the Worship of other Gods both all and some And now I desire to know whether it be not too true that all those Worldly Politicians are Idolaters who seek first the Kingdom of this World and expect that the Kingdom of God should be added to them Do they not change the Truth of God into a Lie and Worship the Creature more than the Creator Do they not make to themselves a Graven Image Do they not frame to themselves an imaginary Happiness A Happiness which is not to be had in Heaven above but only in the Earth beneath And do they not bow down and serve it How many are there of whom S. Paul makes mention whose Belly is their God who Sacrifice themselves to Gluttony and Drunkenness and waste away their Lives in Flames of Lust Their short-liv'd Happiness is part of it dead already and burnt in its own Fire and of the residue thereof they still persist to make a God and Worship it How many are there in the World who are ready at any time to Pawn their Souls for Gold Do not these Men make a Golden Calf and Worship it Those Men who quit their Religion to secure their Fortune who do not think there is a Thousand Pounds a Year difference betwixt the Right and the Wrong but prefer the short Enjoyment of a little Spot of Terra Firma before the Everlasting Possession of their Heavenly Inheritance do not these Men make a God of Mammon Do they not put more Confidence in their Estate than in the God of Heaven and Earth Do they not forget God their Saviour as if they did not know that he gave them all these things Do they not turn their Back to God and their Face to Idols saying to their Land thou art our Father to thee we owe our Lives and to their Money thou hast brought us forth and deliver'd us out of the House of Bondage How many are there who are such Idolaters of Worldly Honour that they trample under Foot the Laws of God and Man the Laws Ecclesiastical and Civil rather than seem to Trespass in the least punctilio against the Laws of Hectorism They prefer those Maxims which the Pride of Lucifer has introudced and settled in the World before the Precepts of the Most High God which are reveal'd confirm'd and ratified unto us by the Gospel Church and State The very Thought of being Laught at and Despised by some few silly People for a little while is much more Terrible to them than the Loss of God and all that 's Good for all Eternity When once the Reputation of their Modish Bravery is call'd in question by the least Affront or Provocation they are so bewitch'd so stupified so over-power'd with a Base Cowardly Fear of losing it that altho' they are daring enough to Die Eternally for it they have not true Courage enough to live one Moment without it They Sacrifice to Devils not to God They force their way thro' Blood and Ashes to the Altars of Revenge and Pride They imprint and grave in their Minds an Image of I know not what which none but Fools call Honour and to this they offer up their Vows and Prayers they fall down to it and worship it and in their Hearts they say unto it Deliver us for thou art our God The Psalmist tells us that the Fool says in his Heart There is no God And truly if we well consider the matter we shall find that all those People who seek first the Kingdom of this World the Honours Riches and Pleasures of it are certainly such Fools as to say in their Heart There is no other God but these 'T is no wonder therefore that the Apostle says The Wisdom of this World is Foolishness with God No wonder that he tells the Politicians of this World that they are vain in their imaginations that their foolish Hearts are darkned and that professing themselves Wise as really they are in the management of Worldly Affairs they become Fools in the misgovernment of themselves When I talk of Politicians I do not only mean those great Ones who sit at the Helm of Government Ecclesiastical or Civil I also Comprehend all those who in the Shades of a Private Life find warmth enough to nourish Pride and Luxury as well as Covetousness Alas It is not the Palace or the Cottage that makes any great difference in the Case 'T is the Heart of Man which is the Temple of these Idols And the lowest Condition we can think of does not hinder us from loving our selves above all things and Idolizing such little Deities as our narrow Capacity can afford us 'T is not the Golden or the Wooden Idol that aggravates or lessens the Crime 'T is the Worship that makes the Idolater We know very well that Villages retain'd their Pagan-Worship when the greater Cities banish'd it We certainly know that altho' Self-love and Pride are boundless in their vast Pretensions yet they play at small Game rather than sit out And therefore 't is no wonder if the Poor as well as Rich are apt to Idolize themselves and so are give â—ver to a Reprobate Mind Proud Coverous without Natural Affection Deceitful Envious Vnmerciful in a word Malicious and Vnjust II. If I did not very well Consider the prodigious Folly of Self-love I could not believe it capable of so much Malice Who could have imagin'd if the Scriptures were not plain that the Jews who had so long expected the Messiah could be so Malicious against him when he came He came from Heaven and this perhaps was more than they expected He was True God as well as Man and this I fear was more than they desired He came to fulfil the Law and to make them Perfect like their Father in Heaven and this was a great deal too much