the world, while he himself is unknown; and teaching those arts, by which society is supported, and on which the happiness of the world depends; while he is pleasing himself with idle amusements, and wasting his life upon questions, of which very few desire the solution.
But if this method of obtaining humility be ineffectual, he may, however, establish it upon more strong and lasting principles, by applying himself to the duties of religion, and the word of God: that sacred and inscrutable word, which will show him the inefficacy of all other knowledge, and those duties which will imprint upon his mind, that he best understands the sacred writings who most carefully obeys them. Thus will humility fix a firm and lasting basis, by annihilation of all empty distinctions and petty competitions, by showing, that "one thing only is necessary," and that "God is all in all."
SERMON IX.
"But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and
drink of that cup.". 1 Cor. xi. 28.
Nothing is more frequently injurious to religion, or more dangerous to mankind, than the practice of adding to the Divine institutions, and of teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. The doctrines of the blessed sacrament, which, as they are expressed in the Holy Scriptures, do not seem to be very dark or difficult, yet have been so perverted and misrepresented, as to occasion many disputes among men of learning, and many divisions in the Christian world. In our own church, many religious minds have been filled with groundless apprehensions, and distracted with unnecessary inquietudes, by mistaken notions of the Lord's supper. Many have forborn to partake of it, because they have not, in their own
