if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it? This is that which maketh this vice so odious to God, who is sensible of the injury done him, in robbing him of his due honour: how sensible he is, he showed in that great instance of smiting Herod with a miraculous vengeance, because he did not give the glory to God, but arrogated glory to himself, receiving with complacence the profane flatteries of the people. He hath said, I will not give my glory to another. 6. It is vain, because mischievous. It corrupteth our mind with a lewd pleasure, which choketh the purer pleasures of a good conscience, spiritual joy and peace. It incenseth God's displeasure, who cannot endure to see us act out of so mean and base a principle. It depriveth us of the reward due to good works, performed out of pure conscience, and other genuine principles of piety. Arezovoι or motor. They have their reward. 7. It is vain, because unbeseeming us. It is observable, that the word signifieth to praise or applaud, and also to infatuate or make mad. Glory doth sit unhandsomely upon us, who are so weak and frail, who are so impure and sinful, who are so liable to reproach and blame: it is like purple on a beggar-a panegyric upon a fly. When all is said that can well be of us, we are ridiculous, because a thousand times more might be said to our disparagement and disgrace. For one good quality, we have many bad; for one good deed, we have done numberless evils. The best things we have or do, yield greater matter of dispraise than commendation, being full of imperfection and blemish. Absolutely so; comparatively much more. What are we in comparison to God; whose excellency if we consider, and our distance from his perfections, how can we admit commendation? how can we take any share of that which is wholly his due ? If we consider even the blessed angels and saints, and how far short we 11 Cor. iv. 7; John iii. 27. Matt. vi. 1. come of them; what can we say, but praise them who are so worthy, and abhor ourselves who are so vile? Seeing there are such objects of praise, how can it be conferred on a mortal, vile, wretched creature? OF ARROGANCE. When a man (puffed up with conceit of his own abilities, or unmeasurably affecting himself) doth assume to himself that which doth not belong to him (more than in reason and justice is his due, in any kind, more honour, more power, more wisdom, &c.) When he encroacheth on the rights, invadeth the liberties, intrudeth into the offices, intermeddleth with the businesses, imposeth on the judgments of others; when he will be advising, teaching, guiding, checking, controlling others, without their leave or liking. When he will unduly be exercising judgment and censure upon the persons, qualities, and actions of his neighbour. These are instances and arguments of vicious self-love. He that doth rightly understand and duly affect himself, will contain himself within his own bounds, will mind his own affairs, will suffer every man undisturbedly to use his own right and liberty in judging and acting. dis The effects of this practice are, sensions, dissatisfactions, grudges, &c. for men cannot endure such fond and unjust usurpations upon their rights, their liberties, their reputations. OF TALKING of one's self. IIFQuavτohoɣla, talking about one's self is an effect and manifest sign of immoderate self-love. It may seem a very slender and particular matter, but is of great use to be considered and corrected. To talk much of one's self, of his own qualities, of his concernments, of his actions, so as either downrightly to commend one's self, or obliquely to insinuate grounds of commendation; to catch at praise; or, however, to drive on our own designs and interests thereby. It is an argument of self-love, pro 1 Job xii. 17; Isa. xliv. 25; Eccles. vii. 8; ceeding from a fulness of thought con ii. 2. cerning one's self, and a fond affection to one's own things: (Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh; assuredly we think much of that, and we like it greatly, concerning which we are prompt to discourse: the imaginations and affections discharge themselves at the mouth.) It prompteth them to speak evil of us; to search for faults to cool and check us. It is therefore a preposterous and vain way to think of gaining credit and love : men thereby infallibly lose or depress themselves. Of all words, those which express our This is a foolish and hurtful practice. selves and our things, I and mine, &c. For, 1. It is vain, and hath no effect. We thereby seek to recommend ourselves to the opinion of men: but we fail therein; for our words gain no belief. For no man is looked upon as a good judge or a faithful witness in his own case; a good judge and a faithful witness must be indifferent and disinterested; but every man is esteemed to be favourable, to be partial in his opinion concerning himself; to be apt to strain a point of truth and right in passing testimony or sentence upon himself: he, therefore, that