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SERMON X.

ON THE FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES.

BY

SAMUEL S. SMITH, D. D.
COL. N. C. V. P. et S. T. P.

MATT. vi. 14.

If ye forgive men their trefpaffes, your beavenly Father will also forgive you.

TH

HE forgiveness of injuries, which is among the moft important duties of morals, and to which mankind have always fubmitted with so much reluctance, is here enforced by our Saviour with the highest sanction of religion. In inculcating this great law, he proposes the mercy of God to our imitation, he recalls to memory our offences against him, that this humiliating reflection may render us mild and indulgent to those who have offended us.—And he touches the deepest springs of interest, by making our own pardon from God depend on the fspirit with which we treat others.

Philofophy

Philofophy has often recommended the contempt, but rarely the forgiveness of injuries. It is a doctrine not indeed above the reach of reason; but reason is too weak to establish it as a general principle of action. It required the authority of a Divine Legislator to enforce the duty in this extent, on the pride, or the meannefs of mankind. To illuftrate this duty is the object of the following difcourfe. With this view, I propofe to explain its na ture and extent, and to fhew that it is founded in the

jufteft reason.

I. I beg your attention, therefore, in the first place, while I endeavour to illuftrate the nature and extent of this duty.

The first impulfe ufually which men feel on receiving an injury, is to revenge. This dark and furious paffion is always violent and extreme in its purposes, and is prone to justify its exceffes, by representing its object in a criminal and odious light. It outrages the Divine Spirit of charity, and tends to rend asunder those amiable and happy ties, by which God would unite fociety together, and connect man with man. To prevent or to correct these disorders, Christianity hath promulged the law of forgiveness. This law comprehends the following great .principles of duty,-to love our enemies, and to return good for evil.

1. To love our enemies.-No injury can cancel that original obligation that lies on all mankind to love one another. Derived from one origin, partaking of one nature, united in the fame interefts, and heirs of the fame hopes, they are connected by fo many and fuch powerful ties, that no caufe can be fufficient entirely to diffolve them, or to justify an unforgiving temper. If

every man should conceive himself entitled to repay injustice with hatred, would not that amiable spirit be destroyed which was intended to unite the world together, and the family of God be rent with irreconcilable diffentions? Hence he requires us to love even our enemies, ―to regard them as brethren,-to fympathife with their diftrefs, to find apologies for their rafh and mistaken refentments, and to pity those whofe injuries are more pernicious to themselves than to us.

This fpirit, when it is fincere, will not be restrained to those emotions and wishes of a good and benevolent heart, that are confined within itself. It will feek every prudent and practicable mean of reconciliation. It is the law of Christ, If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there remembereft that thy brother bath aught against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go, first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.-A good and delicate mind will feel exquifite pain in having given even involuntary offence. If innocent, it will be folicitous to make thofe explanations that may be neceffary to remove improper prejudices from a brother's breast. Or, if through prepoffeffion, or the transports of paffion, it hath given him real cause of umbrage, it will not be too haughty to make the just and reasonable conceffions. Nay, where the heart of a brother is to be regained, a good man will not too rigorously examine or contend for his own rights; he will difplay a certain generofity in his advances, which is the dictate of a benevolent and noble mind, conscious of the pureft intentions.

2. To forgive injuries, is not only to love our enemies, but, to return good for evil.-Bless those who curfe you, faith Chrift, do good to thofe who hate you, and pray for thofe who defpitefully ufe you, and perfecute you. If thine

enemy

enemy hunger feed him, if he thirst give him drink ; for, in fo doing, thou wilt heap coals of fire on his head,—that is, thou wilt either reclaim him by the painful conviction of his rashness and guilt; or thou wilt diffolve his heart, if he hath yet a heart to be diffolved, by the warm perfuafion of your goodness. If there be a way in which you can render him effential service,-by speaking well of the deserving parts of his character,-by drawing a difcreet veil over his foibles,-by generously producing his virtues to light, or by advancing his fortunes, you will not only fulfil an elevated duty of religion, but probably attach him for ever as an useful friend.

It may be demanded, perhaps, whether this doctrine of love to our enemies, requires such reliance on their virtue, and fuch confidence in the appearances of reconciliation, as might put us too much in their power if they were defigning and infincere.-By no means.-Piety is not inconfiftent with prudeuce, nor the most warm and generous charity with those precautions that are neceffary for our fafety. You may pity, you may affift, you may forgive, you may love an enemy before you confide in him. Experience is neceffary to lay a juft and solid foundation for truft. Your own duty is certain and clear;-his character may still be dubious. It requires time and variety of proof to affure us fufficiently of the integrity and goodnefs of others. A heart prompted by warm benevolence, and at the fame time under the direction of a found understanding, will be, on this fubject, the best interpreter of the divine law.

It may ferve, however, farther to illuftrate the nature and extent of this duty, to point out the false principles on which the reconciliations of men often turn, after they have been once embroiled, and the falfe fubftitutions that are often made in the room of the forgiveness of injuries.

Falle

Falfe principles of reconciliation are numerous and various. We fee it fometimes accomplished with difficulty by the affiduity and management of common friends, who are offended at the exceffes to which it is carried, or afflicted at the derangement it occafions in the circle of their fociety. The parties, perhaps fatigued with their importunity, or ashamed of their own obstinacy, yield at length to their remonstrances.-But obferve with what reluctance they come together! what mutual coldness and distrust they discover! how many punctilios must be adjusted! how many explanations must be made! how many compromises must be attempted, evidently calculated to fave a false idea of honour, and to evade the genuine spirit of evangelical reconciliation! Sometimes it is fought merely as a cover from the perpetual fhafts of obloquy, or to avoid the anxiety and disgrace of eternal felf-vindication and recrimination.-Sometimes to fave ourselves the irksomeness of shunning, or the awkwardness of meeting in the fame companies. How often, in the numerous and capricious changes of party of every kind, does an unexpected coincidence of intereft reunite men whom an accidental oppofition had divided? How often hath the dishonour of becoming the subjects of public fatire or mirth, induced them to overcome or restrain their paffions? And a few, perhaps, affecting the glory of moderation, or of magnanimity, have endeavoured not so much to forgive as to fhew a fuperiority to injuries. These principles contribute to preserve a certain degree of order and union in human fociety; but they do not rife to that elevation and purity which is required by the gospel. They are imitations of Religion, not its genuine fpirit, and although they may be employed as ufeful auxiliaries of piety, yet, if they are the fole principles of action, their value is destroyed by the selfishness

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