in Christ, unless he have redemption Pure and exalted as is the morality of our Saviour's precept, and plain as its meaning must appear to every man of honest and humble mind, it is nevertheless liable to abuse and to perverse misunderstanding on the part of persons of a different character. The following extract, which enters into particulars of the duty expressed in our Lord's comprehensive words, may perhaps be found useful as furnish Believe in him, and thy faith willing an answer to some foolish cavils, work by love. Thou wilt love the Lord thy God because he hath loved thee: thou wilt love thy neighbour as thyself. And then it will be thy glory and joy to exert and increase this love, not barely by abstaining from what is contrary thereto, from every unkind thought, word, and action, but by showing all that kindness to every man, which thou wouldest he should show unto thee." HYMN. Blessed Redeemer, how divine, This golden lesson, short and plain, How blest would ev'ry nation be Lord, write this law on every heart, WATTS or tending to prevent injurious misconceptions. It is taken from "A Practical Exposition of our Saviour's Sermon on the Mount; by James Gardiner, M.A. 1720." "The easiness of this rule is as great as the equity of it. For it is a guide which every man carries in his own breast, whereby he can readily determine, without recurring to large volumes of laws, or systems of morality, or courts of judicature, what is just and fit for him to do with respect to another. He needs but turn the tables, and suppose his neighbour's case to be his own, and his to be his neighbour's, and then he has his direction at hand: he may learn what usage he should give, by considering what usage he would expect. We are commanded to love our neighbour as ourselves; but our partiality in this, and the difference we are apt to make, in the way of love and esteem, between ourselves and others, is the cause of all injustice. Now, this selfishness is what the precept of doing as we would be done by is designed to correct. And the rule is so true and exact in itself, that were it not for the corruption of human nature, which triumphs in nothing more than in perverting and debasing that which should reform it, one might pronounce it to hold good in all cases without bounds or limitations. But, because the very best things are liable to abuse, and the wisest maxims may be stretched beyond the design and reason of them, it will be necessary so to restrain our present rule, that it may not lead us beyond what is lawful or reasonable to be done. "1. We must confine it to things that are lawful, or not prohibited by the word of God. For else the Scriptures would be contradictory, if by this rule of doing as we would be done by we are obliged or allowed to do to others what by other plain or evident texts we are forbidden to do, or to desire. My friend desires me to tell a lie for him to excuse him, or to spread a false story about for his advantage; or, though he do not desire it, yet I think it would serve his interest-and what then? Though I myself should be so wicked, or so weak, as to desire the like of another, or be glad of its being done on my account, yet will this rule by no means justify my doing so for anybody else; because it is sinful for me either to tell a lie myself, or to desire that another should. Likewise it will be no excuse to a cheating gamester, if he gives the person he games with leave to cheat him if he can; nor to him that endeavours to make his companion drunk, that he is very willing to be made as drunk as himself; because cheating and drunkenness are sins, and no pretence whatever can qualify the guilt. This maxim, therefore, of doing as we would be done by, was never designed to make men lawless, or such an absolute law to themselves, that whatsoever they can reciprocally desire, or submit to, should be lawful. It ought to be first known that the thing is lawful, before the rule can be applied; which, strictly speaking, is not so much a law itself as a measure of performing other duties to our neighbour. "2. We must confine it to things that are reasonable, or fit to be done. Some things are lawful, which are not expedient. It is lawful for me to give away a good part of my estate, or any particular valuable possession that I have, to whomsoever I think fit; but, if a neighbour of mine should come to me, and with a serious face should desire me to settle such a lordship upon him, etc., I dare say all the world would agree that it was a very impudent and unreasonable request; and, though he should press me an hundred times over with the rule of doing as I would be done by (for it is not to be denied that I should gladly receive such a favour and benefaction myself from any other person), he would be as often told, it was a thing indecent to be asked, impertinent to be expected, and unfit to be done. To instance another thing not reducible to this rule ;-no judge or magistrate is obliged thereby to pardon a notorious offender against the laws, upon thinking with himself, that if he were in the malefactor's place, he would desire to be pardoned. does not apply here; because, though it is natural to an offender to deprecate the punishment due to his offence, it is not fit or reasonable that the magistrate should hearken to him; for he acts in a public capacity, and must consider the reverence due to the laws, and the peace and good order of the public, more than the benefit of any private person. Again;-one who is in very indifferent circumstances, desires me to be bound with him for a considerable sum, which he is not likely to pay, and if I pay it myself, it will be a great detriment and wrong to my family; but I am not by this rule obliged to answer his desire, though I should be glad, if the case were my own, as it is his, that another would do the same for me; because it is reasonable I should consider my own family and circumstances in the first place; I am to love my neigh-ness of slandering and envying the bour as myself, but I am not obliged to love him better, and to do myself a great injury, in order to do him a benefit. Many other instances might be given, but there is no need to enlarge. Religion and prudence must govern us in this, as well as in every The rule | behaviour towards those that are so related to him. The same will hold in all other relative duties, and hereby may be discerned the equity of reverencing superiors, of being civil and courteous to equals, gentle to inferiors, and just and charitable to all mankind. It would keep us from an insolent and surly carriage towards any one, from