pearance seems most convenient for interest. Such are the dangers to which we are exposed, in times of corruption, of following the multitude to do evil; dangers which require our most serious attention and care, in order to guard ourselves against them. I proceed to lay such considerations before you as may be useful for that purpose.

IN the first place, Let us remember that the multitude are very bad guides; are so far from having a title to implicit regard, that he who blindly follows them may be presumed to err. For prejudice and passion are known to sway the crowd. They are struck by the outside of things; they enquire superficially, admire false appearances, and pursue false goods. Their opinions are for the most part hastily formed, and of course are variable, floating, and inconsistent. In every age, how small is the number of those who are guided by reason and calm enquiry? How few do we find, who have the wisdom to think and judge for themselves, and have steadiness to follow out their own judgment? Ignorance, and low education, darken the views of the vulgar. Fashion and prejudice, vanity and pleasure, corrupt the sentiments of the great. The example of neither affords any standard of what is right and wise. If the philosopher, when employed in the pursuit of truth, finds it necessary to disregard established prejudices and popular opinion, shall we, in the more important enquiry after the rule of life, submit to such blind guidance as the practice of the many; esteeming whatever they admire; and following wherever they lead? Be assured, that he who sets up the general opinion as the standard of truth, or the

general practice as the measure of right, is likely, upon such a foundation, to build no other superstructure except vice and folly. -If the practice of the multitude be a good pattern for our imitation, their opinions surely should be as good a rule for our belief. Upon this principle we must exchange Christianity for Paganism or Mahometanism, and the light of the Reformation for the superstitions of Popery; for these latter have ever had, and still have, the numbers and the multitude on their side. - Our Saviour has sufficiently characterised the way of the world, when he describes the broad road in which the multitudes go, as the road which leads to destruction; and the path which leads to happiness, as a narrow path, which fewer find. From which it is an easy inference, that to have the multitude on our side, is so far from affording any presumption of our being safe, that it should lead us to suspect that we are holding the course of danger.

In the second place, As the practice of the multitude is no argument of a good practice, so it cannot afford us either justification, or safety, in what is evil. It affords us, I say, no justification. Truth and error, virtue and vice, are things of immutable nature. The difference between them is grounded on that basis of eternal reason, which no opinions or customs of men can affect or alter. Whether virtue be esteemed or not, in the world, this makes it neither more nor less estimable in itself. It carries always a Divine authority, which men cannot impair. It shines with an essential lustre, which praise cannot brighten, nor reproach tarnish. It has a right to regulate the opinions of men; but by their opinions cannot

be controlled. Its nature continues invariably the same, though all the multitude of fools should concur in endeavouring to turn it into ridicule. Woe unto them, says the Prophet Isaiah, that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust; because they have cast. away the law of the Lord of Hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.*

If

As the practice of the multitude furnishes no justification to the sinner, so neither does it afford him any safety. Religion is altogether a matter of personal concern. God hath delivered to every man the rule of life; and every man must think and act for himself; because for himself he is to answer. others be wicked, it will be the worse for them; but it will not, on that account, be the better for us, if we shall be evil also. Let vice be ever so prevalent, it is still that evil thing which the Lord abhorreth; and, though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not escape unpunished. So far is the number of offenders from furnishing any ground of safety, that it calls more loudly for Divine justice to interpose. It is as easy for the Almighty arm to crush a whole guilty society as to punish a single individual; and when the disobedient subjects of God countenance and strengthen one another in licentiousness, by transgressing in troops and bands, it becomes high time for his government to exert itself, and let his vengeance forth.-One could scarcely think that any professor of Christian faith would fancy to himself any apology

* Isaiah, v. 20. 24.

from the way of the world, when he knows that the declared design of his religion was, to distinguish him from the world, which is said to lie in sin; and that Christ came to call out for himself a peculiar people, whose character it should be, not to be conformed to the world, but transformed by the renewing of their mind. So little, indeed, can the practice of the world either justify or extenuate vice, that it deserves our serious consideration,

IN the third place, Whether there be not several circumstances, which peculiarly aggravate the guilt of those who follow the multitude in evil? Do you not, thereby, strengthen the power of sin, and perpetuate the pernicious influence of bad example? By striking off from the corrupted crowd, you might be eminently useful; you might animate and recover many, whom weakness and timidity keep under bondage to the customs of the world: Whereas, by tamely yielding to the current of vice, you render that current stronger for carrying others along; you add weight and stability to the bad cause; you lend to the multitude all the force of your example, for drawing others after them to the commission of evil.— While you are thus accessory to the ruin of others, you are, at the same time, stamping your own character with the foulest and deepest impressions of corruption. By surrendering your judgment, and your conscience, to the multitude, you betray the rights, and degrade the honour, of the rational nature. Nothing great or worthy can be expected of him, who, instead of considering what is right in itself, and what part it is fittest for one in his station to act, is only considering what the world will think

or say of him; what sort of behaviour will pass with the fairest show, and be most calculated to please the many. When a man has thus given up the liberty and independence of his mind, we can no longer reckon upon him in any thing. We cannot tell how far he may be carried in vice. There is too much ground to dread, that he will lie, dissemble, and

betray; changing himself, without scruple, into every shape that will find favour among those whom he seeks to gain. While this servility to the world infers baseness towards men, it involves also the highest impiety towards God. It shows that we yield to the world that reverence and submission which is only due to the Divine law. We treat the government of the Almighty with scorn; as if his precepts deserved to be obeyed, only when they suited the caprice and the follies of the multitude; and were entitled to no regard, as soon as they contradicted the reigning customs and fashions of the world. While such conduct carries in it so much wickedness and folly, let us observe,

In the fourth place, That the most excellent and honourable character which can adorn a man and a Christian, is acquired by resisting the torrent of vice, and adhering to the cause of God and virtue, against a corrupted multitude. It will be found to hold, in general, that all those who, in any of the great lines of life, have distinguished themselves for thinking profoundly, and acting nobly, have despised popular prejudices, and departed, in several things, from the common ways of the world. On no occasion is this more requisite for true honour, than where religion and morality are concerned. In times of prevailing