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I fay this, and you can hardly feign to yourself an inftance of more impious and unnatural arrogance.

The point is to habituate ourselves to these reflections, till they rife up of their own accord when they are wanted, that is, inftantly upon the receipt of an injury or affront, and with fuch force and colouring, as both to mitigate the paroxifms of our anger at the time, and at length to produce an alteration in the temper and difpofition itself.

Chapter VIII.

REVENGE.

ALL pain occafioned to another in confequence of an offence, or injury received from him, farther than what is calculated to procure reparation, or promote the juft ends of punishment, is fo much revenge.

There can be no difficulty in knowing when we occafion pain to another; nor much in diftinguishing whether we do fo, with a view only to the ends of punishment, or from revenge; for in the one cafe we proceed with reluctance, in the other with pleasure.

It is highly probable from the light of nature, that a paffion, which feeks its gratification immediately and exprefsly in giving pain, is difagreeable to the benevolent will and counfels of the Creator. Other paffions and pleasures may, and often do, produce pain to fome one; but then pain is not, as it is here, the object of the paffion, and the direct caufe of the pleasure. This probability is converted into certainty, if we give credit to the authority which dictated the feveral paffages of the Chriftian fcriptures that condemn revenge, or, what is the fame thing, which enjoin forgivencfs.

We will fet down the principal of these paffages? and endeavour to collect from them, what conduct upon the whole is allowed towards an enemy, and what is forbidden.

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"If ye forgive men their trefpaffes, your heavenly Father will alfo forgive you; but if ye forgive not men their trefpaffes, neither will your Father forgive your trefpaffes.' "And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him: fo likewife fhall my heavenly Father do alfo unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trefpaffes." "Put on bowels of mercy, kindness, humblenefs of mind, meeknefs, long fuffering, forbearing one another, forgiving one another; if any man have a quarrel against any, even as Chrift forgave you, fo alfo do ye." "Be patient towards all men; fee that none render evil for evil unto any man.' "Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, faith the Lord. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink; for, in fo doing, thou fhalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good."*

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I think it evident, from fome of thefe paffages taken feparately, and ftill more fo from all of them together, that revenge, as defcribed in the beginning of this Chapter, is forbidden in every degree, under all forms, and upon every occafion. We are likewife forbidden to refufe to an enemy even the most imperfect right; "if he hunger, feed him; if he thirft, give him drink," which are examples of imperfect rights. If one who has offended us, folicit

* Matth. vi. 14, 15. xviii. 34, 35. Rom. xii. 19, 20, 21.

Col. iii. 12, 13. Theff. v. 14, 15-.

See alfo Exodus xxiii. 4. "If thou meet thine enemy's ox, or his ass, going aftray, thou fhalt furely bring it back to him again: if thou fee the afs of bun that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldft forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him.”

from us a vote to which his qualifications entitle him, we may not refufe it from motives of refentment, or the remembrance of what we have fuffered at his hands. His right, and our obligation which follows the right, are not altered by his enmity to us, or by ours to him.

On the other hand, I do not conceive, that these prohibitions were intended to interfere with the punishment or profecution of public offenders. In the eighteenth chapter of St. Matthew, our Saviour tells his difciples, "If thy brother who has trefpaffed against thee neglect to hear the church, let him be ununto thee as an heathen man, and a publican." Imme iately after this, when St. Peter asked him, " How oft fhall my brother fin againft me, and I forgive him? till feven times?" Chrift replied, "I fay not unto thee until feven times, but until feventy times feven;" that is, as often as he repeats the offence. From these two adjoining paffages compared together, we are authorized to conclude that the forgiveness of an enemy is not inconfiftent with the proceeding againft him as a public offender; and that the difcipline established in religious or civil focieties, for the reftraint or punifhment of criminals, ought to be upheld.

If the magiftrate be not tied down by these prohibitions from the execution of his office, neither is the profecutor; for the office of the profecutor is as neceffary as that of the magiftrate.

Nor, by parity of reafon, are private perfons withheld from the correction of vice, when it is in their power to exercife it; provided they be affured that it is the guilt which provokes them, and not the injury; and that their motives are pure from all mixture and every particle of that spirit which delights and triumphs in the humiliation of an adverfary.

Thus, it is no breach of Chriftian charity, to withdraw our company or civility when the fame tends to difcountenance any vicious practice. This is one

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branch of that extrajudicial discipline, which fupplies the defects and the remiffness of law; and is expreffly authorized by St. Paul (1 Cor. v. 11.) "But now I have written unto you, not to keep company, if any man, that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with fuch an one no not to eat." The use of this affociation against vice cantinues to be experienced in one remarkable inftance, and might be extended with good effect to others. The confederacy amongfe women of character, to exclude from their fociety kept miftreffes and proftitutes, contributes more perhaps to discourage that condition of life, and prevents greater numbers from entering into it, than all the confiderations of pru. dence and religion put together.

We are likewise allowed to practice fo much caution, as not to put ourselves in the way of injury, or invite the repetition of it. If a fervant or tradef man has cheated us, we are not bound to truft him again; for this is to encourage him in his dishonest practices, which is doing him much harm.

Where a benefit can be conferred only upon one or few, and the choice of the perfon, upon whom it is conferred, is a proper object of favour, we are at liberty to prefer those who have not offended us to thofe who have the contrary being no where required.

Chrift, who, as hath been well demonftrated,* eftimated virtues by their folid utility, and not by their fashion or popularity, prefers this of the forgiveness of injuries to every other. He enjoins it oftener; with more earneftnefs; under a greater variety of forms; and with this weighty and peculiar circumftance, that the forgiveness of others is the condition upon which alone we are to expect, or even afk, from God, forgivenefs for ourselves. And this preference is juftified by the fuperior importance of the

See a View of the Internal Evidence of the Chriftian Religion.

virtue itself. The feuds and animofities in families. and between neighbours, which difturb the intercourfe of human life, and collectively compofe half the mifery of it, have their foundation in the want of a forgiving temper; and can never ceafe, but by the exercise of this virtue, on one fide, or on both,

Chapter IX.

DUELLING.

DUELLING as a punishment is abfurd; because it is an equal chance, whether the punishment fall upon the offender, or the perfon offended. Nor is it much better as a reparation; it being difficult to explain in what the fatisfaction confifts, or how it tends to undo the injury, or to afford a compenfation for the damage already fuftained.

The truth is, it is not confidered as either. A law of honour having annexed the imputation of cowardice to patience under an affront, challenges are given and accepted with no other defign than to prevent or wipe off this fufpicion; without malice against the adverfary, generally without a wish to deftroy him, or any other concern than to preserve the duellift's own reputation and reception in the world.

The unreafonableness of this rule of manners is one confideration; the duty and conduct of individ uals, whilft fuch a rule exifts, is another.

As to which, the proper and fingle queftion is this, whether a regard for our own reputation is or is not fufficient to justify the taking away the life of another?

Murder is forbidden; and wherever human life is deliberately taken away, otherwife than by public authority, there is murder. The value and fecurity

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