This is harsh and unchristian-like treatment, more likely to irritate and harden, than to convince or inform. Religious disputes are seldom managed with that coolness and calmness of temper which become the gospel of Christ. In those points of doctrine wherein the wise and good men are differently minded, meekness and modesty should teach us not to be too confident; nor to censure and condemn those that differ from us, as if we were the people, and wisdom should die with us. It is a humiliating consideration, and cannot be thought of without grief and shame, that there never have been greater, more outrageous, or more inveterate and lasting dissentions in the world, than among those called Christians, and upon the ground of their religious differences. The most inflexible animosities from age to age have been kept up on this score. Nothing, I am ready to conclude, hath brought greater scandal on the good cause, or tended more to prejudice and harden the infidel race against our holy profession. Merciful God! Thou author of peace, and lover of concord, forgive the angry contentions of those who call themselves thy children!

Angry zeal for the popish cause made dreadful havock in the Irish massacre, in the reign of Charles I. The papists resolved to cut off all the protestants in Ireland at a stroke; and neither age, sex nor condition had any pity. In this indiscriminate slaughter, neither former benefits, nor alliances, nor

authority were any protection numberless were the instances of friends murdering their intimates, relations their kinsmen, and servants their masters. In vain did flight save from the first assault; destruction met the hunted victims at every turn. Not only death, but studied cruelties were inflicted on the unhappy sufferers. The very avarice of the enraged revolters could not restrain their thirst for blood; and they burned the inhabitants in their own houses, to increase their punishment. Several hundreds were driven upon a bridge; and from thence obliged, by these barbarians, to leap into the water, where they were drowned. In some places the protestants were driven from their houses, to meet the severity of the weather, without food or raiment; and numbers of them perished with the cold, which happened at that time to be peculiarly severe. By some accounts, those who perished by all these cruelties are made to amount to an hundred and fifty or two hundred thousand; but by a moderate computation, they could not be less, according to our most impartial historians, than forty or fifty thousand.

1 cannot wholly suppress, though I am unwilling to enlarge upon, the persecution which the nonconformists, or dissenters from the establishment underwent in England for many years; when ministers and persons of private character lost their all, and took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, by heavy fines. Many were put into close confinement, their

houses rifled and plundered, and not a few had their habitations burnt to the ground. The remembrance of those days of affliction is far from being pleasing. It has been computed, that among those who suffered for conscience-sake in this kingdom, the loss of near twenty millions sterling was sustained by one means and another. Ten, or according to the lowest reckoning, eight thousand persons, imprisoned for non-conformity, lost their lives in prisons and dungeons in those afflictive times.

6. When we are angry at reproof. The wrathful man flies in the face of his reprover, and says with the Egyptian to Moses, Who made thee a judge over us? (Exod. ii. 14.) We should not fall upon our admonisher with railing speeches, fretting that he has found out our sore; but submit with meekness, and lay our souls under conviction, provided the reproof be just. Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness; let him reprove me, it shall be an excellent oil that shall not break my head. It will heal the wounds that sin hath given, and make my face to shine. It is most ungrateful to be angry with a kind reprover, who has our welfare at heart, and warns us of that which would be pernicious to us; then, if ever, our anger is to be condemned. When he that reproveth in the gate, is hated for his faithfulness, it may truly be said, that iniquity abounds, and love waxeth cold.

A good man, says Seneca, rejoices when he is admonished; a wicked man cannot endure a reprover. If we do that which deserves a rebuke, and our friends are so just and kind as to deal faithfully with us, we ought not to quarrel with them, and return hatred for their love: we should suffer the word of exhortation, and take it patiently and kindly. Thus David blessed God for Abigail's counsel, and thanked her as his messenger: he hearkened to her voice, and accepted her person. The reprover may magnify the offence; his admonition may be defective in point of prudence; yet, in the main, it is a real instance of kindness, and it would be highly criminal to resent it. It was no disparagement to Naaman to hearken to the reproof of his servant, when he turned away from the prophet in a rage: it is recorded to his honour. As an ear-ring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear. These two excellencies are rarely to be found, a wise reprover, and an obedient ear; but when found they are of great value.

7. When our anger provokes us to wish or desire any thing unlawful.-When we are provoked to wish that the object of our anger may suffer some considerable inconvenience, our anger rises to malevolence; especially when we desire that some lasting mischief may attend the offending party. Perhaps the tender and affectionate parent, who on some just ground is angry with the child whom he

dearly loves, may lawfully wish his child some present pain, in order to amend and cure his folly. This seems to be implied in the nature of parental correction; and the end of it is the child's real advantage: but to wish some lasting mischief to befal the object of our resentment, is base, malicious and wicked. Nor can those sudden wishes for our own death, which violent anger sometimes produces, be at all excused. It is better for me, said the angry prophet, to die than to live: I do well to be angry, even unto death. Moses is celebrated for his meekness; and yet some expressions he used, on certain trying occasions, indicate a defect even in that for which he is most commended. (Num. xi. 15.) If thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, and let me not see my wretched

ness.

8. When we use unlawful means to avenge ourselves, we sin in our anger.-It is defined to be a desire of revenge for some injury offered. Though this definition perhaps may not be accurate, yet it is certain that men of hot and heady tempers are too often desirous of vengeance, as soon as ever they fancy themselves injured: hence punishments are inflicted disproportioned to the offence. This is criminal; and the error is still more aggravated when the offence is only imaginary. Where a real injury of consequence is sustained, religion forbids us not to seek proper and adequate reparation : but calm and cool deliberation is necessary in order to