One system of Religion, only, taught in the Old and the New Testament; one Law, on which the whole is ultimately founded; one system of doctrines and duties of what is called natural rebigion; one system of doctrines and duties of the Christian system, appropriately so called: that the Gospel was preached not only to Abraham, but to the Jewish and Patriarchal churches in every age that good men have always died in the faith of the Gospel: that the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles is the same: and that of both Jesus Christ is the chief corner-stone.

III. Christ taught all the fundamental doctrines of this system. By the fundamental doctrines of the Christian system, I intend those, which are necessary to be believed, and obeyed, in order to the attainment of salvation. Such, for example, are the existence and perfections of the one God; the law of God; its righteous and reasonable character; the rebellion, apostasy, and corruption, of man; the impossibility of justification by the works of the Law; Christ's own divine character as the Son of God, and the Saviour of men; justification by faith in him; the nature and necessity of regeneration, faith, repentance, and holiness of heart and life; a future state; a judgment; and a recompense of reward to the righteous and the wicked beyond the grave.

I will not say, that the belief of every one of these is indispensable to salvation, but they are all essential parts of one system; and within this list is found whatever is thus necessary to be believed. That Christ taught all these things will not, I suppose, be questioned by any man, who admits that they are at all taught in the Scriptures.

IV. Christ taught the religion of the Scriptures more plainly and perfectly, than those who went before him.

In a former discourse, I considered the character of the Redeemer, as the Light of the world; and observed, that he is exhibited in the Scriptures, as the source of all knowledge, natural, revealed, and spiritual, concerning moral subjects. Agreeably to this general character, he appeared with peculiar splendour, as the great Luminary of the world, while executing the office of a Preacher of truth and righteousness. Every subject, which he discussed, he illustrated, and every duty, enjoined by him, he in

culcated, with a force, distinctness, and impression, utterly unrivalled by any preceding instructor.

Particularly; he explained the nature and extent of the Divine Law far more perfectly than Moses and the Prophets. Of this truth his Sermon on the Mount is the most illustrious instance, of which we are able to form a conception. In this wonderful discourse he inverted some, and subverted others, of the Jewish opinions, established a long time before he commenced his ministry, concerning the substance of the Mosaic religious system; explained the extent and comprehensiveness of the law; and taught the wonderfully various, minute, and exact, manner, in which its precepts are applicable to the moral concerns of mankind. David had formerly said, while addressing himself to the Most High, Thy commandment is exceeding broad. But Christ first unfolded the extension of the divine law to every thought and affection, as well as to every word and action, of mankind. At the same time, he exhibited the nature of genuine obedience in a light, new, and altogether nobler than had before been imagined; presenting to the eyes of mankind this obedience, otherwise termed holiness, or virtue, as more expanded, more dignified, more refined, and formed for a destination superior to what was found in the instructions, given by the wisest men under the Mosaic dispensation. Whatever was limited, and merely Jewish, he took away; cleansing the intellect from every film, which had bedimmed, or narrowed, its views; and releasing the heart from every clog, which had checked the progress of its affections. The soul, therefore, freed in this manner from its former corporeal incumbrances, was prepared by his instructions to renew its strength, to mount up with wings as an eagle, to run in the Christian course and not be weary, to walk and not faint.

In the same perfect manner, and to a considerable extent in this very discourse, as well as more fully in his discourses at large, he explained the Gospel to mankind. The scheme of salvation to apostates through a Redeemer was very imperfectly taught by Moses, and was left in no small degree of obscurity even by David and Isaiah. It was reserved for Christ, by whom came grace and truth, to make the way of holiness a highway, in which

way-faring men, though fools, were by no necessity compelled to err. So fully, so distinctly, so completely, has Christ pointed out the way to eternal life, that we often see heathens, savages, slaves, and even little children, as well as unlettered men in Christian countries, entering into it, and walking safely onward to the end.

Among the things, which Christ has thus clearly explained to mankind, I have selected the following.

1st. He taught mankind, that the heart is the seat of all virtue and vice, or, in Scriptural language, of holiness and sin.

Matt. xv. 16, Jesus said to his disciples: Are ye also yet with out understanding? Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught. But those things, which proceed out of the mouth, come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man ; but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man. And again, Matthew xii. 34, He said to the Pharisees, O generation of vipers! how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.

