towards her, he was mstantly inflamed with the most inveterate resentment ; insomuch that, ardent as his love had been, his hatred now far exceeded it. But this change was founded in human nature, and was precisely such as injustice is calculated to produce. We hate those whom we have injured,
1. Because we have lowered ourselves in their esteem —
[We all affect the esteem of our fellow-creatures ; and it is well to do so : "a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold*^." Whilst we are unconscious of having done any thing to forfeit a person's esteem, we conclude, as a matter of course, that we possess it : but when we are sensible that we have injured him in any respect, we feel that we have suffered loss in his esteem: and this loss we resent as an injury done to ourselves. It is by no means uncommon for persons so to expose them- selves to censure by their follies, as to render the society in which they mix, and even the town or village in which they live, disgust^l to them ; and they hate all the people whose censure they have incurred, for no other reason than because they have seen and noticed the improprieties of their conduct. Their pride is wounded ; and they impute that to the malignity of others, which they should ascribe rather to their own folly. Thus it is with respect to injuries of every kind : we feel that the commission of them lessens our cha- racter in the eyes of him whom we have injured ; and not having any suitable humiliation in our own souls, we impute that to malignity in him, which is the sole fruit of our injustice.]
2. Because we have enabled him to lower us in the estimation of others —
[We can easily go to sleep in sin, provided our iniquity be unknown ; but a discovery of it fills us with the most pungent grief. Now if we have injured any person, we have put our- selves in the power of that person, so that he can inflict upon us the severest wounds, by exposing our conduct to public re- prehension. Some indeed there are who care but little about their character, and who are therefore indifferent whether their conduct be exposed or not : but, where character is dear to a man, and he has done any thing which would involve him in much disgrace, there his hatred will proportionably rise against the person that is privy to his shame. We cannot find a more striking instance of this than in the history of Da\id. He had
= Prov. xxii. 1.