chasing any of the gratifications it affords, at the risk of losing the infinitely greater happiness to which we aspire, and which, if we depend on him, we shall without doubt obtain.

Thus you perceive what great advantages the Christian moralist has over the heathen. For though virtue does often promote, nay, does generally promote the happiness of its votaries in this world, it does not atways do so, but in many instances quite the reverse; and there are by whom this may be read, and whose consciences will bear witness that I speak from my own knowledge of this fact.

A heathen philosopher would tell us, that virtue is its own reward; and that the consciousness of having through pure and generous motives undertaken a generous and noble ac

tion, ought to console us for all the misery with which, through the baseness or ingratitude of others, it may have been repaid. Christianity sets this in a still clearer light. It teaches, that the state of probation in which we are placed, is not only a trial of virtue, but of faith; and that the mortifications which we at any time meet in the performance of our duty, may be converted by God into essential benefits to ourselves and others. The use which it teaches us to make of the disappointments we thus receive, is in its nature very superior to that which the heathen morality above alluded to inculcates. It does not permit us to delude ourselves with vain ideas of our own superior virtue, but to give thanks to God for the grace that he has vouchsafed to bestow upon us; and, while we resign to him the completion of the

event, in which we may have been disappointed, zealously to watch over our own hearts, lest there should have sprung, from the opposition we have encountered, any malignant passion, any root of bitterness. By such an anxious inquiry into the motives and consequences of our actions, an effectual check is given to our pride, without abating any thing of our zeal to promote the interests of others. Thus injuries are converted into benefits, and our enemies become our instructors in righteousness. And here you will observe how faith assists us to obey the commandment, and how our obedience tends to augment our faith.

There is no precept in the Gospel so much insisted upon and so frequently repeated as the duty of forgiveness. It is delivered with a strictness and precision which puts it

out

out of the power of dulness to mis, take, or of sophistry to elude. We must forgive, if we hope to be forgiven. And that our own hearts may not deceive us, we must forgive, not in words only, but evince our sincerity by our deeds. We are not only "to bless those that curse us, "but to do good to those who hate us, "and to pray for those who despite"fully use us and persecute us.”

Our Saviour was not the first who enforced this duty of forgiveness. It was, with certain restrictions and exceptions, recommended by many of the heathen moralists. It is spoken of by Solomon as a proof of wisdom: "The discretion of a wise

man deferreth his anger; and it is "his glory to pass over a transgres❝sion *." "If thine enemy be hun

* Prov. xix. 11.

"gry,"

be

"gry," says he also, in another place, give him bread to eat; if he be "thirsty, give him water to drink; "for thus shalt thou heap coals of "fire upon his head, and the Lord "shall reward thee*." The same charity is not only recommended by our blessed Lord, but enjoined as a condition of our own salvation; and not only the action but the motive must pure. Occasions may occur, when by doing good to those who have injured us, we may in the highest degree gratify our own pride, and inflict upon our enemy the severest mortification. But this is not the spirit of the Gospel. We are to do good, hoping for nothing again, having no selfish view, no vain-glorious aim, but from motives of pure benevolence. Where the principles of Christianity

* Prov. xxv. 21, 22.