of wisdom and discretion might defy them all : but when every misrejiresentation that envy can suggest is listened to with plea- sure, and received without inquiry, who must not fall before it?]
The more excellent any conduct is, the more ob- noxious it is to its assaults —
[Even piety itself is not beyond its reach : for Solomon speaks of it as a peculiar vanity and source of vexation, that " for every right work a man is envied of his neighbour™." To say the truth, piety is more the object of envy than any thing else ; not because others affect it for themselves, but because, in the common sentiments of mankind, it gives to its possessor a transcendent excellence, and raises him almost into a higher order of beings. This was a peculiar source of Cain's resent- ment against his brother Abel"^; as it was of Saul's against David ° ; and of the Jews against Christ himself?. Take an act of Christ's, the restoring of Lazarus from the grave ; a more benevolent act could not be conceived, nor one which more strongly carried its evidence of a divine mission along with it. Was it possible for envy or enmity to be provoked by that ? Yes : the very act instantly produced a conspiracy against the life of Jesus ;— against the life, too, of the man whohad been raised by him^. Was it so, then, that all the wisdom, or piety, or benevolence of our blessed Saviour himself could not elude this detestable enemy of God and man? No: not even he could stand before it; but, as the Evangelist informs us, he fell a prey to its insatiate rage"". Against all his disciples, too, it raged in like manner' : and it is in vain for any one, who will serve God with fidelity, to hope for an escape from its virulent assaults'.]
JMethinks you are now prepared to hear,
III. What a damning principle it is —
God has marked his indignation against it even here —
[Greatly does this principle embitter the life of him in whom it dwells. Its operation is not momentary, like that of anger : it lurks in the bosom ; it corrodes the mind ; it makes a man completely miserable. We may see its operation in Saul. Saul heard the women, out of all the cities of Israel, celebrating the praises of liimself and of David ; saying, " Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands. And Saul was very wroth, and the saying displeased him ; and he
m Eccl. iv. 4. n 1 Joijn iii. 12. o Ps. xxxviii. 20.
P Johnviii.45— 48. i John ix. 45 — 48,53. and xii. 10, 11.
^ Matt.xxvii. 18,20. ^ Acts xiii. 44, 45. and xvii. 4, 5, 10—14. t 2 Tim. iii. 12.