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dices, the wrongheadedness, the intractability of those with whom he has to deal."

The former of these characters is and ever has been the favourite of the world; and though it is too ftern to conciliate affection, yet it has an appearance of dignity in it which too commonly commands respect.

The latter is, as our Lord describes it, humble, meek, lowly, devout, merciful, pure, peaceable, patient, and unrefifting. The world calls it mean-fpirited, tame, and abject; yet, notwithstanding all this, with the divine Author of our religion this is the favourite character; this is the conftant topic of his commendation; this is the fubject that runs through all the beatitudes. To this he af figns, under all its various forms, peculiar bleffings. To those who possess it, he promises that they shall inherit the earth; that they shall obtain mercy; that theirs shall be the kingdom of heaven; that they fhall fee God, and fhall be called the children of God.

The recommendation of this character recurs frequently in different shapes throughout the whole of the fermon on the mount, and a great part of that difcourfe is nothing more than a comment on the text of the beatitudes.-On these and a few other paffages which have any thing particularly novel and important in them, I fhall offer fome obfervations.

But before I quit this noble and confolatory exordium of our Lord's discourse, I fhall request your attention to one particular part of it, which feems to require a little expla

nation.

The part I allude to is this: "Blessed are the meek, for they fhall inherit the earth."

The bleffing here promised to the meek, feems at first fight fomewhat fingular, and not very appropriate to the virtue recommended.

That the meek of all others fhould be deftined to inherit the earth, is what one should not naturally have expected,

If we may judge from what paffes in the world, it is thofe of a quite oppofite character, the bold, the forward, the active, the enterprifing, the rapacious, the ambitious, that are beft calculated to fecure to themselves that inherit ance. And undoubtedly, if by inheriting the earth is meant acquiring the wealth, the grandeur, the power, the property of the earth, these are the perfons who generally feize on a large proportion of thofe good things, and leave the meek, and the gentle far behind them in this unequal conteft for fuch advantages.

it was far other things than these our Lord had in view. By inheriting the earth, he meant inheriting those things which are, without queftion, the greatest bleffings upon earth, calmnefs and compofure of fpirit, tranquility, cheerfulness, peace and comfort of mind.

Now thefe, I apprehend, are the peculiar portion and recompence of the meek. Unaffuming, gentle, and humble in their deportment, they give no offence, they create no enemies, they provoke no hoftilities, and thus escape all that large proportion of human mifery which arifes from diffenfions and difputes. If differences do unexpectedly ftart up, by patience, mildnefs, and prudence, they dif arm their adverfaries, they foften refentment, they court reconciliation, and feldom fail of refloring harmony and peace. Having a very humble opinion of themselves, they fee others fucceed without uneafinefs, without envy : having no ambition, no fpirit of competition, they feel no pain from difappointment, no mortification from defeat. By bending under the ftorms, that affail them, they greatly mitigate their violence, and fee them pafs over their heads almost without feeling their force. Content and fatisfied with their lot, they país quietly and filently through the crowds that furround them; and encounter much fewer difficulties and calamities in their progrefs through life than more active and enterprifing men. This even tenor of life may indeed be called by men of the world flat, dull, and infipid. But the meek are excluded from no rational pleafure, no legitimate delight; and as they are more ex empt from anxiety and pain than other men, their fum total of happiness is greater, and they may, in the best fenfe of the word, be fairly faid to inherit the earth,

I fhall now proceed to notice fuch other paffages of this admirable difcourfe, as appear to me to deserve pe culiar attention and confideration.

The first of these is that which begins with the 21ft verfe: "Ye have heard that it was faid by them of old time, thou shalt not kill; and whofoever fhall kill, fhall be in danger of the judgment; but I fay unto you, that whoever is angry with his brother without a caufe, fhall be in danger of the judgment; and whofoever shall fay to his brother, Raca, fhall be in danger of the council; but whofoever shall fay, thou fool, fhall be in danger of hell fire." And again in the same manner at the 27th verse : "Ye have heard that it was faid by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery; but I fay unto you, that whofoever looketh on a woman to luft after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart."

