(Hafiz.)
22. "To revenge yourself on an enemy, make him your friend."
(Pythagoras.)
23. "It is not permitted to a man who has received an injury to revenge
it by doing another." (Socrates, in his Crito.)
24. "Seek him who turns thee out, and pardon him who injures thee."
(Koran.)
25. "Return not evil for evil." (Socrates.)
26. "Endure all things if you would serve God." (Sextus.)
27. "Desire to be able to benefit your enemies." (Ibid.)
28. "Receive an injury rather than do one." (Publius Syrus.)
29. "Be at war with men's vices, but at peace with their persons."
(Ibid.)
30. "Cultivate friendship for an enemy." (Pittacus.)
31. "Be kind to your friends that they may continue so, and to your
enemies that they may become so." (Ibid.)
32. "Prevent injuries if possible; if not, do not revenge them." (Ibid.)
33. "An enemy should not be hated, but cured." (Seneca.)
34. "To act unkindly toward an enemy will increase his hate."
(Antonius.)
35. "Be to everybody kind and friendly." (Ibid.)
36. "Speak evil of no one, not even your enemies." (Pittacus.)
Thus it will be observed that love and kindness toward all mankind, both
friends and enemies, is not confined to the teachings of Christ or
to the Christian religion, as many have erroneously supposed, but
is unquestionably a natural sentiment of the moral instinct or moral
impulses of the human mind, and hence is no proof that their teacher is
either a God or divinely inspired.
And we have in our possession nearly eight hundred more precepts (see
vol. ii.) from the pens or mouths of the ancient heathen, enjoining just
and kind treatment of women, and setting forth nearly all the duties of
life, and teaching the immortality of the soul, &c. And these precepts
breathe the same lofty moral sentiment and moral feeling as those quoted
above. How ignorant and how conceited must be the Christian professor
who supposes all goodness is confined to Christianity, or that it even
possesses any great superiority over other religious systems! And
how completely the three foregoing parts of this chapter, "Miracles,"
"Prophecies," and "Precepts," prostrate the divine claims of
Christianity, and leave not an inch of ground for them to rest upon!
CHAPTER XXXV. LOGICAL OR COMMON SENSE VIEW OF THE DOCTRINE OF DIVINE
INCARNATION
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