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by some sort of evil, but that evil which prevents a greater evil, promotes good upon the whole. And the same is true if evil produce a positive good which overbalances it. When the Creator implanted resentment in our constitution, we say, as before, he did the same sort of kind act as a friend does when he supplies us with a sword, in order to enable us to resist the attacks of the robber, or assassin and as the sword inflicts no wound when no robber or assassin appears, so resentment would prompt to no punishment were all appearance of injury to cease.

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"But to be more particular ;

"Resentment is that which excites and enables each individual to resist and to prevent evil; nor can we conceive that any person who wanted that passion, could or would, hinder men from overpowering him, and trampling him under their feet. It is his mental armour. It seems also wanted in order to strengthen a man for exercising authority; over servants, children, or others. It is moreover, very useful in the restraints which it imposes upon Benevolence, when that sentiment would become excessive, and enfeeble a man, so as to make him dread to inflict any kind of correction, or exercise any discipline. Indiscriminate bounty docs great harm, and would do more, if anger and indignation did not check and restrain it. Education cannot be carried on without correction, nor can Laws be enforced without punishment: yet both Education and Laws are necessary for the good of Mankind. Nay it might be worth while for any one to consider, whether Brute animals could be tamed and made subservient to the convenience of man, if he had no such impulse as that of Anger. Man is Lord of the Creation, in the world which he inhabits; but could he now enjoy that important pre-eminence, had it pleased God to make all things else as they are, and to leave man void of every pecies of resentment?

"In each individual, it might also be mentioned, that when the emotions of anger and indignation are excited in a good cause, they are noble and elevated; they lift the mind above every thing ordinary and vulgar; they give a fine and sublime animation, which cannot be accounted evil in itself, and must be reckoned amongst those things which make a man truly estimable. That lofty disdain, with which men of superior minds look down upon all meanness, fraud, baseness, and sordid selfishness, is not only a good upon the whole, to the world, and to the individual, as secaring good conduct; but it is, as an inward sensation, immedi ately valuable.

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Although the world is composed of individuals, yet it may be of use to take notice of the benefits which men, taken collectively, receive from the passion under consideration. The general effect of Resentment, taken in all its forms, on the world is, that much less evil does subsist, than would, if no such passion opposed it; though still less would subsist if anger were used in conformity to the Laws of Virtue and Religion. The general indignation of the

world,

world, I conceive to be the grand check upon destructive vice: though the resentment and displeasure of particular men, no doubt, operate successfully, each in its own sphere.

"But in whatsoever case men are hindered from doing evil, it should be considered, that good arises, not only to him upon whom the evil'would have been inflicted, but also to him who would have been guilty of inflicting it. To preserve a man from the commission of a vice or an injury, is to do him an important service. Thus resentment is sometimes beneficial even to its object. And it does not only influence a man after an offence, by deterring him from subsequent offences, but its appearance and threatning aspect will restrain evil imaginations and designs. The threatened anger of wicked men may perhaps excite only fear, though that is no bad guard; but in the disapproving and menacing frowns of good men there seems to be something more: the indignation of the virtuous, on the first appearance of a design to offend, especially when mixed with benignity and true wisdom, cooperate with the remonstrances of conscience in him who was meditating evil things: it points out duty, it intimates sanctions; and all this previous to actual offending." P. 105.

In a subsequent part of this Chapter, the case between punishment and pardon is argued with much calmness and judgment, and such are the motives proposed for the general preference of the former, that should the offended man so far command his resentment as to deliberate, he would be irresistibly, though almost imperceptibly carried on to a determination in its favour. The -next distinction is taken between public and private punishment; the former being decreed by the wisdom of the legislature, abstractedly as it were, and without any reference to the particular offence the latter resulting from the feelings of the injured per son, and liable to all the exacerbation and severity of that resentment which arises from the particular circumstances of the case.

Throughout the whole of this part of the work, which cannot be sufficiently read and studied, our author has considered the subject under the natural law, but in a subsequent chapter he proceeds to shew the agreement of the Scriptures upon this point, with the dictates of reason and of nature. In entering upon this part of the subject Dr. Hey most judiciously observes,that the language of Scripture is popular, not philosophical language, such as was best calculated not only for the instruction of the first converts, but of the great mass of mankind. This sort of language has its imperfections, as after a length of time, it may require to be interpreted by circumstances; but scientific language, as Dr. Hey observes, would generally have given wrong ideas; when at least it gave any at all. The sacred writers were no theorists nor system makers; their philosophy was the philosophy not of words but of things, not of speculation but of practice;

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and its end was not the glory of the writer, but the salvation of the hearer.

The same method is pursued in this as in the former parts, and with the same success; the laws of Scripture are clearly demonstrated to be in perfect consonance with the law of nature, they are distinguished only from the latter, as they propose those motives for benevolence,which the reason or the philosophy of man could never disclose, and as they inculcate their exhortations by examples, which our unassisted nature could never have extend- : ed. The following recapitulation, though sufficiently plain and simple, will nevertheless have its full weight with every Christian

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Seeming injuries which we are inclined to punish, may be no injuries. Let us not deserve to have it said of us, findeth occasions against me; he counteth me for his enemy.' Job. xxxiii. 10. let us rather take the advice of Solomon, with a man without a cause, if he have done thee no harm.' Prov. iii. 30. And suppose harm done, yet if not meant, let us accept. the same kind of Apology which St. Paul offered; I wist not, Brethren, that he was the High Priest.' For it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.' Acts xxiii. 5. He who will cite authorities against himself, merits our indulgence.

