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adversary to future injuries, let this be your answer and your rule of life :-" What my enemy may hereafter do, I know not; sure I am, that my forbearance is the likeliest way to mend him; and if his heart be not altered by my present mercies, they will one day be as coals of fire upon his head. But whatever he may attempt against me, this I know, that I am in God's hand, not in his;—and, under the protection of God, I have no need to fear his villany. It is in compliance with God's will that I spare him now; and God is the guarantee of my future safety. At all events, if I must choose between this world and the world to come, my determination is already made; and I will not, for an hundred pence, hazard my ten thousand talents. Welcome loss, welcome suffering, welcome contempt in this world; — a crown of glory is laid up for me for evermore; and my ways shall be hereafter justified, even by those fools, who account the life of a Christian to be madness, and his end, without honour." May feelings like these be ever present in our hearts; and may our lives be such, as that we may say, with confidence, in our prayers, every day: Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us!

SERMON LVI.
LVI

TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

ST. MATTHEW, xxii. 21.

Render therefore unto Cesar the things which are Cesar's; and unto God the things which are God's.

In the Gospel for this day, there are contained two very important subjects of consideration. First, the wisdom and dexterity, with which the Son of God eluded the snare of His enemies; and, secondly, the practical instruction to be drawn from His reply. The first of these may increase our reverence and devotion for Him who was the Wisdom and the Word of God; in whom dwelt the glory of the Godhead bodily: and the second will be found a safe and necessary guide for our behaviour both to God and man. To understand, then, the wisdom displayed by Christ, and the answer by which He escaped His enemies' malice, it will be necessary to look a little back into the former history of the Jews, and into their political state at the time of our Saviour's preaching.

I need not tell you that, in ancient times, and

for the space of many hundred years, the Jews had been governed by kings of their own appointment, and of the family and lineage of David; till God, being provoked by the sins of the nation, and having long and vainly called them to repentance by His prophets, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, gave them up at length into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon; who burnt their city and the temple built by Solomon; put out the eyes of their king, Zedekiah; and carried all their priests and nobles into captivity. Under this yoke, and servants in a foreign land, they remained, as you may learn in the books of Daniel and Ezra, upwards of seventy years; till Cyrus, king of Persia, whom Isaiah had foretold by name, restored them once more to their native country, and permitted them to build and dedicate another temple, though far less glorious than the former.

From that time, under the government of their high priests, and amidst various changes of fortune, sometimes paying tribute to the Persians, sometimes to the Greeks, sometimes defended by the wisdom and bravery of Judas Maccabeus and his brethren, and sometimes a prey to the most cruel discord and violence of foreign tyrants and domestic parties, they maintained, however, for above four hundred years, a sort of doubtful liberty; till the Romans, whose character and situation in those times

very much resembled the French in our day1, in a very cruel and treacherous manner, and pretending, at first, that they were their friends, and desirous of restoring them to liberty, took Jerusalem by surprise, and secured it by a very numerous garrison. This took place about thirty years before Christ was born; and sixtytwo, or sixty-three, before the conversation took place which is related in the present Gospel. At that time the country was divided into various governments and districts; partly subject to two brothers of the name of Herod, the sons of that wicked old Herod, who murdered the children at Bethlehem: and partly, to a governor sent from Rome, of whose soldiers and their centurions frequent mention is made in Scripture; while, within the walls of Jerusalem, and under the awe of a Roman garrison, the high priest and elders of the people retained about the same authority as the mayor and corporation of an English town.

The power, which the Romans thus possessed, [for the Herod family were only their tools, and supported by their authority,] had been as cruelly exercised as it was unjustly obtained: and Pontius Pilate, in particular, who was then governor, was one of the greatest tyrants, of whom mention is made in history. Under these circumstances, it may be well supposed, that the

'France, Republican and Imperial: 1792-1815.

nation was desirous of change, and ready to rise in rebellion and there were no men so forward in the many riots and disturbances, which took place, as the powerful religious party who were called Pharisees, a name, which answers in its meaning to our word, dissenter, or separated.

Of the particular points of faith and practice, which distinguished this people from the other Jews, I have spoken on a former occasion. All that I need now repeat is, that, by their solemn manner, by their high pretensions to godliness, by their affected particularity of dress and behaviour, and by the number of scribes, that is, preachers and schoolmasters, who had joined their party, they had acquired great power among the women and the common people; and, though in truth there were among them many pious and well meaning men, they had in many instances abused this power and popularity, to the most dangerous purposes of pride, covetousness, and sedition.

And,

For these sins, both John the Baptist and our Saviour had often severely reproved them; and they were therefore among the bitterest enemies both of our Lord and of His forerunner. in the present instance, in order to bring destruction upon Christ, they had the meanness, as well as wickedness, to join themselves to a set of men, whom, of all others, they most hated and despised. The Herodians, or friends and

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