I IO 
On RESENTMENT, 
a more glorious example ? Can the gratification of pride or an- 
ger afford fo exalted a pleafure, as the following his fteps, at 
whofe very name the angels bow? ’Tis a violence on common 
fenfe, as well as an infult to the majesty of heaven, to repeat 
the lords prayer, and yet withhold our forgivenefs. “ He that 
u fheweth no mercy to a man who is like himself, doth he 
u alk forgivenefs of his own fins ?” 
“ No man is truly great,” fays your favorite author, “ who 
£t does not look upon every thing in the world as little.” And 
in the eye of religion or philofophy, is it not the leaft of all little 
things to indulge resentments, which are not conducive to 
our own happinels, and injurious to that of others ? 
Our pafiions mix with almoft every action of our lives, and 
moft of all our pride ; but what a fuperiority do thofe acquire 
who are above pride, who exalt themfelves, and become invul- 
nerable, even by their humility. This is to be greater than the 
greateft, whole grandeur is derived only from external things. 
As to thofe slights, which the moft virtuous and judicious 
fometimes encounter, they are generally the effeds of vicious 
pafiions, or a weak judgment. As to the desire of monopolizing 
the love of thofe we value moft; or the expectation that they 
will be conftant, and equal, in the exprefilon of their regards to 
us, when they are not fo to themfelves, nor yet we to ourlelves, 
it is a folly which nothing but inexperience can excufe. The 
eager defire of being well fpoken of by all people, and the 
ftiowing refentment when we are not, is alfo a foible, for 
this cannot be, in the nature of things, if we ad confiftent with 
common 
