our enemies, which was perhaps the highest strain ever reached by
man without Divine assistance; yet how little is that to what our
Saviour commands us, "To love them that hate us, to bless them that
curse us, and to do good to them that despitefully use us."

Christian wisdom is "without partiality;" it is not calculated for
this or that nation of people, but the whole race of mankind. Not
so the philosophical schemes, which were narrow and confined,
adapted to their peculiar towns, governments, or sects; but "in
every nation, he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is
accepted with Him."

Lastly, It is "without hypocrisy;" it appears to be what it really
is; it is all of a piece. By the doctrines of the Gospel we are so
far from being allowed to publish to the world those virtues we have
not, that we are commanded to hide even from ourselves those we
really have, and not to let our right hand know what our left hand
does, unlike several branches of the heathen wisdom, which pretended
to teach insensibility and indifference, magnanimity and contempt of
life, while at the same time, in other parts, it belied its own
doctrines.

I come now, in the last place, to show that the great examples of
wisdom and virtue among the Grecian sages were produced by personal
merit; and not influenced by the doctrine of any particular sect,
whereas in Christianity it is quite the contrary.

The two virtues most celebrated by ancient moralists were fortitude
and temperance, as relating to the government of man in his private
capacity, to which their schemes were generally addressed and