CHAPTER VIII. ORIGINALITY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. It is the object of the Christian Scriptures, not merely to declare certain truths or doctrines, but to recommend and form a particular character; to which those who taught the religion stood pledged themselves; and which they held forth to the imitation of all who might become their disciples, as indispensable to their receiving its benefits. Now this character is evidently an important test of the truth of the religion. Does it agree with the natural bias of the human mind? If so, we need seek no farther for its origin. Was it copied from any pattern already in existence? If so, it carries no proof of divinity. Is it unsuitable to the object which it was professedly intended to promote? If so, we have a strong argument against its authority. On the other hand, if it is such a character as had no existing original, when it was first proposed in the Gospel; such a character as men are naturally inclined to hold in low esteem, yet which is admirably suited to the end for which it was designed; then fresh probability will be added to the arguments in favour of the religion. The Christian character, however, was necessarily in many respects original when the Gospel was promulgated, because it has a remarkable connexion with the facts declared in the Gospel. It grows, as it were, out of them; like the branches from a tree. Deny them, and it has no propriety. The whole character is most natural and suitable, allowing the truth of the religion; but on any other ground, unintelligible. Christianity is not proved to be a divine revelation, because it inculcates justice, humanity, sobriety; and forbids the contrary vices. Sufficient light has existed wherever mankind have attained a moderate degree of civilization, to recommend, if not to enforce, the leading duties of morality, and to show their connexion with the welfare of society. The personal virtues, indeed, have commonly fallen to the ground; and perverted reason has been at no loss for arguments to justify their violation. And it follows of course, that when the relation of man to his Creator is understood imperfectly, or not at all, the duties which spring out of that relation are neglected or unknown. But this was not the case in Jerusalem. 1 A lamentable, and at the same time an unanswerable, proof of the state of the heathen world, with regard to God, may be collected from Cicero. In his book De Officiis, which he wrote not only as a philo Both these classes of duty were distinctly laid down and inculcated in the Jewish Scriptures. So that what was absolutely wanting in the world at the Christian era, that is to say, what could nowhere be found previously existing in the world, was rather such sanctions as should render it worth while for men to practise inconvenient duties and cultivate virtues to which they are naturally disinclined, than a new code of those duties and virtues. Supposing, however, that to be revealed which was only obscurely hinted in the Jewish law, but which Christianity professes to disclose, respecting the corruption of man's nature, and the light in which God views that corruption, respecting also the remedy which he has provided and the atonement which he has accepted for it; we must have expected that new duties should depend upon these truths, now for the first time made clearly known; and that a new turn should be given to many of those virtues which the best faculties of the best men had always seen to be agreeable to reason. And so it is. Jesus and his followers require that a character should be cultivated, which, before his religion, had no existing prototype; which in some points, and particularly as to its motives and princisopher, but as a father anxious for the welfare of his son, he passes over, in one short sentence, what we justly consider the first and leading duty of mankind :-" Deos placatos pietas efficiet et sanctitas." Lib. ii. s. 3. Yet he was in possession of all the light of his own and former ages. ples, was original even among the Jews; and which was altogether foreign from the habits and feelings of other nations. I. We may consider, as a first example, the state of mind which appears in the epistles of St. Paul,—a state of mind arising out of the intimate conviction that eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ, -the gift of God, not earned or merited, but freely bestowed. Accordingly he writes: "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners: of whom I am chief."1 "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ; "2" for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith."3 Again, "After that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life."4 What I observe in this, is not a mere ex 11 Tim. i. 15. 2 Gal. vi. 14. 4 Titus iii. 4-7. pression of humility, or acknowledgment of unworthiness: but a total renunciation of personal claim, an entire reliance upon Jesus as the author of acceptance with God, and consequent salvation. The doctrine which demands this faith and reliance is explained elsewhere; when it is asserted that "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God:" that "God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." But the feeling which is exhibited in the passages just cited, in which Paul is laying open, without reserve, the ground of his own individual hopes, is not such as can be created by direct precept it originates in facts which are declared in the Gospel, and can only proceed from an admission of those facts as true. For how much was there in St. Paul, which, according to the usual current of man's sentiments, might have satisfied him with relying upon himself and his own exertions? What he had given up for the sake of Christianity is well known: it includes all which men commonly esteem most valuable :-the faith in which he had been educated; the fellowship of his friends; the good opinion of his countrymen. What he had suffered is no less notorious: contempt, persecution, imprisonment, chastisement; and his "more abundant labours" placed him at the head of all who were engaged in the Christian cause: for there was scarcely a country which he had not visited, or a city in which he had not planted or encouraged |