2. Pride is an unreasonable and inordinate self-esteem, accompanied with insolence and rude treatment of others, who do not think so highly of us as we do ourselves. "It does not consist in the bare conscious

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ness that we have some accomplishments, "as for instance, good sense, beauty, great "abilities; but in that exultation of mind, "which is consequent upon that conscious

ness, unallayed by any self-dissatisfaction "arising from a survey of our sins and "frailties"." Under its influence we love the praise of men more than the praise of God, and view things not as they really are, but as ambitious feelings discolour them. Proud men universally think too highly of their own opinions, and therefore fall into grievous and most ruinous mistakes, not merely in principle, but in practice®.

d Seed's Sermons, vol. 2. serm. 1.

e Men who are blessed with great intellectual talents, and have made extensive literary acquirements, would promote their reputation and increase their usefulness, if they imitated the example of the celebrated Mr. Harris. "He had not" says his son, the Earl of Malmsbury, "any of that miserable "fastidiousness about him, which too often disgraces men of learning, and prevents their being amused or interested, at

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The pride of religionists is always in proportion to the exclusiveness of their pretensions to the favour of God. The Jews, considering themselves as the chosen people of the Most High, despised the Gentiles, and manifested the utmost indignation at the offer of salvation to them by the apostles. Thus the Roman Catholics look with contempt upon the Protestants; and strange to tell, yet too true! these Protestants, who claim for themselves exclusively the character of an apostolic Church, and the possession of an apostolic ministry, display the same pride.

3. Presumption is an unreasonable confidence in the divine favour; a confidence not founded upon sufficient evidence. It therefore springs from ignorance of God's demands and our own character, and is always connected with deliberation, contrivance, and obstinacy. In the low state of

"least their choosing to appear so, by common performan<ces, or common events." "He thought, indeed, that the

very attempt to please, however it might fall short of its "aim, 'eserved some return of thanks, some degree of ap"probation; and that to endeavour at being pleased by such "efforts, was due to justice, to good nature, and to good "sense." Harris' Works, vol. i. Life by his Son.

practical godliness among the Jews much of this presumption necessarily prevailed. They boasted of themselves as the children of Abraham, though they did not walk in his steps. They supposed their birth, their circumcision, and their observance of Legal ceremonies, were sufficient for their acceptance with God. They therefore rejected the authority of the apostles, as commissioned by God, because the recognition of that authority annihilated the grounds upon which their presumptuous confidence rested.

4. The actual commission of sin, always accompanies error in principle. Prejudice, pride, and presumption, as they naturally produce mistaken views of truth, so they lead to greater or less transgressions of God's law. Such transgressions, where grace does not interfere, inflame the passions, darken the understanding, debase the heart, causing it to fix its affections upon low and mean objects, and depriving it of the love of truth and right. They who commit these transgressions, wish there was no difference between good and evil, no providence, no future punishment of wickedness, no God.

The conduct of the Jews at the commenc 4... ment of the Gospel dispensation, proves that they were grossly depraved. They displayed hardly any thing like morality, much less like holiness, in their lives. The testimony of their own historian establishes the fact of their awful and dreadful wickedness. They therefore could feel and manifest but little if any regard for a religion which condemned them. On the contrary, their whole deportment constrained them to reject the Gospel, and cling, with more than ordinary obstinacy, to their Legal œconomy, which, according to their mistaken conceptions, allowed them to cherish and practise sin, whilst they strictly observed those outward ceremonies which God had prescribed.

All these causes, which the history of the Jews abundantly and satisfactorily proves to have existed at this time, operated upon those of them at Thessalonica, so as to make them reject the Gospel. Fatal rejection! for it produced their destruction, whilst the Bereans were saved. This brings me to the

III. Head of discourse, which is, To un

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the important fruits, resulting from

the conduct of the Bereans.

"There

fore," says the sacred historian, " many

"of them believed: also of the honourable women which were Greeks, and of the men not a few."

"Therefore," refers to the reception of the word by the Bereans, and their searching of the Scriptures. Both these things are indispensable to the production of faith; for the apostle asks, "How shall they be"lieve in him of whom they have not "heard? and how shall they hear without a

preacher?" "So then," such is his conclusion, "faith cometh by hearing, and "hearing by the word of God." What,. then, is the faith of which mention is made? how is it originated? and what are its effects? The answer to these questions will unfold the all-important consequences which spring from the conduct of the Bereans.

1. Faith, in its original signification", is that state of mind in which a person is who is

f Rom. x. 14 and 17.

g, from the 3d per. præt. pass. wizelerat, of the verb Teilw, to persuade. Schleusner.