pose of Mankind, are generally of another Nature; fuch as little Competitions for Intereft, or Emulations for Fame, Honour, and Precedency; a wry Look, a contemptuous Expreffion, a disrespectful Behaviour, or even the mistaken Appearance of either, which a wife Man would have defpifed and pitied, has too often produced bloody and tragical Confequences. Now, how is it poffible that fuch Trifles fhould difcompose a reasonable Mind, force it from its Situation, and precipitate the angry Soul into a State of Fury and Diftraction! How comes it to pass that such Trifles, as have no real Connection with our Happinefs, no Existence but in our diftempered Imaginations, fhould have fo much Power over us, as to difarm our Reafon, baffle all our Philofophy, and drive us to fuch Degrees of Madness as may intail Sorrow upon our laft Moments, and cafts us into endless Misery! Why, it proceeds only from a fhameful Weakness of Mind, a Defect of Reafon, and a criminal Indulgence of Fancy, Imagination, and Paffion. This may help to explain a common Obfervation: That Cowards are moft prone to Revenge. A Man of a little Mind, who has been guilty of mean and dishonourable Practices, judges of other Men by himself, and measures every Man's Sentiments by his own, and therefore cannot expect that another fhould forgive him, what he knows he could not forgive in another; and is therefore under continual Apprehenfions of fuffering what he knows he has deferved, and can never think himself secure till he can find an Opportunity of finishing his Malice by fome unfufpected Treachery in an unguarded Hour. So true is that Saying, That Cowards have been known to

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fight, and fometimes to conquer, but were never known to forgive; which gave Occasion for the Spanish Proverb, agreeable to the Genius of that proud, cowardly, vindictive Nation, Forgive me the Injuries you have done me.

Forgiveness of Injuries, therefore, and a merciful Difpofition towards thofe that have injured us, is an infallible Mark of a great and noble Mind, and is our indifpenfible Duty, 1. As reasonable Creatures ; but more fo, 2. As Chriftians.

As reasonable Creatures, we should seriously confider the real Ground of our Complaints, the Subject-matter of our Contentions, the Nature of those Articles, in which we are capable of doing, or receiving Injuries; and thefe appear, at first Sight, to be nothing more than the trifling Appendages of this fhort precarious State of Being; little Circumstances, arifing from the prefent fantastical State of Things, in which the real and proper Happiness of our Nature is no way concerned; a State that will quickly have an End, and in the next Stage of Exiftence will appear as not worthy to be remembered by rational and immortal Spirits, created for everlafting Life and Glory. Of these, if we would form a right Judgment, we fhould judge of them as God judges. We fhould endeavour to view them in the fame Light as they appear to glorified Saints and Angels, the glorious Hoft of Heaven. To thefe blessed Spirits, all our eager Competitions, and fierce Contentions for Intereft, or Fame, Riches, Glory, Crowns and Scepters, Kingdoms and Empires, appear just as contemptible, though not fo innocent, as the Squabbles of Children about Play-things and Baubles,

Baubles, or Chickens about a Worm or a Barley-corn. -We fhould next confider the prefent State and Condition of human Nature, and the Relation we stand · in to our MAKER, and Fellow-Creatures. We are all the unhappy Offspring of unhappy Parents, a weak, unconftant, trifling, giddy Generation, the Children of Vanity and Corruption, though Heirs to immortal Life and Glory. The beft and wifeft Man amongst us has his peculiar Foible, his particular Infirmity, The Sin that easily befets him, his unguarded Hour, his forgetful Moment, exposed to numberless Temptations, and never secure from falling. Think, now, what Degrees of Charity, Compaffion, and Christian Forbearance every Man ought to fhew to his offending Brother. Should God be extreme to mark what the very best of us has done amifs, what Flesh could be faved! And fhould all Mankind agree in the rigorous Demands of Juftice, what could be expected but univerfal Confufion, and Defolation! Now, what Reafon has any Man to expect Forgiveness either from God or Man, who will shew none to those who have injured or offended him? Can we reasonably hope to receive what we refuse to give? Can we expect for ourselves what we deny to others? No, furely: It is, therefore, our indifpenfible Duty, as reasonable Creatures, as freely to forgive, as we hope to be forgiven.

But the Obligation is ftill much stronger upon us, as we are (or profefs to be) Chriftians. The Bleffed JESUS, whofe Difciples we profefs to be, who is the fole Fountain of Light and Life, Truth and Honour, and who beft understood its true Nature, has taught us, throughout his whole Gofpel, that the only true Honour

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Honour of a Chriftian is to refemble his Father which: is in Heaven. This is the only true Greatness of Mind which ought to distinguish a true Chriftian. It is on this Account that he commands and charges this Duty of Forgiveness upon us. And, that no Man may plead Ignorance or Inability, in bar to this great and important Duty, our blessed Master has exemplified, in his own Life, every Action and Branch of Duty in which true Chriftian Honour, and Greatness of Mind, does confift. Every thing that the deluded World calls great and honourable, all the little Advantages of Birth and Fortune, Wealth and Power, which are the Idols of wrong Heads, and corrupt Hearts, he despised and rejected. He, who was Lord of Lords, and King of Kings, whom all the Hoft of Heaven worship, before whom all the Princes and Nations of the Earth are but as the Drop of a Bucket, and are counted as the fmall Duft of the Balance: He, who might, if he had pleased, have made his Appearance in the World with all that Pomp and Magnificence which Heaven and Earth could furnifh for our Sakes, and, for our Inftruction and Example, chose to make his Entrance upon the Stage of this Life with all the Types of Humility, Abjection and Poverty; to be born of a poor Virgin, in a Stable, in Want of all the common Neceffaries which even the poorest generally enjoy on fuch Occafions; and the whole Tenor of his Life was agreeable to this Beginning. Riches, and Honours, and Pleasures, which are the fupreme Happiness of little Minds, and unfanctified Hearts, he abfolutely renounced, and chofe Contempt and Labour, Reproaches and Poverty for his Portion, whilft he went about doing Good, and healing all the bodily and fpiritual Infirmi

ties of those who had Faith to be healed; for all which he received no other Recompence from his ungrateful Countrymen, than to be treated as a Malefactor, and to be put to the most painful and ignominious Death : In which laft Scene of Life he exhibited the most illuftrious Specimen of true Greatness of Mind, in the Forgiveness of his Murderers: Father (fays he) forgive them, for they know not what they do!

Judge, now, can Ignorance and Vice, Intemperance and Lewdnefs, Violence and Fraud, Irreligion towards God, and Injustice towards Man, have the most remote Pretenfion or Relation to true Honour? Can any little, trifling, vain, ungrateful Creature be truly honourable? Can any Spark of Honour fo much as glow in a proud, malicious, fpiteful Heart? Can that Man have any tolerable Pretenfion to true Greatnefs of Mind, who is a Slave to Intemperance, Luft, and Folly? Can any thing truly honourable, great, and noble, proceed from a fordid, fneaking, niggardly, penurious Soul? We may, with as much Reason, expect the Soul of a Brute, the Spirit of a Devil, and the Perfections of an Angel, to meet in the fame Perfon.

I know not any Inftance in modern Story so applicable to this Point, as that we find in the Life of the famous Gafton Marquis de Renty. This illuftrious Nobleman was a Soldier and a Chriftian, and had a peculiar Felicity in reconciling the feeming Oppofition betwixt the two different Characters. He had a Com mand in the French Army, and had the Misfortune to receive a Challenge from a Perfon of Diftinction in the fame Service. The Marquis returned Answer, by the Perfon who brought the Challenge, that he

was