If thou art powerful in interest, and standest deified by a servile tribe of dependents, — why shouldst thou be proud, because they are

hungry? - Scourge me such sycophants; they

have turned the heads of thousands as well as

thine

But 'tis thy own dexterity and strength which have gained thee this eminence : allow it; but art thou proud, that thou standest in a place where thou art the mark of one man's envy, another man's malice, or a third man's revenge, where good men may be ready to suspect thee, and whence bad men will be ready to pull thee down? I would be proud of nothing that is uncertain: Haman was so, because he was admitted alone to queen Esther's banquet; and the distinction raised him, but it was fifty cubits higher than he ever dreamt or thought of.

Let us pass on to the pretences of learning, &c., &c. If thou hast a little, thou wilt be proud of it in course: if thou hast much, and good sense along with it, there will be no reason to dispute against the passion: a beggarly parade of remnants is but a sorry object of Pride at the best; but more so, when we cry out upon it, as the poor man did of his

hatchet,
was borrowed.

* Alas; Master,

for it

It is treason to say the same of Beauty, whatever we do of the arts and ornaments with which Pride is wont to set it off: the weakest minds are most caught with both; being ever glad to win attention and credit from small and slender accidents, through disability of purchasing them by better means. In truth, Beauty has so many charms, one knows not how to speak against it; and when it happens that a graceful figure is the habitation of a virtuous soul, when the beauty of the face speaks out the modesty and humility of the mind, and the justness of the proportion raises our thoughts up to the art and wisdom of the great Creator, something may be allowed it, and something to the embellishments which set it off; — and yet, when the whole apology is read, it will be found at last, that Beauty, like Truth, never is so glorious as when it goes the plainest.

Simplicity is the great friend to nature, and if I would be proud of anything in this silly world, it should be of this honest alliance.

* 2 Kings vi. 7.

Consider what has been said; and may the GOD of all mercies and kindness watch over your passions, and inspire you with all humbleness of mind, meekness, patience, and longsuffering. Amen.

SERMON XXV

HUMILITY

Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye find rest unto your souls. MATTHEW Xi. 29.

TH

shall

HE great business of man, is the regulation of his spirit; the possession of such a frame and temper of mind, as will lead us peaceably through this world, and in the many weary stages of it, afford us, what we shall be sure to stand in need of,

Rest unto our souls.

Rest unto our souls!

'tis all we

want the end of our wishes and pursuits: give us a prospect of this, we take the wings of the morning, and fly to the uttermost parts of the earth to have it in possession: we seek for it in titles, in riches and pleasures -climb up after it by ambition, come down again

and stoop for it by avarice, try all extremes; still we are gone out of the way, nor is it, till after many miserable experiments,

that we are convinced at last, we have been seeking everywhere for it, but where there is a prospect of finding it; and that is, within ourselves, in a meek and lowly disposition of heart. This, and this only, will give us rest unto our souls: rest, from those turbulent and haughty passions which disturb our quiet: rest, from the provocations and disappointments of the world, and a train of untold evils too long to be recounted, against all which this frame and preparation of mind is the best protection.

I beg you will go along with me in this argument. Consider how great a share of the uneasinesses which take up and torment our thoughts, owe their rise to nothing else, but the dispositions of mind which are opposite to this character.

With regard to the provocations and offences which are unavoidably happening to a man in his commerce with the world, take it as a rule,

as a man's pride is, so is always his displeasure;

as

the opinion of himself rises, the injury,

so does

so does his resentment: 'tis

this which gives edge and force to the instrument which has struck him,

and