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a signal of a proud spirit. Where the eyes and the lips have learned these disdainful and imperious airs, it is exceeding hard to unlearn them. A peacock may almost as soon be untaught to spread his gay feathers, or the seas and the winds untaught to swell and roar, as a man full of self to put off his insolence, to stand upon a level with his fellows, and to treat those about him with affability and candour, who are in any respect inferior to him.

Watch, O my soul, against the first secret motions of vanity: when thy inward thoughts begin to swell and thy heart to exalt itself, watch against every haughty air, against the high look and the scornful tone; watch and subdue the earliest workings of pride; for if they gain but a little indulgence and strength, all the powers of thy reason will not be able to subdue them, and will create thee long and heavy toil to gain the victory after many sore vexations of spirit, nor wilt thou ever become a humble creature without the abundant aids of divine grace.

II. If we have low thoughts of ourselves we shall be thankful for every design of kindness which our neighbours express towards us, nor shall we scorn the good offices of the meanest, though perhaps we can receive little or no advantage by them. God the glorious and the sublime, who inhabits eternity and dwells above the praises of his highest angels, looks down upon the heart of every humble worshipper here on earth, and receives our little worthless services with a smile of approbation: If there be a willing mind the gift is accepted according to what the giver is able to offer; 2 Cor. viii. 12. nor are the two mites of a widow neglected or disdained in the treasury of our God; Luke xxi. 2. Remember, O my heart, the divine example, and be an imitator of the blessed God in this respect, who made thee to wear his own image. But mark how the haughty man who is full of self receives the offers of kindness from his inferior. He scarce vouchsafes to cast an eye upon them, unless it be in scorn: Thus he upbraids his neighbour with his poverty: He treats his humble civilities with contempt, and despises all his good-will: Merit and modesty blush and sink down before him, and die under his frowns. O vile idea of a haughty scorner, who puts modesty to the blush and lets merit die.

III. The humble man who has low thoughts of himself is beloved of men as well as of God, and gains the favour of all around him. He remembers that it is of one blood God has made all nations, and he is moulded of the same dust with his fellows, and he thinks rather of those essentials of human nature wherein he lies upon a level with the meanest son of Adam, than of those accidental differences of wit or wealth, which have raised him above some of his fellows. He knows that others have a right to some degrees of love and esteem as well as himself, they have some pretence to understanding and merit as well as he.

If the poor and the ignorant ask him a question, though it be an impertinent one, he does not turn short upon them with a smart and surly speech, nor turn away with a disdainful silence : He makes the child and the servant love him by the soft and friendly answers he gives even to their needless queries. His behaviour to his inferiors has something in it so engaging, that there is not the meanest figure of mankind goes from his presence without a pleasing image of his goodness left upon their minds. When he comes into company with his equals, he does not seize the dictator's chair, nor affect to shew himself in any superiorforms. He comes to learn rather than to instruct, and not only gives others leave to speak in their turn, but he hears their opinion with patience and pleasure, and pays due deference to all the appearances of reason in their discourse, though he may sometimes happen to prefer his own sentiment. He is not fond of ingrossing the talk to himself, nor of filling up the hour of conversation with hearing his own discourse, or speaking his own praises: He limits the motions of his tongue, he pays to every one the rights of society, and he enjoys the esteem and love of all. Humility carries in it all the sincere arts of complaisance, and is the shortest way to form and accomplish the man of breeding.

But a swelling haughty creature is a hateful thing, Insolence of heart and tongue are forbidding qualities. A proud look is an abomination to the Lord, and an abhorred thing amongst men; Prov. xvii. 6. Such persons may be feared but they are never loved: They may have many cringes and compliments paid to them by their neighbours, but they have no room in their esteem, no place in their heart; Prov. xxiv. 9. A scorner is an abomination to men: He that takes this road to grandeur widely mistakes his way, for he often ruins his. interest instead of advancing it. And if he should happen to arrive at greatness he leaves behind him the more virtuous and tasteful pleasures of friendship and love: If he could but hear with what contempt and hatred he is treated behind his back, he would endure much anguish of soul with inward shame and lasting vexation: And it is a pity but he should hear it sometimes, to punish at least, if not to cure his insolence..

Has divine providence raised me to any accidental degrees of elevation above my neighbours, let my heart seek their love rather than their fear: Let me find proper seasons to place myself as it were upon a level with them with all due and condescending decency, and thus let me seek and obtain the esteem and hearty benevolence of mankind, and particularly of those whom providence has placed beneath me. There is an art of bearing up one's highest character and dignity amongst men without the haughty airs, the exalted eye-brow and the insolent tone of voice.

IV. Low and humble thoughts of ourselves will teach us to bear the admonition of our friends with a gentler temper, and receive the blessing with a return of thankfulness: We shall sustain the reproaches of our enemies also with a greater calm of soul, and stand the rudest shock of calumny with a more steady patience.

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What is it but the pride of our hearts, and the great and sacred image which we frame of ourselves, that makes us so hasty to resent the softest admonition of a friend? Our hearts and lips stand always ready pressed to vindicate our whole conduct, and. sometimes we let loose our fire and thunder on a sudden upon those who give us the most friendly rebuke. Self is our shining idol, and no man must dare to suppose there is any blemish spot upon it. Therefore we repay the kindest advice with railing, and revile men for the greatest benefit they can bestow upon us. We form so innocent and so venerable an idea of ourselves,. we fancy our beloved selves to be so wise, so unblameable and perfect, that we cannot endure to hear or suspect there are any fail-. ings belonging to us, and we resent it as an high offence when they are pointed out to us by the gentlest hand. We are jealous of every thing that opposes our opinion, that censures our conduct, or in the most friendly language discovers our mistakes: Passion and resentment are ever upon the watch and stand ready to take the alarm; the eyes and the tongue are swift to discover the inward ferment, to publish and betray the pride of the heart. O that each of us would but honestly enquire," Is this my picture? Are these the features of my soul? Do I ever wear this aspect, or assume these airs?” But alas, which of us, O my friends, is entirely innocent and blameless here? How few follies had any of us carried into aged life, if we had not had too much pride and self-flattery to invite and encourage the admonitions of our acquaintance, who saw these budding fooleries in younger years? But we were too rich, or too wise, or too vain to bear a reprover; and thus our vices are grown up with us to shame our grey hairs, and are now too much mingled with our natures ever to be rooted out.

