( 425 ). SERMON XXVI. CHRISTIAN MORALITY, viz. JUSTICE, &c. PHILIP. iv. 8. Whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, -- . think c* these things. OQa LEaaa, oax ayva JUSTICE and truth are two of the chief bands that preserve human society. If truth and justice perish from the earth, the sons of men would become like the savages of the wilderness, where the strong or the crafty animals prey upon the weak, the simple, and the innocent. The Lord God, the author of nature, is a God ofjustice, and he haswritten somethingof this law in the consciencesof men. But the God of grace has-given us much plainer rules for the practice of it, hath allured us to righte- ousness by sweeter motives, and hath guarded it with more awful and solemn terrors. These things have been the subject of the former discourse; and that we may, as far as possible, assist towards the rooting out injustice from the hearts and lives of christians, I have begun to point out some of the chief rinciples, or springs of it. The first which I mentioned is covetousness, a vicious weed that grows in corrupt nature; and is fruitful, of a thousand unrighteousactions. I proceed now to the second, that is pride. When a person sets too high a value upon himself, and aggran- dizes himselfin his own esteem, he is ready to imagine that all things are due to him, and there is very"little left to become due to his neighbour. The proud, as well as the covetous man, is full of self, and he foí-gets the com- mand of love.to his neighbour: He treats him as if he was not made of the same clay, and lives as though he were obliged to no duty to his fellow-creatures. This is evident in a variety of instances. . It is pride that forbids us to give due respect to those that are above us in the family,_ in the church, or in the civil state : And instead of paying the honours that are due to superiors, we are tempted to treat them with in- . 3
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