s found in the
Talmud of Babylon (Sanhedrim fol. 100, Sotah, chapter 4, 7, 8,9.)
"With whatsoever measure any one metes it shall be measured to
him. So also the original of that expression of "Cast out the beam
out of thine own eye, and then thou shalt see clearly to cast the
mote out of thy brother's eye is to be found in the Talmud*.

What is called by Christians "the Lord's Prayer," is merely a few
clauses taken from Jewish prayers, and put together. Very many
instances of a similar nature to these might be produced; but, as I
must be brief, the reader is referred for further satisfaction to the
works of Lightfoot, where he will learn, by extracts from Jewish
writings, the source, and meaning of many more of the sayings of
Jesus.

I now proceed to the most disagreeable part of the subject, viz.:
The consideration of the other maxims mentioned, which, it must
be allowed, do belong to Jesus, or at least to the New Testament,
since they are the peculiar moral principles of Christianity, and the
honour of them can be challenged by, I believe, no other religion.

These precepts are so extremely hyperbolical, that they are not,
and cannot be perfectly observed by any Christian, who does not
detach himself completely from the business of society; and these
maxims, (which, as I said before, are the only parts of the morality
of the New Testament, which are not borrowed,) never have been
obeyed by any but the primitive Christians; and by the Monks, and
Anchorets; for even the Quakers and Shakers, eminent as they are
in Christian morality, have never been able to come quite up to the
self denial required by the New Testament.

Indeed, the moral maxims peculiar to Christianity are
impracticable, except by one who confines his wealth to the
possession of a suit of clothes, sad wooden platter, and who lives
in a cave, or a monastery. They bear the stamp of enthusiasm upon
their very front, and we have always seen, and ever shall see, that
they are not fit for man: that they lift him out of the sphere in
which God designed him to move; that they are useless to society,
and frequently produce the most dangerous consequences to it. In a
word, in these maxims we find commands, the fulfillment of
which, is impossible by any man who is a husband, a father, or a
citizen.

It is an outrage to human nature, and to common sense, to order a
virtuous man, in order to reach perfection, to strip himself of his
property; to offer the ot