and condescension. They never make the first advances to returning reconciliation and peace. They are haughty in their claims, and require great submission before they can be appeased. The lover of peace on the other hand, looks upon men and manners in a milder and softer light. He views them with a philosophic, or rather a Christian eye. Conscious that he himself has been often in the wrong; sensible that offence is frequently thought to be given where no injury was intended; knowing that all men are liable to be misled by false reports into unjust suspicions of their neighbours; he can pass over many things without disturbance or emotion, which in more combustible tempers, would kindle a flame. In all public matters in which he is engaged, he will not be pertinaciously adhesive to every measure which he has once proposed, as if his honour were necessarily engaged to carry it through. If he see the passions of men beginning to rise and swell, he will endeavour to allay the growing storm. He will give up his favourite schemes, he will yield to an opponent, rather than become the cause of violent embroilments; and, next to religion and a good conscience, the cause of peace and union will be to him most sacred and dear.

In the fourth place, our study of peace, in order to be effectual, must be of an extensive nature, it must not be limited to those with whom by interest, by good opinion, or by equality of station, we are connected, Live peaceably with all men, says the Apostle. No man is to be contemned because he is mean, or to be treated with incivility because he is one in whom we have no concern. Even to those whom we account.

bad men, the obligation of living at peace extends. This is not inconsistent with that just indignation which we ought to bear against their crimes. Without entering into any close connection with them, without admitting them to be our friends and companions, it is certainly possible to live amongst them in a peaceable manner. Human society is at present composed of a confused mixture of good and evil men; and from our imperfect knowledge of characters, it is often not easy to distinguish the one class of men from the other. We are commonly prejudiced in favour of those who concur with us in our modes of thinking; and are prone to look with an evil eye on those who differ from us in subjects of importance. But if all the supposed blemishes of those with whom we differ in opinion; if the heretical doctrines which we ascribe to them, or the bad principles with which we charge them, were sufficient to justify the breach of peace, very little harmonious correspondence would remain among men. Appearances of religious

zeal have been too often employed to cover the pride and ill-nature of turbulent persons. ———— The man of peace will bear with many whose opinions or practices he dislikes, without an open and violent rupture. He will consider it as his duty to gain upon them by mildness, and to reclaim them as far as he can from what is evil, by calm persuasion, rather than to attempt reforming them by acrimony and censure. Neither indeed is it every man's office to set up for a reformer of the world. Every man, it is true, is bound to promote reformation by his personal example. But if he assume a superiority to which he has no title; and, with rude and indiscreet zeal, administer reproofs, and thrust himself forward into

the concerns of others, he is likely to do much more hurt than good; to break the peace of the world, without doing service to the cause of true religion.

If it thus appears to be our duty to extend our study of peace throughout the wide sphere of all who are around us, it will naturally occur that there is a certain narrower sphere within which this study ought to be particularly cultivated; towards all those, I mean, with whom Nature or Providence has joined us in close union, whether by bonds of friendship, kindred, and relation, or by the nearer ties of domestic and family connection. There, it most highly concerns every one to put in practice all the parts of that peaceable and amicable behaviour which, I before have described; to guard against every occasion of provocation and offence; to overlook accidental starts of ill-humour; to put the most favourable interpretation on words and actions. The closer that men are brought together, they must unavoidably rub, at times, the more on one another. The most delicate attentions are requisite, of course, for preventing tempers being ruffled, and peace being broken, by those slight failings from which none are exempt. It is within the circle of domestic life, that the character of the man of peace will be particularly distinguished as amiable; and where he will most comfortably enjoy the fruits of his happy disposition.

HAVING now explained the precept in the text, and shown what is included in living peaceably with all men, I come next to suggest some considerations for recommending this peaceable disposition.

LET us recollect, in the first place, as a bond of union and peace, the natural relation which subsists among us all as men, sprung from one Father, connected by one common nature, and by fellowship in the same common necessities and wants; connected as Christians closer still, by acknowledgment of the same Lord, and participation of the same Divine hopes. Ought lesser differences altogether to divide and estrange those from one another, whom such ancient and sacred bonds unite? In all other cases the remembrance of kindred, or brotherhood, of a common parent, and common family, tends to soften the harsher feelings, and often has influence, when feuds arise, to melt and overcome the heart. Why should not a remembrance of the same kind have some effect with respect to the great brotherhood of mankind? How unnatural and shocking is it, if, on occasion of some angry expression or trifling affront, to which sudden passion or mistaken report has given rise, a man shall deliberately go forth with the barbarous purpose of plunging his sword into his brother's breast? What a reproach to reason and humanity, that a ridiculous idea of honour, derived from times of Gothic grossness and ignorance, should stain the annals of modern life with so many tragical scenes of horror!

Let the sentiment of our natural connection with each other as men, dispose us the more to peace, from a reflection on our common failings, and the mutual allowances which those failings oblige us to make. A sense of equity should here arise, to prompt forbearance and forgiveness. Were there any man who could say that he had never, in the course of his life, suffered himself to be transported by

passion, or given just ground of offence to any one, such a man might have some plea for impatience when he received from others unreasonable treatment. But if no such perfectly unexceptionable characters are to be found, how unjust is it not to give to others those allowances which we, in our turn, must claim from them?-To our own failings, we are always blind. Our pride and self-conceit render us quarrelsome and contentious, by nourishing a weak and childish sensibility to every fancied point of our own honour or interest, while they shut up all regard to the honour or interest of our brethren. From the high region of imaginary self-estimation, let us descend to our own just and proper level. Let us calmly reflect on the place we hold in society, and on the justice that is due to others. From such

reflections we will learn to be more humble in our claims, and more moderate in our pretensions; and many of the causes of animosity and contention will die away.

LET us consider, in the next place, how trifling and inconsiderable, for the most part, the causes are of contention and discord among mankind, and how much they deserve to be overlooked by the wise and the good. When we view the eagerness with which contests are agitated in society, and look to the bitterness and wrath they so oft occasion, one would think that all were at stake, and that there could be no life, no happiness on earth, unless to him. who was victorious in the contest. And yet, in how few instances has there been any just ground for this mighty ferment of spirits ?—You have been slighted, perhaps, by a superior; you have been ungratefully