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that spend their lives in obscurity and subjection, for those who see themselves reduced to suffer injustice and vexation without daring to complain, and the number of them is infinite.

All this is clearer than noon-day, and by a necessary inference from this it is likewise undeniable that the counsels of Jesus Christ are fraught with the deepest wisdom which we can never sufficiently admire.

CCIV. Reflections on the Legislation or the Moral Law of Jesus Christ.

Such is the faithful picture of the moral law of Jesus Christ. The more we study that law, the more we shall be convinced that it is a master piece of reason, of equity, of wisdom. This law forms a body of legislation so perfect that nothing can be added to it, nothing retrenched from it. It shows to man all his duties towards God, his Creator and Sovereign Master, towards his fellow-men and towards himself: it suits men considered in a body and as forming different societies among themselves, and each one in particular, in all situations in which they can possibly find themselves; it is appropriate to all countries and to all times. He that examines this law closely, is compelled to acknowledge, that he who is the author of it must have had a most profound knowledge of the whole man, of his mind, of his heart, of his passions, of his weaknesses, of all his evils, and of the remedies which were to be applied to them, of the true end of man, and of the means by which he was to be led to its attainment. It is manifest, that when men shall live up to that law, they will be as good and as happy in this world as they can possibly be according to the condition of their nature.

And, indeed, figure to yourself a people of true christians, that is to say, a people composed of men who all love God as their Father, and men as their brethren; who are all "one heart and one soul," who have but one and the same interest, and who all, in concert, tend to one and the same end, which is everlasting life, and who march all with one common movement

towards the same term which is heaven; none of them ever suffering the law to yield to passion, the general welfare to personal interest, the interest of eternity to that of time, (for such would be a nation of true christians.) Is it not true that such a people would be a great spectacle for the world, for the angels, and for men; that they would be venerated by all other nations, that they would be the happiest of mortals? Peace, which is the sweetest fruit of charity, would fix its abode in the midst of this people cherished by heaven. Never would there be heard among them the frightful cries of discord; for there would be seen neither injustice, nor violence, nor jealousy, nor rivalship. There you would find no one truly wretched, because there would be no wicked. Good things would be purely good, and bad things or evils would cease to be evils, because charity would render every good and every evil common.* I frankly advance, if there were no other life than this, if the destiny of men were confined to this earth, all nations ought to embrace the law of Jesus Christ.

If any one were to rise up against this holy law as bearing too hard upon flesh and blood, I would answer first, that for this very reason it was not conceived, much less carried into practice by flesh and blood; and that, notwithstanding its severity, it was practised by the Greeks and the Romans, and by the christian nations without number that have embraced it since, and who are incontestably the wisest and most enlightened of all nations. I would answer in the second place, that he is pleading the cause of the passions, and ask him whether the passions are just or unjust. If he answers me that the passions are just, I deliver him over to the censure of his own conscience and to that of all mankind who look upon him as a monster; and if he grants that the passions are unjust, I

* Such a people has existed: the primitive christians were people as holy and happy as I have just now portrayed. Witness the Acts of the Apostles. All the world knows the region (Paraguay) where a similar people existed not long ago, a people who were the admiration of the world. The religion of Jesus Christ had formed them, an ungodly and sophistic policy threw them back into their former state of savageness and brutality,

answer that it was, therefore, necessary to restrain them, and I defy him to find me a means better adapted to produce this effect than the law of Jesus Christ.

There are but few so lost to every principle as to attack the law of Jesus Christ, and of those few I am bold to say, that the infamy of their manners sufficiently avenges the sanctity of this divine law for the contempt which they affect to show for it; and it is clearly perceived that those bold mortals, swayed by an inflexible pride, have taken the part of condemning the law of Jesus Christ rather than of condemning themselves, and of impeaching God of injustice rather than of confessing that they are profligates.

Here would be the place to enlarge upon the admirable change which the law of Jesus Christ has made in the world, and on the advantages without number which mankind have derived from this law. But our plan will not admit of so extensive an excursion. We have said enough to convince every mind open to conviction, that Jesus, who has given the law, is either a God-man, or at least the ambassador of the Most High, (which suffices us for the moment,) for in its proper place we shall make it appear from a long array of undeni able arguments, and especially from his astonishing miracles, that Jesus Christ is really what the centurion proclaimed him to be at the universal convulsion of nature that took place at his death: "Vere Filius Dei erat iste." "Indeed this was the Son of God," Math. xxvii. 54.

