; mafter-note is the fame. What is the most frequent, the moft obftinate impediment to the fuccessful conclufion of the treaty? Pride: pride fometimes wearing the fea tures of emulation; fometimes of ambition fometimes of refentment; fometimes of policy; but under every form and at every ftep disclosing its inherent character. When an injury has been hazarded; on what ground does the difficulty of obtaining reparation commonly reft? On the value of the invaded right? Seldom either wholly or principally. It was probably at the inftigation of pride that the aggreffor made the feizure. It is pride which inftigates his ftruggles to retain it. Prudence, however, or timidity deters him from the conteft. He is not unwilling to restore his prize. But he cannot brook humiliation. He must not feem to admit that he has done wrong. He must not appear to have been forced into reftitution. The difgrace of conceffion must be veiled. Some specious pretence must be framed: fome oftenfible equivalent devised: fome decent interval: allowed. His pride must be managed; his dignity must be confulted: his honour must be faved. Such are the disclosures, fuch is the language, of diplomatic annals. Throw your eye across the narrow bulwark of waters, by which the providence of the Moft High has divided and defended us from the Continent; and you behold one of the moft gigantic of the examples of national pride which have ever astonished an indignant or a fubjugated world. Our concern, however, is with ourselves. Judge not, that ye be not judged. In all our inquiries, national or perfonal, respecting the conformity of our motives and our practice to fome specific branch of moral and religious duty; the important question, the queftion at iffue between ourselves and our God, is not whether others have not offended more; but whether we are not offenders. Look on the page of modern hiftory; call to mind our public language and tranfactions within the compafs of your own memory and declare in the presence of a God of truth, a God who fearcheth the heart, whether the vauntings of national pride have not on numerous occafions been difplayed. When we have alluded to the relative rank which we have fuftained among the kingdoms of Europe, to the refpect and the awe with which the British name is regarded in diftant quarters of the globe: is it feldom that our hearts have cherished 4 "We cherished the emotions and our tongues uttered the voice of arrogance? Has Providence bleffed us with a victory? Has it. thus made the moft forcible appeal to our humility; thus addreffed itself to our gratitude by beftowing, notwithstanding our many fins and provocations, a signal and unmerited bleffing? What has been the popular cry ? "Behold, a proud day for "England!" Has the Divine. Wildom fummoned us to self-abasement by defeat? How has the fummons been obeyed? City and country have refounded with the excla-` mation of self-sufficient confidence: "muft roufe the proud Spirit of Britons!" Even on the perilous edge of that contest for life, and for every earthly object dearer than life, to which we, at this moment, are hurried by an inveterate and frantic foe; how generally in the fenate and in the private circle, no less than on the parade and in the camp, is national pride, under various forms, addreffed, applauded, pufhed forward to ad-~ ditonal exceffes! Woe to the fenfeless counsellors of this world who fpeak well of pride, which God abhorreth. Proud and baughty fcorner is his name, who dealeth in proud wrath (a). Shall the counsel of the haughty ftand? Pride goeth before deftruction; and an haughty spirit before a fall (b). There is no king faved by the multitude of an hoft: a mighty man is not delivered by much ftrength (c). Let us diligently prepare our hofts for battle: but on the Lord of Hofts be our dependence. Away with every lofty look, every boaftful word, every proud imagination of the heart. Put on, as the elect of God, boly and beloved, humbleness of mind (d). So may we meekly hope that the Lord of Hofts fhall go forth with our armies. Turn to the walks of private life. In every place pride encounters you. Contemplate fome of its ordinary appearances. Survey the man who is intoxicated by pride of birth. Forgetful that the long line of his ancestry may have been confpicuous rather for fuccefs than for defert; for talents than for virtue: forgetful that the glory of their fuccefs, the praise of their defert, was due not to themselves but to Him, from whom is every good and perfect gift forgetful that the merit of ancestors affures not hereditary excellence to their defcendent, but renders its absence (b) Prov. xvi, 18. (c) Pf. xxxiii. 16. more more degrading: forgetful that the humbleft of his menials, the moft defpifed of the beggars whom he paffes in the street, claim a pedigree which terminates in Adam, may look back on paradife as the natal seat of their progenitors: he scorns the mass of his fellow-creatures as men of yesterday'; and deems himself entitled to homage as though he were a being of a higher nature; a being who had condefcended to step down from a fuperior orb, to receive for a time the respect and admiration of the inhabitants of this lower sphere. Advert to pride of authority. The exercise of power affords to pride the most folid gratification. From the highest chair of office to the bench of the conftable; from the general who vaunts of armies at his difpofal, to the sportsman who exults in the extent of fields, fields perhaps belonging to others, over which he is authorised to perfecute the animal race; in the husband, in the parent, in the landlord, in the mafter; at home and abroad, in business, in amusement; in the eagernefs of fome to direct, in the reluctance of others to obey; we learn the enfnåring and encroaching influence of pride; we learn how dear to the heart of the proud is practical command. |