4. When we are angry at the good we see in others. Thus Jonah was angry with the Ninevites for that which was pleasing to God, their repentance and humiliation. The Psalmist speaks of some who requited him evil for good, because, says he, I follow the thing that is good. Joseph was hated for his dreams, and for his words; and Daniel for his continuance in prayer and supplication to his God. Cain, the wicked one, slew his brother, because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous. Perhaps there is no species of anger so diabolical as this to be angry with others because of their excellencies.

5. When we are angry with those who differ from us in religious sentiments.-The church of God, since the days of its infancy, has been always more or less exposed to the wrath of the world. This wrath has frequently broke forth into all the rage of persecution: the godly have been pursued with fire and faggot, racks and tortures. They have had trial of cruel mockings, and scourgings; yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment. They have been stoned, they have been sawn asunder, they have been tempted and slain with the sword: the very persons of whom the world was not worthy, have wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented; they have wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth, through the fury of the oppressor. But the anger of persecutors, through the over-ruling power of

the church's Head and Governor, has ever been made to turn against itself, to the destruction of its own purpose. The rage and policy of men have in vain united their efforts to extinguish the light of divine truth the constancy and fortitude of those who have suffered in defence of it, have always had a much greater effect in promoting the good cause, than all the rage and cruelty of persecutors in diminishing it.

The heat of persecution on a religious account is, in these our happy days, very much abated: if the fire be not quenched, at least it is smothered. The natural rights of mankind, of searching the Scriptures for their own direction in matters of religion, of thinking and judging for themselves, and acting according to the light they have, in what relates to conscience, the worship of their Maker, and the salvation of their souls, were never better understood than they are at present. Even in popish countries, some are beginning to emerge from the abyss of darkness, to assert their native rights; and by little and little, to shake off the fetters of religious tyranny. May their exertions be animated with increasing vigour, and their efforts crowned with success !

Why should I be displeased with any man for his differing from me in religious opinions? He has the same reason to be angry with me for the liberty I have thought proper to assume. The

right of private judgment is the very ground of the Reformation. Without maintaining that right in the fullest sense, we condemn all that was done in that glorious revolution, as nothing more than a faction in the state, and a schism in the church.

This right was asserted by our Lord Jesus Christ in the whole of his ministry. He charged his disciples to call no man master on earth; and exhorted the people to search the Scriptures, and so to judge. for themselves. Such an exhortation would have been full of impertinence, if the right of private judgment could be supposed to have been denied. The apostle Paul, and this fellow-apostles, maintained this right. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. I speak as to wise men, judge ye what I say. Their hearers assumed this privilege, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so.

Let us not therefore thunder out anathemas against those who may differ from us in some points of doctrine, or branches of worship; neither let us pass angry censure upon them. Let us remember, that meekness and love are essential to christianity. Without these, though we speak with the tongue of men and angels, though we have all knowledge, and understand all mysteries, we are nothing. Love is the fulfilling of the law ; love is also the spirit and tendency of the gospel. Its author is the Prince of peace; and its sum and

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substance, peace, peace to him that is afar off, and to him that is nigh. What pity is it that christianity should ever have been so explained as to promote all the violent and resentful passions that human nature in its deepest depravity is capable of, and to patronize the bloodiest cruelties that the world ever beheld! Surely there can be nothing more diametrically opposite than religion and revenge, piety and persecution, prayer and plunder, the service of God, and the slaughter of those who bear his image. Heat and violence, anger and resentment in religious disputes naturally lead on to persecution. The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water; therefore leave off wrathful contention before it be meddled with. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and clamour, and evilspeaking, be put away from you, with all malice. And be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you.

One of the disciples of Jesus said to his Master, We saw one casting out devils in thy name, and we forbade him, because he followed not with us. Jesus said, Forbid him not. Afterwards, when the Samaritans did not receive him, John and James being too violent in their resentment, and having but a scanty acquaintance with the genius of the gospel, spoke of commanding fire to come down from heaven to consume them; Jesus turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what

manner of spirit ye are of. (Luke ix. 49-55.) We pretend respect and zeal for the religion of Jesus; and shall we at the same time suffer ourselves to be carried away with the harshness and severity which are so opposite to its very nature and tendency? Shall we give all men reason to conclude, that whatever we may profess, real christianity has no power over our hearts or lives? Let us not presume to retain the christian spirit, lest we draw upon our heads that awful censure, Thou hast a name that thou livest, but thou art dead.

A meek and gentle disposition, amidst the strife of interfering interests, prevents the violence of contention, renews endearments, softens animosities, and keeps alive the seeds of harmony. Banish this temper of mind from a religious society, and suppose a body of men of angry, resentful, and contentious spirits; and you have, instead of a christian church, a house of strife, a den of wolves ready to bite and devour one another, and in danger of being consumed one of another. The solitude of a desert is preferable to such society.

In respect to those who differ from us in religious opinions, we should make allowances for their education, the power of the prejudices they have early imbibed, and the influencs of others over them. We sould not exclaim against every mistake as heresy, or every error as blasphemy.