They needed reformation, therefore, in an eminent degree.
III. Jesus. In this state of things among the Jews, Jesus appeared.
His parentage was obscure; his condition poor; his education null; his
natural endowments great; his life correct and innocent: he was
meek, benevolent, patient, firm, disinterested, and of the sublimest
eloquence.
The disadvantages under which his doctrines appear are remarkable.
1. Like Socrates and Epictetus, he wrote nothing himself.
2. But he had not, like them, a Xenophon or an Arrian to write for
him. I name not Plato, who only used the name of Socrates to cover
the whimsies of his own brain. On the contrary, all the learned of his
country, entrenched in its power and riches, were opposed to him, lest
his labors should undermine their advantages; and the committing to
writing his life and doctrines fell on unlettered and ignorant 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 the throne, at about thirty-three years of age, his
reason having not yet attained the maximum of its energy, nor the
course of his preaching, which was but of three years at most, presented
occasions for developing a complete system of morals.
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