ing, and will experience the path of the just to be "as the fhining light which fhineth more and more unto the perfect day."

The

The Nature, Causes, and Folly, of Self-deception.

PROVERBS XVI. 3.

All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes, but the Lord weigheth the fpirits.

PROVERBIAL maxims are commonly to be understood with certain limitations. The maxim, that all the ways of a man are clean, or right, in his own eyes, though univerfal in the expreffion, evidently admits of many exceptions, both with respect to the perfons by whom the judgment in question is formed, and with respect to the judgment itself. Solomon neither meant to affert that no man what

ever is fufficiently enlightened, or fufficiently honeft, to confefs, at least to his own heart, the faults of his character; nor that thofe who are the most partial to themfelves, never perceive any thing reprchenfible in their conduct, or fee reafon to charge themfelves with criminality or imprudence. His defign, undoubtedly, is only to affirm, in general, that there are few people in the world who are not difpofed to err, on the fide of candour, in judging of themselves; and that it is no unufual thing for men to attend only to the fair fide of their characters, to applaud themfelves for actions which are in reality deferving of cenfure, and to find a thousand ways of extenuating faults which they cannot but perceive. Solomon speaks of this kind of felf-deception as univerfal, because his knowledge of mankind and of his own heart had taught him that it was exceedingly common.

Wherein confifts the exact nature of this moral difeafe? And to what caufes

is it chiefly to be afcribed? If we wish, my brethren, to be aware of our own danger, and to escape it, we must endeavour to folve thefe queftions. Let us begin with the first, and attempt to ascertain the precise nature of the charge which Solomon brings against mankind, when he fays-" All the ways of man are clean in his own eyes."

The fault, in general terms, is the forming too advantageous an opinion of ourfelves and our actions. It is that kind of delufion which confifts in prefuming, upon the flightest grounds, that we are free from guilt, or poffeffed of superior wisdom and merit. No terms could more accurately exprefs the hafty and superficial view upon which thfe partial judgments are commonly formed than those of the text "The ways of a man are pure in his own eyes:" they appear upon the first fuperficial glance to be right, and he does not give himself the trouble to

look

look more accurately into the matter, for he is willing to be deceived.

If, indeed, after seriously examining his views, his actions, and the motives by which he is governed, any one finds that they are, in general, conformable to the rules which conscience prescribes, and to the laws which religion enjoins, nothing can be more reasonable than that he should enjoy the fatisfaction of virtuous self-approbation. Such fatisfaction has a real foundation it is the first fruit and the first recompence of virtue. But if one, haftily taking appearances for realities, afcribes to himself virtues which he does not poffefs, it is evident that his felfapplause is delufive, and that the tranquillity which it produces is nothing better than false security. He is like a man in a dropfy, who mistakes for figns of established health the first symptoms of a malady which will foon bring him to the grave. He imagines himself poffeffed of

any

the