of a meek and humble Saviour, at once deftroyed all their pretenfions to righteousness, is Pride, that high opinion which they always entertain of themselves, with a fovereign contempt for all the world befide. Pride of every kind is totally irreconcileable with Christianity; but fpiritual pride is above all directly oppofite and contradictory to it; it is the dropfy of the mind, and like that for the most part incurable. A prince is never fo proud as as a pope; and a man of the highest rank and fortune, will not behave with half the fupercilious oftentation of a monk or a methodist. The Pharifaical Chriftian, therefore, is of all beings the most pompous and the most dif agreeable; he affumes an air of confidence and felf importance, that throws all humble merit at an infinite diftance from him; he confiders himself as a creature of a fuperior order, and paffes by the meek and lowly Chrif tian with contempt and indifference, or perhaps, which is worse, treats him with a fneer of infulting pity; he commiferates your lost ftate, as irretrievably excluded from the number of the elect, and is concerned to find that you have no chance of eternal happiness; for like the church of Rome he always confines the goodness of God to the narrow limits of his own fect, and charitably configns the reft of mankind to everlasting perdition.

The Pharifaical Chriftian is always feen in the best pew of the church, as his Jewish predeceffors took the first places in the fynagogues; he affumes the power of directing in fpiritual

matters,

matters, however unfit he may be for it; takes the flock out of the hands of the pastor, is ever ready to direct him in his duty, and to find fault with him in the performance of it.

Thus in every parifh where the pernicious tenets of methodifm have gained any influence, the minifter, however irreproachable his conduct, however found his doctrine may be, is held in no efteem.

The laft diftinguifhing mark of the Pharifaical Christian, that leaven which leaveneth the whole lump, is Hypocrify; a vice most abhorrent to the doctrine, and moft oppofite to the character of our bleffed Redeemer : this imitation of ancient pharifaifm is indeed the moft glaring folly, as well as the most atrocious wickednefs: to diffemble with man may be venial, because men diffembled with us; to diffemble with man may be profitable, because men may be deceived; but to diffemble with the Almighty, is both impious and unprofitable. It is impious, because God never doth, or can diffemble with us, and it is unprofitable, becaufe he is not to be deceived, deluded, or impofed on by us. Man, however, the Pharifaical Chriftian can, and conftantly doth deceive, by his pompous pretences to extraordinary piety and goodness. To the unobferving and injudicious eye, the falfe jewel appears with a more fpecious and glaring luftre than the true; and fo it is but too often with religion and virtue. The kingdoms of men are too often befieged and conquered by hypocrify; but it can never fubdue, never fo much

as

as enter into the kingdom of God: it cannot be fuppofed that a God of truth will ever pcrmit those to enter into his prefence, who fup

port the cause of fraud and falfehood; it cannot be imagined, that the proud and haughty will ever meet in the fame place with the meek and humble; that they will ever be permitted, or if they were permitted, that they would condefcend to rank with those whom they had infulted, or to affociate with those whom they had defpifed.

If then, my brethren, the kingdom of heaven is, as it doubtlefs ought to be, the great object of your wifhes and defires, that feat of joy and happiness which you are all in pursuit of, do not be led afide into that broad but deceitful path which our Saviour hath affured you can never lead you to it. The road to this bleffed habitation, lieth not, as the Pharifees have falfely directed you, over the lofty mountains of pride, but through the lowly vale of humility; not through the crooked and perplexing labyrinths of fraud and falfehood, but along the fmooth and even plains of truth

and virtue.

Let therefore your righteoufnefs be not only unlike, but totally different from, and oppofite to that of the Pharifees; avoid all pretences to extraordinary merit; contemn all idle fingularity and affectation; defpife hypocrify, and abhor diffimulation. Never be proud of what you are; never pretend to be what you are not; place not your ill-grounded hopes of future happiness on the performance

of merely external duties, but on the fteady, uniform, and regular practice of your whole lives; fhew your zeal in,the caufe of religion, not by profeffing, but by proving yourselves true Chriftians; do not boaft that you are not like others, but endeavour fo to fpeak, and fo to act, that others may wish to be like you; fo fhall your righteoufncfs far exceed the righteoufhefs of the Scribes and Pharifees, and ye fhall enter into the kingdom of God: ye fhall enter into a place where there fhall be no pride or haughtiness to opprefs; no fraud or hypocrify to deceive you; but where truth and happiness, joy and fincerity, righteousness and peace shall kifs each other.

ON FOLLOWING THE MULTITUDE.

SERMO N XLIV.

EXODUS XXIII. 2.

Thou fall not follow a Multitude to do Evil.

CO great is the power of example, fo dange

rous its prerogative, and fo extenfive its influence over the human mind, that we can never be fufficiently on our own guard against the evils which it may create, and the inconveniencies that may arife from it. The defire of imitation is perceivable, even from the mo

ment

ment of our birth, in all the faculties of our fouls, and in all the actions and emotions of our bodies, infomuch, that every habit and gefture we acquire, and every fentiment we exprefs, is but the copy or tranfcript from thofe who are about us; it is a long time before we begin to know and feel that we are free and accountable beings, and that it is in-cumbent on us to think and act for ourselves; nor even when we are arrived at this neceffary truth, do we retain the fteady and conftant conviction of it; many have not the capacity, many have not the inclination, and many more have not that industry and vigilance which are required in the discovery of truth, and in the practice of virtue and hence it arifes, that fo many of the blind follow their blinder leaders into fin and mifery; that fo many are drawn away infenfibly, and mifled by bad example into the commiffion of thofe things which their reafon rejects as ridiculous and abfurd, or their confcience condemns as finful and unwarrantable; and the danger of the feduction must always rife in proportion to the art and power of the feducer; the influence therefore of an ill-judging multitude is of all things moft to be feared and avoided. There is fomething in union and fociety, which ftrongly recommends and enforces whatever it would promote, gives a kind of fanction to every thing which it would patronife or protect; thofe who follow the multitude are too apt to imagine that however a fingle judgment might be mifled, numbers

Ff2