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receive the clear and open truth. truth. We SERM. may therefore understand it to have VIII. been out of a prudent and considerate regard to the sentiments of his Auditor that our Saviour chose to convey his answer in a parable.

A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Though neither his Country nor Religion is expressed, yet from the road on which he passed, as well as from the circumstance on which the parable is grounded, we may suppose him to have been of the stock and faith of Israel. And as he travelled, he fell among thieves; who stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half-dead. Thus oppressed by calamity he was a moving object of compassion to all who should light upon him. And by chance there came down a certain Priest that way: a man devoted to the service of God we might expect would manifest a reverence for his will in the opportunity now given of putting in practice one of his great command ́ments: yet the extent of his charity was no more than this; He came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, one who also ministered in the service of the sanctuary,

when

SERM. when he was at the place, came and looked VIII. on him, and passed by on the other side.

As the functions of these two Ministers of religion imply some acquaintance with the will of him they served, we may here be disposed to ask, how they could possibly satisfy their own conscience for thus flagrantly neglecting a law, which held so conspicuous a place in the roll of moral precepts. If this object of compassion had been an alien from their country, and a stranger to their religion, they possibly might have pleaded in their own behalf, that he was not the Neighbour whom they were required to love. But supposing him to have been a Jew, he had every claim from the law of Moses to be regarded as a Neighbour, and on the plea of that relation to be treated with every hospitable care.

The most reasonable excuse which we can imagine in their behalf is, either that they were straitened in their time by the stated services of their respective orders, or that they did not chuse to incur any risk of disqualifying themselves for their ministerial functions. For if they administered relief, he might possibly die in their hands; and in con

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sequence of touching a dead body they SERM. would according to their law be ren- vIII. dered for a time unclean. If such was their plea for passing by on the other side, they forgot that moral duties had a prior and superior obligation to all positive institutions; as was abundantly testified by the mouth of their own Prophets, who combine in declaring, that the Lord desireth mercy rather than sacrifice, and that he delights not in cleanness of hands unless accompanied with purity of heart.

But a certain Samaritan, as he jour neyed, came where he was: as being of a nation who lived under a corrupted creed, he had less opportunities of knowing the will of God than a Jew, not to bring him in comparison with a Priest and a Levite. Yet when he saw him, he had compassion and went to him, and bound up his wounds pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed he took out two pence and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.

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The charitable service of this SamaVIII. Titan was more deserving approbation, because he could be no stranger to the dissensions, that subsisted between his own nation and that of the sufferer whom he relieved. For at the supposed time of this event the animosities between them were grown to such a height that the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritansa. But when the distress occurred, he considered only a Fellowcreature under affliction and in want of immediate relief. He neither suspended his compassion, till he had satisfied himself whether the Sufferer had a title to the charitable treatment of a Neighbour; nor drew in his hand on discovering him to be of a different country and religion from his own; for he continued to provide for the cure of his wounds and the supply of his necessities, as long as he stood in need of assistance and support.

Thus did the Samaritan put in practice that great commandment of the Law, Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thyself. Though heretical in the letter, he was orthodox in the spirit: though

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erroneous in the form, he was upright SERM. in the power of godliness. Whatever vIII. were the errors of his creed or his ritual, in the essentials of religion he stood superior to the Priest and the Levite: and thus in the knowledge and the practice of a great commandment he was competent to yield a lesson of instruction to a Teacher of the Law.

An intimation so repugnant to the prejudice of the Jews in general, would be still more unwelcome to a man in the station of the Lawyer, who valued himself on his professional knowledge of the Law, and arrogated merit in being one of those, who sat in Moses' seat and interpreted the oracles of God. Accustomed as he must have been to regard his own nation as a distinguished and peculiar people, and brought up in an habitual reverence for the Mosaic ministry, he would be unpleasantly surprized in hearing a narrative so little to the credit of a Priest or a Levite, so much to the honour of a Samaritan. But when our Saviour puts the question home to his impartial conscience, Which now of these three thinkest thou was Neighbour unto him that fell among thieves? his natural sense of right compels him

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