for those who thought themselves already good enough But yet methinks they had no reason to like him so much worse for being so much better than their wishes His only fault was that he was toâ— good for them and because he was so therefore they could not abide him He came to destroy the Works of the Devil to pull down the Idols which they had set up in their Hearts and teach them to Adore the One True God in Spirit and Truth by taking away the Worship of all Worldly Honours Wealth and Pleasures Learn of me says he because I am humble of Heart Learn of me because Blessed are the Poor in Spirit Learn of me because Blessed are they who are Persecuted for Righteousness sake Learn all this and always remember this comfortable Lesson Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Let this be always the Treasure of your Minds let it always be the Cordial of your Hearts remember it was I my self that told you Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven This was the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ but this Light did not shine upon them so as to open their Eyes because they loved
of our Neighbour's Sins not ours The covering of our own avails us nothing unless we Repent Confess and Forsake them 'T is written in the Proverbs that He who covers his Sins shall not Prosper But whosoever confesses and forsakes them shall have Mercy 9. Others presume upon their being Children of the Catholick Church But as it was in vain for the Jews to say within themselves we have Abraham for our Father so likewise 't is to little purpose for us Catholicks to say we have the Church for our Mother The Gospel assures us that Every Tree which brings not forth good Fruit Fruits worthy of true Repentance shall be hewed down and cast into the Fire So true it is that there 's no Ground at all for our Presumption no Pardon to be obtain'd no Mercy to be hop'd for without Sincere Repentance and a thorough-paced Amendment II. When Faith has once Levell'd these Mountains of Presumption and Pride the next Affair in Hand is to prepare the Way of our Lord by making it Straight There 's nothing so Crooked as Self-Love It makes us Crooked in all our Ways It invents a Thousand Turnings Windings and By-ways to compass its designs It never engages in any thing abroad without contriving to bring something home It begins from it self it tends to it self it bends till both ends meet and what can be more Crooked On the contrary the Love of God is Straight It directs us in the Way of his Commandments And leads us in a Straight Line to that Blessed End for which he made us It prepares our Hearts to God that we may serve him only It prepares us for the Kingdom of God within us that every Loyal Heart may be the Throne of his Divine Majesty that all our Passions Inclinations and Humours may be Faithful Subjects to him in doing his Will on Earth as it is done in Heaven and that his Love may not only Live but Reign in us and not only now but for ever His Love must begin to Live before it begins to Reign in us It must First move us to Repent before the Kingdom of God which always is at Hand can be Establisht in our Hearts Our Penitential Tears will never sufficiently prepare the Way of our Lord unless the Spirit of Love begin to move the Waters Our Self-Love may Cry its Eyes out and almost break its Heart with Grief Alas This Crooked Love can never make the Way Straight There 's nothing but the Love of God who is all Truth all Justice and all Holiness there 's nothing else can make all Straight by making us truly Repent and moving us to Detest and Hate all Falshood all Injustice and all Wickedness The Council of Trent in the 6. ch of the 6. Session describing Repentance such as always was and now is Requisite as well before Baptism as before the Sacrament of Penance lays the whole Train of Penitential Dispositions in this Natural Order It mentions 1. Our Fear of the Divine Justice 2. Our Hope of Mercy through Christ 3. Our beginning to Love God as the Fountain of all Righteousness 4. Our being therefore moved with Hatred and Detestation of our Sins 5. Our purposing to begin a New Life by keeping the Divine Commandments And again in the 4. ch of the 14. Session the same Council declares that all true Repentance includes not only a Cessation from Sin but also a Beginning of a New Life and a Hatred of the Old One according to the Prophet Cast away from you all your Transgressions and make you a New Heart and a New Spirit Let us now consider a little this Doctrine and we shall find it so Clear and Rational as not to need the Authority of a Council to Recommend it to us 1. When Sinners Sleep securely they Dream of nothing but the Sensual Satisfactions and the Transitory Pleasures of this Life But when they once are rouz'd and throughly awaken'd with a Strong Belief and Lively Apprehension of a future State in which God's Justice will Eternally deprive them of these things and punish them severely with the contrary there 's nothing more Natural than to be struck with Fear of such a Punishment And although they see it by a Super-natural Light they dread it with a Natural Fear Neither is there any need of quoting Aquinas for this Truth It being as evidently Natural to to fear the Pain of Sense as it is to Love the Pleasure of it 2. The uneasiness of this Fear is Troublesome to us And when 't is great we dare not shake it off as usually we do our