1. If this difpofition were univerfal, the cafe is clear: the world would be a society of friends. Whereas, if the other difpofition were univerfal, it would produce a scene of univerfal contention. The world could not hold a generation of fuch men.

II. If, what is the fact, the disposition be partial; if a few be actuated by it, amongst a multitude who are not; in whatever degree it does prevail, in the fame proportion it prevents, allays, and terminates quarrels, the great disturbers of human happiness, and the great fources of human mifery, so far as man's happiness and mifery depend upon man. Without this difpofition enmities must not only be frequent, but, once begun, must be eternal; for each retaliation being a fresh injury, and, consequently, requiring a fresh fatisfaction, no period can be affigned to the reciprocation of affronts, and to the progress of hatred, but that which closes the lives, or

at least the intercourse, of the parties.

that, although the former of the two characters above defcribed may be occafionally ufeful; although, perhaps, a great general, or a great statesman, may be formed by it, and thefe may be inftruments of important benefits to mankind, yet is this nothing more than what is true of many qualities, which are acknowledged to be vicious. Envy is a quality of this fort. I know not a ftronger ftimulus to exertion. Many a fcholar, many an artift, many a foldier, has been produced by it. Nevertheless, fince in its general effects it is noxious, it is properly condemned, certainly is not praised, by fober moralifts.

It was a portion of the fame character as that we are defending, or rather of his love of the fame character, which our Saviour difplayed, in his repeated correction of the ambition of his difciples; his frequent admonitions, that greatness with them was to confist in humility; his cenfure of that love of distinction, and greedinefs of fuperiority, which the chief perfons amongst his coun

trymen

trymen were wont, on all occafions, great and little, to betray. "They (the fcribes and pharifees) love the uppermoft rooms at feafts, and the chief feats in the fynagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But be not ye called Rabbi, for one is your master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren; and call no man your father upon the earth, for one is your father, which is in heaven; neither be ye called mafters, for one is your master, even Chrift; but he that is greatest among you shall be your fervant, and whofoever fhall exalt himself shall be abased, and he that fhall humble himself fhall be exalted*." I make no farther remark upon thefe paffages, (because they are, in truth, only a repetition of the doctrine, different expreffions of the principle, which we have already stated) except that fome of the paffages, especially our Lord's advice to the guests at an entertainment, (Luke xiv. 7.) feem to extend the rule to what we call

* Matt. xxiii. 6. See alfo Mark xii. 39. Luke xx. 43. xiv. 7.

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manners;

manners; which was both regular in point of confiftency, and not fo much beneath the dignity of our Lord's miffion as may at first fight be fuppofed, for bad manners are bad morals.

It is fufficiently apparent, that the precepts we have recited, or rather the difpofition which these precepts inculcate, relate to perfonal conduct from personal motives; to cafes in which men act from impulfe, for themselves, and from themselves. When it comes to be confidered, what is neceffary to be done for the fake of the public, and out of a regard to the general welfare, (which confideration, for the most part, ought exclufively to govern the duties of men in public ftations) it comes to a cafe to which the rules do not belong. This distinction is plain; and, if it were lefs fo, the confequence would not be much felt, for it is very feldom that, in the intercourfe of private life, men act with public views. The perfonal motives, from which they do act, the rule regulates.

The preference of the patient to the heroic character, which we have here noticed, and which the reader will find explained at large in the work to which we have referred him, is a peculiarity in the Chriftian inftitution, which I propose as an argument of wisdom very much beyond the fituation and natural character of the person who delivered it.

II. A fecond argument, drawn from the morality of the New Testament, is the stress which is laid by our Saviour upon the regulation of the thoughts. And I place this confideration next to the other, because they are connected. The other related to the malicious paffions; this to the voluptuous. Together they comprehend the whole cha

racter.

"Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, &c.-These are the things which defile a man.” Mat. xv. 19.