We see, then, that, in these several respects, a man, who takes himself to be something, in effect proves himself to be nothing. So full of instruction is the plain unpretending aphorism in the text to the persons concerned!

The Apostle adds that such a man DECEIVETH HIMSELF which must needs be, and cannot want to be enlarged upon; since it appears in the very instances, in which his nothingness has been shewn. The vain-glorious Christian is manifestly and notoriously deceived in thinking himself something-while that very conceit shews the contrary—while it shews that he overlooks the very principles of his religion — while it proves him to be void of Christian charity, the very end of the commandment while it betrays him into igno rance and folly, and therefore tends to subvert the very foundation, on which his vain-glory is raised—while, lastly, in the event, it deprives him of that very consideration to which he aspires.

"SUCH are the mischiefs of Self-conceit ! a vice, which Reason universally condemns, but which our Christian profession renders most contemptible and ridiculous. Even in

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the pursuits of human Science, where Reason can do most, all the efforts of the ablest understanding penetrate but a little way. We know enough of the nature of things, to serve the purposes of common life; and enough of the nature of man, to discover our duty towards each other. And within this narrow circle all our knowledge, be we as proud of it as we please, is confined. Clouds and darkness cover the rest; and this the ablest men of all times have seen and confessed. If there be a man, whom Heaven has formed with greater powers. and stronger faculties than are commonly met with in the species, he is the first to discover, and to lament, his own blindness and weakness: a Socrates and a Pascal have been considered as prodigies of parts and ingenuity; yet, while the meanest Sophister is puffed up with the conceit of his own knowledge, these divine men confess nothing so readily as their own ignorance,

And, if this be the case of human learning, what must we think of divine? where Reason teaches nothing, beyond the existence and attributes of God, and, as to every thing else, without the aid of Revelation, is stark-blind. The things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God is an assertion, to which com

mon sense and common experience must assent. Yet shall every idle Speculatist, who has but the confidence to call himself a Philosopher, treat the divine word, as freely as any ordinary subject; and pionounce as peremptorily of the revealed will of God, which the Angels themselves adore in silence, as if he knew for certain that his poor and scanty understanding was commensurate with the councils of the most High!

To these professors of Science, whether human or divine, who know so little of themselves as to presume they know every thing, may the Apostle's aphorism be most fitly addressed-If a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself; and, through all the simplicity of the expression, the good sense of the observation must be felt by the proudest understanding..

Not, that the proper remedy for this evil, of Self-conceit, is a vile subjection of the understanding, which our holy Religion disdains, and to which none but slaves will submitnor yet Scepticism, another vice, to which the less sanguine disputers of this world are much addicted-but a modest use of the faculties we possess, and above all, charity. It

is but another species of pride, to pretend that we know nothing; Christian humility is best expressed in referring, what we know, to the good of others. Without this reference, all our claims of superior wisdom are vain and delusive: for it is with knowledge, as with faith, unless it work by charity, it is nothing.

To return to the text, then, and to conclude.

Let the ignominy of this Self-delusion deter us, if nothing else can, from the unseemly arrogance, it so well exposes and condemns. And let us learn to revere the wisdom of the great Apostle, who, by couching so momentous an admonition in so plain terms, has taught us, That, as conceit and vain-glory terminate in shame and disappointment; so the modesty of unpretending knowledge may be entitled to our highest esteem,

SERMON XIII.

PREACHED MAY 16, 1773.

2 COR. X. 12.

We dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves, with some that commend themselves: But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.

I SHALL not inquire, who the persons were, to whom these words are applied. It is enough, for the use I intend to make of them, to observe, that they contain a censure of some persons, who, conscious of certain advan"tages, and too much taken up in the con"templation of them, came to think better of

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