/ say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees, ye shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew, v. 20. These words are a part of the divine ser mon which our blessed Lord delivered from the mount to the people, who, having seen the mighty and wonderful works he had done in the towns where he had preached, followed him in multitudes, and pressed upon him to see the signs he had wrought, and to hear the doctrines he promulgated. These, therefore, he instructs in the perfection of that religion which he came into the world to establish, and shows how infinitely it exceeded all other re ligious dispensations wherewith mankind till then had been blessed. And as the people to whom he spoke were all of them Jews, and had a high veneration for the religion of their fathers, he chiefly compares his com mands with those of Moses, to convince them how far even the law and the prophets fell short of that which the Son of God himself descended to make known on earth ; and as all the people of Israel were prepossessed with high notions of the scribes and pharisees, whom they supposed to be exalted patterns of sanctity, he informs them that, holy and emi nent as they thought these men to be, yet the lowest servant of Christ must infinitely surpass them in righteousness and true holiness, or he could never hope to be made partaker of the, kingdom of heaven. In discoursing on these words, I shall, First, show wherein consisted the righteous ness of the scribes and pharisees. Secondly, consider in what instances all Christians are obliged to exceed them. Thirdly, conclude with some practical in ferences from the whole. The scribes, as we learn from several pas sages of Holy Scripture, were for the most part learned doctors and teachers of the law, who

sat in Moses' seat, and explained those por tions of it which, through their blindness and weakness of understanding, they would otherwise have remained ignorant concerning. They are sometimes called by the name of Rabbi, which signifies master one that had been brought up in the schools of the prophets, and was licensed to teach a set of disciples or followers the weighty matters of the law. The pharisees were the most rigid sect of the Jews, men who obliged themselves to the strictest observance of the things required by the law ; and were distinguished by placing .their conduct under some restraints which were not obligatory, and denying themselves such liberties as were by the law allowed to the people; and hence they derive their name from a word which signifies to distinguish or separate. Now both these sets of men, we may imagine, pretended to extraordinary degrees of piety. The very title of pharisee implies a recluse per son, or one who separated himself from his brethren by the remarkable rigour of his life and conversation ; and one scarcely can sup pose that those scribes who were entrusted with the education of young people could be other than sober and moral, as well as grave and learned persons ; and indeed we find their characters to have been such. They were dis tinguished by leading austere lives, and pro fessing strict doctrines. They observed great sanctity and severity of behaviour, were regu lar in their public offices of devotion, fasted and prayed often, and gave much alms. They were zealous for the law to excess, and reve renced the institutions thereof as divine ap pointments deserve to be reverenced. In short, there was nothing in their exterior behaviour but what was becoming in teachers of religion, edifying and exemplary. They manifested the highest regard to God, the greatest veneration to things and persons appropriated to his ser vice, and the severest resentment of any pro fanation of them. Such was the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees of old, which our blessed Saviour declares not to be sufficient to bring any one to the possession of his kingdom ; which leads me to my second general head, wherein I am

to point out iii what instances all Christians are to exceed them. We see that their external regularity, their zeal, their exact manners, and decent deport ment, are such as might be well proposed to a Christian ; but they are patterns which we must not be content to equal, but infinitely surpass, or our righteousness will avail nothing in the great day of accounts. The Christian religion requires indeed an exemplary beha viour, an external reverence to God and holy things, and all demonstrative of our piety and virtue : but it endeth not here ; it's chief resi dence is in the heart, and there it is designed to effect the greatest change. Its principal de sign is to convert the sinner, to rectify his mind, and alter the most prevailing evil temper of his soul. And herein consists the grand dif ference between the righteousness required of the Christian, and that which was practised by the scribes and pharisees. Theirs was an out side holiness; ours is commanded to be the holiness of the heart. Their virtue consisted in their sanctified actions ; ours in upright in tentions. Their works of piety and charity were performed to be seen of men ; ours must be performed to please our Father which is in heaven. In short, the scribes and pharisees considered external sanctity all that was re quired of them ; whereas the Christian is taught principally to regard the state and dis position of his heart, and to regard his outward behaviour only as a testimony and proof of his internal spirit and temper. For instance, the learned scribe and proud pharisee would think he had sufficiently done his duty to God, by having been present at his public worship ; but the humble pious Christian knows that God will not accept a religion only confined to time and place, or has any respect to such holiness as is bounded by the walls of the church. No ; his conscience tells him that pious ceremonies, without a corresponding purity of mind, are so far from being acceptable to God that they are abomination in his sight. Indeed devotion, if it consists in no more than bodily worship and the prayers and thanksgivings of our lips, is a solemn mockery

