But if, after these repeated expostulations, our adversary continue obstinately injurious, are we even then permitted to return evil for evil? By no means. We are indeed authorized to appeal to some public tribunal, of acknowledged authority, in vindication of our own innocence; to prove that we do not perpetrate but suffer wrong; and also to guard against the malignity which is obstinately determined to injure and to persecute. If he shall "neglect to hear" the chosen friends, to whom you have appealed, "tell it," says our Lord, "unto the church." And undoubtedly, the same principle will justify us, in appealing to a temporal and civil tribunal, where no religious authority or discipline exists to restrain offenders.

But if, after this public appeal to an authorised judge, the offender still continue obstinate in his enmity, and incorrigible in his wrong, are we even then permitted to take vengeance into our own hands, and inflict punishment by a private arm? No. We are indeed allowed to break off the friendly intercourse we had before maintained with him: to quit his society, as one obstinately hostile, and incorrigibly perverse: whom reason cannot convince, expostulation soften, or authority restrain. "If he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican." But further our resentment must not carry us. And if at any period he repent, we are to receive him with prompt and sincere forgiveness; to requite him good for evil; and to restore him to our society and regard. "How oft shall my brother sin against me," says Peter to our Lord, "and I forgive him? till seven times?"* The apostle, not yet fully endued with the overflowing, the unwearied benignity of a truly Christian spirit, sought some limitation to its exercise, beyond which he might indulge the perhaps too hasty violence of his resentment without condemnation. But no such could he find. Our Lord answers, "I say not unto thee until seven times; but, until seventy times seven." No repetition of injury shall stimulate to obstinate hatred, or justify you in refusing forgiveness and mercy.

But it may suggest itself to our minds, that while the man who trespassed against us, continues impenitent and injurious, and therefore criminal, he is justly the object of aversion and revenge.

• Matt. xviii. 21.

No, our Lord permits no such malignity. While he continues obstinately unyielding and irreconcilable, we are to consider him, not as an enemy, but merely as a heathen man and a publican-as one who must remain alienated from our confidence indeed and separated from our society, so long as he retains such dispositions as render confidence unsafe, and society impossible. But the heathen and the publican were to the Christian, objects not of hatred, but of pity; not of vengeance, but of benevolence -a benevolence ardently zealous for their repentance, their conversion, their present peace, and their eternal happiness. And this is exactly the disposition with which the true Christian regards even his bitterest enemy. Self-defence may compel him to employ such means as prudence demands and law supplies, to restrain his adversary from inflicting further injury. Nay, in crimes of a more atrocious die, public good may require the infliction of punishments, severe enough to terrify other men from similar offences. But, in either case, no malignity must influence our conduct; no spark of revenge must rankle in our We must pity the offender, while we punish the of We must bind so as to restrain, but, if possible, not to

heart. fence. gall him. This is the precept of the apostle: "dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath; for it is written, vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord."* Yes, my fellow-Christians, when beings, such as we are, dare to give loose to our malignity; when we claim a right to inflict vengeance, in our own cause, we utterly renounce our calling; and forget, that we ourselves are weak and fallible, frail and guilty; who know not the accurate degree of our fellow. creature's guilt, and, therefore, have no right to apportion punishment, even had we the power to inflict it. Conscious that we ourselves stand perpetually in need of forgiveness, we should not dare to insist upon such rigorous justice, as would infallibly ensure our own condemnation. "Shouldest not thou

also," says our Lord to the hard-hearted servant in the parable, "shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity upon thee?" Oh! no, my friends, let not us, wretched guilty mortals, presume to place ourselves + Matt. xviii. 33.

Rom. xii. 19.

on the judgment seat of God, to wield his terrors, or deal out his vengeance on our fellow-criminals.

One way, and only one, can we imitate His dispensations to our fellow-creatures, and endeavour to form our hearts after the image of His attributes. We may safely aspire to imitate His forbearance, and long-suffering, "who maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good;" "sendeth his rain upon the just and the unjust.”* Hear the concluding precept of the apostle, in this chapter, "if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head"t-the ardour of such benevolence shall soften the most obdurate heart, and melt it down to penitence, reconciliation, and love. Thus shall you "not be overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." To conclude in the

beautiful and expressive language of the same apostle, to the Colossians, "put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye."‡

* Matt. v. 45.

† Rom. xii. 20.

Col. iii. 12, 13.

351

SERMON XXXIV.

PERSONAL HOLINESS NECESSARY TO FUTURE HAPPINESS.

I COR. VI. 9.

"Know ye not, that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God."

THE spirit in which the apostle presses this question on his Corinthian converts, my brethren, well deserves your peculiar attention" Know ye not," says he, "that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." In the same spirit must we address you, my fellow-Christians. Our first and grand principle must be to convince you, that while you indulge in any deliberate or habitual vice, all expectations of obtaining, under any circumstances or by any means, admission into the kingdom of heaven, are totally absurd and impracticable. "Know ye not, that the unrighteous shall not enter the kingdom of God." Is it not plain and evident, that it is utterly inconsistent and contradictory to suppose, that the impure, the vindictive, the profane, should be admitted into the mansions of holiness, harmony, and love; into the presence of the everlasting Father, the triumphant Saviour, the ever-blessed Spirit; and join in grand chorus with the highest orders of angelic nature, who "rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come ?"* Yes, my fellow-Christians, if we feel any anxiety for our own, or for your soul's

• Rev. iv. 8.

welfare; any sincere wish to avoid the path of death; any horror at the idea of sinking into endless and irretrievable perdition; we can never too loudly and too earnestly warn you against the fatal delusion, that if we continue impenitent, unreformed, we can by any possibility enter into the kingdom of God. And here I would lead you, if I can prevail upon you to attend to me, to a view of this subject, which well deserves the most solemn consideration-I would lead you to reflect on what the apostle so strongly intimates; that, in the very nature of things, the vicious cannot find place or happiness in heaven. Let us, for the present, set aside all consideration of those many declarations in Scripture, that God will superadd new and severe punishments to those which the very nature of guilt includes. Let us now confine our attention to those equally numerous passages, which declare the inherent repugnance that exists between the essential characters of sensuality, malignity, and profaneness, and those affections and dispositions, those pleasures and delights, which form the glory and the bliss of the inhabitants of heaven.

The various vices which degrade human nature, may be classed under the heads of sensuality, malignity, and impietysensuality and selfishness, which subvert all due self-government; malignity, which encroaches on the happiness of our neighbours; and impiety, which outrages our God. Let us consider, in each of these, how far we can perceive that repugnancy between their very nature, and the participation of heavenly society and heavenly joys, which Scripture evidently declares.

Of sensuality and impurity, it is most evident that they are not only unworthy of being admitted into the divine presence, but that they are incapable of enjoying that presence; incapable of entering into the employments, or participating in the pleasures, of those pure and refined spirits who surround the eternal throne of God.

"Blessed are the pure in heart," says our Lord and Judge, for they shall see God."* Such will delight to see, in the most exalted of all beings, the all-perfect model of those moral

Matt. v. 8.