I put these two inftances together, because they both enforce the fame great leading principle, and both illuf trate one great diftinguishing excellence of the morality taught by our Saviour; namely, that it does not content itself with merely controlling our outward actions, but it goes much deeper, it impofes its restraints, it places its guard exactly where it ought to do, on our thoughts and on our hearts. Our Lord here fingles out two cafes, referring to two different fpecies of paffions, the malevolent and the fenfual, and he pronounces the fame sentence, the fame decifive judgment on both; that the thing to be regulated is the intention, the paffion, the propenfity. Former moralifts contented themselves with faying, thou shalt not

But I (fays our Lord) go much further; I fay thou fhalt not indulge any refentment against thy brother, thou shalt not use any reproachful or contemptuous language towards him; for it is these things that lead and provoke to the most atrocious deeds. Former moralists have faid, thou fhalt not commit adultery. But I fay, let not thine heart or thine eye commit adultery; for here it is that the fin begins; and here it must be crushed in its birth.

This is wisdom, this is morality in its most perfect form, in its effence, and in its first principles. Every one that is acquainted with men and manners must know that our Lord has here fhewn a confummate knowledge of human nature; that he has laid his finger on the right place, and exerted his authority where it was moft wanted, in checking the first movements of our criminal defires. Every one must see and feel, that bad thoughts quickly ripen into bad actions; and that if the latter only are forbidden, and the former left free, all morality will foon be at an end. Our Lord therefore, like a wise physician, goes at once to the bottom of the evil; he extirpates the first germ and root of the disease, and leaves not a fingle fibre of it remaining to shoot up again in the heart.

It was obvious to forefee that the difciples, and the people to whom our Saviour addressed himself, would confider this as very fevere discipline, and would complain bitterly, or at leaft murmur fecretly, at the hardships of parting with all their favorite paffions, of eradicating their strongest natural propenfities, of watching constantly every motion of their hearts, and guarding those issues of life and death, thofe fountains of virtue and of vice, with the most unremitting attention. But all this our divine mafter tells them is indifpenfably neceffary. All thefe cautions must be used, all this vigilance must be exercised, all this felf-government must be exerted, all these facrifices must be made. It is the price we are to pay (befides that price which our Redeemer paid,) and furely no unreasonable one, for escaping eternal mifery, and rendering ourselves capable of eternal glory. He therefore, goes on to fay, in terms highly figurative and alarming, but not too strong for the occafion, "If thy right eye of fend thee, pluck it out and caft it from thee; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members fhould perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members fhould perish, and not that thy whole body fhould be caft into hell*." Every one must immediately fee that the eye to be plucked

* Matth. v. 29, 30.

out is the eye of concupifcence, and the hand to be cut off is the hand of violence and vengeance; that is, these paffions are to be checked and fubdued, let the conflict coft us what it may.

This naturally leads our divine teacher, in the next verse, to a fubject closely connected with one of our strongest paffions, and that is, the power of divorce. Among the Jews and the Heathens, but more particularly the latter, this power was carried to a great extent, and exercised with the most capricious and wanton cruelty. The best and most affectionate of wives were often difmiffed for the flighteft reasons, and fometimes without any reason at all. It was high time for fome ftop to be put to these increafing barbarities, and it was a task worthy of the Son of God himself to stand up as the defender and protector of the weak, of the most helpless and most oppreffed part of the human fpecies. Accordingly he here declares, in the most positive terms, that the only legitimate caufe of divorce is adultery. "It has been faid, whofoever fhall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement. But I fay unto you, whofoever fhall put away his wife, faving for the caufe of fornication, caufeth her to commit adultery; and whofoever marrieth her that is divorced, committeth adultery*. This has, by the experience of ages, been found to be a moft wife and falutary provifion, and no lefs conducive to the happiness than to the virtue of mankind. And we are taught by the fatal example of other nations, that wherever this law of the Gospel has been abrogated or relaxed, and a greater facility of divorce allowed, the confequence has conftantly been a too vifible depravation of manners, and the destruction of many of the most effential comforts of the married state.

The paffage to which I shall next advert, is the following: "Ye have heard it has been faid, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I fay unto you, that ye res fift not evil; but whofoever shall fmite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other alfo; and if any man will fue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have

Matth. v. 31-34.

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