Creditors whom we refuse to Speak with when we have no Mind to give them Satisfaction The Fear of being Arrefted and Eternally confin'd from all that ever pleas'd us when it once looks Big and Terrible upon us it soon brings down our Stomachs and makes us contented now to think how Merciful God is and seek for Hope of Comfort in the Merits of his Son 3. When we are thus considering how good God is and how bad we are how great his Mercy is and how little we deserve it how severe his Justice is and how much we have provok'd it When we are wavering 'twixt Hope and Fear and pondering the Reasons on both sides admiring that Incomprehensible Mercy which moved the most High God to send his only Son for the Redemption of the World and being Astonisht at his Inexorable Justice which would not be aton'd by any other Sacrifice When we compare the Crookedness of Sin with the Straight Paths of Virtue the Truth the Purity and Equity of God's Laws with our Hypocrisie Vncleanness and Iniquity When we study the Charming Features of his Divine Beauty and in his own Light see our Horrible Deformity 'T is then that we begin to Love him as the Fountain of all Righteousness and because we love him therefore we Detest and Hate our Sins by which we have offended him 'T is then that we are sensible what Fools we have been to forsake our God the Fountain of Living Waters and seek our Happiness amongst his Creatures by hewing out Cisterns Broken Cisterns which can hold no Water 'T is then our Heart is ready to Break with Grief to think that we have erred from the Straight Ways of Truth and we tried our selves in the Crooked Ways of Wickedness and Destruction 'T is then I say we firmly purpose to begin a New Life because we Hate the Old One And then according to the Prophet we cast away from us all our Transgressions because we have now a New Heart and a New Spirit we love our God whom hitherto we slighted and for his sake we Hate the Vices which formerly we Loved and Love the Virtues which heretofore we Hated By what has been already said 't is easie to answer a very Important Question Whether Sorrow arising from the Fear of Hell alone may deserve the Name of True Repentance 'T is agreed by all and declared
well known tho' now neglected and almost quite forgotten Then it was that the Law was written in their Tables says S. Austin because they did not read it in their Hearts The manner of its Delivery is very remarkable When the Children of Israel were gone out of the Land of Egypt they came into the Wilderness of Sinai and Camp'd before the Mount where the Ten Commandments were proclaim'd with Thunder and Lightning the Earth quaking and the People trembling at what they saw and heard The Morality of these Commandments was neither more nor less than the Law of Nature which as promulgated by Moses is called the Old Law and as confirm'd by Jesus Christ is call'd the New Not that the Law it self as to the Moral Part of it is different from what it was but that the Circumstances I mean the Motives and Advantages are New and infinitely surpassing those of the Old In the New Law the Motives which induce us to observe it are incomparably greater The Jews generally fear'd nothing but Temporal Punishments they hoped for nothing but Temporal Rewards their Self-love aim'd at nothing more than Earthly Happiness and even God himself who knew their Hearts were harder than the Stones on which he Engrav'd their Law propos'd no better Motives to them They were to be Train'd up by Degrees to fear and to obey the Author of their Nature before they could be well prepared to Entertain the Mysteries of Grace and Glory And thus we read in the Nineteenth Chapter of Exodus how God Commanded Moses to mind the People of what he had done to the Egyptians and that now having brought them to himself if they would obey his Voice he would take them into his particular Care above all other People and to Encourage them the more he would have them know that All the Earth was his They were to remember the Plagues of Egypt that they might not forget their Duty but that their fears might be awaken'd with expecting the like Severity in case of Disobedience And to maintain their hopes it was enough that All the Earth was his for this was All they wish'd for and therefore if they Obey'd he was able to Reward them to the utmost of their Hearts desire In the Twenty sixth of Leviticus he tells them If you keep my Commandments I will give you Rain in due Season and the Land shall yield her increase you shall eat your Bread to the full you shall Chase your Enemies and they shall fall before you and you shall dwell in your own Land safely And in the Twenty eighth of Deuteronomy he assures them All these Blessings shall come upon you if you will hearken to my Voice But if you will not hearken to it Then All the contrary Curses shall be sure to overtake you Poor Creatures And was This All Was This the utmost prospect of their Hopes and Fears These Little Earthly and Transitory Comforts are they worthy to compare with that inestimable Blessing promised by our Saviour Come ye Blessed of my Father Come and possess the great and everlasting Kingdom of Heaven which was prepared for you from the Foundation of the World Or are the Curses which deprive us of these Empty and Unsatisfying Pleasures are they comparable to that final Curse of our Redeemer Go ye Accursed into Everlasting Fire which was