SERM. defigned by his great and good Creator? of our Lord Jefus Chrift, who, according XVIII. but will pass through the varieties of SER M. life with a manly and unbroken mind; with a noble fuperiority to those fears and expectations, thofe cares and forrows, which agitate the multitude.Such are the native effects of Chriftian faith and hope. To them alone it belongs, to furmount all the difcouragements to which we are now exposed; to render our life comfortable, and our death bleffed; nay, to make the day of our death better than the day of our birth, SERMON 7 SERMON XIX. On following the MULTITUDE to do EXODUS Xxiii. 2. SERM. Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil. N this world, we are placed as compa IN Depending, for most of the comforts of life, on mutual intercourfe and aid, it was neceffary, that we should be formed to defire the company, and to take pleasure in the good will of our fellows. But this fociability of man, though essential to his present XIX. prefent condition, has, like many other S ER M. good principles, been unhappily warped from its original purpofe; and, in the present state of the world, has proved the cause of much evil. For, as vice has abounded in every age, it hath propagated itself much more eafily by the affistance of this focial difpofition. We naturally mould ourselves on the pattern of prevailing manners; and corruption is communicated from one to another. By mutually giving, and taking, the example of finful liberties, licentiousness spreads and grows; each juftifies himself by his neighbour; and the multitude of finners ftrengthen one another's hands to commit iniquity. In all ages of the world, custom has had more power than reason. Few take the trouble of inquiring what is the right path; the greater part content themselves with following that in which the multitude have gone before them. No exhortation, therefore, is more neceffary to be frequently given, and to be seriously enforced, than that which we receive from VOL. IV. Cc the SER M. the text; Thou shalt not follow a multiXIX. tude to do evil. To acquire a full view of any danger to which we are expofed, is the first meafure to be taken, in order to our fafety. Let us then begin the subject, with confidering how much we are in hazard of being misled into vice by the general manners which we behold around us. No virtue is more neceffary to a Chriftian, but scarcely is there any more difficult to be put in practice, than that firmness of mind which can enable a man to maintain his principles, and to stand his ground against the torrent of cuftom, fashion, and example. Example has upon all minds a fecret and infinuating influence, even when we ourselves are infenfible of its operation. We imperceptibly flide into fome refemblance of the manners of those with whom we have frequent intercourfe. This often fhows itself, in the most indifferent things. But the resemblance is still more readily contracted, when there is some |