worn for a day, will fall off, and leave him naked as a neglected slave. Send forth your imagination, I beseech you, to view the last scene of the greatest and proudest who ever aw ed and governed the world— see the empty vapor disappearing! one of the arrows of mortality this moment sticks fast within him; see, it forces out his life, and freezes his blood and spirits.

Approach his bed of state, lift up the curtain, regard a moment with silence

Are these cold hands and pale lips all that is left of him who was canonized by his own pride, or made a god of by his flatterers?

O my soul! with what dreams hast thou been bewitched! how hast thou been deluded by the objects thou hast so eagerly grasped

at!

If this reflection from the natural imperfection of man, which he cannot remedy, does nevertheless strike a damp upon human Pride, much more must the considerations do so which arise from the willful depravations of his nature.

Survey yourselves, my dear Christians, a few moments in this light; behold a disobedient, ungrateful, intractable, and disorderly set of creatures, going wrong seven times in a day, acting sometimes every hour of it against your own convictions, your own interests, and the intentions of your God, who wills and proposes nothing but your happiness and prosperity-what reason does this view furnish you for Pride? how many does it suggest to mortify and make you ashamed! Well might the son of Syrach say, in that sarcastical remark of his upon it, "That Pride was not made for man:" for some purposes, and for some particular beings, the passion might have been shaped, but not for him; fancy it where you will, 'tis no where so improper, 'tis in no creature so unbecoming.

But why so cold an assent to so incontested a truth? Perhaps thou hast reasons to be proud; for Heaven's sake let us hear them. Thou hast the advantages of birth and title to boast of, or thou standest in the sunshine of Court favor, or thou hast a large fortune, or great talents, or much learning, or Nature has bestowed her graces on thy person; speak, on which of these foundations hast thou raised this fanciful structure? Let us examine them.

Thou art well born; then, trust me, 'twill pollute no one drop of thy blood to be humble; humility calls no man down from his rank,

divests not princes of their titles; it is in life what the clear obscure is in painting; it makes the hero step forth in the canvas, and detaches his figure from the group in which he would otherwise stand confounded for ever.

If thou art rich, then shew the greatness of thy fortune, or, what is better, the greatness of thy soul, in the meekness of thy conversation; condescend to men of low estate, support the distressed, and patronize the neglected. Be great; but let it be in considering riches, as they are, as "talents committed to an earthen vessel." That thou art but the receiver, and that to be obliged and to be vain too is but the old solecism of pride and beggary, which, though they often meet, yet ever make but an absurd society.

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 head 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 dreamed or thought of.

Let us pass on to the pretences of learning, &c. If thou hast a little, thou wilt be proud of it, in course: if thou hast much, and good sense along with, 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 can cry out upon it, as the poor man did of his hatchet, "Alas, master! for it was borrowed."*

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

2 Kings, vi. 7.

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.

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 long suffering."-Amen.

XXV.-HUMILITY.

Matthew XI. 29.-Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall and rest unto your souls.

THE 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, affords 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 all 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 owes its 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, so does the injury-so does his resentment: 'tis this which gives edge and force to the instrument which has struck him, and excites that heat in the wound which renders it incurable.

See how different the case is with the humble man: one half of these painful conflicts he actually escapes; the other part falls lightly on him he provokes no man by contempt; thrusts himself forward as the mark of no man's envy; so that he cuts off the first fretful occasions of the greatest part of these evils; and for those in which the passions of others would involve him, like the humble shrub in the valley, gently gives way, and scarce feels the injury of those stormy encounters which rend the proud cedar, and tear it up by its roots.

If you consider it with regard to the many disappointments of this life, which arise from the hopes of bettering our condition, and advancing in the world, the reasoning is the same.

What we expect is ever in proportion to the estimate made of ourselves; when pride and self-love have brought us in their account of this matter, we find that we are worthy of all honors, fit for all places and employments: as our expectations rise and multiply, so must our disappointments with them; and there needs nothing more to lay the foundation of our unhappiness, and both to make and keep us miserable. And, in truth, there is nothing so common in Life as to see thousands who, you would say, had all the reason in the world to be at rest, so torn up and disquieted with sorrows of this class, and so incessantly tortured with the disappointments which their pride and passions have created for them, that, though they appear to have all the ingredients of happiness in their hands, they can neither compound nor use them: how should they? the goad is

ever in their sides, and so hurries them on from one expectation to another as to leave them no rest day nor night.

Humility, therefore, recommends itself as a security against these heart-aches, which, though ridiculous sometimes in the eyes of the beholder, yet are serious enough to the man who suffers them, and I believe would make no inconsiderable account in a true catalogue of the disquietudes of mortal man: against these, I say, Humility is the best defence.

He that is little in his own eyes is little too in his desires, and consequently moderate in his pursuit of them: like another man, he may fail in his attempts, and lose the point he aimed at—but that is all-he loses not himself-he loses not his happiness and peace of mind with it; even the contentions of the humble man are mild and placid. Blessed character! when such a one is thrust back, who does not pity him? when he falls, who would not stretch out a hand to raise him up?

And here I cannot help stopping in the midst of this argument to make a short observation, which is this. When we reflect upon the character of humility, we are apt to think it stands the most naked and defenceless of all virtues whatever the least able to support its claims against the insolent antagonist who seems ready to bear him down, and all opposition which such a temper can make.

Now, if we consider him as standing alone, no doubt, in such a case, he will be overpowered and trampled upon by his opposer; but if we consider the meek and lowly man, as he is-fenced and guarded by the love, the friendship, and wishes of all mankind—that the other stands alone, hated, discountenanced, without one true friend, or hearty well-wisher on his side; when this is balanced, we shall have reason to change our opinion, and be convinced that the humble man, strengthened with such an alliance, is far from being so overmatched as at first sight he may appear; nay, I believe one might venture to go further, and engage for it that, in all such cases, where real fortitude and true personal courage were wanted, he is much more likely to give proof of it, and I would sooner look for it in such a temper than in that of his adversary. Pride may make a man violent, but Humility will make him firm: and which of the two, do you think, likely to come off with honor? he who acts from