A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF CHRISTIANITY AND OF THE OTHER FORMS OF RELIGION WHICH HAVE EXISTED, AND STILL EXIST, IN THE WORLD, PARTICULARLY WITH REGARD TO THEIR MORAL TENDENCY. BY WILLIAM LAURENCE BROWN, D. D. PRINCIPAL OF MARISCHAL COLLEGE, ABERDEEN, VOL. II. EDINBURGH: Printed by A. Balfour and Co.; for WILLIAM TAIT, 78, PRINCE'S STREET; AND CHARLES TAIT, 63, FLEET STREET, LONDON. M.DCCC.XXVI. ERRATA. Page 155, in the note, line 1, for protestant read presbyterian. 191, line 1, after clergy put a semicolon. 198, line 5, for texts read tests. 229, line 9 from bottom, for offenders read offender's. A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF CHRISTIANITY, &c. CHAP. III. OF THE MORAL PRECEPTS OF CHRISTIANITY. As the doctrines, so the moral precepts of Christianity are not, like ethical treatises or codes of law, arranged in a digested and systematic manner. They are both to be collected from the instructions of Christ and his apostles, as recorded in the Gospels, or as delivered occasionally in the Acts and Epistles. This simple and occasional manner was the best adapted to the improvement of the generality of mankind, who, in the course of reading the sacred Scriptures, thus imperceptibly imbibe the rules of conduct prescribed by divine wisdom. It is easy, however, to collect from the writings of the New Testament, and to digest under proper heads, the most correct and comprehensive system of |