have been ill-treated, abused, or calumniated by our fellow-creatures, we ought charitably to fuppofe that they may have been misled and mistaken in their opinions of us; that their understandings may be weak, their prejudices deeply rooted, their refentments, like our own, too ftrong; that it may be the head, and not the heart, which is to blame; and that, after all, they perhaps by no means intended to hurt us fo much as they really do.

;

It will therefore become us to confider, that if, as it plainly appears from what I have just now obferved, we are not proper judges of the injuries we receive, God and God only moft undoubtedly is. He to whom all hearts are open, and from whom no fecret is hid; he who knoweth the very thoughts of men, the motive, end, and defign of every word and every action, he it is who will determine aright: he alone, who knows the guilt of the offender, can punish him as he ought to be punished and as he is able, fo is he willing alfo to act for us; he is a Father to the fatherlefs, and defendeth the cause of the widow. Why, then, fhould we ever defire to speak in our own caufe, when we have fuch an advocate to plead for us? Why fhould we be fo eager to fight our own battles, when we have fo powerful a leader to avenge

us?

Vengeance is mine, faith the Lord, and I will repay. Shall we then doubt his truth, or fhall we difpute his power? fhall we, after this gracious declaration, employ ourselves in an office fo unbecoming our duty, and at the fame time

fo

fo unfit for us? fhall we wreft the fword of juftice from the only hand that is able to wield it? or affume to ourselves that office which he alone can execute? What is this, but to dif pute his right, to encroach upon his prerogative, to deny his attribute, diftruft his word, and give the lie to the Father of truth?

But Secondly, As revenge is contrary to our duty, fo is it likewise repugnant to our interest and to our happiness both here and hereafter.

Forgiveness of injuries is a virtue fo neceffary to the being and welfare of society, that it is impoffible to pafs our lives in any tolerable degree of pleasure or fatisfaction without it. We are all guilty of mistakes in our conduct, and errors both of judgment and of will: we all of us but too often act foolishly, moft of us at some time of our lives wickedly and injuriously to one another, and yet we will not forgive.

Were man an innocent being that he could not commit crimes, were he an omnifcient being to discern, or omnipotent to punish them, he might then indeed have a right to retain his anger, and to fatiate his revenge: but furely it is most astonishing to reflect, that he who is fo guilty, fhould be fo proud; that he who is fo weak, fhould be fo determined; that he whofe days are but a fpan, who, like the grafs, flourisheth in the morning, and in the evening is cut down and withered; that he should thus both impioufly and ridiculously defire to carry his refentments beyond the grave, make his enmities immortal!

and to

On

On benevolence and good-will one towards another, muft in in a great measure depend all our private happiness. This is the great chain which holds together all the ties of human fociety, and all the bonds of natural affection: without this it is impoffible for friend to live with friend, mafter and fervant, parent and child, brother and fifter, man and wife, for of the relations and connections of this life to fubfift, with any degree of mutual pleafure or advantage: and yet, how often have the closest ties been diffolved by the want of love, pity, and forgiveness, and the fountain of domeftic happiness embittered by revenge!

any

A

Rage will fometimes tranfport, and paffion betray us into the moft cruel infults, even on thofe whom we moft love and efteem. fingle injury committed on the one hand from inadvertency, and received on the other with all the warmth and refentment, hath fown the feeds of divifion in a happy family, which could never be rooted out; and thus the beautiful ftructure of love and harmony, which perhaps it had been the labour of years to raise and fupport, fhall be thrown down in a moment, and buried in ruins.

But the duty of forgiveness will appear ftill more evident when we come to confider, that we not only conftantly ftand in need of it from each other, but that we all ftand in need of forgiveness from God alfo.

There is a Supreme and Almighty Being, whom we have every one of us frequently and grievoufly offended, and yet who is doubtless

the

the last whom we should dare to offend. If we are revengeful towards our fellow-creatures, their oppreffion and injuftice may in fome measure alleviate our guilt: but when we offend God, we offend one who never wronged or injured, never could merit any ill-treatment from us; but who, on the other hand, is continually pouring down upon us bleffings which we have no claim to, and mer.. cies which we have never deferved. It is indeed astonishing that men fhould fo inconfiderately affront the great Lord and giver of life: they forget that he is, as the Pfalmist faith, a righteous and ftrong judge, and only remember that he is patient; and therefore they provoke him every day.

What then shall we plead in our defence, or how shall we reconcile ourselves to the divine favour?

One condition we know there is abfolutely and indifpenfably neceffary, and that is, that we forgive: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven. If you forgive men their trefpaffes, your heavenly Father will alfo forgive you: but if you forgive not men their trefpaffes, neither will your Father forgive you your trefpaffes. The mercy of God is our only fanctuary, the only asylum where we can fhelter ourselves from the divine juf tice. But what shall fave that man whom even the mercy of God condemneth?

But this is withal a condition ratified by our own confent, and which therefore we are bound most punctually and religioufly to perform. In what manner do we every day address the

Supreme

Supreme Being? Forgive us our trefpaffes, as we forgive them that trefpafs against us, &c. Shall our mouths fo belie our hearts, as, when we put up this petition, to nourish in them thoughts of malice and revenge? This would be a folemn mockery, an impious defiance of a juft and good God, which we may reft affured he will undoubtedly punish.

To conclude then: Mercy is the darling attribute of the Deity, and the more we practise it, the nearer fhall we approach to the divine nature. It is evident from what I have already fuggested to you, that we are not able to judge, with any degree of certainty, of the real or fuppofed injuries which we receive, and confequently are very unfit to take upon us the of fice of punishment or retaliation. It is at the fame time no less evident, that God, and God only, is the proper judge, that he hath gracioully condefcended to take our caufe into his own hands. It is therefore highly injurious to his honour, as well as prejudicial to our own intereft, to wreft it from him. It is withal demonftrable, from every day's and every hour's experience, that we all ftand in need of forgivenefs from our neighbour, and are therefore ftrictly bound to give that which we ourfelves expect to receive. And lastly, nothing can be more plain and felf-evident than that all our hopes of forgiveness from a justly offended God, muft fpring from our readiness to forgive our fellow-creatures.

If any of us then have received, or imagine that we have received any injuries, however

great