fuafion? The good and great archbishop Til lot fon fays, that he does not wrong them, by reprefenting them as inquiring after this man-. ner, "Shall I go before a crucifix, and bow myself to it, as to the High GOD?" And because the Lord is a great King, and it is perhaps too much boldness and arrogancy to make immediate addreffes always to him; to which of the faints or angels fhall I go to mediate for me, and to intercede on my behalf? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of pater-nofters, or with ten thoufand of ave-marys? Shall the hoft travel in proceffion, or myself undertake a tedious pilgrimage? Or shall I lift myself a foldier for the holy war, or for the extirpation of Hereticks? Shall I give half my estate to a convent for my tranfgreffion, or chastise and punish my body for the fin of my foul? No, our religion does not require any coftly facrifices, nor any fuch painful feverities. For as the wife fon of SIRACH juftly obferves, He that keepeth the law bringeth offerings enough. He that taketh beed to the commandment offereth a peace-offering. He that requiteth a good turn offereth fine flour, and he that giveth alms facrificeth praife. To depart from wickedness is a thing pleafing to the Lord, and to

for fake

forfake unrighteoufnefs is more than whole burnt-offerings and facrifices. Above all these, therefore, we are commanded to put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. Let us then confider the frailty of our nature, and not presume upon our own strength. Let us be tender of our neighbour's reputation, and not needlessly expofe it by rafh cenfures. This conduct will plead for us in the day of our own diftrefs, (and who can be fecure, that fuch a day fhall never come upon him?) with a filent, but an all-powerful eloquence. Let us all then endeavour to imitate the example of our bleffed Saviour, who, though he himself was without fin, neither was guile found in his mouth, yet was always most ready to put a favourable conftruction on the misconduct of others. Then through his divine grace and interceffion, we may hope for that benediction in the great day of audit, Blessed are the merciful, for they fball obtain mercy.

SERM ON IV.

The Unreasonablenels and Vanity of Human Pi de.

N

ECCLESIASTICUS X. 18.

Pride was not made for Men*.

EVER was pride more mortified, or humility more exalted, than in the days of our blessed Saviour: Learn of me, fays he, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your fouls. The Jews were disappointed in their expectations of a MESSIAH by the meanness of his appearance. No Afiatic pomp or eastern splendor attended the Prince of peace, refulgent

only

* As our church has allowed the Apocryphal writings to be publickly read for edification, on account of the many excellent moral obfervations contained in them, I have therefore thought myfelf fufficiently authorized, in trea ing upon a moral fubject to introduce it with a Text out of the writings of the wife fon of SIRACH: which, tho' not canonical, I prefume to hope may be juftifiable.

only in his father's glory, and his own godlike virtues. He had no honours to confer; no high places to promote his followers to. To fit on his right hand and on his left, in the kingdom of his Father, was not, as he told the ambitious mother of ZEBEDEE's fons, his, at that time, to give. And a child was brought to his difciples, to represent by it's docile difpofition, and instruct by it's freedom from all afpiring thoughts, that PRIDE

WAS NOT MADE FOR MAN.

LET us trace human nature back to it's first helpless state, and afk what has the infant to be proud of? Though he is the son of the greatest monarch upon earth, and paid all royal honours as fuch; yet he comes crying into the world, breathes the fame common air (if that privilege is allowed him) with the meanest of his father's fubjects. And, notwithstanding the guards that may furround the gate, has no better human protection than the feeble arms of a woman, and is indebted to the nourishment of her bofom for fupport. And though born to be the head of a nation, and the neighbouring Princes may be expected to treat him as their equal, yet the head of that tender body is fo weak,

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weak, that it oft-times must rely on the nurse's art to keep it steady: and could the smiling infant be sensible of it's prerogative from fuperiority of rank, yet is there any thing in this portrait for the royal babe to be proud of? And this humiliation, this imbecility of nature, the fon of GoD himself submitted to. He left the right hand of his Father in the celestial manfions, to take our nature upon him, to be born of a woman; was laid in a manger, and voluntarily fuffered for a series of years, all the indignities that his inveterate enemies could fuggeft, or a life of obscurity and poverty could be clouded with. Was content, as is fuppofed, to follow the mean employment of a carpenter; and never fought to take a place among the great men of the earth, except when his heavenly Father's bufinefs called him to it. The honours he rejected and the contempt he bore, were to fhew that pride was not made for man; and ⚫ to leave us an example that we should follow his steps.

I HAVE fhewn that there is nothing in infancy to be proud of. And what is there in childhood? When it comes to be bleft with the dawnings of reafon, oftentimes the