stly before our mind, and upon this, act
as you please, as you think most fit: make that choice, and prefer that
course of life, which you can justify to yourselves, and which sits most
easy upon your own mind. It will immediately appear that vice cannot be
the happiness, but must upon the whole be the misery, of such a creature
as man; a moral, an accountable agent. Superstitious observances, self-
deceit though of a more refined sort, will not in reality at all mend
matters with us. And the result of the whole can be nothing else, but
that with simplicity and fairness we _keep innocency_, _and take heed
unto the thing that is right_; _for this alone shall bring a man peace at
the last_.

SERMON XI. {24a} UPON THE LOVE OF OUR NEIGHBOUR.
PREACHED ON ADVENT SUNDAY.

ROMANS xiii. 9.

_And if there be any other commandment_, _it is briefly comprehended
in this saying_, _namely_, _Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself_.

It is commonly observed that there is a disposition in men to complain of
the viciousness and corruption of the age in which they live as greater
than that of former ones; which is usually followed with this further
observation, that mankind has been in that respect much the same in all
times. Now, not to determine whether this last be not contradicted by
the accounts of history; thus much can scarce be doubted, that vice and
folly takes different turns, and some particular kinds of it are more
open and avowed in some ages than in others; and, I suppose, it may be
spoken of as very much the distinction of the present to profess a
contracted spirit, and greater regards to self-interest, than appears to
have been done formerly. Upon this account it seems worth while to
inquire whether private interest is likely to be promoted in proportion
to the degree in which self-love engrosses us, and prevails over all
other principles; _or whether the contracted affection may not possibly
be so prevalent as to disappoint itself_, _and even contradict its own
and private good_.

And since, further, there is generally thought to be some peculiar kind
of contrariety between self-love and the love of our neighbour, between
the pursuit of public and of private good; insomuch that when you are
recommending one of these, you are supposed to be speaking against the
other; and from hence arises a secret prejudice against, and frequently
open scorn of, all talk of public spirit and real good-will to