While we maintain this temper of mind, it is no wonder we cannot bear the ruder reproaches of the world, nor confine ourselves in that dangerous moment within any bounds of sobriety or patience. We kindle on a sudden into undue rage, we swell and burn with inward indignation and indulge our lips in a wild revenge: Or sometimes perhaps the pride of our souls mingled with a particular constitution of body sinks under the assaults of scandal with a shameful cowardice, and almost dies with abjectness of spirit; for courage is not always an attendant upon pride; The vain man is not always an hero.

O unhappy creature, that is thus galled inwardly with every

stroke of the tongues of men! That vexes and frets its own peace away for want of due honours from the world! All the comforts and blessings of life are insipid or disrelishing, all the grandeur of circumstances, the sun-shine of heaven, and the gaiety of the seasous, have no power to relieve or support us. The soul of Haman amidst all his honours of state and his endless treasures is still pining away with inward vexation, and his life languishes from day to day, because Mordecai does not rise up to him and pay his compliments.

Have a care, O my soul, of copying after this wretched character: Have a care of swelling to these painful dimensions of pride, lest thou render all the comforts of life tasteless for want of some little punctilio of honour which the world will not pay thee. Look upon thyself as a weak mortal, as a creature capable of mistake and folly; this thought will keep the avenues of thy soul ever free and open for the counsels and warnings of thy friends, and make a kind and faithful admonition as welcome as a word of vain applause. And even when enemics reproach thee, thou wilt be suspicious of thyself whether thou hast not deserved the reproach: Thou wilt make a fresh scrutiny into thy own heart, and enquire there in secret, what real truth may be mingled with the unjust revilings of men: And thus thou wilt be powerfully awakened to subdue every vice, to abandon every folly that tarnishes thy character, and make use of the rough language of malicious world to burnish thy virtues and to keep them ever shining.

V. The lower esteem we have of ourselves, the more easily shall we be pleased with persons and things round about us: We shall be more unmoved at the little accidents of life which may happen to cross our humour, and we shall rather pity than terrify those who chance to displease us where the will was not in it. What is it that fires our resentment at every little mistake or supposed mistake of those that attend on us? What is it rouses our angry passions at every real or fancied miscarriage of those with whom we converse? What is the spring of all this tumult of soul, this inward disturbance, but the vain and exalted idea which we have conceived of ourselves? As though we must be exempted from the common laws and incidents of our frail and mortal state? Let us colour over our guilt with the kindest salvos yet it is a certain truth, pride and passion are near a-kin, and they are most times joined together in the temper of men and in the conduct of life: Passion and pride are thus united in the descriptions of sin and in the rules of duty both in the books of morality and in the language of scripture. Prov. xxi. 24. Proud and haughty scorner is his name, who dealeth in proud wrath. Prov. xii. 10. Only by pride cometh contention. Indulge the one and you support the other: Subdue the one and the other is

in a great measure prevented or suppressed. Indeed a man will much sooner confess his passion than his pride: You will hear him sometimes acknowleding to his friend, "It is the frailty of my nature, this cursed passion! I am of a warm and hasty temper: May God and man forgive me!" But you scarce ever hear him say, "This pride is my folly, this pride is my secret iniquity." Yet I was once acquainted with a christian of a hasty and passionate temper, who has many years since left his frailties in the grave, and he would confess with freedom and with a becoming sense of his sin, that there was no passion without some degrees of pride.

VI. If we maintain a mean opinion of ourselves we shall be much more ready to practise benevolence in a disinterested manner, and to deny ourselves for the conveniency of those about us We shall not be ever projecting to exalt and gratify self, nor shall we think it so hard or painful a thing to be put out of our own way and our course a little, and abate of our own convenience in some instances in order to give some greater conveniency to our friends. Self-denial is one of the

first lessons in the school of Christ. Mat. xvi. 34. If any man will come after me, let him deny himself: We must learn to mortify our own humour if we would be approved of Christ or beloved of men.

The proud and haughty man is generally so selfish that he can never love his neighbour as he ought to love him, because his opinion of self rises so high as to deserve and engross all his kind affections. Let him make what pretences he will to friendship and goodness; let him labour in works of beneficence, and feed the hungry and clothe the naked, yet in all his schemes, contrivances and labours he has still some secret design for his beloved self: As his imagination swells with this dear idea, so his wishes and projects are ever full of it, even when he would fain appear to practise a disinterested zeal for the good of others. If self and what belongs to self is well, all is well: If self and family be rich and happy, all is right; the man is tolerably easy: But if any thing cross his purposes and the wishes and humours of his heart, nothing is right, nothing is well: His complaints shall be heard aloud and the man can find no rest.

Oh! if we could but keep this dear self from reigning, we should not be so narrow-spirited and begin and end our projects in the little circle of self: We should not fret and storm at every thing that interrupts our pleasures or that interferes with our present designs: We should not rise in fury nor be lavish of our loud reproaches against every thing that disturbs our ease or our indolence. We shall not then think ourselves worthy of such honour and reverence, as though every thing about us must be made to submit to our purposes, and yield to our humours. We

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