prepared for the Devil and his Angels No no. The Eternal Torments which no Tongue is able to express the Everlasting Joys of Heaven which never enter'd into the Heart of Man and the endearing Charms of God's prodigious Love by which he sent his Son not only to teach us these great Truths but to Assist us with his Conquering Grace and to Redeem us with his Precious Blood These these I say are new Advantages incomparably surpassing All that the Old Law ever could pretend to 'T is true there were many Prophets Patriarchs and Kings amongst them who were more Enlightned than the rest and tho' they had not received these glorious Promises yet they had some fore-knowledge of them afar off and languish'd with continual Expectations and Desires to see the Accomplishment of them And therefore 't is no wonder that we find it written in the beginning of this Gospel Jesus said to his Disciples Blessed are the Eyes which see the things that you see For I tell you that many Prophets and Kings have desired to see those things which you see and have not seen them and to hear those things which you hear and have not heard them We see the Church of Christ Establish'd firmly and securely Blessed are the Eyes that see it We hear his Gospel Preach'd and faithfully Deliver'd to us Blessed are the Ears that hear it And Blessed indeed we are if we not only hear the Word of God but also keep it Alas These great Advantages of Christianity will little avail us They will only serve to rise in Judgment against us and to heap a greater Damnation upon us if we neglect the Duties of it II. We read in the Gospel how a certain Lawyer stood up and ask'd our Saviour What shall I do to possess Eternal Life He thought and with a great deal of reason that so vast a Purchase as Eternal Life was never to be had for nothing He knew that all this Momentary Life of ours is nothing to Eternity which swallows up all Time with a disproportion infinitely greater than a Drop of Water loses it self in the Ocean And therefore he justly suspected that perhaps his uttermost endeavours would fall short of it What shall I do says he to possess Eternal Life These words of his express an earnest and a sincere desire not only to know his Duty but to do it And truly unless we fully and absolutely resolve to do it we had better never know it Are we as heartily desirous as he seem'd to be Are we as much in earnest Are we as sincere If so Hear then what 's written in the Law Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Strength and with all thy Mind and thy Neighbour as thy self Consider this well and then attend to what our Saviour says Do this and you shall live Do but this and you shall certainly possess Eternal Life And is it hard to do so much as this He is infinitely lovely in himself and is it therefore a difficult thing to love him He infinitely deserves our Love and therefore we can never Love him so much as he deserves But must we therefore never Love him as much as we can Let us do our utmost we can never Love him so much as he Loves us and although we had each of us a Thousand Hearts entirely at his Service we should never be able to make a suitable return Since therefore we have only one Can we for shame refuse him any part of that 'T is All of it due and can we make abatements 'T is
who is Solicitous for this World may easily deceive himself in this Matter He may Esteem God a great deal more and yet Love him a great deal less The Disciples had a great Esteem of our Saviour and thought they loved him better than their Lives They All declared they would rather die with him than deny him And yet immediately after the Chief of them denied him and all the rest forsook him When they look'd upon the time of Trial at a distance they had a great Opinion of their Strength But when the Occasion was present they soon discover'd their Weakness This was once their Case And God only knows how often it has been ours Their Case you 'll say was different because they were Guilty of a great Presumption But pray consider a little Are not we as guilty as they Do we not presume as much Are we not as confident of our own Strength We know very well that the Love of this World is a Mortal Enemy to the Love of God And therefore if we do not daily watch the Motions of this Enemy oppose its Progress and cut off all Communications which may any way Fortifie it if on the contrary we daily furnish it with all Provisions Ammunitions and Arms against us if we thus despise the Strength of our Enemy is it not Visible that we too much confide in in our own And if we commonly neglect those daily Considerations Exercises and Endeavours which are necessary to Encrease and Fortifie the Love of God is not this a downright Presumption in our own Sufficiency as if we already loved him enough Remember the Fall of the Apostles Remember how grievously they were mistaken Remember that not only their Doctrines but even their Failings ought to be an Instruction to us Never let us confide in our present Love of God but let us daily endeavour to Improve it Never let us despise the Strength of our Worldly Love but let us daily endeavour to abate it If we could serve two Masters we might be Solicitous for both But since we can only serve One 't is a dangerous thing to be Solicitous for any Other You cannot serve God and Mammon says our Saviour therefore I say unto you Be not Solicitous for this Life III. We have