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SERMON III.

SINS OF PRIDE AND VANITY.

PHILIPPIANS, ii. 3.

Let nothing be done through strife or vain-glory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.

It is a very frequent complaint among those to whom religion has begun to be a matter of serious concern, that they do not love God nearly so much, as in their reason and consciences they are persuaded that they ought. They admit their duty to Him; they are sensible of their obligations to Him; but their heart continues cold, dead, and worldly. And doubtless something of this dissatisfied feeling will ever be found in the

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breasts of the sincere, as long as we continue in this imperfect state of being; in which not only "do we see through a glass darkly,' but "the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other so that we cannot do the things that we would." the same time, it must be confessed, that we do not generally improve the opportunities which God puts into our hands for our own spiritual advantage, nor employ with sufficient earnestness the means of grace. The love of God, for instance, would be much deepened and strengthened by a more accurate knowledge of the sinfulness of sin and of our own sinfulness, than we, for the most part, take the pains to acquire. It was while our Lord Jesus Christ sat at meat in the house of Simon the Pharisee, that a woman," which was a sinner, brought an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping, and began to

1 1 Cor. xiii. 12.

2 Gal. v. 17.

wash His feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed His feet, and anointed them with ointment."1 In reply to the murmurs of the Pharisee our Saviour spoke this parable: "There was a certain creditor which had two debtors, the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged." Now we have all sinned deeply and repeatedly against God; and these sins He promises on our repentance to forgive for Jesus Christ's sake. But some have a greater acquaintance with their own sinfulness than others; and none know it so well as they ought. It is evident, however, that those will love God most, who best know the greatness of the guilt which He has forgiven.

1 Luke, vii.

They best will appreciate His goodness, who are most deeply penetrated with a conviction of their own unworthiness. Hence, it will be well for those, who are grieved with the consciousness that they do not love God as they ought, to aim at a livelier sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and of their own sinfulness; that, by comparing the infinitude of His mercy with the number and aggravated character of their own offences, they "may be able" the better "to comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge," and thus to love Him, who first loved us.

To aid any such attempt as this, and to assist the self-examination and penitence, which should be the employments of the present season, I endeavoured in my first discourse to show from Scripture the exceeding sinfulness of sin; and in my last, began 1 Ephes. iii. 18, 19.

the consideration of some classes of sins, which, though condemned by the word of God, are lightly treated in the opinion of man, and are likely more or less to escape the observation even of those who are not altogether careless' about their souls. We examined then the sins of the temper,anger, fretfulness, and impatience, harshness and moroseness, and an unforgiving spirit: and we found that, however men may disregard them, they are contrary to God's commandments, opposed to the example of our Divine Redeemer, and inconsistent with the very terms of the Christian Covenant.

Let us now throw a brief glance over another class of sins, not less dangerous, and still more numerous and subtle, sins of pride and vanity. These may indeed be termed the besetting sins of human nature; and are the natural offspring of that selfishness, which is the grand disease of our corrupt moral frame. Even before the fall, indeed, these passions appear to have exerted