CCV. Let us conclude with an extract from a work, which, being a masterpiece of composition with regard to style as well as to the interest of its subject, the author could wish to see placed in the hands of every class of society, but especially in the hands of youth, who pursue their education either in common schools or in literary institutions.

"In this decline of religion, and of the Jewish affairs, at the end of Herod's reign, and in the time the Pharisees were introducing so many abuses, Jesus Christ was sent upon earth to restore the kingdom into the house of David, after a more

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sublime manner than the carnal Jews understood it, and to preach the doctrine, which God had resolved should be declared to the whole world. This wonderful child, called by Isaiah,*"the mighty God, the everlasting Father," and "the Prince of Peace," is born of a virgin at Bethlehem, and comes there to acknowledge the origin of his race. Conceived by the Holy Ghost, holy in his birth, alone worthy to make atonement for the guilt of others, he receives the name of Jesus,t or Saviour, because "he was to save us from our sins." diately upon his birth, a new star, the type of that light he was to show to the Gentiles, appears in the east, and guides to the yet infant Saviour, the first fruits of the conversion of the Gentiles. A little after, that Lord, so greatly desired, comes to his holy temple, where Simeon beholds him,§ not only as "the glory of Israel," but also as "a light to lighten the Gentiles." When the time of preaching his gospel drew near, St. John the Baptist, who was to prepare his ways, called all sinners to repentance, and with his crying made the whole wilderness resound, where he had lived from his tenderest infancy with equal austerity and innocence. The people, who for five hundred years had seen no prophet, acknowledged this new Elias, and were ready to take him for the Saviour, so great did his sanctity appear but he himself pointed out to the people, Him, "whose shoe's latchet he was not worthy to unloose." At the length Jesus Christ begins to preach his gospel and to reveal secrets he saw from all eternity" in the bosom of his father.”|| He lays the foundations of the church by the calling of twelve fishermen, and puts St. Peter at the head of the whole flock, with so manifest a prerogative, that the evangelists, who in the catalogue they make of the apostles observe no certain order, unanimously agree in naming St. Peter before all the rest as the first. Jesus Christ goes throughout all Judea, filling it with his benefits; healing the sick, having compassion upon sinners, whose true physician he shows himself, by the free access he allows them to his presence, making men feel at

* Isaiah, ix. 6. † Math. i. 21. Luke ii. 2. John i. 27. * Math. x. 2.

once an authority and sweetness, that never had appeared but in his person. He declares high mysteries; but confirms them by great miracles: he enjoins great virtues; but gives, at the same time, great illumination. And thereby does he appear "full of grace and truth, and we all receive of his fulness."*

"Every thing is consistent in his person; his life, his doctrine, his miracles. The same truth shines through the whole; every thing concurs to exhibit in him the master of mankind, and pattern of perfection.

"He, and only he, living among men, and in sight of all the world, could say without danger of being belied, "which of you convinceth me of sin?" And again, "I am the light of the world;" my meat is to do the will of him that sent me. He that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him."†

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"His miracles are of a peculiar order, and of a new character. They are not signs in heaven, ‡ such as the Jews sought after; he works them almost all upon men themselves, and to heal their infirmities. All these miracles speak even more goodness than power, and do not so much surprise the beholders, as they touch the bottom of their hearts. He performs them with authority: devils and diseases obey him: at his word the blind receive their sight, the dead arise, and sins are forgiven. The principle of the miracles is within himself; they flow from their source; "I perceive, saith he, that virtue is gone out of me."§ And, indeed, none had ever performed either so great or so many miracles; and yet he promises that his disciples shall, in his name, do still greater works than these :|| so fruitful and inexhaustible is the virtue he possesses in himself.

"Who would not admire the condescension with which he tempers the sublimity of his doctrine? It is milk for babes, and at the same time meat for the strong. We see him full of the secrets of God; but we see him, not astonished at them, like other mortals to whom God is pleased to communicate him

* John i. 14, 15, 16. § Luke vi. 19. viii. 46.

† John viii. 46. Ibid. xii. 29. iv. 34. + Math. xvi. 1. || John xvi. 12.

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