seen how Dangerous it is to be Solicitous for any thing in this World The rest of the Gospel shews us that his Solicitude is altogether needless If there were any necessity of it our Saviour would not forbid it The Words are plain Be not Solicitous for your Life And indeed if we seek first the Kingdom of God if the Service of God be truly and sincerely our first and principal Concern 't is evidently needless to be Solicitous for our Life He made us for himself and for his own sake he takes care of us Not that he is any way the better for us but because he naturally takes delight in doing good to All who do not wilfully oppose the overflowing of his Goodness He gave us our Life that if we please we may be Happy by employing it entirely in his Service And as long as we serve the Master who gave us this Life our Self-preservation is in better Hands than our own All the Malice of Men and Devils put together can never take away our Life without our Master's order or his leave And therefore whensoever either by his leave or by his order the appointed Hour of our Death approaches we may be assur'd our Master has no more occasion for our Service and therefore we have no Pretensions to Live longer There is only One thing Necessary in this World and that 's our Duty to our Master And whensoever our Duty stands in Competition with our Life if we are true and faithful Servants we shall always readily and cheerfully conclude Our Duty is Necessary but our Life is not When things are in this posture 't is evident that the Observance of this Duty is the last Piece of Service which our Master requires at our Hands And since our Service is the End for which our Life was given us if we wish to out-live our Service we are every jot as unreasonable as if we wish'd to out-live the End of our Life You 'll tell me perhaps you are very willing to Die when God pleases But you are afraid of wanting the Necessary Conveniences of Humane Life and therefore you are justly Solicitous for fear of being Miserable whilst you Live And truly you are partly in the right You have all the Reason in the World to be willing that God should chuse the Hour and appoint the Moment of your Death because He only knows what Time is best and fittest for us But since we are willing to trust him with our Life why should we not as willingly trust him with all things else belonging to it He has promis'd to take Care of us He knows better than we do what is good for us He loves us better than we love our selves His Power is boundless and cannot be obstructed Is not this enough to secure us He is infinitely Powerful He is able says S. Paul to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think He is infinitely Good He cannot but Delight in being so to those that serve him He is infinitely Wise He cannot commit the least mistake in our Concerns In a Word his Wisdom his Goodness and his Power all concurr to Ensure the Blessings of his Providence which by a Solemn Promise is engaged for ever to be favourable to us Seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and All these things shall be added to you 'T is the Voice of Truth it self Truth cannot tell a Lie His Promise cannot fail Is it not the First Article of our Creed to believe in God the Father Almighty Does not the First of all our Petitions begin with these comfortable Words Our Father who art in Heaven If we believe him to be Our Father ought we not to believe that he will certainly be careful of his Children And if we really believe He is always careful of us what need we at any time be Over-careful and Solicitous for our selves Therefore I say unto you says our Saviour Be not Solicitous for your Life what you shall eat nor yet for your Body what you shall put on He only forbids our being Solicitous He does not forbid us to Work and Labour for an Honest Livelyhood Our Heavenly Father does not encourage Idleness in his Children He expects that we should be industrious in doing of our part And when we have done that He 's always ready to supply the rest And to satisfie us concerning this matter our Saviour is not contented to give us his bare Word for it but uses several Arguments in order to convince us Is not the Life more than Meat says he and the Body more than Clothing He who freely and frankly bestows upon us what is more will he deny us
Cases in which one would be glad to have so much Vertue as to deny one's self For my own part if ever I have need of a Friend I only wish and pray I may fall into the Hands of a good Christian a Friend of God's own Making Chusing and Appointing Let him be only able to assist me I am very sure the better Christian he is the better Friend he 'll shew himself He 'll act by Nobler and Diviner Principles than all the Humane Ties of Gratitude and Kindness And will be sure to do a great deal more for God's sake than any Body else will ever do for mine I grant there are but few of these but the fewer there are the more 's the pity And I am very much afraid 't is partly our own fault that the World is not good enough to have more of them 3. As there is nothing so Wise and Charitable so there is nothing so Perfectly and Universally Just as Christian Prudence Altho' it necessarily presupposes Faith and Hope yet the chief ground of it is Charity by which we Love God above all things and look upon all things else as nothing in Comparison of Him A Man whose Mind and Heart are