UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 135 



not apply to the spirit of the precept. It is a 

 forbearing disposition a slowness to resent- a 

 readiness to make allowance for the passions of 

 others, which is meant ; for, in many instances, 

 it would be totally unreasonable to take them in 

 their literal meaning. These texts, and others 

 of the same nature, were intended to counteract 

 the misinterpretation of the Jewish doctors ; 

 who, because the Mosaic code enjoined exact 

 retaliation in the punishment of crimes by the 

 regular sentence of the judge, perverted that 

 into a permission to indulge in private revenge ; 

 and who were notorious, also, for want of charity 

 in their feelings and conduct to all persons not of 

 their own nation or sect. It was in consequence 

 of these corrupt prejudices, that our Lord in- 

 culcated, with peculiar emphasis, the contrary 

 principles of forbearance, forgiveness, and kind- 

 ness, to those who had offended ; and he illus- 

 trated these precepts by striking and familiar 

 instances. 



" It appears, from various other passages, 

 also, that it was not the literal rule which Christ 

 meant strictly to enforce in every instance, but 

 the spirit of it that is, the temper of humility, 

 the control of all violent and selfish impulses, 

 and the patience and submission which are the 

 effects of self-control ; above all, the pausing 

 to put ourselves in the place of. the offender, 

 before we give way even to just resentment; so 



N 2 



