SERMON VI.

CHRISTIAN MORALITY, VIZ. A LOVELY CARRIAGE, &C.

PHILIPPIANS iv. 8.

Whatsoever things are lovely,

-think on these

MA

things.

AN was a lovely creature in his first formation and innocence, however he has been debased and dishonoured by the fall. Now there is nothing in all the religion of Christ but what tends to restore man to the excellencies of his original estate, or to exalt him above them, and to render him all over amiable. To this end truth and sincerity are recommended to him in the gospel, with a venerable decency in all his conduct. To this end he is required to practise justice to his neighbour, and to keep himself pure and chaste from all the vices of sensuality. Thus far we have proceeded in improving the text. And the man who has attained thus far, has many lovely qualities belonging to him, such as lay a foundation for a good report, and deserve our praises.

Yet there are many things in human conversation, which do not directly fall under the commands of

vicious weed that grows in corrupt nature, and is fruitful of a thousand unrighteous actions.

I proceed now to the second, that is pride. When a person sets too high a value upon himself, and aggrandizes himself in his own esteem, he is ready to imagine that all things are due to him, and there is very little left to become due to his neighbour. The proud, as well as the covetous man, is full of self, and he forgets the command of love to his neighbour; he treats him as if he was not made of the same clay, and lives as though he were obliged to no duty to his fellow-creatures. This is evident in a variety of instances.

It is pride that forbids us to give due respect to those that are above us in the family, in the church, or in the civil state; and instead of paying the honmrs that are due to superiors, we are tempted to reat them with insolence and scorn. Many a father, in our degenerate age, has found this unhappy effect of raising his children too soon and too high; and the mother has seen her sin, and felt it in her punishment, when she has cockered up her young offspring in pride, and thereby taught them to break the rules of justice, to slight all her authority, and make a scoff of that pre-eminence which God and nature have given her.

"All

The proud man is ready to say in his heart, that are around me ought to pay me respect, and do me justice," while he is regardless of the respect due to others. "Let them carry it towards me as they ought, and I will carry it toward them as I please."

It is pride that inclines us to throw a blot here and there upon the good name of our neighbour, and to blemish his reputation, lest he should outshine us. When some honourable mention is made of another person in our company, especially if it be one of our own sex, our own rank or degree in the

world, do we not feel something rising within us to lessen their honour, and to stain their character? It is through this vanity and ambition of mind, that we are tempted to defame and reproach our neighbour, and to rob him of his just honour among men, and we endeavour to build our own faine and credit upon the ruin of his. But it is a sandy, or rather an impious foundation; and the fame that is built upon such ground will never stand. Pride inclines us to assume more respect than is due to ourselves, and to take it away from our neighbour, even as covetousness tempts us to take more money to ourselves than is due, and to deprive our neighbour of it. Thus both of them are opposite to the sacred rule of justice; one to that justice which we owe to our neighbour's estate, and the other to his good name.

But the evil influence of pride spreads farther also; for it teaches us to practise unrighteousness in matters of property; it instructs us in the methods of oppression, and inspires us with a wicked courage to practise it; Psalm lxxiii. 6, 7, 8. When pride compasses men about as a chain, and they wear it as a golden ornament, then violence covers them as a garment; and though their eyes stand out with fatness, and they have more than heart could wish, yet they are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression. They gripe those that are poor, because they themselves are mighty. They refuse to pay the just demands of their neighbours, they speak loftily, and stand it out with them against all right and jus tice, because they are great in the world. It is the rule of justice to change places with our humble neighbour, and ask ourselves, what we should think due to us, if we were in his place! Or at least we should set ourselves and our neighbour upon the level, and consider what is just and right on both sides. But the heart of pride cannot bear such a rule, it exalts itself far above the level of mankind,

and practises toward those that are around it with a superior insolence and injustice. Cursed pride, the first-born of hell! It seized our first parents, and tempted them to aim at Godhead, to practise injury to God himself, and assume a right to the fruit of the forbidden tree! Vile iniquity, that hath tainted all the seed of Adam! It is a haughty poison that was infused into our veins with the first sin; and where shall we find the son or daughter of Eve that is not infected with it! Blessed be the grace of God, wheresoever its dominion is broken, so that it does not break out into all the works of unrighte

ousness!

The third spring of injustice among men is profuseness and luxury. When persons affect to live in a manner above what their circumstances will afford, they are tempted to intrench upon the property of their neighbour, either by cheating, or by violence.

It is the language of luxury, "I must indulge my appetite, my table must be furnished with a costly variety, and I must eat and drink with elegance, (as is the modish phrase.) I must treat my friends, when they visit me, with fashionable entertainments; I must keep fine company, and make a figure in the world; I must appear in such an equipage as my neighbour allows himself, though he be ten times richer than I am. I must have many changes of raiment, for it is a mean and vulgar thing to appear too often in the same dress; my house must be furnished after the mode, and I must shine at home and abroad in silks or in silver; for I cannot bear the thought that such or such an one should outshine and overtop me." Then the patrimony is sold or mort gaged to raise present supplies, and the rich food and clothing, and luxurious expences of a twelvemonth, devour and swallow up seven years income or the gain of half their lives.

What remains then, when their own substance is not sufficient to supply their vanity, but that they make an inroad upon the property of their neighbour? They run deep into debt with the artificer and trader, and they never concern themselves how to make payment. The workman has built them palaces, instead of such common dwellings as their character requires, and the artificers of various kinds have furnished out their bravery of apparel or equi page; but the unhappy creditors are ready to starve in tattered raiment, through the oppression and injustice of their luxurious neighbour. And when they make a modest demand of what is due to them, they meet with nothing but a frown or a jest, and the reproachful names of saucy and impertinent. But woe to him that covets an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high; for the stone shall cry out of the wall against the oppressor; the beam out of the timber shall answer it, and shall bear witness against unrighteousness. Hab. ii. 9, 11.

This is the crying guilt of many, and very commonly practised in this city in greater or in less degrees; but perhaps the profuse wretch pursues a bolder course of injustice, and betakes himself to robbery and plunder; he lies at watch on the highways, he seizes and assaults the innocent traveller, and deprives him of his wealth and every thing valuable, in order to support his own wild and extravagant expences. Luxury must be fed, though justice be starved; and luxury must be clothed, though justice go naked.

My hearers perhaps will think themselves unconcerned in all this story, and take no share of the conviction to themselves, nor do I know any of them to whom half this charge belongs. But let it be considered, that men do not usually rise to this degree of madness all at once. Unrighteousness has several steps and stages in its race; if we indulge