speaketh of himself, is not believed, his words have no good effect on the hearers: it is true what the Wise Man observeth; Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness, but a faithful man who can find? (but it is hard to find one who, in making report or passing judgment concerning himself, will be faithful and just.) Καυχᾶσθαι οὐ συμφέρει μοι." 2. Yea, it usually hath a contrary effect, and destroyeth that which it aimeth at: self-commendation is so far from procuring a good opinion, that it breedeth an evil one. are the least pleasing to men's ears. It spoileth conversation; for he that loveth to speak of himself doth least love to hear others speak of themselves, and so is not attentive. If a man have worthy qualities and do good deeds, let them speak for him; they will of themselves extort commendation; his silence about them, his seeming to neglect them, will enhance their worth in the opinion of men. Prating about them, obtruding them upon men, will mar their credit; inducing men to think them done, not out of love to virtue, but for a vainglorious design. Thus did Cicero, thus have many others, blasted the glory of their virtuous deeds." 3. Supposing you get the belief and the praise you aim at, to have complacence therein is bad or dangerous: it is a fond satisfaction, it is a vicious pleasure; it puffeth up, it befooleth. It argueth 4. It is against modesty. the man hath a high opinion of himself: if he believe himself what he saith, he hath so; if not, why would he persuade others to have it? Modesty cannot without pain hear others speak of him, nor can with any grace receive commendations; it is therefore great impudence to speak of himself, and Men have a prejudice against what is said, as proceeding from a suspected witness; one who is biassed by self-love and bribed by self-interest to impose up-to seek praise. on them: Not he that commendeth himself is approved." It is fastidious; as impertinent, insignificant, and insipid ;a spending time, and beating their ears to no purpose; they take it for an injury to suppose them so weak as to be moved by such words, or forced into a good conceit. It is odious and invidious; for all men do love themselves, no less than we ourselves; and cannot endure to see those who affect to advance themselves and reign in our opinion. 5. We may observe it to be a great temptation to speak falsely. Men, when they affect commendation, will gladly have it to the utmost; are loath to wrong themselves, or to lose any thing; they will therefore at least speak to the extreme bounds of what may be said in their own behalf; and while they run upon the extreme borders of truth, it is hard to stop their career, so as not to launch forth into falsehood: it is hard to stand upon the brink, without falling into the ditch. T It is therefore advisable in our dis Γέγονα ἄφρων καυχώμενος,—2 Cor. xii. 11; xi. 17. course to leave ourselves out as much as may be; never, if we can help it, to say, I, mine, &c., never seeking, commonly shunning and declining occasion to speak of ourselves: it will bring much convenience and benefit to us. Our discourse will not be offensive; we shall decline envy and obloquy; we shall avoid being talked of; we shall escape temptations of vanity; we shall better attend to what others say, &c. If we will be speaking of ourselves, it is allowable to speak sincerely and unaffectedly concerning our infirmities and faults; as St. Paul does of himself." There are some cases wherein a man may commend himself;* as in his own defence, to maintain his authority, to urge his example, &c.; so doth St. Paul often. He calleth it folly to boast (because generally such it is), yet he doth it for those ends. Let another praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.t THINKING OF OURSELVES. Thinking of ourselves with glee and pleasure. This is a great nourisher of immoderate self-love; for the more men indulge to a gazing upon themselves with delight, the more they grow in love, the more passionately they come to dote on themselves. It is good to reflect inward, and to view our souls; but we should do it so, as to find a wholesome displeasure and regret in beholding ourselves so foul and impure, so weak and defectuous, so ugly and deformed: if we do thus, we shall not overlove ourselves. Some General Remedies of Self-Love. 1. To reflect upon ourselves seriously and impartially, considering our natural nothingness, meanness, baseness, imperfection, infirmity, unworthiness; the meanness and imperfection of our nature, the defects and deformities of our souls, the failings and misdemeanours of our lives. He that doeth this cannot * Plut. πῶς τις ἑαυτὸν ἐπαινέσειε. 2 Cor. xii. 5; xi. 30. Prov. xxvii. 2. surely find himself lovely, and must therefore take it for very absurd to dote on himself. He will rather be induced to dislike, despise, abhor and loathe himself. 