickedness as owing to ignorance and error,
150-and as necessary and unavoidable, 151. His doctrine of forgiving in-
juries in several respects excellent, but carried in some instances to an extreme,
and placed on wrong foundations, 156. He allowed, and in some cases advis-
ed, self-murder, 167, 168. His arguments for the absolute indifferency of all
external things considered, 186, 187. He excelled the other philosophers in
the sense he had of the strict obligation of truth, and held that he who utters a lie
willingly is guilty of impiety, 194. He every where expresses himself doubtfully
about the immortality of the soul, 254. Sometimes supposes it to be resumed
in the universal soul immediately upon its quitting the body, 255.
He never
gives the least hint that men shall be judged after death for their conduct in this
life, or that the wicked shall be punished in a future state, 255, 324. He re-
presents duration as of no moment to happiness, 308.
Apathy, Stoical-doctrine of it considered, 143.
Aristippus-held that nothing is by nature just or unjust, honourable or base, but
only by law and custom, 74. He and the Cyrenaics, his followers, asserted
that corporeal pleasure, which actually moves and strikes the senses, is the
chiefest good, and highest end of man, 76, 77. He is ranked by Cicero with
Socrates as a man of extraordinary and divine endowments, yet was very loose
in his morals, 161. N.
Aristotle-approves and prescribes the exposing and destroying weak and sickly
children, 42-encourages revenge, and seems to blame meekness and forgive-
ness of injuries, 109-teaches that virtue is the greatest good, but that external
advantages are necessary to complete happiness, 185. N.-varies in his doctrine
with respect to the immortality of the soul, and sometimes seems absolutely to
deny it, 244, 245,
Altic laws-Some of them probably derived from those of Moses, 36.
Bacon, Lord-A remarkable aphorism of his, that the cause of almost all evils
in the sciences is the entertaining too high an opinion of the powers of the hu-
man mind to the neglect of proper assistances, 366. N.
Barbeyrac, Mr.-of opinion that men generally come to the knowledge of morals
by custom and education, 13, 14.
Bayle, Mr.-sets himself to show the uncertainty of morals, 73. N.-says, that the
forgiveness of injuries is contrary to the law of nature, 111-pleads for the
community of wives, and for men's lending them to one another, as having
nothing in it disagreeable to reason, 117. N.
Bolingbroke, Lord-asserts that the whole law of nature, from the first principles
to the last conclusions. is naturally and necessarily known to every man, 4—
yet acknowledges that the law of nature is hid from our sight by the variegated
clouds of civil laws and customs, and can yield but a dubious light to those that
have the clearest sight, till those interpositions are removed, 60—and that they
who make the highest pretences are unable, on many occasions, to deduce from
the laws of their own nature, with precision and certainty, what these require
of them, and what is right or wrong, just or unjust for them to do, 104. N.
He asserts, that there is no moral precept in the whole Gospel but what was
taught by the philosophers, and yet represents it as the law of nature, that God
only is to be worshipped and adored: which was not taught or prescribed by
any of them, 65, and 100. N.
Cæsar, Julius-declared in open senate that there is nothing to be hoped or feared
after death, 334.
Casaubon, Dr. Meric-His assertion, that there is no evangelical duty which wise
men among the heathens have not taught by the mere strength of natural rea-
son considered, 65, et seq.
Calo of Utica-cried up as a perfect model of virtue, lent his wife to Hortensius,
118-carried his grief for the death of his brother Cepio to an excess, 147—ad-
mired for his inflexible severity, 159-addicted to excessive drinking; but Sene-
ca will not allow that this was a fault in him, 163. He taught and practised
self-murder, 164.
Children-The exposing those of them that were weak and deformed prescribed
by a law of Lycurgus, 40-very common in Greece, and other parts of the Pa-
gan world, 42-approved by Plato and Aristotle, ibid.-prescribed by Romu-
lus, and continued to be practised at Rome for many ages, 52. 53.