father than an humble adoration of the Most High, and must be expected to draw down his heaviest vengeance rather than his gracious blessing upon us. In fine, any instances of piety whose best merit consists in decency of performance may be the piety of scribes and pharisees, but not of Christians. Another instance wherein the righteousness of Christians is to exceed that of the scribes and pharisees is in the extensiveness of it. Any Christian who is pious upon principle, and whose virtue proceeds from purity of in tention, will immediately perceive the neces sity of a uniform conduct, and how incum bent it is for a Christian not to act inconsist ently, so that one part of his life may not contradict the other. The scribes and phari sees made long prayers, but at the same time they devoured widows' houses. They paid tithe of mint, anise, and cummin, and in this they did well ; but then they neglected the weightier matters of the law -judgment, justice, and truth. In short, they were reli gious as far as ceremonies and modes of wor ship were concerned, but neither pious nor honest in their common life. And here it is that the Christian is required to exceed them. He is commanded to perform every action with the same spirit as he performs his devotions ; the glory of God is the end that he proposes in his prayers, and the same sacred purpose is to be the rule of every part of his life. We have an apostolical precept to regu late the most ordinary as well as necessary actions, " Whether ye eat or drink, or what ever ye do, do all to the glory of God ;" and he must be a very loose casuist who can find an exception to this heavenly rule, or point out any actions of a Christian which are not to be tried by it: and whoever thinks that he need only have a view to this sublime end while he is in the immediate act of worshipping, may perhaps lay claim to the righteousness (as they do to the purity) of the scribes and pharisees, but not to that of the disciples of Christ. The religion which the blessed Jesus insti tuted was designed to shine forth in the lives

as well as the public worship of professors ; and therefore every one who prays to God with devotion and solemnity at church, and at the same time lives without God every where else, may satisfy himself with the name of Christian, but be assured he has nothing else to boast. He neither feels the power of Christ in his soul, nor has any lot or portion in that glorious inheritance which is prepared for those who love and fear him. A third instance wherein our righteousness is to exceed that of the scribes and pharisees is, the motive from whence it proceeds. They fasted, they prayed, and gave alms, to be seen of men ; and were pious for the sake of that reputation which they gained among their brethren for being so. They made use of their religion to be a cloak to their iniquities : the end of it extended no further than this world, their honour and their interest being the only views they proposed by it ; and therefore of them doth our Saviour justly say, " Verily, they have their reward." But the piety of Christians is founded on a nobler principle, and proceedeth not from a view of human interest, but from the pure love of God. This must be the foundation of every holy action and design, if ever we hope to be accepted by God. This love must be the rea son of our desire to please him, or that desire can never be fulfilled. For any exercises of devotion which are performed with another view lose all their excellence : for instance, should we comply with the worship of God because it has the custom and practice of the world to recom mend it; should we regulate our actions by the rules of God's holy commandments, lest ■we should appear scandalous in the eyes of our neighbours ; comply with the established modes of worship, and submit to the use of the stated service' of God, for honour or profit. Can we lay our hands upon our hearts, and call this religion ? Will it be accepted by Him who searcheth the heart, and requires it ? It remains to draw a practical inference from what has been said. First, we have seen the great exactness and rigour wherewith the scribes and pharisees ad

hered to all the outward ordinances of the law ; and hence may Christians learn the great veneration and esteem which are due to the institutions of the New Testament. The ordinances of the Jewish church were but types and figures of those of the Christian ; and therefore are we more immediately con cerned not to be exceeded by the Jews in the reverence they paid to sacred things. The scribes and pharisees may in this re« spect be admitted as examples to us, for they were scrupulous in adhering to every the least jot or ceremony of the law ; and so far their zeal is laudable and recommended to us by our blessed Lord himself, who, speaking of their tithing mint, anise, and cummin, is pleased to say that these things ought to be done, but at the same time the other weightier matters were not to be left undone. True it is that the inward spirit of Chris tianity is principally to be regarded, and the greatest danger is that men will trust too much to external duties, even so far as to neglect the religion of the heart, as if we could deceive that Omnipotent Being who dis cerneth all the secret springs and motives, the subterfuges and foldings, the thoughts and in tentions, of every child of man ! We have seen that, strict as the lives and conversation of the scribes and pharisees appeared, they were not accepted for want of sincerity ; from which we may learn the great value of uprightness, and should incessantly implore the Almighty God to bestow this grace upon us. The strictest ritual obedience becomes of no effect without it ; nay, it is said to be abomination ia the sight of God. Hypocrisy is of all others the most odious sin ; its baleful influence extends the farthest, and its poison is noxious enough to blast our best performances. The scribes and pharisees were careful and vigilant in their duty; they forced themselves through the labour and dif ficulties of heartless religion, and endured the toil and danger of servants yet were rejected by their Lord and Master, because their ser vices were all performed and undertaken for sinister views. And let it instruct us carefully to try our ways, and accurately examine the recesses of our own hearts, that we may not

fancy ourselves religious, because we are regu lar in our deportment, and exact in external worship ; but sedulously labour to be approved in His sight who judgeth motives, not only that we may escape the tremendous judgments which are pronounced to the scribes and pha risees, hypocrites, and to all who hold the truth in unrighteousness, but be rewarded openly in that great day by our Father who seeth in secret.