2. To consider the loveliness of other beings superior to us, comparing them with ourselves, and observing how very far in excellency, worth, and beauty, they transcend us; which if we do, we must appear no fit objects of love, we must be checked in our dotage, and diverted from this fond affection to ourselves. It cannot but dazzle our eyes and dull our affections to ourselves. If we view the qualities and examples of other men, who in worth, in wisdom, in virtue, and piety, do far excel us; their noble endowments, their heroical achieve. ments; what they have done and suffered in obedience to God (their strict tem perance and austerity, their laborious industry, their self-denial, their patience, &c.) how can we but in comparison despise and loathe ourselves? If we consider the blessed angels and saints in glory and bliss; their purity, their humility, their obedience; how can we think of ourselves without contempt and abhorence? Especially if we contemplate the perfection, the purity, the majesty of God; how must this infinitely debase us in our opinion concerning ourselves, and consequently diminish our fond affection toward things so vile and unworthy? 3. To study the acquisition and improvement of charity toward God and our neighbour. This will employ and transfer our affections; these drawing our souls outward, and settling them upon other objects, will abolish or abate the perverse love toward ourselves. 4. To consider, that we do owe all we are and have to the free bounty and grace of God: hence we shall see that nothing of esteem or affection is due to ourselves; but all to him, who is the Fountain and Author of all our good. 5. To direct our minds wholly toward those things which rational self-love requireth us to regard and seek; to concern ourselves in getting virtue, in performing our duty, in promoting our salvation, and arriving to happiness: this will divert us from vanity; a sober selflove will stifle the other fond self-love. SERMON LXIV. PROVIDE THINGS HONEST IN THE SIGHT OF ALL MEN. doth lie; they forbearing the performance of their duty merely to shun the censure or to gain the respect of the vilest and vainest persons. They would be deemed exceedingly ROM. xii. 17.-Provide things honest in honest and sincere, because forsooth all the sight of all men. THE world apparently is come to that pass, that men commonly are afraid or ashamed of religious practice, hardly daring to own their Maker by a conscientious observance of his laws. While profaneness and wickedness are grown outrageously bold, so that many declare their sin as sodom; piety and virtue are become pitifully bashful, so that how few have the heart and the face openly to maintain a due regard to them! Men in nothing appear so reserved and shy as in avowing their conscience, in discovering a sense of their duty, in expressing any fear of God, any love of goodness, any concern for their own soul. It is wisdom, as they conceive, to compound with God, and to collude with the world; reserving for God some place in their heart, or yielding unto him some private acknowledgment; while in their public demeanour they conform to the world, in commission of sin, or neglect of their duty supposing that God may be satisfied with the invisible part of his service, while men are gratified by visible compliance with their ungracious humours. Such proceeding is built on divers very fallacious, absurd, and inconsistent grounds or pretences; whereby men egregiously do abuse themselves, and would impose on others; namely these, and the like. They would not, by a fair show and semblance of piety, give cause to be taken for hypocrites; whereas, by dissembling their conscience, and seeming to have no fear of God before their eyes, they incur an hypocrisy no less criminal in nature, but far more dangerous in consequence, than is that which they pretend to decline. They would not be apprehended vainglorious for affecting to serve God in the view of men; whereas often at the bottom of their demeanour a most wretched and worse than pharisaical vain-glory • Isa. iii. 9. their piety is cordial, pure, and void of sinister regard to popular esteem; whereas partial integrity is gross nonsense; whereas no pretence can be more vain than that we hold a faithful friendship or hearty respect for God, whom we openly disclaim or disregard; whereas also it is easi ly discernible, that although their piety is not, yet their impiety is popular, and affected to ingratiate with men. They would be taken for men of brave, courageous, and masculine spirits, exalted above the weaknesses of superstition and scrupulosity; whereas, indeed, out of the basest cowardice, and a dread to offend sorry people, they have not a heart to act according to their duty, their judgment, their best interest. They would seem very modest in concealing their virtue; while yet they are most impudent in disclosing their want of conscience; while they are so presumptuous toward God, as to provoke him to his face by their disobedience; while they are not ashamed to wrong and scandalize their brethren by their ill