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"If we are convinced that we suffer, yet if there is room for doubt whether we suffer wrongfully let us remember the Householder who hired labourers into his vineyard; Friend, I do thee no wrong.' Matt. xx. 13. This plea was in all reason sufficient to secure peace; though we are too apt to imagine, that we are injured if we receive less from free bounty than other men: and to look upon that as an injury, which is only a deprivation of a benefit that we had been long accustomed to enjoy.

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"Should a man have injured us beyond dispute, and should he shew strong marks of sincere contrition; let us remember the Servant-Debtor: let us by all means avoid that cutting reproach of the Lord, to whom the debt was owing; O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desirest me; shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow-servant, even as I had pity on thee?' Matt. xviii. 32, 33. Let this excellent parable make us cautious of over-rating any injury offered to us, and earnest, when we think it necessary to punish, in chusing the punishment most likely to do good. And after all our caution, let us be aware, that the best punishment we can chuse may not answer the good purpose intended; such is the hardness and impenitent heart. Rom. ii. 5. of some men :-nay, that a punishment strictly just, may be cruel, according to the passage of the Parable now quoted, and therefore unbecoming when inflicted by frail and fallible beings. And not only cruelty may prompt us to punish, but, what seems less obvious, cowardice; that the merciful may be brave, cannot be doubted by those who contemplate our

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blessed Lord and his first Martyr St. Stephen in their dying moments. And let us not forget, that we are not only bound to regard ourselves, but the general good of the world: if you bite and devour one another,' says St. Paul, 'take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.' Gal. v. 15. A wrathful man stirreth up strife;' and we have seen, that the beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water: Prov. xv. 18. and xvii. 14.

"Let the examples which we meet with in holy writ, convince us, that any disgrace which attaches to submission and condescension in the injured, is only in the eyes of the low and vulgar; that it is only a temporary stain, soon evaporates, and leaves pure and genuine brightness behind it, for ever.

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Lastly. If notwithstanding all that has been said, offenders should presume to claim that indulgence which we have been studying the means of providing for them, the Parable of the Labourers in the vineyard may again be called to our aid: there the just and generous Housholder insists upon being the judge of his own beneficence; by whatever rules he may be guided in the sight of God, and before his own conscience. If then we are, at any time, in the situation of those who have reason to desire forgiveness, let not our eye be evil; let us not take wrong and confused views of the case before us; Matt. vi. 22, 23. and xx. 15. lest we begin dissentions which we can never justify, and which will never have an end; and so involve ourselves in perplexity and guilt, which even death itself may be unable to expiate." P. 156.

These are lessons which all the theories which the ingenuity and the pride of self-sufficient man ever wove together, have never been able to enforce. This train of thought is carried on to a still further extent in the concluding portion of this admirable volume, in which our author considers those precepts which are peculiar to the Holy Scriptures, so that we find nothing analogous to them in natural law. Such, for instance, is the precept, Matt. v. 39. I say unto you, that ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him thy other also. The comment of Dr. Hey upon this passage, which is not without its difficulties, is so admirable both for its acuteness and for its judgment, that we shall present it to our readers.

"When Christ says that his disciples must yield to a blow, or to oppression, is it to be understood that they are to do it repeatedly, or only at the time when the first insult is offered? We are to forgive an indefinite number of times; Matt. xviii. 22. or there is no stated number of times beyond which forgiveness is wholly wrong, or needless: but it may be doubted whether forgiveness properly belongs to the passage now before us. We are now concerned with right conduct at the time of an attack; forgiveness has a retrospective view. It is possible to forgive an offender when you Look back upon his injuries, and yet to repel force by force on any particular

particular occasion: Perhaps each man must judge for himself how often yielding to evil will answer its proper ends. That man who does not in the first instance try to overcome evil by some yielding to it, has no pretension to be honoured with the title of a good Christian.

"In fact, it is probable, the difficulty before mentioned, has the greatest weight in hindering men from yielding to evil; I mean the dread of the imputation of cowardice. On this difficulty a good deal has been already said; but with relation to the passage before us it may be added, that he who voluntarily exposes himself to a second insult after receiving a first, cannot do it from cowardice; it is not required of him by the aggressor; he has nothing to fear from him if he does not do it, and something if he does. If our Lord had commanded his disciples, on receiving a blow, to run away from the striker, obedience to his commands might then have been construed into cowardice; but surely not, when the Christian is to bear one blow firmly, keep his station, and offer, for the sake of public peace, to bear another. Many a man will return blows at random in the moment of provocation, even through fear; but no man through fear will present his cheek to the smiter unnecessarily.

"And the Christian is the less to be suspected of cowardice, when he yields to evil in this manner, yielding properly will have the effect of courage upon his adversary; it is plain enough, that the person who receives the stroke, may, in this case, be as brave as he who gave it. And if bravery is known to exist, it will be expected to appear at the proper time, and will therefore have its proper effects. In a popular tumult the peasant attacks with fury the steady veteran; the veteran bears his intemperate and ill-directed rage, and firmly maintains his station; is he therefore a coward? What man returns every blow of drunkenness, or of childish anger? no brave man; and why should more notice be taken of the paroxyms of passion, which occasion the blow when it proceeds from vice? In short, to associate the conduct of the true Christian with cowardice, when he is insulted, can only be the dictate of fashionable prejudice, prevailing in some particular time and place; it cannot be the effect of solid and perpetual fitness and reason." P. 176.

After a similar comment upon various passages of this nature, Dr. Hey considers shortly the motives which Christianity so exclusively holds forth for the forgiveness of injuries. The very circumstance of our "being bought with a price," is justly considered as possessing a strong tendency to mortify that self importance, by which resentment is so generally supported. His observations upon that exquisitely beautiful precept of the Apos tle, "Be ye kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you," are so simple and yet so just, that although our extracts have been ne. cessarily long, we cannot forbear from transcribing.

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