it was more magnanimous to forgive than to avenge. But it could not afford an adequate motive for the practice of such magnanimity; and in fact it had not been practised. Even amongst the Jews, in despite of the contrary precepts of their law, the maxims of retaliation prevailed. "It had been said by them of old time, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy." To such an extent had that propensity to retaliation, which above all others seems to be born with man, gained the ascendancy over the commands of Moses. Jesus issued a new injunction: "I say unto you, That ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. Love your enemies; bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven." And when we trace this spirit further, to the motives by which it is inculcated, we find it springing out of the doctrines on which the Gospel is founded. Man is corrupt and sinful, and God has shown a signal proof of forbearance towards men; therefore men ought to forgive one another. This is implied in the prayer, "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us." It is positively required in the parable of the unforgiving servant, who is thus reproved: "O thou wicked ser

1 Matt. v. 38, 43.

2 Matt. v. 39, 44.

"2

vant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee?" Again, Christ suffered the most unmerited injuries with patience; "when he was reviled, he reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously." Therefore his followers ought not to complain, but "for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps.' Further, Christ was a living instance of meekness and humility and self-devotion: who, "being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Therefore, "let this mind be❞ in his disciples, "which was also in Christ Jesus. Let nothing be done through strife or vain-glory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others."

Such are the principles of Christian meekness and

1 Matt. xviii. 32, 33. 2 1 Pet. ii. 19-23. 3 Phil. ii. 3-8.

forbearance. And it will be observed, that the principles are no less original than the virtues; and could never have been proposed, unless they had been witnessed in an existing pattern, and confirmed by divine authority. For who would have dared to set out on a mission like that of the Apostles,—a mission which exposed them to every species of illtreatment and indignity,—with no stronger arms of defence than meekness and forbearance? To go, as they went, and induce others to go, with their eyes open, yet their hands bound, into the midst of enemies?

Now what I would insist on is, that all these peculiar features which distinguish the Christian character, are exactly such as we should look for in the case of the truth of the religion. Humility towards God must follow the fact of the redemption: philanthropy must be excited by the example of the incarnation; and must be directed towards the soul as well as the body; and the passive virtues of meekness and resignation grow out of the nature and condition of man revealed in the Gospel. This character, therefore, is perfectly consistent with the facts which the religion declares. Supposing these facts to be of divine authority, and to be received as such, there cannot be less sense of personal unworthiness, less concern for the spiritual welfare of others, less forbearance and humility than the Gospel prescribes, or the language of its followers expresses. So im

portant a fact as the Incarnation could not take place, without introducing new duties, and new views of duty, wherever it was made known. But unless these facts had been divinely revealed; unless Jesus had not only been a teacher, but " a teacher sent from God," unless he had not only died, but died as a sacrifice for sin, these qualities of self-abasement, and patience, and zeal in the cause of religion, lose much of their propriety, as well as their strongest enforcement; and it becomes in the highest degree improbable, that the fabricators of a new religion should have recommended and prescribed them.

When, at the present day, I see a person contented to abandon his private comforts and enjoyments, and occupy his life in making the Scriptures known, in teaching the ignorant, and reclaiming the vicious; when he appears to find a sufficient recompense for this labour, if even a very small flock are brought over to Christian faith and practice, I am sure that he must himself believe the condition of these persons to be dangerous, and that they actually need his interposition. If I were to observe further, that he submitted with patience to insult and injury, and was only stimulated by resistance and opposition to more unceasing efforts for the conversion of his adversaries, I should feel assured that he must be actuated by some powerful and uncommon principle, which thus enabled him to overcome the dispositions which are natural to the human mind. And when I

hear one who has been habitually watching over his thoughts and words and actions, and labouring to regulate them according to what he takes to be the will of God, speak of himself in a strain like this: "I sin, and repent of my sins, and sin in my repentance-I pray for forgiveness, and sin in my prayers :-I resolve against future sin, and sin in forming my resolutions ;—so that I may say, my whole life is almost a continued course of sin :"-language like this assures me that such an one is judging himself according to a law of unusual strictness, and can have derived his idea of the purity required of him from no other source than the Christian Scriptures.

By a like process of argument, when I find a character of this description in the Apostles themselves, and when I find them inculcating this as the character which is to be cherished in others, I am forcibly led to conclude that they personally believed the facts on which such a character is founded, and did not invent them to serve a purpose of their own. I feel sure that nothing but an intimate conviction that the matters which they taught were true, could have produced a state of mind, or actuated a course of life, like theirs.

IV. The virtues, then, which are encouraged, I might say, created by the Gospel, are, in many

1 Bishop Beveridge.