cannot but be aftonished at the intrepidity of a private, indigent, and friendless individual, who could thus arraign the conduct, and condemn the principles of the firft and most refpectable characters in the kingdom: but the caufe of religion, which had been fo effentially hurt, demanded, the throne of righteousness, which had been fhaken by fraud and diffimulation, and which was to be re-established by him, required this conduct at his hands.

Of the fuperlative righteoufnefs of the Scribes and Pharifees, the vulgar, ever impofed upon by fhew, pomp and parade, entertained fo high an opinion, as to imagine, no doubt, that it could not poffibly be exceeded; our Saviour, therefore, takes the firft opportunity of undeceiving them in this important particular, and informs them, that if they could not perform a task which they seemed to think impracticable, that of exceeding the Pharifees, they must never flatter themfelves with the moft diftant hope of the divine favour; or, as he strongly and emphatically expreffes it, could in no wife enter into the kingdom of God.

As the character of the Pharifee was held in fuch abhorrence by the great founder of our religion, one would naturally have imagined that his followers would above all things have most carefully avoided it; it is notwithstanding moft indifputable, that from the days of the apoftles, there have been, and even to this day there are amongst us but too many of those whom we may properly ftyle

PHARISAICAL CHRISTIANS:

Men

Men who but too exactly resemble that hateful and contemptible fect, whom our Saviour fo often and fo feverely condemns, and who, he folemnly affures us, can never enter into the kingdom of God; and of this melancholy truth we shall be fully convinced when I come, which I propofe in the following difcourse, to point out the peculiar marks by which they may be known, and thofe fimilar features by which they may fo eafily be diftinguished.

The age we live in, is indeed an age of Pharifaism; the morality of the Pharifees seem to be the only morality, and the righteousness of the Pharifees almoft the only righteoufnefs that is to be found amongst us. There is fcarce any zeal left but fanaticifm; any religion but enthusiasm. Since a fet of ignorant and illiterate pretenders to piety and virtue have fet up their ftandard and difplayed their gaudy colours; it is aftonifhing to confider what crouds of filly men and women are daily flocking to it: the foldiers of Chrift, the great captain of our falvation, are every hour deferting from him; three parts of them are gone over to Satan, his avowed enemy, and the fourth are daily lifting under the banners of methodifm.

At fuch a time therefore it may not be improper to obferve that,

The firft ftriking refemblance which we trace, and which is vifible to every eye, between the ancient and the modern Pharifee, is a perpetual affectation of, and pretence to extraordinary goodness and piety.

The Pha

rifaical

rifaical Chriftian openly declares that the kingdom of God, that kingdom which our Saviour has affured us he will never obtain, is the great object of all his views, the end, he will tell you, of every word and every action; to this he pretends to facrifice every worldly concern, and fixing his eyes on heaven, overlooks and tramples upon every thing elfe. Religion, in fhort, is his trade, and righteoufnefs his profeffion; he imagines that all piety confifts in prayer, and that every virtue is centered in devotion: the confequence of this falfe and confined idea of true religion is, that he is always in a church or a tabernacle; like the old Pharifee he wafhes his cups and platters over and over, to fhew his purity and attention at the fame time, but too often neglecting the weightier matters of the law; whilft he is doing that duty to God which God doth not require of him, he neglects perhaps that duty to man which God doth, and will require of him: he fings pfalms whilft he fhould be labouring in his calling, and starves his family out of pure goodness and devotion.

The next peculiar mark and characteristic of the Pharifaical Chriftian, is that fingularity that conftant defire of appearing not like other men, which diftinguifhes him as much from the reft of the world as the broad phylactery and long garments did his brethren of Judea. Vanity, or the love of praife and admiration, that reigning univerfal paffion, takes place in religion, as well as in every other concern. The Pharifaical Chriftian therefore takes a particular

particular pride in departing from common and vulgar forms; he is always prefcribing to himself fome peculiar methods of acting, that shall draw upon him the observation of others; even in circumftances the most minute and indifferent, he affects to vary from thofe of his neighbour instead of complying with eftablifhed rites and ceremonies, he invents new modes of worship, and creates new duties which he performs with extraordinary zeal and alacrity: fo long as he lives up to his own partial and imperfect rules of righteoufnefs, he thinks himself at liberty to dispense with every other, and not unfrequently to break through every moral and focial obligation.

The habit of his body, as well as that of his mind, is generally distinguished by fome ftiff and awkward pecularity, and by every motion and gefture he will endeavour to convince you how fuperior he is to all thofe forms and cuftoms, by which the reft of mankind is influenced or directed.

With regard to points of faith and doctrine, with regard indeed to all the most effential parts of religion, the Pharifaical Chriftian feldom confults that great infallible code, the holy fcripture, or the generally received interpretations of it; but for the most part forms his opinion intirely from the direction, and under the guidance of fome favourite paftor, fome darling enthufiaft of his own fest, fome Gamaliel of his own choice; of these there is abundance enough in the prefent age; to thefe he implicitly fubmits, and if an angel from

heaven was to preach any other doctrines but fuch as he inftills, the Pharifaical Chriftian would never liften to, or believe him.

In confequence of this blind attachment, three parts of his religion confift in the ftrict obfervance of certain little infignificant forms and habits, infenfibly contracted and pertinaciously adhered to; the merit of which he has fo magnified in his own eyes, as to think abfolutely indifpenfable. With these men women (for there are Pharifees of both fexes amongst us), a thousand noble and difinterefted acts of true goodnefs and benevolence, would fearce atone for the breach of one punctilio.

or

As religion, or what he thinks proper to call fo, confifts of certain rules and precepts which he has laid down as the only terms of falvation, he deems the leaft departure from them in others as unpardonable. As his mind is too weak to adopt and embrace univerfal and confiftent righteoufnefs, fo is it too narrow to comprehend univerfal charity; he is well affured, that there is but one door, and that of his own conftruction, by which men can enter into the kingdom of God; thofe therefore who will not follow him through it, can never be admitted at any other. The man who doth not think with him, is in his opinion incapable of thinking at all, and the man who will not be faved his way, cannot, he is morally certain, be faved at all.

Another infallible mark diftinguishing the Pharifaical Chriftian, and which in the eyes

of