passions a contemptible attainment? Is a superiority to all the pleasures of sense, and the interests of the world, a worthless accpiisition ? Is there any thing mean in love to God, and benevolence to man ? Is the aspiring after heaven a low and pitiful ambition ? Viewing at a distance the conduct of the Apostles, we call it magnanimity : but when we see it exhibited before our eyes, we call it preciseness, enthusiasm, hypocrisy. Ah! when will men " cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord," and to brand that with in- famy, which he prescribes and approves ?
Hitherto we have noticed only men's conduct in respect of theory ; let us now behold it as it is mani- fest in their practice.
1. In the first place they magnify beyond all reason- able bounds the pursuits of time —
From our earliest infancy we hear of little but getting forward in the world. To be rich, to be great, to be honourable, this is the chief good of man. All are aspiring after a higher place than they possess, and conceive that they shall catch the phantom of happiness when they have reached a certain point. Moreover, all are applauded in proportion as they succeed in this race ; and no period but that of their departure from the body is thought a fit season for prosecuting their eternal interests.
But are the concerns of time really of such import- ance ? When we have got forward in the world, what have we more than food and raiment, which we might have possessed with half the trouble ? We do not mean to discourage industry ; that is truly becoming in every person, and highly advantageous in every state. But if all our time and labour be occupied about this world, and the concerns of the soul be subordinated to those of the body, then is our conduct precisely such as is reprobated in the text.
2. In the next place, men extenuate sin as venial —
There are some crimes which dec^rade human na- ture, or greatly disturb the happiness of society, which are therefore very generally reprobated and abhorred.