your enemies, blefs them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which defpitefully ufe you, and perfecute you.' This was a leffon fo new, and fo utterly unknown, till taught by his doctrines, and enforced by his example, that the wifest moralifts of the wifeft nations and ages represented the defire of revenge as a mark of a noble mind, and the accomplishment of it as one of the chief felicities attendant on a fortunate man. But how much more magnanimous, how much more beneficial to mankind, is forgiveness! it is more magnanimous, because every generous and exalted difpofition of the human mind is requifite to the practice of it: for these alone can enable us to bear the wrongs and infults of wickedness and folly with patience, and to look down on the perpetrators of them with pity, rather than indignation; these alone can teach us, that such are but a part of those sufferings allotted to us in that state of probation, and to know, that to overcome evil with good, is the most glorious of all

(u) Matt. v. 43.

victories: it is the most beneficial, because this amiable conduct alone can put an end to an eternal succeffion of injuries and retaliations; for every retaliation becomes a new injury, and requires another act of revenge for fatisfaction. But would we obferve this falutary precept, to love our enemies, and to do good to those who defpitefully ufe us, this obftinate benevolence would at laft conquer the most inveterate hearts, and we should have no enemies to forgive. How much more exalted a character therefore is a chrif. tian martyr, fuffering with refignation, and praying for the guilty, than that of a Pagan hero, breathing revenge, and destroying the innocent! Yet noble and ufeful as this vir tue is, before the appearance of this religion it was not only unpractifed, but decried in principle as mean and ignominious, though fo obvious a remedy for most of the miseries of this life, and fo neceffary a qualification for the happiness of another.

"A third precept, first noticed and first enjoined by this inftitution, is charity to all men. What this is, we may best learn from

this admirable description, painted in the following words: Charity fuffereth long 'and is kind; charity envieth not; charity ⚫ vaunteth not itself; is not puffed up; doth 'not behave itself unseemly; feeketh not her own; is not eafily provoked; thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but ' rejoiceth in truth; beareth all things; • believeth all things; hopeth all things; en'dureth all things." Here we have an accurate delineation of this bright conftellation of all virtues; which confifts not, as many imagine, in the building of monafteries, endowment of hofpitals, or the diftribution of alms; but in fuch an amiable difpofition of mind, as exercises itself every hour in acts of kindness, patience, complacency, and benevolence to all around us, and which alone is able to promote happiness in the present life, or render us capable of receiving it in another: and yet this is totally new, and fo it is declared to be by the author of it: A new commandment I 'give unto you, that ye love one another;

(v) 1 Cer. xiii. 4.

an,

as I have loved you, that ye alfo love one ' another; by this fhall all men know that ye are my difciples, if ye have love one to another." This benevolent difpofition is made the great characteristic of a christi, the test of his obedience, and the mark by which he is to be distinguished. This love for each other is that charity just now described, and contains all thofe qualities, which are there attributed to it; humility, patience, meekness, and beneficence: without which we must live in perpetual difcord, and confequently cannot pay obedience to this commandment by loving one another; a commandment fo fublime, fo rational, and so beneficial, fo wifely calculated to correct the depravity, diminish the wickedness, and abate the miseries of human nature, that did we univerfally comply with it, we should foon be relieved from all the inquietudes, arifing from our own unruly paffions, anger, envy, revenge, malice, and ambition, as well as from all thofe injuries to which we are perpetually expofed from the indulgence of

(x) John xiii. 34.

the fame paffions in others. It would also preserve our minds in fuch a state of tranquillity, and fo prepare them for the kingdom of heaven, that we should slide out of a life of peace, love and benevolence, into that celestial fociety, by an almost imperceptible transition. Yet was this commandment entirely new, when given by him, who fo entitles it, and has made it the capital duty of his religion, because the most indifpenfably neceffary to the attainment of its great object, the kingdom of heaven; into which if proud, turbulent, and vindictive spirits were permitted to enter, they must unavoidably destroy the happiness of that state by the operations of the fame paffions and vices, by which they disturb the prefent; and therefore all fuch must be eternally excluded, not only as a punishment, but also from incapacity.

"Repentance, by this we plainly fee, is another new moral duty ftrenuously infifted on by this religion, and by no other, because abfolutely neceffary to the accomplishment of its end; for this alone can purge us from thofe tranfgreffions from which we cannot be