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kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Chrift's fake hath forgiven you*." Let the hard-hearted unrelenting man of the world, or the obdurate unforgiving parent, advert to these repeated admonitions, and then let him, if he can, indignantly fpurn from him the repenting offender entreating pardon at his feet in thofe heart-piercing words, "Have patiencewith me, and I will pay thee all."

And yet it is dreadful to ftate, as I must do in the last place, what very little regard is paid to this precept by a large part of mankind.

No man, I believe, ever heard or read the parable before us without feeling his indignation rise against the ungrateful and unfeeling fervant, who, after having a debt of ten thousand talents remitted to him by his indulgent Lord, threw his fellow fervant into prison for a debt of an hundred pence. And yet how frequently are we ourselves guilty of the very fame offence?

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Who is there among us that has not had ten thousand talents forgiven him by his heavenly Father? Take together all the offences of his life, all his fins and folliesfrom the first hour of his maturity to the present time, and they may well be compared to this immenfe fum which immenfe fum, if he has been a fincere penitent, has been all forgiven through the merits of his Redeemer. Yet when his fellow-chriftian owes him an hundred pence, when he commits the flightest offence against him, he too often refuses him forgiveness, though he fall at his feet to implore it.

In fact do we not every day fee men resenting not only real injuries, but flight and even imaginary offences, with extreme vehemence and paffion, and fometimes punishing the offender with nothing lefs than death? Do we not even fee families rent afunder, and all domeftic tranquility and comfort deftroyed frequently by the moft trivial causes, fometimes on one fide, and fometimes on both, refusing to liften to any reasonable overtures of peace, haughtily re

* Eph. iv. 32.

jecting all offers of reconciliation, infifting on the highest poffible fatisfaction and fubmiffion, and carrying these fentiments of implacable rancour with them to the grave ? And yet these people call themselves Chriftians, and expect to be themselves forgiven at the throne of mercy!

Let then every man of this defcription remember and most seriously reflect on this parable; let him remember that the unforgiving fervant was delivered over to the tormentors till he should pay the uttermoft farthing. Let him recollect that all the world approves this fentence; that he himself cannot but approve it; that he cannot but feel himself to be precisely in the fituation of that very fervant, and that of course he must at the last tremendous day expect that bitter and unanfwerable reproach from his offended Judge: "O thou wicked fervant! I forgave thee all that debt because thou defiredst me ; fhouldest not thou also have had compaffion on thy fellow fervant even as I had pity on thee?"

LECTURE XVII.

MATTHEW xix.

T

HE paffage of Scripture which I propose to explain in the prefent Lecture, is a part of the 19th chapter of St. Matthew, beginning at the 16th verfe.

"Behold," fays the evangelift, "one came and faid unto him (meaning Jefus) Good Mafter, what good thing fhall I do that I may have eternal life? And he faid unto him, Why calleft thou me good? there is none good but one, that is God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He faith unto him, Which? Jefus faid, Thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou fhalt not bear falfe witnefs. Honour thy father and thy mother: and, thou fhalt love thy neighbour as thyself. The young man faith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up, what lack I yet? Jefus faid unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and fell that thou haft, and give to the poor, and thou fhalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away forrowful: for he had great poffeffions."

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The converfation here related between the young (for fo he is called by St. Luke) and our bleffed Lord, cannot but be extremely interefting to every fincere Chriftain, who is anxious about his own falvation. A young man of high rank, and of large poffeffions, came with great hafte and eagerness; came running, as St. Mark expreffes it, to Jefus; and throwing himself at his feet, proposed to him this most important question: "Good Master, what good thing fhall I do, that I may have eternal life?" This was not a queftion of mere curiosity, or an infidious one, as the questions put to our Lord (es

pecially by the rulers) frequently were, but appears to have been dictated by a fincere and anxious wish to be inftructed in the way to that everlasting life, which he found, Jefus held out to his disciples. His conduct had been conformable to the precepts of that religion in which he was born and educated, the religion of Mofes; for when our Lord pointed out to him the commandments he was to keep, his answer was, "all these things have I kept from my youth up ;" and his difpofition alfo, we must conclude, to have been an amiable one; for we are told that Jefus loved bim, beheld him with a certain degree of regard and affection. In this state of mind then he came to Jefus, and asked the question already stated; "Good Mafter, what good thing fhall I do that I may have eternal life?

Our Lord's anfwer was, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. The young man faith unto him, Which? Jefus faid, Thou fhalt do no murder, thou fhalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness. Honor thy father and thy moth er: and, thou fhalt love thy neighbor as thyfelf." In this enumeration, it is obfervable that our Lord does not recite all the ten commandments, but only five out of those that compose what is called the fecond table. Now we

cannot imagine that Jefus meant to fay that the observa tion of a few of God's commands would put the young man in poffeffion of eternal life. His intention unqueftionably was, by a very common figure of speech, to make a part ftand for the whole; and instead of enumerating all the commandments, to fpecify only a few, which were to represent the reft. Thou shalt do no murder, thou fhalt not commit adultery, and fo of all the other commandments, to which my reafoning equally applies." Nor does he only include in his injunction the ten commandments, but all the moral commandments, of God contained in the law of Mofes; for he mentions one which is not to be found in the ten commandments: "Thou fhalt love thy neighbor as thyfelf." This therefore points out to the young man his obligations to obferve all the other moral precepts of the law. "The young man faith unto him, all these things have I kept from my youth up; what lack I yet?" The probability is, that he flattered

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