in this light, it has always appeared to me to be
admirable. Dr. Lardner thought that this discourse was made up of what
Christ had said at different times, and on different occasions, several
of which occasions are noticed in St Luke's narrative.

I can perceive no reason for this opinion. I believe that our Lord
delivered this discourse at one time and place, in the manner related by
Saint Matthew, and that he repeated the same rules and maxims at
different times, as opportunity or occasion suggested; that they were
often in his mouth, and were repeated to different audiences, and in
various conversations.

It is incidental to this mode of moral instruction, which proceeds not
by proof but upon authority, not by disquisition but by precept, that
the rules will be conceived in absolute terms, leaving the application
and the distinctions that attend it to the reason of the hearer. It is
likewise to be expected that they will be delivered in terms by so much
the more forcible and energetic, as they have to encounter natural or
general propensities. It is further also to be remarked, that many of
those strong instances which appear in our Lord's sermon, such as, "If
any man will smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also:"
"If any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him
have thy cloak also:" "Whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with
him twain:" though they appear in the form of specific precepts, are
intended as descriptive of disposition and character. A specific
compliance with the precepts would be of little value, but the
disposition which they inculcate is of the highest. He who should
content himself with waiting for the occasion, and with literally
observing the rule when the occasion offered, would do nothing, or worse
than nothing: but he who considers the character and disposition which
is hereby inculcated, and places that disposition before him as the
model to which he should bring his own, takes, perhaps, the best
possible method of improving the benevolence, and of calming and
rectifying the vices of his temper.

If it be said that this disposition is unattainable, I answer, so is all
perfection: ought therefore a moralist to recommend imperfections? One
excellency, however, of our Saviour's rules is, that they are either
never mistaken, or never so mistaken as to do harm. I could feign a
hundred cases in which the literal application of the rule, "of doing to