24.8 The Proud and Scornful S E R M. liable to many accidents ; a diftemper of X. body, or a Broke on the head, may make a man of the happieft memory and the cleareft judgment, forget his own name ; fo narrow, as well as pecarious, is that underftanding of which men boaft, and affen a diftinäion by it above others ; though after all, their fuperiority will not be always fo heartily ac- knowledged as they imagine ; as it is not confiftent that a man fhould particularly know the points wherein another is wifer than himfelf, the generality of people, how- ever envious on other accounts, are pretty well fatisfied with their own libare of this talent. And, 2dly, Religion itfelf is to fome the fubjeft of glorying and vain elation of mind ; not the reality of it, for that excludeth boafting, but the appearance. There were people zealoufly profeffing religion among the an- cient yews, whom the prophet thus defcri- beth, and methinks the defcription very na- turally marketh them out as fcorners ; Ifaiah lxv. 5. They fay, /land by thy/elf, come not near me, for I am holier than thou. The Pharifees, in our Saviour's time, were their true fucc °ßbrs, a generation whom our Lord reprefenteth as far from the kingdom of heaven, farther than even publicans and ha dots
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