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Ocularly Pythagoras , Socrates , Ep icurus , Cicero , fepictetus , Seneca , AQtoni tius . I . PHILOSOPHERS . 1 Their precepts related chiefly IB ourseLves and the government of those passiops , which , unrestrained , , vfluld disturb our tranquillity of mind . * In this branch of philosophy they were really great . 2 . In developing our duty to others
they were short and defective : they embraced indeed the circles of kindred and friends , and inculcated patriotism , or the love of our country , in the aggregate , as a Driowy obligation ; towards our peighbours and
countrymen they taught justice , but scarcely viewed them as within the circle of benevolence ; still less have they inculcated peace , charity and love to all onr fellow-men , or embraced with benevolence the whole famil y of mankind .
II . JEWS . 1 . Their system was Deism , that is , the belief in . one only God , but their ideas of him and his attributes were degrading aod injurious . 2 . Their ethics were » ot only imr perfect , but often irreconeileable with the sound dictates of reason and
morality , as they respect intercourse withtteose around us .
III . JESUS . In this state of things among the Jews , ' Jesus appeared . His parentage was obscure ; his condition poor ; his education -riull ; his natural endowments great . His life correct and irinocent ; he
was meek , benevolent , patient , firm , ? To / explain I . will exhibit the laeads of Seneca and CJicero ' s Philosophical work $ , the most extensive of any ' ; we h ^ ve deceived from the ancients . Of len heads m Senega seven relate to ourselves , de Ira , Consolatio , de Tranquillitate , de Constant
to Sapientis , de 'Otio SafcieiniiS , de Vita »<* ta / de BrevHate Vftee . Two " relate to ° fters > de Clement *^ dtf BeneHcihs ; and one Elates tio the government of the worlfl , de f-ovidtatia . Of eleven tracts M Cicer ©> »? e r ^ pect ourselves , viz . < te Fb * ihx * s ,
^ scufena , Ac ^ eimc ^ , J ^ ifUkuca , de Septate . One , de O ^ c ! i * , npa * tly-to oiav T ?«> . partly to pfoef s OAe , de 4 o » i < - wa , relates to others , and four , are on mm ^ ?^> i « cts , to-wit , de Najtwra , J >^^ £ S $ 3 ^>*^ ftO * ^
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disinterested , and of the sublimest eloquence . The disadvantages under which his doctrine appear are remarkable . 1 . Like bocrates ahel Epictetus he wrote nothing himself , 2 . But he had not like them a
Xenophon or Arrian to write for him . On the contrary , all the learned of his country , entrenched in its power and riches , were opposed to him , lest his labours should
undermine their advantages . And the committing to writing his life and doctrines fell on the most unlettered and ignorant of men , who wrote too from memory , and not till long after the transactions had passed .
3 . According to the ordinary fate of those , , who attempt to enlighten and reform mankind , he fell an early victim to the jealousy and combination of the altar and tri throne at about thirty-three years of age , his reason
haying not yet attained the maximum of its energy ; nor the course of his preaching , which was , but of ahout three years , presented occasions of developing a complete system of moral duties .
4 . Hence the doctrines , which h $ really delivered , were defective as a whole , and fragments only of what he did deliver , have come to us , mutilated , . misstated , and often unintelligible . ¦ ....
5 . They have been still toore disfigured by . jhe corruptions of . schematising follo ^ yers , who have , -found ,. an inier ; es < t in sophisticating , and r pervertr iug the simple doctrines ba t ^ u ^ ht ,. by engrafting on them the mysticisjqii 3 of a Grecian . ^ p hist , fritteriug them intp subtleties , a ^ 4 obs . cutcing thera with jargon , until tljiey haye . capsed good men , to reject the 'whole in . dis-r gust , jst , nd to view Jesus himself as an
impostor . - . I ^ otvyiithstanding these disadvai ^ - tag ^ s # > a system of morals is presenfce < J to us , whicli ^ if filled up in the true style and spirit . of the rich fragments he left us , would be the most perfect and sKiblutxe that lias ever been taugfet
by man ,. The question of his being a member of the Godhead , or * in afirect com > - . munication with it , claimed for Jriuft by some of his followers ,, anfl denjl ef l b y pthe , Es , is , foreign to tb ^ pi * ejsei } t view , which is xnereiy ari ^ ti rpate of the inimjskuc ms $ it o / hi * doctxiues . ^
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Leito ' , ^ c . on ilie Doctrine of Jes us . 575
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1816, page 575, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2457/page/11/
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