world, and his people with one voice had put him to death, still, so far from bearing resentment against them in his heart, he, after he had risen from the dead, commanded that his Gospel should be preached first of all in that city where he had been crucified, and that the offers of salvation should be first made to the very people who had imbrued their hands in his blood1. And how glorious were the triumphs of his love ! By the very first sermon that was preached in his name, three thousand of his enemies were convinced of their wicked- ness, and brought to repentance. Similar to this was the mercy he vouchsafed to the persecuting, blaspheming Saul : he appeared to him in the midst of his mad career, and, by this transcendent act of love, changed a bitter and cruel enemy into a holy and active Apostle. Thus he overcame evil with good ; and in proportion as we imitate his conduct we shall be transformed into his likeness.]
3. It would make a very heaven upon earth —
[What a very hell is this world, where the passions are let loose, and men are left to perpetrate all that is in their hearts ! Even under the restraint of wholesome laws there are so many quarrels generated, and so many resentments harboured, that there is scarcely a society or a family in which real harmony prevails. But if this precept were universally obeyed, how different a world would this appear ? From the combating of evil with love, there would soon be no evil to contend with: for certainly they who rendered nothing but good unto their enemies, would never render evil to their friends ; or if any unintentional evil were done, the very re- membrance of it would be quickly lost in returns of love. O blessed state ! When shall the happy time arrive, when " the wolf and the lamb shall thus dwell together, and the child shall have no ill to fear when playing on the hole of the asp, or of the cockatrice den?" Surely this may well be called, " The reign of Christ upon earth ;" for it will be the brightest image of heaven, or rather heaven itself come down on earth.]
Asa further improvement of this precept, we shall.
1. Guard it —
[We are not to imagine that this precept requires us to renounce our civil rights ; for St. Paul, on proper occasions, asserted his rights as a Roman citizen"1: nor does an obedi- ence to it preclude the exercise of legitimate authority ; for the magistrate would have been invested with power to no
1 Luke xxiv. 47. U1 Acts xvi. 37. and xxii. 25. and xxv. 10, 11.