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Christ, and yet suppose that when they receive injuries to a certain extent, they may give way to resentment and refuse forgiveness. But who will dare to assume the prerogative of him, who has said,- Vengeance is mine: I will repay, saith the Lord ?"-Observe the answer which our Lord returns

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to Peter's question "Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, until seven times, but until seventy times seven."

Thus the great Teacher corrects Peter's mistaken notion respecting the extent of forgiving offences and injuries; and instructs him that this Christian duty and grace must be repeatedly and continually exercised, as often as occasions offer, without any limitation. And thus, my brethren, we have an important and admirable direction for our own conduct: a direction consistent with the holy and divine character of its author. May He, from whom cometh every good and perfect gift, give us grace at all times to act consistently with it! Should we be tempted to withhold our forgiveness from an offending fellowcreature, let us call to mind the numerous provocations we have given to the Most High, our Creator, Preserver, Benefactor, and Redeemer. Oh, what would our state be, should the God of mercy and grace determine no longer to exercise forgiveness towards us? But here perhaps a difficulty may arise, which it may be necessary to solve. It may be asked, if we are in all cases to forgive, how can a Christian man prosecute in law a malefactor, or a magistrate execute justice upon him? As a reply

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to this question, another may be asked. said that "the magistrate beareth not the sword in vain, and that he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil?" We must be cautious of not explaining one portion of Scripture, so as to make it oppose or neutralize another. The punishment of evil-doers is by no means inconsistent with Christian forgiveness. Forgiveness is a branch of that charity "which beareth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." But one of the offices of charity is to correct and punish vice and crime, without respect to persons. There are positive duties enjoined in the Scripture, which require that offenders should be punished. A father is required to correct his children, when necessary; and this is viewed in the Word of God, as an evidence of his care and affection. Thus also governors of countries, towns, and families are under the obligation of correcting offenders, if they have any respect to God and their office, or love to those over whom they preside. And such punishments of evil-doers ought to be exercised in due time, lest by delay the offenders should fall headlong into deeper mischief; and thus not only increase their own guilt, but inflict greater injuries upon their fellow-creatures, and draw others by their evil example into similar crimes and offences. When God condescended to place his chosen people, the Jews, under a theocracy, and to act himself as their king, he appointed a variety of punishments for evildoers, and in several cases commanded that offenders

should be cut off by death. But could that God, who has proclaimed his own character as "merciful and gracious, abundant in goodness and truth, and ready to forgive," whose name is love-could this benevolent Being enjoin an act, that was in itself immoral, or inconsistent with equity and justice? Impossible! And yet some, with mistaken philanthropy, deny to human authority the right, in any instance, of enforcing the punishment of death, thereby pretending to be wiser and more merciful than God. The gospel is not opposed to the law; nor does the Scripture, which cannot be broken, contradict itself. The law given by God, under the theocracy, was not indeed of a vindictive character, nor did it authorise private revenge. The directions, therefore, which our blessed Lord gave to his disciples, in his Sermon on the Mount, with respect to bearing injuries, neither are nor can be opposed to the precepts given by God under the preceding dispensation. The sum of the instructions, taught by our Lord on this subject, is this "Suffer any injury for the sake of peace, when no duty requires the contrary, and commit your interests and concerns to the Lord's keeping."

But to return to our immediate subject. With regard to those who trespass against us, or do us injury, we are in all cases required to forgive, so as to pity them, to pray for them, to desire their welfare, and to be desirous of opportunities of doing them good. In this point of view, our forgiveness must extend to all offences, however numerous or aggra

vated. It must be exercised not only to seven times, but to seventy times seven.

"Therefore, said the Lord, the kingdom of heaven is likened to a certain king, who would take an account of his servants."

Jesus, in order to explain the duty of forgiving offences by a striking similitude, remarks farther to Peter, that the kingdom of heaven, in its present constitution and its final process, may be illustrated by the proceeding of a certain king, who ruling over a large country, and having under him a great number of officers, came to the determination of calling them to an account for their conduct.

And is not this an affecting representation of the manner in which God, the judge of all, will deal with men, who are the subjects of his moral government? Will he not call every one of us to account? Has he not said, that he will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or evil? Our Lord has here shewn us, what we are elsewhere taught, that the Omniscient Judge will call all men to an account for the use they have made of the talents committed to their trust. "God hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." Let us proceed with the parable.

"And when the king had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him who owed him ten thousand talents."

together by them, shall be placed on the left. "He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left." There will be no necessity of waiting for this separation till the judgment be terminated; for the righteous will rise out of their graves with evident marks of distinction from the wicked. The bodies of the former will be fashioned like unto the glorious body of Jesus Christ; while those of the latter will only be fitted to endure eternal misery. The righteous already, while absent from the body, have been in the presence of the Lord; and the wicked have gone to their own place, enduring the torments of lost souls. It has generally been presumed that the soul, immediately on its separation from the body, appears before God, and by some particular and personal judgment receives the sentence of eternal life, or everlasting death. But notwithstanding this, the general judgment is on many accounts, expedient and necessary. It is only by the general judgment that the reproach of the people of God can be removed; but in that day "the rebuke of his people shall be taken away from off all the earth." It is by the general judgment alone that the characters of the unbeliever and the hypocrite can be manifested in their true colours to the view of mankind. In no other way than by the general judgment can the influence upon our fellow-creatures of our conduct and example be discovered. Who can tell how far one man's influence may reach? It may affect hundreds

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