that it is as great an offence against truth, for a man in this state of things to lay claim to any degree of glory, as to pretend to the honor of creating himself. If man will boast of any thing as his own, he must boast of his misery and sin; for there is nothing else, but this, that is his own property.

Turn your eye toward heaven, and fancy that you see cherubim and seraphim, and all the glorious inhabitants of that place, united in one work; not seeking glory from one another, not laboring their own advancement, not contemplating their own perfections, not singing their own praises, not valuing themselves, and despising others; all happy in one and the same joy; casting down their crowns before the throne of God, giving glory, and honor, and power to him alone.

Then consider, how unreasonable it must be, for such poor worms, such miserable sinners, to take delight in their own fancied glories, while the most glorious sons of heaven seek no other greatness and honor, but that of ascribing all honor, and greatness, and glory to God alone?

Pride is the disorder of the fallen world, it has no place among other beings; it can only subsist, where ignorance and sensuality, lies and falsehood, lusts and impurity reign.

Let a man, when he is most delighted with his own figure, contemplate our blessed Lord stretched out, and nailed upon a cross; and then let him consider, how absurd it must be, for a heart, full of pride and vanity, to pray to God, through the sufferings of such a meek and crucified Saviour?

These are the reflections, which you are often to meditate upon, that you may thereby be disposed to walk before God and man in such a spirit of humility, as becomes the weak, miserable, sinful state of all, who are descended from fallen Adam.

When you have by such general reflections as these, convinced your mind of the reasonableness of humility; you must immediately enter yourself into the practice of this virtue, like a young beginner, that has all of it

to learn, that can learn but little at a time, and with great difficulty. You must consider, that you have not only this virtue to learn, but that you must be content to proceed as a learner in it all your time, endeavouring after greater degrees of it, and practising every day acts of humility, as you every day practise acts of devotion.

You would not imagine yourself to be devout, because in your judgment you approved of prayers, and often declared your mind in favor of devotion. Yet how many imagine themselves humble enough for no other reason, but because they often commend humility, and make vehement declarations against pride?

Cæcus is a rich man, of good birth, and very fine parts; he is fond of dress, curious in the smallest matters, that can add any ornament to his person. He is haughty and imperious to all his inferiors; is full of every thing, he says or does; and never imagines it possible, for such a judgment, as his, to be mistaken. He can bear no contradiction, and discovers the weakness of your understanding, as soon as ever you oppose him.

He changes every thing in his house, habit, and equipage, as often as any thing more elegant comes in his way. Cæcus would have been very religious, but that he always thought he was so.

There is nothing so odious to Cæcus as a proud man; and the misfortune is, that he discovers in almost every body, some strokes of vanity.

On the other hand, he is exceeding fond of humble and modest persons. Humility, says he, is so amiable a quality, that it forces our esteem, wherever we meet it. There is no possibility of despising the meanest person, that has it; nor of esteeming the greatest man, that wants it.

Cæcus no more suspects himself to be proud, than he suspects his want of sense. The reason is, because he finds himself in love with humility, and so enraged at pride.

It is true, Cæcus, you speak sincerely, when you say, you love humility, and abhor pride. You speak the

true sentiments of your mind; but then take this along with you, Cacus, that you only love humility, and hate pride, in others. You never once in your life thought of any other humility, or of any other pride, than that, which you have seen in others,

The case of Cæcus is a common case; many live in all the instances of pride, and indulge every vanity, that can enter their minds, and yet never suspect themselves, to be governed by pride and vanity; because they know, how much they dislike proud people, and how mightily they are pleased with humility and modesty, wherever they find them.

All their speeches in favor of humility, and all their railings against pride, are looked upon, as so many true exercises, and effects of their own humble spirit. Whereas in truth, these are so far from being proper acts or proofs of humility, that they are great arguments of the want of it.

For the fuller of pride any one is himself, the more impatient will he be at the smallest instance of it in others; and the less humility any one has in his own mind, the more will he demand, and be delighted with it in others.

You must therefore act by a contrary measure, and reckon yourself only so far humble, as you impose every instance of humility upon yourself, and never call for it in others. So far an enemy to pride, as you never spare it in yourself, nor even censure it in other per

sons.

Now in order to do this, you need only consider, that pride and humility signify nothing to you, but so far, as they are your own; that they do you neither good nor harm, but as they are the temper of your own heart.

The loving therefore of humility is of no advantage to you; but so far, as you love to see all your own thoughts, words, and actions governed by it; and the hating of pride does you no good, is no perfection in you, but so far, as you hate to harbour any degree of it in your own heart.

Now in order to begin, and set out well in the practice of humility, you must take it for granted, that you are proud, that you have all your life been more or less infected with this unreasonable temper.

You should believe also, that it is your greatest weakness, that your heart is most subject to it, that it is so constantly stealing upon you, that you have reason to suspect its approaches in all your actions. For this is, what most people, especially new beginners in a pious life, may with great truth think of themselves.

For there is no one vice, that is more deeply rooted in our nature, or that receives such constant nourishment from almost every thing, we think or do. There being hardly any thing in the world, that we want or use, or any action or duty of life, but pride finds some mean or other to take hold of it. So that at what time soever we begin to offer ourselves to God; we can hardly be surer of any thing, than that we have a great deal of pride to repent of.

If, therefore, you find it disagreeable to your mind, to entertain this opinion of yourself, and that you cannot put yourself among those, that want to be cured of pride; you may be as sure, as if an angel from heaven had told you, that you have not only much, but all your humility to seek.

For you can have no greater sign of a more confirmed pride, than when you think that you are humble enough. He, that thinks he loves God enough, shows himself to be an entire stranger to that holy passion; so he, that thinks he has humility enough, shows that he is not so much, as a beginner, in the practice of true humility.

CHAP. XVI.

Showing, how difficult the practice of humility is made, by the spirit and temper of the world.

EVERY person, when he first applies himself to the exercise of this virtue, must consider himself, as a learner, that is to learn something, that is contrary to former tempers, and habits of mind, and which can only be got by daily and constant practice.

He has not only as much to do, as he, that has some new art or science to learn; but he has also a great deal to unlearn. He is to forget and lay aside his own spirit, which has been a long while forming and fixing itself; he must forget and depart from abundance of opinions, which the fashion and spirit of the world has made natural to him.

He must lay aside his own spirit; because we are born in pride, which is as natural to us, as self love, and continually springs from it. This is one reason, why Christianity is so often represented, as a new birth, and a new spirit.

He must lay aside the opinions, he has received from the world; because the fashion of the world, by which we have been carried away, as in a torrent, before we could pass right judgments of the value of things, is in many respects contrary to humility; so that we must unlearn, what the spirit of the world has taught us, before we can be governed by the spirit of humility.

The devil is called in Scripture the prince of this world, because he has great power in it; because many of its rules and principles are invented by this evil spirit,, the father of all lies and falsehood, to separate us from God, and prevent our return to happiness.