SER M. the views of the vulgar. Fashion and XIX. prejudice, vanity and pleasure, corrupt the sentiments of the great. The example of neither, affords any ftandard of what is right and wife. If the philofopher, when employed in the pursuit of truth, finds it neceffary to difregard eftablished prejudices and popular opinion, shall we, in the more important inquiry after the rule of life, fubmit to fuch blind guidance as the practice of the many; esteeming whatever they admire, and following wherever they lead? Be affured, that he who fets up the general opinion as the standard of truth, or the general practice as the measure of right, is likely, upon fuch a foundation, to build no other fuperftructure except vice and folly. If the practice of the multitude be a good pattern for our imitation, their opinions furely fhould be as good a rule for our belief. Upon this principle, we must exchange Christianity for Paganism or Mahometanism, and the light of the Reformation for the fuperftitions of Popery; 409 XIX. Popery; for these latter have ever had, S E R M. and still have; the numbers and the multitude on their fide.-Our Saviour has fufficiently characterised the way of the world, when he defcribes the broad road in which the multitudes go, as the road which leads to deftruction; and the path which leads to happiness, as a narrow path, which fewer find. From which it is an easy inference, that to have the multitude on our fide, is fo far from affording any prefumption of our being fafe, that it should lead us to fufpect that we are holding the course of danger. In the fecond place, as the practice of the multitude is no argument of a good practice, fo it cannot afford us either juftification, or safety, in what is evil.-It affords us, I fay, no juftification. Truth and error, virtue and vice, are things of immutable nature. The difference between them is grounded on that bafis of eternal reason, which no opinions or cuftoms of men can affect or alter. Whether t SER M. virtue be esteemed, or not, in the world, XIX. this makes it neither more nor less estimable in itself. It carries always a divine authority, which men cannot impair. It fhines with an effential luftre, which praise cannot brighten, nor reproach tarnish. It has a right to regulate the opinions of men; but by their opinions cannot be controlled. Its nature continues invariably the fame, though all the multitude of fools fhould concur in endeavouring to turn it into ridicule. Wo unto them, fays the prophet Ifaiah that call evil, good, and good, evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for fweet, and fweet for bitTheir root shall be as rottennefs, and their blooms fhall go up as duft; becaufe they have caft away the law of the Lord of hofts, and defpifed the word of the holy one of Ifrael*. ter. As the practice of the multitude furnishes Ifaiah v. 20, 24. nishes no juftification to the finner, foSER M. neither does it afford him any fafety. Religion is altogether a matter of perfonal concern. God hath delivered to every man the rule of life; and every man muft think and act for himself; because for himself he is to anfwer. If others be wicked, it will be the worse for them; but it will not on that account, be the better for us, if we shall be evil also. Let vice be ever fo prevalent, it is ftill that evil thing which the Lord abhorreth; and though hand join in hand, the wicked fhall not escape unpunished. So far is the number of offenders from furnishing any ground of fafety, that it calls more loudly for divine juftice to interpofe. It is as eafy for the Almighty arm to crush a whole guilty fociety, as to punish a single individual; and when the disobedient fubjects of God countenance and strengthen one another in licentiousness, by transgreffing in troops and bands, it becomes high time for his government to exert įtself, and let its vengeance forth.-One could XIX. SERM. could fcarcely think that any profeffor of XIX. Christian faith would fancy to himself any apology from the way of the world, when he knows that the declared design of his religion was, to distingush him from the world, which is faid to lie in fin; and that Chrift came to call out for himfelf a peculiar people, whose character it should be, not to be conformed to the world, but transformed by the renewing of their minds. So little, indeed, can the practice of the world either justify or extenuate vice, that it deferves our serious confideration. In the third place, whether there be not several circumstances, which peculiarly aggravate the guilt of those who follow the multitude in evil. Do you not, thereby, strengthen the power of fin, and perpetuate the pernicious influence of bad example? By striking off from the corrupted crowd, you might be eminently useful. You might animate and recover many, whom weakness and timidity keep under |