fider, who was it that spread a table in that wilderness of thought?-who made thy cup to overflow? Was it not a friend of confolation who stepped in, -faw thee embarraffed with the tender pledges of thy love, and the partner of thy cares,-took them under his protection? (Heaven! thou wilt reward him for it !)—and freed thee from all the terrifying apprehenfions of a parent's love?:

-Haft thou ?

-But how fhall I ask a queftion which muft bring tears into fo many eyes?-Haft thou ever been wounded in a more affecting manner ftill, by the lofs of a moft obliging friend?-or been torn away from the embraces of a dear and promifing child by the ftroke of death ?-Bitter remembrance! Nature droops at it;-but Nature is the fame in all conditions and lots of life. A child thruft forth in an evil hour, without food, without raiment, bereft of inftruction, and the means of its falvation, is a fubject of more tender heart-aches and will awaken every power of Nature!-As we have felt for ourfelves, let us feel, for Chrift's fake,-let us feel for theirs; and may the God of all comfort bless you! Amen.

SERMON XXIV.

PRIDE.

LUKE, XIV. 10, II.

pre

But thou, when thou art bidden, go and fit down in the lowest room, that when he that bad thee cometh, he may fay to thee, Friend, go up higher; then fhalt thou have worship in the fence of them who fit at meat with thee:-for whofoever exalteth himself shall be abafed; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

IT is an exhortation of our Saviour's to Humility, addreffed by way of inference from what he had faid in the three foregoing verfes of the chapter: where, upon entering into the houfe of one of the chief Pharifees to eat bread, and marking how fmall a portion of this neceffary virtue entered in with the feveral guests, difcovering itself from their choofing the chief rooms, and moft diftinguished places of ho nour; he takes the occafion which fuch a behaviour offered, to caution them against Pride; -ftates the inconvenience of the paffion ;fhews the difappointments which attend it; -the difgrace in which it generally ends; in being forced at laft to recede from the pretenfions to what is more than our due; which, by the way, is the very thing the paffion is eternally prompting us to expect. When, therefore, thou art bidden to a wedding, fays our Saviour, fit not down in the higheft room, left a more honourable man than

thou

thou be bidden of him; and he that bad thee and him, come and fay to thee,-Give this man place: and thou begin with shame to take the loweft room.

-But thou, when thou art bidden, go and fit down in the lowest room :-hard lecture! -In the loweft room ?-What,-do I owe nothing to myfelf? Muft I forget my station, my character in life? Refign the precedence' which my birth, my fortune, my talents, have already placed me in poffeffion of;-give all up! and fuffer inferiors to take my honours? Yes; for that, fays our Saviour, is the road to it: "For when he that bad thee cometh, he "will fay to thee, Friend, go up higher; then "fhalt thou have worship in the prefence of "them that fit at meat with thee:~for who"foever exalteth himself fhall be abafed; and "he that humbleth himself thall be exalted."

To make good the truth of which declaration, it is not neceffary we fhould look beyond this life, and fay, That in that day of retribution, wherein every high thing fhall be brought low, and every irregular paffion dealt with as it deserves ;—that pride, amongst the reft (confidered as a vicious character), fhall meet with its proper punishment of being abafed, and lying down for ever in fhame and difho-: nour. It is not neceffary we fhould look fo far forwards for the accomplishment of this: the words feem not fo much to imply the threat of a diftant punishment, the execution of which was to be refpited to that day;-as the declaration of a plain truth depending

upon the natural courfe of things, and evidently verified in every hour's commerce of the world; from whence, as well as from our reafoning upon the point, it is found, That Pride lays us open to fo many mortifying encounters, which Humility in its own nature refts fecure from, that verily, each of them, in this world, have their reward faithfully dealt out by the natural workings of men's paffions; which, though very bad executioners in general, yet are fo far just ones in this, that they feldom fuffer the exultations of an infolent temper to escape the abasement, or the deportment of a humble one to fail of the honour, which each of their characters do deferve.

In other vicious exceffes which a man commits, the world (though it is not much to its credit) feems to ftand pretty neuter: if you are extravagant or intemperate, you are looked upon as the greatest enemy to yourself, or if an enemy to the public, at leaft, you are fo remote a one to each individual, that no one feels himfelf immediately concerned in your punishment; but in the inftances of Pride, the attack is perfonal; for as this paffion can only take its rife from a fecret comparison which the party has been making of himfelf to my difadvantage, every intimation he gives me of what he thinks of the matter, is fo far a direct injury, either as it withholds the refpect which is my due,-or perhaps denies me to have any; or else, which preffes equally hard, as it puts me in

mind of the defects which I really have, and of which I am truly confcious, and confequently think myself the lefs deferving of an admonition: in every one of which cafes, the proud man, in whatever language he speaks it,-if it is expreffive of this fuperiority over me, either in the gifts of fortune, the advantages of birth or improvements, as it has proceeded from a mean eftimation, and poffibly. a very unfair one, of the like pretenfions in myself, the attack, I fay, is perfonal; and has generally the fate to be felt and resented as fuch.

So that with regard to the prefent inconveniences, there is fcarce any vice, bating fuch as are immediately punished by laws, which a man may not indulge with more fafety to himself, than this one of Pride ;the humbleft of men not being fo entirely void of the paffion themselves, but that they fuffer fo much from the overflowings of it in others, as to make the literal accomplishment of the text a common intereft and concern: in which they are generally fuccessful,—the nature of the vice being fuch, as not only to tempt you to it, but to afford the occafions itself of its own humiliation.

The proud man,- fee !—he is fore all over; touch him-you put him to pain: and though of all others, he acts as if every mortal was void of all fenfe and feeling, yet is poffeffedwith fo nice and exquifite a one himself, that the flights, the little neglects and instances of difefteem, which would be fcarce felt by

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