clusion of all regard to reputation in our
devotion and alms, and by parity of reason in our other virtues;--when
we consider that his instructions were delivered in a form calculated
for impression, the precise purpose in his situation to be consulted;
and that they were illustrated by parables, the choice and structure of
which would have been admired in any composition whatever;--when we
observe him free from the usual symptoms of enthusiasm, heat and
vehemence in devotion, austerity in institutions, and a wild
particularity in the description of a future state; free also from the
depravities of his age and country; without superstition amongst the
most superstitious of men, yet not decrying positive distinctions or
external observances, but soberly calling them to the principle of their
establishment, and to their place in the scale of human duties; without
sophistry or trifling, amidst teachers remarkable for nothing so much as
frivolous subtleties and quibbling expositions; candid and liberal in
his judgment of the rest of mankind, although belonging to a people who
affected a separate claim to Divine favour, and in consequence of that
opinion prone to uncharitableness, partiality, and restriction;--when
we find in his religion no scheme of building up a hierarchy, or of
ministering to the views of human governments;--in a word, when we
compare Christianity, as it came from its Author, either with other
religions, or with itself in other hands, the most reluctant
understanding will be induced to acknowledge the probity, I think also
the good sense, of those to whom it owes its origin; and that some
regard is due to the testimony of such men, when they declare their
knowledge that the religion proceeded from God; and when they appeal for
the truth of their assertion, to miracles which they wrought, or which
they saw.

Perhaps the qualities which we observe in the religion may be thought to
prove something more. They would have been extraordinary had the
religion come from any person; from the person from whom it did come,
they are exceedingly so. What was Jesus in external appearance? A Jewish
peasant, the son of a carpenter, living with his father and mother in a
remote province of Palestine, until the time that he produced himself in
his public character. He had no master to instruct or prompt him; he had
read no books but the works of Moses and the prophets; he had visited no
polished cities; he had received no