,. SERMON XXVI. Christian Morality, viz. Justice, 81.c. PHILIP. iv. 8.Whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, think on these things. Ova hxaia, ova 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 Gód Of justice, and he has written something of this law in the consciences of men. But the God of grace has given us much plainer rulés for the practice of it, bathalluredus to righ- teousness by sweeter motives, and bath guarded it bymore 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 princi- ples, or springs of ik. The first which I mentioned is covetousness, a vicious weed that grews in corrupt nature, and is fruitful of a thousand un- righteous action&. I proceednow to the second, that ispride. When a person sets too high a value upon himself,' and aggrandizes himself in his own esteem, he is ready to imagine that all things are due to him, and there is very little leftto become due to hisneigh- bour. The proud, as well as the covetous man, is full of self, and he forgets the command of live to his neighbour : He treats him as if he was not made of the same claÿ, and lives asthough he were obliged tono duty to his fellow -creatures: 'Phis is evi- dent 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 aredue to superiors, we are tempted to treat them with insolence and scorn. Many a father in our degenerate age, has found: this unhappy effect of raising his 'children too soon and too high: And the mother has seen her
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