behaviour. They would not be uncivil or discour teous in thwarting the mind and pleasure of their company; as if in the meantime they might be most rude toward God in affronting his will and authority; as if any rule of civility could oblige a man to forfeit his salvation; as if it were not rather most cruel discourtesy and barbarous inhumanity to countenance or encourage any man in courses tending to his ruin. They would not be singular and uncouth in discosting from the common road or fashion of men; as if it were better to leave the common duty than the common faults of men; as if wisdom and virtue were ever the most vulgar things; as if the way to heaven were the broadest, and the most beaten way; as if rarity should abate the price of good things; as if conspiracy in rebellion against God might justify or excuse the fact; as if it were Isa. lxv. 3; Jer. vi. 17; viii. 12. advisable to march to hell in a troop, or | offence or blame ; yea, that it be comely comfortable to lie there for ever among and commendable. the damned crew of associates in wicked ness. They cannot endure to be accounted zealots or bigots in religion; as if a man could love or fear God too much; or be over-faithful and careful in serving him; as if to be most earnest and solicitous (not in promoting our own fancies, but) in discharging our plain duties could be justly reproachable, or were not indeed highly commendable. These things I may hereafter fully declare; in the mean time it is manifest that such a practice is extremely prejudicial to religion and goodness; so that it may be very useful to employ our meditations upon this text of the apostle, which directly doth oppose and prohibit it. The same text he otherwhere (in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians) doth repeat in the same terms (only inserting a clause more fully explaining his sense), backing his precept with his own example; for We, saith he there, did so manage the business of collecting and dispensing alms, as to avoid that any man should blame us in this abundance which is administered by us; providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but in the sight of men. The terms in which it is expressed are notably emphatical; we are directed govoεiv, to provide, to use a providence and forecast in the case: ere we undertake any design, we should deliberate with ourselves, and consider on what theater we shall act, what persons will be spectators, what conceits our practice may raise in them, and what influence probably it will have on them. We should not rush on into the public view with a precipitant rashness, or blind negligence, or contemptuous disregard, not caring who standeth in our way, who marketh what we do, what consequence our proceeding may have on the score of its being public and visible: we should advise beforehand, lay our business, and on set purpose order our behaviour with a regard to those to whose sight and notice we expose it, foreseeing how our actions may affect or decline them. So we must provide; what things? xredie things fair and handsome; things not only good, innocent, and inoffensive to the sight of men; but goodly, pleasant, and acceptable to well-disposed beholders; such as our apostle doth otherwhere recommend, when he chargeth us to regard, oon our&, whatever things are ven erable, ὅσα προσφιλή, whatever things are lovely, boa eiqqua, whatever things are of good report, eius eлavos, whatever things are laudable ; and when he doth The words do imply a precept of very large extent, and touching a great part of our duty; even all thereof which is public and visible; for which we are ac-exhort us to walk evoznuóros, handsomecountable to the world, whereof man can take any cognisance; which concerneth all our speech and conversation, all our dealing and commerce, all our deportment relating to human society, civil or spiritual. ly and decently, in a comely garb and fashion of life; this may add an obligation to some things not directly prescribed by God, which yet may serve to adorn religion, but it cannot detract any thing from what God hath commanded; it I shall first a little consider its mean- doth comprehend all instances of piety ing and design; then I shall propose rea- and virtue practicable before men; it sons and inducements to its observance; certainly doth exclude all commission of then I shall declare the folly of those sin, and omission of duty, for that nothprinciples and pretences which obstructing can be fair or handsome which is that observance. I. The meaning of it is, that we should have a special care of our external demeanour and conversation, which cometh under the view and observation of men; that it be exempted from any 2 Cor. viii. 20, 21. ugly in God's sight, which doth not suit to his holy will. Such things we must provide, ἐνώπιον vorgánor, before all men; not only before some men, to whom we bear 4 Αμεμπτοι, Phil. ii. 15 ; 'Αμέγκλητοι, Col. i. 22. • Phil. iv. 8. Rom. xiii. 13; 1 Thess. iv. 12. |