would not engage in the fupport of error, and thus are they very eafily mifled into the wildernefs of folly. Fach particular traveller infers that the path muft be right which fo many have agreed to tread in, and does not at the fame time confider that the man who went before him, as induced by the very fame method of reafoning, to ftep into it: but furely before we fet out on the fhort journey of life, it will highly become us to confider under whofe direction we fhall place ourselves.

Who is this guide whom we fo willingly follow? or who is this mafter whom we fo implicitly obey? A guide no doubt well able to direct; a mafler very fit to command; but will reafon acknowledge this, or will experience confirm it? Do they not both warmly affert the direct contrary? Will they not tell us, that this guide is an ignorant and bold impoftor, and fo little able to fave others from delufion, that it is itfelf perpetually deluded? A mafter fo unfit to rule, that it hath in all ages been itfelf a flave to the worst of men, a mere inftrument in the hands of the wicked, to ferve in the caufe of vice and folly? Shall we then be led by that which cannot guide it. felf, and governed by that which cannot govern itfelf? One would think our pride alone were fufficient to fecure us from this danger; and that men would not voluntarily fubmit to be flaves of thofe whom they might command, and dupes to thofe whom they muft defpife.

There is not any thing which fo debafes the human understanding, as a tame, implicit fub

miffion

miffion to the will of others, without the leaft previous trial or examination; it is the infallible mark of a timid and fervile, or of a weak and lethargic mind; it is indeed little lefs than at once to give up all the privileges of our nature, and to degrade our very being.

We fhould confider, that by following the multitude, we give up all pretenfions to knowledge and understanding; that we acknowledge our inferiority, and bear witness to our own ignorance and incapacity; that if we go wrong therefore we have no excufe, and even if we go right we have no merit: thus we are fure of punishment on the one hand, and on the other can entertain no hopes of reward.

Let us moreover reflect, that when we have once joined the multitude, it is not easy to feparate ourselves from it. Cuftom rivets our chains fo faft, that they are not foon, or with. out difficulty, broken through or fhaken off.

A mind feverely warped by prejudice, and habituated to error, is like a body bent and bowed down by age and infirmities, and neither can be restored to its original rectitude, but by that divine power which created them. both.

The followers of fafhion, and the votaries of vice, by a perpetual diffipation of thought, by a conftant round of vanity, make themselves abfolutely unfit to move in any other circle. By a perpetual commerce and connection with a corrupt world, we become too well acquainted with its fraud and treachery; we grow fo converfant with the works of art and

of

of men, that we forget the far nobler productions of nature and of God.

Men indeed are but too apt to flatter themfelves, that fociety is the mother of fafety, that there is always the beft fhelter in a crowd, and that the authority of millions is fufficient reafon for fiding with them. But furely whatever ill-grounded hopes we may place in the number of our forces, we fhall find that in a bad cause they can never fecure us the vic

tory.

The multitude on our fide is but a poor excufe for our follies when we commit them, and will prove but an indifferent confolation to us when we fufier for them; if we trample on the commandments of God, and offend that Almighty power who made us, it is not the number of fellow criminals which can fecure our pardon.

Have thofe who rebel against their fovereign, a ftronger claim to his indulgence, bccaufe their allies are numerous, and their armies formidable? Would it not rather induce him with more feverity to punifh their pride, and chaflife their infolence? Will the moft gracious fovereign pardon ene rebel, because thoufands have engaged in the fame caufe with him? or is the juft mafter obliged to forgive one fervant, becaufe all the reft have equally difobeyed him?

What then fhall we fay to our king, or what fhall we plead to our mafter? If finners intice thee, fays the wife man, confent thou' not-but we have confented: Be not conformed to this

world

world-we have conformed to it in every article: Love not the world-we have loved it, and what is more unpardonable, neither loved nor refpected any thing elfe, not even him who made it; and can we then expect forgiveness, becaufe fo many have offended?

There was a time we know, when all mankind were become abominable, and all flefh had corrupted its way upon earth; and what was the fatal confequence? It was swallowed up by an univerfal deluge.

God deftroyed Sodom, because they were all wicked who inhabited it, and brought Ifrael to captivity, because they were all, as the prophet fays, grievous revolters.

On the other hand, fo fond is mankind of running into extremes, we have lately feen, and continue every day to fee, a fet of frantic enthufiafts, who under the pretence of avoiding the errors of this fafhionable multitude, have themselves conftituted another multitude, perhaps equally dangerous to fociety, and the interefts of true religion; a multitude who hold, or pretend to hold in abhorrence the commiffion of evil; who are fo over righteous as totally to condemn every innocent amusement and cheerful relaxation, and together with the follies and impertinencies, have fhaken off all the focial and relative duties of life, to give themselves up intirely, not to acts, but to fpecious proteftations of piety and devotion; who make a merit of abitaining from what is forbidden, and at the fame time neglect what is commanded.

I need not obferve to you how many follow this multitude, nor is it I believe lefs evident that the followers of it, whatever they may imagine themselves employed in, will be found in the end to do evil.

That tabernacles are crowded, and churches thinned, by thefe pernicious fe&taries, is too notorious; but at the fame time, it is no infallible fign that they are in the right; for alas if numbers were to determine in this point, how poor a figure would Chriftianity make in the known world, whilft Popery, Mahometanifm, and even Paganifm, are in that point fo infinitely fuperior to it.

But it is perhaps in religion, as it is in every thing in which we are concerned; fashion will dictate, example will influence; pretenders fart up in every art and fcience; quacks will be liftened to, and prefcribe in divinity as well as in phyfic, and whatever confident impoftors affert, there are always fools enough to believe them; but truth after all will break through the clouds of error and prejudice, and fhine forth in its native fplendour.

Let us then, my brethren, redeem the time; let not the force of bad example influence, nor the power of fashion betray us. Surlinefs and contempt of the world is not goodness or religion; and on the other hand, a fervile compliance with all its forms, is mean and unmanly; good breeding was meant to heighten and embellifh the charms of virtue, but not to rival and fupplant her; and fuch as make politeness alone the rule of their actions, are