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this age of professed self-indulgence, can relish or receive. may add too, that the Christian religion, while it seems, in this doctrine, only to keep us down and punish us for our sins, does really admonish us for our safety, and consult our present happiness. For this practice of self-denial is conducive to health, peace, and godliness; the only true riches on this side the grave. So that, upon the terms of Christianity, we gain more than we lose even in this world.

In his worldly estate, the follower of Christ must deny himself in what relates to his outward appearance and conversation with the world. It is our great misfortune, early in life, when we have little or no judgment, to be cheated with false ideas of pleasure and greatness, and a fanciful notion of our own importance. To himself, every man, on some principle or other, is the first personage in the world; and it is the labour of some people's lives to keep up and secure this visionary idea of their own importance. They affect distinction and superiority; and there is nothing they are so much afraid of upon earth, as of losing it, or seeming to lose it, in the eyes of other peo ple. To prevent which, they study all the little artifices of pride; and often flatter their own vanity, by meanly transgressing the rules of common sense, and exposing the littleness of their minds to contempt and ridicule. So long as this temper has possession, how is it possible to be a follower of that Master, who, though the richest upon earth, threw off all superiority, and made himself poor and of no reputation, for our sakes? The children of the world are eagerly running into higher company to borrow some consequence, which does not belong to them: but he associated with fishermen, and preferred the company and conversation of an obscure, godly family in Bethany: he chose the little things of this world to confound the great, and foolish things to confound the wise. But alas! Look at those who are called by his name, and see what stirring there is for precedence: What mean, servile endeavours,

to procure honour from men, even from people of no judgment; while they neglect the only true honour which cometh from God: who hath far other notions of greatness and importance than those which the fashion of this world hath introduced and established.

And now, having considered the doctrine of self-denial, so far as the time will permit, I have only farther to observe, that the follower of Christ must be ready to imitate his Master in taking up the Cross: and we may assure ourselves, that the Divine Providence, with a fatherly attention, never fails to correct those of whose reformation there is any hope. Some, indeed, are left to themselves, little interrupted in the enjoyment of the world: "They come into no misfortune like other folk, neither are they plagued like other men." God deliver us from being of that number! For such an exemption, while it seems to be a privilege, is the greatest curse under heaven. Let no good man ever wish to have his portion in this life on the terms of the rich man in the Gospel. Besides this, the best and the wisest have their sins and their follies, which nothing but their own sufferings can cure; and as the Cross of Christ was the remedy for the sins of the world, so every individual must take that Cross from the appointment of God, which is adapted to his own particular case. As the occasion may require, we are visited with bodily pain and sickness, loss of wealth or reputation, unmerited neglect and dishonour, inconstancy of friends, who often stand at a distance, and are least useful, when they are most wanted. And when God pleases even the refreshments and comforts of the divine presence are withdrawn: the saint complains, like his Saviour on the Cross, that his God hath forsaken him. Such things are necessary for a time, to make us sensible of our own weakness and misery; to punish our past unprofitableness under the means of grace; and to mortify those who have neglected to mortify themselves.

The Cross of Christ was fore-ordained of God, with in

finite wisdom, as the proper instrument of his death: and with the like wisdom he appoints the Cross, by which every particular man is to suffer. The precept directs every one to take up his Cross; not the trouble of another man, but that, which is sent for his own trial, and adapted to his own case. The God, who made him, knows his wants and his feelings, and applies the trial to the proper part.-Monastics may whip and scourge themselves, and wear horse-hair garments to afflict their skin: but these are crosses of their own making. The question is, whether a man will take in Faith and Patience, as absolutely necessary to his own good, that Cross which God's wisdom hath ordained for him, and laid upon him. How common is it for people to complain, that they could have borne any thing else but that present evil under which they are suffering! God knew that, and therefore he sent it; to punish their sin; to teach them patience; and to make them fly to him for help and support under the pressing sense of their own weakness. Here our faith is to resign itself, and to say, with the afflicted king Hezekiah,—“ O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit; so wilt thou recover me, and make 'me to live!"

SERMON XXXIV.

LEST, BEING LIFTED UP WITH PRIDE, HE FALL INTO THE CONDEMNATION OF THE DEVIL.-1 Tim. iii. 6.

CONT

ONVERTS of little experience in the Christian Faith were disposed to be vain, when they were exalted above their brethren: and as vanity never fails to weaken the judgment, and put men out of humour with truth, error in doctrine soon follows, when pride has got possession of the imagination. The Tempter defrauds men of truth, as

the artful defraud the simple of their money, by flattering them, and suggesting great ideas of their talents and qualifications.

By the condemnation of the devil, in the words of the text, so far as men can fall into it in this life, we must understand that kind of sin, for which the devil himself is under sentence of condemnation. In the prophecy of Isaiah, his crime is specified, as an aspiring to be equal with God. Amongst other presumptuous expressions to the same effect, he said in his heart, "I will be like the Most High." He suggested the same presumptuous thought to our first parents, tempting them to expect that they might "be like Gods, knowing good and evil." The good of the understanding is truth; its evil is falsehood; and if so they were tempted to seek the knowledge of good and evil, that is, of truth and falsehood, independent of God; consequently, in opposition to him. The desire of that independence, by which the creature becomes a law to himself against the Creator, was the root of sin in Lucifer: he tried the same temptation upon man, and it succeeded. It hath prevailed ever since, and will prevail to the end of the world. What was the whole religion of paganism, but a system of faith and worship invented by those who did not "like to retain God in their knowledge;" they "became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." They became fools, by "professing themselves to be wise;" and knew nothing of divine things, by pretending to have a source of knowledge within themselves. Whence came all the heresies that infested the Christian church? Not so much from any obscurity in the Gospel, as from the vain reasonings of those, who were too proud to receive it: "If any man," says the Apostle, "teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing." If we look to the present age, whence comes

all the modern opposition against the doctrines of Christianity, but from human philosophy, judging of good and evil by its own light, and proposing new sources of information, with new principles, new duties, and new obligations?

From this view of the text, it offers a very important fact to our consideration; namely, that there is a peculiar sort of wickedness, in which man may be a partaker with the devil. And if so, it is of infinite consequence that we should define it clearly, and explain it in such a manner as to guard our hearers against it: especially as there is a dangerous mistake gone abroad amongst us, and of which the enemies of our faith are always prepared to take advantage. It has been very falsely supposed, that people may secure to themselves the favour of God, and be in a state of salvation, if they do but observe moral honesty in their words and actions. Some through art, and others through ignorance, flatter men in this error; assuring them, that if they do but lead good lives, all articles of faith are no more than matters of opinion, and they need not trouble themselves about their creed. To correct this error and demonstrate the malignity of it, is the principal object of this discourse. In order to which, it is obvious, as a first argument, that as a good life is the fruit of a good faith, it can no more grow from a wrong belief, than grapes can grow upon thistles. To every seed the Creator gives its own proper body; whatever we sow, the same we shall reap; and therefore it must be a strange unnatural philosophy which expects to gather the fruit of Christian godliness from the seeds of infidelity.

Then again, it is manifest that a good life is an ambiguous expression, the vulgar use of which betrays great ignorance in those who confine it to the practice of social duties. For the Christian life, properly so called, comprehends two great branches of duty; the first towards God, the second towards our neighbour. God has an