and which is certainly a most malignant disposi tion?

If this same principle have power to excite such ridiculous vanity, intolerable arrogance, inveterate rancour, and supercilious contempt of others, when. it has nothing but the trifling advantage of skill in criticism, a talent for poetry, a taste for belles lettres, or some other of the minuter parts of science to avail itself of; what have we not to dread from it, when it can boast of what is universally. acknowledged to be a far superior kind of excellence?

To guard against this dangerous rock, so fatal to every genuine principle of virtue, the utmost humility, self-diffidence, and trust in God are ever recommended to us in the holy scriptures. Good men are taught to regard him as the giver of every good and every perfect gift. They are represented as disclaiming all the merit of their own good works, and expecting all favour and happiness, private or public, from the free goodness and undeserved mercy of God. of God. When we have done all that is commanded us we must say, we are unprofitable servants, we have done only that which it was our duty to do..

In the representation which our Saviour has gi

ven us of the proceedings of the last great day of judgment, it is in this respect that the temper of the righteous is contrasted with that of the wicked, though that was not the principal design of the representation. The righteous seem surprized at the favourable opinion which their judge expresses of them, and absolutely disclaim all the good works which he ascribes to them. When saw we

thee, say they, hungry, and fed thee; or thirsty, and gave thee drink; when saw we thee a stranger and

took thee in, or naked and cloathed thee; when saw we thee sick and in prison and came unto thee? Whereas the wicked are represented as equally surprized at the censure our Lord passes upon them, and insist upon their innocence; saying, When saw we thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

This too is the excellent moral conveyed to us in the parable of the pharisee and the publican; and the import of one of the blessings which our Lord pronounced in a solemn manner at the beginning of his ministry on earth, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven; and also the spirit of many of our Lord's invectives against the pride and hypocrisy of the scribes and pharisees.

No

No other vice seems capable of disturbing the equal and generous temper of our Lord. Other vices rather excite his compassion, but pride, to

gether with its usual attendant hypocrisy, never fails to rouse his most vehement indignation: insomuch that before we attend to the heinous nature, and dreadful consequences of those vices, we are apt rather to blame our Lord for intemperate wrath upon these occasions, and to wonder why a person, who otherwise appears to be so meek, should, in this case only, be so highly provoked.

How severely doth he check the least tendency towards pride and ambition in his own disciples, whenever he discovers in any of them a disposition to aspire to distinction and superiority; closing his admonition, on one remarkable occasion, with these words, which are characteristic of the temper of his religion; Matt. xxiii. 11, 12. He that is greatest among you shall be your servant: Whosoe ver shall exalt himself shall be abased, and he that Tumbleth himself shall be exalted?

What temper can be supposed more proper to qualify us for joining the glorious assembly of the spirits of just men made perfect, and perhaps innumerable orders of beings far superior to us both in understanding and goodness, when all the splen

dour

dour of the invisible world shall be thrown open -to us, but a spirit of the deepest humility, and the purest benevolence? This alone can dispose us - truly to rejoice in the view of every kind and degree of excellence wherever found, without the least uneasiness arising from pride, envy, jealousy, or dislike; all which vicious qualities of the mind are nearly connected together. And how can a spirit of true humility and pure benevolence, - which cannot exist without humility, be attained, if our regards be perpetually, or frequently, directed to ourselves? Where self is considered, pride, vanity, or self-conceit, with all their hateful consequences, seem, in some degree, to be unavoida

.ble.

Whoever, therefore, lays the foundation of human virtue on the principle of self-interest, or, what is nearly the same thing, self-applause, is erecting a fabric which can never rest on such supports; and he will be found in fact to have been pulling down with one hand what he was endeavouring to build up with the other.

To draw to a conclusion. This doctrine abounds with the noblest practical uses, and points out directly the great rule of life, and source of happiness; which is to give ourselves wholly up to

some

some employment, which may, if possible, engage all our faculties, and which tends to the good of society. This is a field which is open to the exertion of all human powers, and in which all mankind may be equally, mutually, and boundlessly happy.

This will render all expedients to kill time unnecessary. With our affections and our faculties thus engrossed by a worthy object, we scarcely need to fear being ever dull, pensive, or melancholy, or to know what it is to have our time hang heavy upon our hands. And I think I may so far presume upon the known connexion of mind and body, as to say that this is the best preservative against hypochondriacal disorders, to which persons whose situation in the world doth not lead them into the active scenes of life are peculiarly subject. Every day passed in the steady and earnest discharge of a man's known duty will pass with uniform chearfulness and alacrity. And in the glorious animating prospect of a future happy state of mankind, on which, in a humble trust and confidence in the assistance and grace of God, he has spent all his cares, and exerted all his powers, that joy will spring up in his heart here, which will hereafter be unspeakable and full of glory.