The Pharisees admitted of revenge ; and grounded that hcense upon the word of God. The passages which they adduced in confirmation of their senti- ments were strong ; but they did not at all refer to the conduct of individuals towards each other, but of magistrates towards the community at large \ To apply them to individuals, was a perversion of them, a perversion disgraceful to the teachers of such doctrines, and fatal to those who embraced them.
We, having our Lord's own comment on those passages, cannot any longer justify our errors by an appeal to Holy Writ : but yet our sentiments in rela- tion to the subject treated of in our text, are, for the most part, precisely similar to those which were maintained among the Jews. Two things in parti- cular we will specify, which are universally applauded amongst us, yet are exceeding contrary to the spirit of Christianity :
1. A rigid maintenance of our rights — [Doubtless our rights, whether civil or religious, ought to be dear to us: and a certain degree of watchfulness over them may well be admitted ; because if our rights, whether public or private, be invaded by one person, they may by another ; and if they be suffered to be curtailed, they may be altogether an- nihilated. But this will not justify that extreme jealousy which some express about their rights. There are many who will talk incessantly about the rights of man, who yet will trample without remorse on all the rights of God. They will not suffer the smallest infringement of their own liberty ; whilst they themselves are the most oppressive tyrants, wherever their authority extends. These may boast of their firmness in main- taining what they think to be right: but " they know not what spirit they are of." How unlike are they to Paul, who, rather than insist upon the support to which, as a minister of Christ, he was entitled, would work at his trade by night, after having been occupied in preaching all the day ! How unlike to Christ also, who, when, as the Son of God, he might have claimed exemption from paying tribute to the temple, wrought a mi- racle to satisfy the demand, rather than put a stumbling-block in the way of any by a refusal ! We do not undertake to say, that, in cases of great importance, a person may not expostu-
a Exod. xxi. 22 — 25. Dent. xix. 16 — 21. These passages were to direct them in the administration of justice.