injured his friend Uriah in the basest manner; and used all possible methods to conceal his shame. Having failed in these, he found that Uriah must of necessity ere long discover the injury he had received ; and therefore he longed for Uriah's death ; yea, he actually laid a snare for his life, and was de- lighted to hear that he had successfully attained his murderous object. We are far from saying that every man's resentment would carry him to this length, even where the same grounds for it existed : but we have no doubt, that there is not any one who, in similar circumstances, would not rejoice to hear that the person whom he had injured was dead : all concern about his life woidd be swallowed up in the hope of concealing his own shame, and retaining an unblemished character before men.]
3. Because we conceive him to be our enemy —
[It is natural to suppose that those whom we have injured are our enemies : and that consideration is quite sufficient to excite hatred in the bosom of an unjust man. Hence Solomon observes, " A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by if^." Indeed it is from this consideration that men hate the Scriptures, and even God himself: they know that the Scrip- tures are against them, and that God is displeased with them : and therefore " they hate the light, and will not come to the Hght, lest their deeds should be reproved:" yea, they say, " Make the Holy One of Israel to cease from before lis ;" or, as the fool in his heart, " I wish there were no God*^!" In hke manner they hate pious ministers also, as Ahab did ; " I hate Micaiah, because he doth not speak good concerning me, but evil." Whilst we suppose that men love us, there is no difficulty in loving them : the vilest of publicans and sinners wiU do this : but when we think that our persons or our cha- racters are odious to others, it requires much grace to feel a loving spirit towards them ; a grace which no ungodly man can exercise, nor any unjust man possess. Resentment is the only fruit which nature, so circumstanced, will produce.]
Many valuable lessons may be learned from this subject : vv^e may see in particular the import- ance,
1 . Of cultivating a religious principle —
[Had Amnon felt the power of religion in his soul, he would have withstood the first impulse of his desire, and said, " How shall I do this great wickedness, and sin against God? " Or, if he had been overcome with the temptation, he would at least have sought to repair the injury he had done, and not have
^ Prov. xxvi. 28. « Isai. xxx. 11. Ps. xiv. 1.