throughly Enlightned and Enflam'd with this Coelestial Love lays up his Treasure in Heaven where his Heart is He gives to God what 's due to God he Adores and Serves him only he renders to him his whole Being his Soul his Heart and all that is within him He despises all the Treasures upon Earth where Moth and Rust do Corrupt and Thieves break through and Steal Eternity is his great Aim and therefore he scorns to quarrel about any Temporal Concerns but easily and readily makes even Reckonings with all the World by giving to Caesar what is due to Caesar and to his Friends and Neighbours what is due to all of them We never are Unjust to Caesar to a Friend or Neighbour but when we are strongly tempted to it by an eager desire of something or other relating to our Honour Profit or Pleasure And these are the very things which a good Christian Undervalues and Despises When our Saviour said to the Pharisees Shew me the Tribute-Money and when he askt them Whose is this Image and Superscription He was not ignorant of either But was willing to let them understand how little he valued these Money-matters which were the least part of his Care A Christian is a Man of another World and all the while he is in this he chiefly minds his way to the next He knows that his good Actions are the only things which have a Current Value there And as for the Riches of this World he does not covet to be loaded with them but only to have a little about him as much as may suffice to pay his share by the way He considers that the way is short and therefore is easily satisfied with any thing If he Lodge uneasily and Fare a little hardly in his Journey 't is only the common Fate of Travellers he cheerfully makes the best of it and comforts himself with thinking how plentifully he shall Feast for ever when he comes to his Eternal Home O God who art the only Refuge of Sinners the only Strength of the Weak and only Author of all Piety incline thy Ears of Pity and Compassion to the Pious Prayers of thy Church forgive our past Offences all our Folly Malice and Injustice direct us in the ways of thy own Wisdom Charity and Righteousness and never cease to assist us with thy Grace that what by thy Encouragement we confidently ask we may effectually obtain Thro' Christ our Lord. Amen Discourse V. Of Christian Humility JEsus went into the House of one of the Chief Pharisees to eat Bread on the Sabbath-day and they watched him And behold there was a certain Man before him which had the Dropsie And Jesus answering spake unto the Lawyers and Pharisees saying Is it Lawful to heal on the Sabbath-day But they held their Peace And he took him and healed him and let him go And answer'd them saying Which of you shall have an Ass or an Ox fallen into a Pit and will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath-day And they could not answer him to these things And he told a Parable to those who were Invited observing how they chose out the chief places saying unto them When thou art Invited to a Wedding sit not down in the highest place lest perhaps a more honourable Man than thou be Invited by him and he who Invited thee and him come and say to thee Give place to this Man and then thou begin with shame to take the lowest place But when thou art Invited go and sit down in the lowest place That when he comes who Invited thee he may say unto thee Friend go up higher Then shalt thou have honour in presence of those who sit with thee For whosoever exalteth himself shall be humbled and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted Luk. 14. v. 1. to 12. This Gospel presents to our Consideration the Best of Moral Vertues Humility exercised by the Best of Mankind Jesus Christ true God as well as Man and deliver'd by the Best of Oracles Truth it self Incarnate Learn of me says he because I am humble of Heart His whole Life was a constant Lesson of Humility He taught it us not only by word but by example And that we may the better learn our Lesson I shall endeavour to shew according to the order of the Gospel 1. How He Practised this great Vertue 2. How he Preach'd it I. 'T is the nature of Charity to make us Humble and Humility is also a natural Disposition towards being Charitable If we consider Charity in order to God we plainly see that a Man who truly Loves Him above all things cannot but undervalue all the fading Glories of this World The Gaudy Scene of all its Vanity makes little or no Impression upon him He easily discerns how false its Lustre is He sees quite through it and sees Eternity beyond it If we consider the same Charity in order to our Neighbour whom we Love for God's sake as being Made to the same Divine Image Ransom'd by the same Infinite Price and thereby Entitled to the same Grace here as well as the same Eternal Glory hereafter These great and glorious Motives shine so bright that all those heaps of Honour which the World is able to Accumulate upon us are no better than so many Dunghils in comparison of these inestimable Jewels A Man who chiefly Loves himself and his Neighbour upon these accounts can have no longing passion for any preference on Earth He cannot but disdain all these inferiour Excellencies Dignities and Praises because the Treasure of his Mind and Heart is infinitely greater and all these Trifles are as much below his Thoughts as Heaven is above them Thus we see how Charity inclines us to be Humble and 't is as easie to