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and perfecute you, and fay all manner of evil things of you falfly, and do all manner of Injuries to you unjustly, only for the fake of Virtue and the profeffion of the Truth, then esteem your felves doubly happy.

12. Then rejoyce, triumph, and leap for Joy; for exceeding great shall be your reward in Heaven. For thus in old Time were the Prophets and the best of Men perfecuted; with whom if ye patiently endure Sufferings, ye shall also partake of their extraordinary Reward.

13. Be couragious therefore, and conftant, and patient. Te are to be Teachers and Examples to the World. If by your found Doctrine and unblameable Lives, ye propagate true Religion and Virtue, ye fhall preferve the World from Corruption: But if ye, who are to be the Inftruments of reforming Mankind, fhall your felves degenerate into Softness and Vice; where

fecute you, and shall fay all manner of evil against you falsly for my fake.

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withal fhall ye be corrected and amended? Ye will become the most useless, and incurable, and contemptible of Men.

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14. Ye are to be set up; as a Light in the World to lead Men by your Do&trine from Error to Truth; and to convert them by your Example from Wickedness to Virtue. Ye are to be the Standard of true Religion, set up in the fight of all Men, like a City built upon a Hill.

15. As therefore a City upon a Hill, cannot be hid from the fight of those that pafs by: And as a Candle ufeth not to be put under a Bufhel, but to be set in a Candlestick to give Light to the whole House:

16. Even so ought ye to be careful to make the Example of your good lives bright and confpicuous before Men; that they being thereby convinced of the excellency of your Doctrin,may be converted to the Belief of true Religion, and to the PraDz Atife

&ife of true Virtue, and so give glory to God.

17 And do not think, because I give you these new Precepts, that therefore I am come to destroy or abrogate the Law and the Prophets. No: I am not come to diffolve any one natural or moral Obligation; but on the contrary, to fulfil what was typified, to explain what was obfcure, and to compleat what was imperfect.

18. For affuredly there shall not be any part of the typical or ceremonial Law, but shall truly be fulfilled: Nor any one Precept of the natural or moral Law, but

fhall continue in its full force and obligation fo long. as the World endures.

19. Whofoever therefore fhall break any one of the least of these moral Precepts, not ignorantly or by furprife, but wilfully and prefumptuoufly, fo as to perfift deliberately in the breach of it, and to teach or incourage others to do

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in the kingdom of fo likewife; he can be no

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good Chriftian, nor shall

have any place in the Kingdom of Heaven. But on the contrary, he that practifes all these moral Precepts, and teaches others the neceffity of doing the fame; fuch a one is the best Christian, and shall be fure of the greatest Reward.

20 So that unless your Righteousness be more univerfal and more fincere than that of the Jewish Doctors, Scribes and Pharifees, who frequently preferred outward Ceremonies before moral Duties, ye cannot be good Chriftians, nor enter into the Kingdom of Hea

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22. But I fay unto you, Whofoever shall fo much as indulge rafb and caufelefs Anger or Paffion; fhall be liable to be punished by God in another Life, with a Punishment proportionable to the severity of that capi tal one inflicted by the Jews on Murderers. But he that fhall fuffer his Paffion to rife higher, and use himself to mock and deride others; fhall be further punished by God with a feverity proportionable to the greater Punishments which used to be inflicted by the higher Councel of the Jews upon the boldest Offenders. But he that fhall yet farther indulge his Paffion, and accuftom himself to rail, flander, and revite others; fhall be punished by God with the fevereft of all the Degrees of Punishment, answering to that extraordinary one amongst Men, of being burnt alive.

22 But I fay unto you, That whofoever is angry with his

brother without caufe,shall be in danger of the judgment:

and whofoever shall fay to his brother,

Raca, shall be in danger of the councel: but whofoever shall be in danger of hellfay, Thou fool, fhall fire.

23 There

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