Chinese-highly extolled by some authors as having the preference to Christians
in all moral virtues, 55. Their laws well contrived to preserve public order,
but insufficient to furnish a complete rule of morals, ibid.-unnatural lusts com-
mon among them, 56-they account drunkenness to be no crime, ibid.—take as
many concubines as they can keep, ibid.—lend and pawn their wives upon occa-
sion, ibid.-and dissolve marriages for slight causes, 56. Their cruel custom of
exposing and destroying their female children, 57.-exceeding litigious and
revengeful, ibid. Their tribunals full of fraud and injustice, ibid. N. See also
258. N. The most cheating nation upon earth, 58. See Learned Sect in
Christian Revelation—was published at a time when mankind were sunk into the
most amazing corruption with regard to morals, 197, 198-brought the most
perfect scheme of morality that was ever given to the world, and enforced it by
the most powerful motives. See Morality. The uniform tendency of the
whole to promote the practice of holiness and virtue, is a strong argument of
its divine original, 223, et seq. Life and immortality is brought by it into the
clearest and fullest light, 347, et seq. It has given the strongest assurances of the
certainty of future happiness, 348-and makes the most inviting discoveries of
the nature of that happiness, 349, et seq. The idea there given of it is the no-
blest that can be conceived, and the best fitted to promote the practice of righ-
teousness and true holiness, 351, 352. It also makes the most awful and strik-
ing representations of the judgment to come, and of the punishments which
shall be inflicted upon the wicked in a future state, 360, 361. It is the perfec-
tion of all the Divine Revelations that were ever given to mankind, and there-
fore to be received with the highest veneration and thankfulness, and to be
valued as the greatest of all our privileges, 367, et seq. When duly understood
and practised, it is of great advantage to kingdoms and states, and has a ten-
dency to promote good order in the world, and public as well as private hap-
piness, 368.
Christianity-in many instances raised its professors to a height of fortitude and
patience, which the Stoics boasted of, but could not attain to, 189.
Christians, Primitive-the most pious and virtuous body of men that ever appear-
ed in the world, 225. The purity and innocency of their lives acknowledged by
the Pagans themselves, 310, 311. Glorious effects produced by their hopes of
a blessed immortality, ibid.
Chrysippus, the famous Stoic philosopher-Arrogant strains of his, equalling the
wise man with Jupiter in virtue and happiness, 132. He reckoned the most in-
cestuous mixtures and impurities among indifferent things, 162-held the com.
munity of women, ibid.-gave obscene interpretations of the Pagan mythology,
ibid. was addicted to drunkenness, and died of it, 163.
Cicero bestows the highest encomiums on the usefulness and excellency of
philosophy, especially with regard to morals, 63—yet observes, that it was by many
not only neglected but reproached, 71-passes a severe censure on those that
make sensual pleasure the chief good, 75. He derives the original law from
the sovereign wisdom and authority which governs the universe, 94. This law
he sometimes represents as naturally and necessarily known to all men without
instruction or an interpreter, 95. The contrary is proved from his own`ac-
knowledgments, 96. He sends men to the contemplation of the works of na-
ture, especially of the heavens, for instruction in moral duty, 97. What he
seems principally to rely upon is, that the natural law is made known by the
reason of the wise man, which he supposes to be the same with the reason of
God himself, 98, 99. He makes little mention of God in his Book of Offices,
where he treats of ethics, 104. He encourages retaliation of injuries, 109, 110
-pleads for fornication as having nothing blameable in it, and as universally
allowed and practised, 120.-Sometimes he seems to condemn suicide, at
other times commends and justifies it, 172, 173-prefers the Stoical scheme of
morals, in his Book of Offices, to that of the Peripatetics, 185. His account
of the Honestum considered, 192, 193. He argues excellently for the im-
mortality of the soul in several parts of his works, 275-yet sometimes in his
familiar letters to his friends represents death as putting an end to all sense of
good or evil, 277, 278. Even where he seems to plead most strenuously for
the immortality of the soul, he does not pretend to a certainty, but talks
doubtfully about it, 297. It is not clear whether he held the soul to be pro-
perly a part of the Divine Essence; but he argued, that it must be necessarily
eternal by the force of its own nature, 287, 288. He makes no use of the
doctrine of the immortality of the soul for moral purposes, either for supporting
men under troubles and adversities, or for engaging them to the pursuit and
practice of virtue, 300, 304. The notion of future punishments is absolutely
rejected by him, both in his philosophical treatises, and in a public oration
before the Roman people, 320, 321. He so explains the maxim of the philo-
sophers that the gods are never angry, as to exclude all fear of punishments
after death, 323, et seq.
Civil laws, and customs that had the force of laws-not adequate rules of moral
duty, 33, 34, 60, 61. Instances in which they were contrary to good morals,
34, et seq.
Clerc, Mr Le-thinks it probable that several of the usages and institutions which
were common to the Egyptians and Hebrews, were derived to them from the
earliest ages, and originally of divine appointment, 22, N.
Community of wives-allowed by many of the philosophers, particularly by Plato,
the Cynics, and Stoics, 114, 117, 118, 162.-practised by many nations, 112,
113. N.
Confucius, the famous Chinese philosopher-did not pretend to be himself the
author of the moral precepts he delivered, but to have derived them from wise
men of the greatest antiquity, 23. N. He carried the custom of mourning for
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