SERMON XXVI.

Christian Morality; namely, Justice, Purity, &c.

PHIL. IV. 8.-Whatsoever Things are just, whatsoever Things are pure-think on these Things.

*Όσα δίκαια, ὅσα ἁγνὰ.

JUS

USTICE and Truth are two of the chief bands that preserve human society. If truth and justice perish from the earth, the sons of men would become like the savages of the wilderness, where the strong or the crafty animals prey upon the weak, the simple, and the innocent. The Lord God, the author of nature, is a God of justice, and he has written something of this law in the consciences of men. But the God of grace has given us much plainer rules for the practice of it, hath allured us to righteousness by sweeter motives, and hath guarded it with more awful and solemn terrors. These things have been the subject of the former discourse; and that we may, as far as possible, assist toward the rooting out injustice from the hearts and lives of Christians, I have begun to point out some of the chief principles or springs of it.

The first which I mentioned is covetousness, a 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 honours that are due to superiors, we are tempted_to treat 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.

The proud man is ready to say in his heart," All "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 lesson their honour and to stain their character? It is through this vanity and ambition of mind, that

Ꭰ Ꮞ

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 fame 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 al so; 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, Psal. lxxiii, 6, 7, 8. When pride com passes men about as a chain, and they wear it as a gol den 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 justice, 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 towards 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 him

self, 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 unrighteousness?

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 en"tertainments; I must keep fine company, and "make a figure in the world; I must appear in "such an equipage as my neighbour allows him"self, 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 a one should outshine and over"top me." Then the patrimony is sold or mortgaged 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 equipage: 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 jest, and the reproachful names of saucy and impertinent. But wo 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 our appetites, and spread our tables, or form our apparel, or our furniture, but a little beyond our income, if we once begin to admit such a manner of life and expence as exceeds our estate, in order to please our own sensual or vain inclinations, or to vie with our neighbours, we expose ourselves to most evident