By declaring, that the heart was the only seat of good and evil, Christ taught us several lessons of great importance to our safety and well-being.

He taught us, particularly, how to distinguish with accuracy between moral good and evil.

So long as men supposed moral good and evil to lie either wholly, or partially, in their external actions, it was impossible, that they should make this distinction with any degree of accuracy: for the very same external actions, so entirely the same as to be distinguishable by no human eye, proceed from principles directly opposite, and are intended to promote directly opposite ends. In the actions themselves, therefore, there is no difference; and, of course, no foundation for any distinction in their moral character. But, when the good and evil are referred to the heart, the intention, the accordance with different motives, we cannot fail.

unless through an unnecessary, and therefore criminal, negligence, to discern whether we form good or bad intentions, and whether we accord with good or evil motives. In this manner our duty, and our disobedience also, are in ordinary cases, to say the least, made plain and obvious; and we are saved from that perplexity and suspense, whose only influence it is to delay, bewilder, and distress the mind.

In this manner also, Christ has taught us, where our principal safety lies; (viz.) in carefully watching our thoughts.

David in those golden precepts, recited by Solomon in the 4th chapter of Proverbs, had, long before our Saviour's incarnation, said, Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. But this precept seems to have been imperfectly understood, and little insisted on, and its importance imperfectly realized, by those who preceded the Redeemer. He, on the contrary, by showing that the heart was the only seat of good and evil, and teaching that the nature of the streams was derived solely from the fountain, taught, also, in a manner which could not be misapprehended, that the supreme duty and interest of man lay in guarding the fountain itself from every impurity. As all good and all evil commence here; to watch the state of the thoughts and affections becomes a duty of immeasurable importance. Proportionally important is the lesson, by which this duty is taught and enjoined.

In the same manner also, Christ taught the emptiness of external and ceremonial performances.

Many of the Jews, and all the Heathen, placed the whole of their religion in such performances. Christ struck at the root of this fruitful stem of falsehood; a production, not unnaturally cherished by the splendid ceremonies of the Mosaic ritual.

Although the religion of the heart was actually taught, and taught with great force and propriety, in the Mosaic system; yet the splendour of the worship which it enjoined, and the strong impressions made on the imagination by the nature, and multitude, of its rites, easily drew off the attention of gross and careless minds from the thing typified to the type; from spiritual worship and real duty to a mere external observance.

For several ages before Christ appeared, the Jews, and among

them the teachers of their law, had leaned more and more towards an unqualified approbation of mere external rites, and a general substitution of mere external conduct for the duties enjoined by Religion. To the opinions of these men Christ, on many occasions, opposed himself in form, and with irresistible efficacy. Whatever stress may be laid upon them by others, it is impossible for his disciples to regard them as being virtuous, even in the remotest sense; or as being of any moral use, except as occasional aids and means of virtue.

2dly. Christ taught mankind, that virtue consists solely in loving God with all the heart, and our neighbour as ourselves.

On these two commands, said he to the scribe, hang all the law and the prophets. Out of these commands arise all the precepts, taught by Moses and the Prophets; precepts, which have no other nature, nor end, but to explain, and enjoin, this universal law of God. He who keeps these, therefore, keeps them all. Of course, he is the subject of that obedience, which God has required; of moral excellence; of real amiableness in the sight of his Maker.

The distinction between virtue and vice, exhibited, under the first head, as so successfully made by the doctrine there specified, was here completed. When virtue is made to consist wholly in love, and love itself is at the same time so exactly defined; all the facility is given, which can be desired, for the purpose of discriminating between virtue and sin.

3dly. Christ taught, that the meek and lowly virtues, as they are called, or in other words exercises of virtue, are superior in their excellency to any others.

2

Mankind have universally admired magnanimity, active courage, contempt of danger and death, and other exercises of a bold and vigorous spirit. Nay, so greatly have they admired them, not only as to regard with a forgiving eye those who have exhibited them, even in the midst of crimes and excesses, but to yield to them, when guilty of every enormity, their universal and unqualified applause. I do not deny, that these may be indications, and exercises, of virtue. There are undoubtedly occasions, on which we are required to be strong, and of a good courage and. when we assume this character from a sense of