433 / 514
(
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
has
written
something
of
this
law in
the consciences
of
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 unrighteous
actions.
I
proceed
now to
the
second,
that
is
pride.
When
a
person
sets
too
high
a
value upon
himself,
and
aggran-
dizes
himself
in 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