we might be instructed, and drives those from us whom we might instruct. It is, therefore, necessary to obviate these evils, by inquiring,

Secondly, By what means this pernicious conceit of wisdom may be avoided or suppressed.

It might be imagined, if daily experience did not show us how vainly judgments are formed of real life from speculative principles, that it might be easy for any man to extirpate a high conceit of human learning from his own heart or that of another; since one great purpose of knowledge is to show us our own defects, follies, and miseries; yet, whatever be the reason, we find none more subject to this fault, than those whose course of life ought more particularly to exempt them from it.

For the suppression of this vain conceit, so injurious to the professors of learning, many considerations might be added to those which have already been drawn from its effects. The reasons, indeed, why every man should be humble, are inseparably connected with human nature: for what can any man see, either within or without himself, that does not afford him some reason to re

mark his own ignorance, imbecility, and meanness? But on these reflections it is less proper to insist, because they have been explained already by almost every writer upon moral and religious duties, and because, in reality, the pride which requires our chief caution, is not so much absolute, as comparative. No man so much values himself upon the general prerogatives of human nature, as upon his own peculiar superiority to other men; nor will be, therefore, be humbled, by being told of the ignorance, the weakness, and wickedness of humanity; for he is satisfied with being accounted one of the most knowing, among the ignorant; the most able, among the weak; and the most virtuous, among the wicked.

The pride of the learned, therefore, can only be repressed by showing, what, indeed, might easily be shown, that it is not justifiable, even upon comparison with the rest of men; for, without urging any thing in derogation from the dignity and importance of learning in general, which must always, either immediately, or, by the intervention of others, govern the world; it will be found, that they who are most disposed to be swelled to haughtiness by their own attainments, are generally so far from having any just

claim to the superiority which they exert, that they are betrayed to vanity by ignorance; and are pleased with themselves, as a hind with his cottage, not because, upon inquiry, they are convinced of the reasonableness of the preference, but because they overvalue the little they possess, for want of knowing its littleness; and are contented with their own state, as a blind man feels no loss from the absence of beauty. Nor needs there any other proof of the origin of literary pride, than that it is chiefly to be found amongst those who have secluded themselves from the world, in pursuit of petty inquiries and trivial studies.

To such men it should be recommended, that before they suffer themselves to fix the rule of their own accomplishments, and look down on others with contempt, they should enjoin themselves to spend some time in inquiring into their own pretensions; and consider who they are whom they depise, and for what reason they suffer themselves to indulge the arrogance of contempt. Such an examination will soon drive back the pedant to his college, with juster conceptions, and with humbler sentiments: for he will find that those whom he imagined so much below his own exaltation, often flourish in the 10

VOL. VIII.

esteem of the world, while he himself is unknown; and teaching those arts, by which society is supported, and on which the happiness of the world depends; while he is pleasing himself with idle amusements, and wasting his life upon questions, of which very few desire the solution.

But if this method of obtaining humility be ineffectual, he may, however, establish it upon more strong and lasting principles, by applying himself to the duties of religion, and the word of God; that sacred and inscrutable word, which will show him the inefficacy of all other knowledge, and those duties, which will imprint upon his mind, that he best understands the sacred writings who most carefully obeys them. Thus will humility fix a firm and lasting basis, by annihilation of all empty distinctions and petty competitions, by showing, that "one thing only is necessary," and that "God is all in all.'

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SERMON IX.

I CORINTHIANS, CHAPTER XI. VERSE 28.

But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.

NOTHING is more frequently injurious to religion, or more dangerous to mankind, than the practice of adding to the divine in-. stitutions, and of teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. The doctrines of the blessed sacrament, which, as they are expressed in the Holy Scriptures, do not seem to be very dark or difficult, yet have been so perverted and misrepresented, as to occasion many disputes among men of learning, and many divisions in the Christian world. In our own church, many religious minds have been filled with groundless apprebensions, and distracted with unnecessary inquietudes, by mistaken notions of the Lord's Supper. Many have forborne to partake of it, because they have not, in their own opinion, arrived at that degree of