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lar from the fruits of the spirit, than that little indulgence, which our mutual faults experience one from the other. The character, and conduct of those with whom we live, is not only a very natural, but a very necessary object of inquiry; we should live, and act in the dark, if we were not to make it so; but the strong tendency to injustice, and ill nature is the thing to be corrected. Tear the veil off your heart, and look at it steadily, and boldly; for a keener eye than your's shall one day pierce into its darkest chambers: Is there no secret wish to find the imputation true, by which another is degraded? Is there no secret fear that it should be refuted? Do these sentiments never lurk under the affectation of pity, and condolence? Have you never concealed those circumstances, and considerations, which you knew would extenuate the guilt of an absent, and an accused person? Have you never sat in the prudent ecstacy of silence, and seen the fame of a good, or an eminent man mangled before your eyes? Have you never given credit, and circulation to improbable evidence of crime? Have

you examined the guilt of your neighbour, as you would examine the guilt of your child, in heaviness of heart, and in all the reluctant wretchedness of conviction? Have you never added to evil report? never in a bad hour, and with accursed tongue, and with unblushing face, heaped up infamy on a better man than yourself; and spoke that which was false of the helpless, the good, the wise, or the great? And if you have done it, if it form the daily habit of your life, what title have you to the name of Christian? Or of what right do you call on Jesus the merciful, and the good? Be not deceived; God is never scorned: Think you that he who set at nought the idle sacrifice of the Jews, who would not eat bulls flesh, or drink the blood of goats, will be mocked with bended knees, and uplifted hands? Are we the disciples of Christ, because we stand at this prayer, and rise at that, and sanctify the face, and strain at trifles, and fill the temple with the cry of God, God, and Lord, Lord? If these are our notions of religion, we walk on deceitful ashes, which will plunge our bodies in flame. Christ, came down from the mercy-seat of

God to heal our woes, and minis

ter to our infirmities, to soften the nature of man, and to bend his heart to mercy: If you truly venerate his holy name, walk in that spirit with which he walked on the earth; forgive, as you would be forgiven; do unto others, you would they should do unto you; judge brethren in mercy, be slow to condemn,

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your and swift to forgive; bearing always upon you the fruits of the spirit, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, and goodness.

Another cause, equally fatal to our progress in Christianity, is that proud contest for superiority, so strongly observable in society.

Few human creatures, indeed, are eminent either for birth, fortune, beauty, learning, or any thing on which the world set a value, without considering such distinctions as a justification of pride in themselves, or the want of it, as a mark of degradation in others. The sole object for which they mingle in society, is, to display what

they possess, and to insinuate what the rest of the world want. Their intercourse with their fellow creatures is an eternal mixture of ostentation, and sarcasm; and they would seem to be certain beings of a superior order, made by some other God, and hoping for a more select salvation. The effect of Christian faith upon daily behaviour is often, indeed, scarcely discernible, if it exist at all; every one is the greatest in his own eyes; our forms of speech only are humble, our hearts are full of disdain, and Christians in this house, are mere creatures of the world when they leave it. And yet there is nothing in the humility of a Christian incompatible with the elegance of a gentleman; and that polish of manners on which the world places so great, and perhaps so merited a value, proceeds chiefly from the indication of qualities, which it is so much the object of the Christian religion to diffuse. A man of graceful behaviour counterfeits humility, throws a veil over his advantages, and perfections; he discovers concealed merit, brings it into light, and gives it brilliancy, and force.-Nobody has fault before him; he is in appearany ance gentle, long-suffering, and benevolent.

There is hardly any one Christian quality which a man, actuated by the mere vanity of pleasing, does not assume, to effect his object: Such oblique evidences in favour of Christianity, is not without force, and shews, that the disposition of mind which it labours to inculcate, is precisely that which would render human happiness the greatest, by rendering society the most delightful; much more delightful than it ever can be, when we varnish over heart-burnings, jealousies, envyings, and seditions, with Christian faces, and more than Christian language.

There must exist in society distinction of rank, as well as difference of natural endowments, and attainments the effect of study; but God ordained this inequality amongst mankind for wiser purposes than to minister to the pride of one being, and to wound the spirit of another; the mere knowledge of our superiority is not criminal, and indeed is frequently inevitable. It is the internal pride, and contemptuous treatment of others, founded on such consciousness of superiority, which violate a law of the gospel