despising and ridiculing, from upbraiding and provoking, if we do but seriously consider how ill we ourselves could bear this from another. It would teach us to forbear and forgive, because we desire in our turns to be borne with and forgiven. It would make us candid and good-natured, in putting the best interpretation upon the words and actions of others, if we but reflect how reasonable we think it that another should deal so candidly with us. The poor may be convinced by it, of the unreasonable other duty. "I will therefore take a short and general view of what is indeed the proper application of this rule. Let a child, a subject, or a servant, but ask himself without partiality, what honour, what submission, what obedience he would think were due to him, were he himself a father, magistrate, or master; and his answer to this would be a rule for his own rich the advantage of their riches : and these would also see the unreasonableness of refusing relief and assistance to the poor, because each of them would, in the other's circumstances, expect a contrary behaviour. "Let us be exactly just in all our dealings with others, as we would assuredly have others just in their dealings with us. "These are the chief general instances wherein this rule of doing as we would be done by must take place. Particulars are reducible thereto by every man's private conscience, as circumstances arise to bring them under consideration." § XXVI. CHAP. VII. 13-20. Christ exhorteth to enter in at the strait gate; and to beware of false prophets. 13'Enter ye in at the strait gate for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14 || Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. m 15 Beware of false prophets, "which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. 16 "Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ? 17 Even so 'every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good Luke xiii. 24.- Or, How.-m Deu. xiii. 3. Jer. xxiii. 16. ch. xxiv. 4, 5, 11, 24. Mark xiii. 22. Rom. xvi. 17, 18. Eph. v. 6. Col. ii. 8. 2 Pet. ii. 1, 2, 3. 1 John iv. 1. n Mic. iii. 5. 2 Tim. iii. 5. o Acts xx. 29, 30.-p ver. xx. ch. xii. 33. q Luke vi. 43, 44. Jer. xi. 19. ch. xii, 33.-s ch. iii. 10. READER. Our Saviour here speaks of two ways or courses of life, in one or the other of which all men are walking; and two ends, at one or other of which all will at last arrive. He compares men to travellers walking in different roads. The way of sin, which leads to destruction, he likens to a broad road, having a very wide gate at its entrance; and the way of holiness to a narrow road, at the beginning of which the gate is small and apparently inconvenient. Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat.-By the wide gate and the broad road, we understand "a thoughtless mind, a carnal heart, and a wicked life; all which, by unbelief, which refuses certain and everlasting ruin." the only method of salvation, lead to "But you will ask, Why are these things so described? Why are they compared to a wide gate and a broad way? The reason is plain; for, as it is easy to go through a wide gate and to walk in a broad road, so the sinner finds no hindrance in entering on a life of sin, and little or no difficulty in pursuing it. Our corrupt nature strongly inclines us to sin. David says, 'Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me' (Ps. li. 5); and that the wicked are' estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.' Sin is in our very nature; and we walk in this road of our own accord; it is natural and pleasant to us; while we as naturally dislike the narrow road, and despise those who walk in it. And besides, those who are in the broad road, meet with no hindrance from the world or from the devil." -Alas, many are they who follow this evil, but too easy, course; and if we follow the multitude, it will be to do evil.-But let us remember that it leadeth to destruction. "Death, eternal death, is at the end of it, everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. Whether it be the high way of open profaneness, or the back way of close hypocrisy, if it be a way of sin, it will be our ruin, if we repent not." -- Strait, i.e. narrow, is the gate, and narrow, i.e. hemmed in, close, confined, is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. That is to say, there are difficulties to be encountered both at the beginning, and throughout the course life.—The of a religious life. The way that leads to life, is the way of repentance, faith, and holiness. It is the way of repentance or conversion; and therefore it is narrow. "Repentance cannot but be painful, for it consists chiefly in a godly sorrow for sin, together with a firm resolution to forsake it, whatever it may cost us." Conversion is a strait gate, "hard to find and hard to get through; like a passage between two rocks (1 Sam. xiv. 4). There must be a new heart, and a new spirit, and old things must pass away. The bent of the soul must be changed; corrupt habits and customs broken off." Now a man naturally dislikes all this, and he shuns it," as a man would avoid passing through a very narrow and low door, when a more spacious one offers itself at the same time." "Faith also is intended by the narrow way. By grace are ye saved through faith;' and without faith it is impossible to please God. True faith consists in so believing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as to take him for our only Saviour; utterly renouncing all dependence on our own works and righteousness; submitting to be saved by the mere favour of God in Christ, as a poor beggar is relieved by an alms. Now, this is so contrary to our natural inclinations, and so humbling to a selfrighteous spirit, that it may well be called a narrow way." Holiness also is this narrow way. "Holiness consists in the conformity of our will to the will of God; it is produced by the power of the Holy Spirit in the regeneration of a sinner. The law of God is written on his heart; whereby he is disposed to resist temptation, to forsake sin, and to practise obedience to the commands of God. In doing this, we must deny ourselves, take up our daily cross, and follow Christ. We must mortify the flesh with its affections and lusts. We must crucify the old man of sin, and walk, not according to the course of the world, nor according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. In this way we cannot but meet with difficulties. We shall meet with continual opposition from our own corruption, the law in our members warring against the law of our minds. We shall also suffer reproach and contempt |