in their thoughts men frequently despise and hate those whom they pay such outward reverence to. Or should it be sincere, it can do us no manner of good, but is very apt to increase our pride and vanity exceedingly; and consequently, instead of making us happy, tends to bring upon us many and great troubles and misfortunes.

For the more there is of pride and vanity in any one, the more haughty and slighting will he be to others, the more imperious and domineering, and apt to despise and contemn those whom he thinks below him. But nothing more naturally causes an aversion in all people than such behaviour as this; and makes them the less ready to give that respect which is so insultingly required.

And it is apt to make men more prying and inquisitive than otherwise they would be, into what that vain creature really is in himself, who looks down so scornfully upon every body else; and then the discovery of that very little true worth, which is generally in those who stand so much upon the punctilios of this sort of honour, makes them despised and hated to the last degree; and it is seldom but by some means or other they come to know as much and what the consequence of that is we may learn by the instance of Hamana. And it is a general observation, that first or last, or rather first and last and always, none are more unhappy than the proud, ambitious, and aspiring; unless it be the votaries of mammon, who resolve at all adventures to be rich.

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For however passionately we may set our hearts upon wealth, and pursue it with eager haste, and

a Esther v. 13.

persuade ourselves that such and such an estate would answer our utmost wishes, and make us completely happy; though we may fancy thus at a distance, yet when we come to the trial it will prove quite otherwise, and, instead of satisfaction, fill us with trouble and perplexity, and spoil our quiet, even in the possession of it, more than many a poor man's poverty does his; besides the many destructive vices that seldom fail to attend a full fortune, and the wretched courses that are too often made use of to raise it.

So that to hope for happiness from any thing that the world can afford is a very great and very fatal mistake; and our love must be strangely misplaced when fixed upon such an object as this, which will never answer our expectation; but instead of making us happy, will not fail, the more we love it, to make us so much the more miserable.

But then, must pleasure, to which God hath adapted our natures, and given us strong propensions; must honour and esteem, which are the due reward and a great encouragement of virtue; must greatness and wealth, which are so necessary, the one to government, that evildoers may be kept in awe and suppressed, and those that do well may be countenanced and protected; the other to works of charity and mercy, those more large and public ones especially, which are the glory of a nation, and so very much conduce to the honour of God and the manifold good of men: must we have no value at all for things of this nature, because they may be abused, and because St. John says, love not the world, nor the things that are in the world? I do John ii. 15.

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not say so, nor does our holy religion require this of us; it is the immoderate love of these things which our Lord and his apostles forbid, and which we have been speaking against. That is, when we set our hearts upon them, and employ our constant thoughts and most earnest endeavours in the pursuit of them, and rest in the enjoyment of them as that which will make us happy. Then they will become the bane of what is our happiness indeed; and he that so loves the world does unworthily prostitute this noble passion to ends quite contrary to those for which it was designed.

For our love of any worldly good is no further allowable, than it keeps within the bounds which religion has set it, and is made subservient to it. Thus,

Pleasure must be used and affected only as a transient refreshment of nature, to enable us the better to serve our most gracious and bountiful Benefactor, and to answer cheerfully the ends of our creation, and with alacrity to perform his will; and it must be always innocent, both as to the kind and the degree.

Honour and esteem must be no further valued or desired than will serve the interests of virtue; as a spur to excite and quicken both ourselves and others to make still greater proficiency in it.

And greatness, whether of quality or estate, by no means be greedily coveted to gratify our pride and ambition, or prized upon any other account than that it will make us more capable of imitating our divine Patron in doing good.

But when either of these begin to alienate our affections from God, and puff us up with vain con

ceits of ourselves, and make us apt to despise and neglect others, and mind nothing but the gratification of our own corrupt desires in luxury and excess; when they but begin to have this ill effect upon us, we must immediately put a close restraint upon them, and very much withdraw our affections from them, or else they will soon be our ruin.

Therefore it is that we are so often exhorted by our Lord and his apostles to take heed and beware of these things, as of very fatal consequence if indulged too far; and the experience of all the world shews the reasonableness of those advices, and the necessity of observing them.

Now, can any man be so foolishly fond of these things as to think that what has been so pernicious to others will be perfectly harmless to him? that he alone shall remain innocent and safe amidst such forcible temptations, and in such dangerous circumstances? This is as groundless a presumption as for a man to drink what he knows to be rank poison, and persuade himself that, however deadly it has been to every body else, it will yet do him no harm.

I have the longer insisted upon this particular, that we may be sensible there is nothing here below, nothing that this world can afford, that is the proper object of this truly noble and leading passion of love: that is, that we be very cautious of passionately engaging our affections in a vigorous pursuit of such worthless objects as will by no means countervail the pains we take to attain them; and instead of conducing to our happiness, will but still more and more embroil us, and cause us abundantly

c Luke xii. 15; Matt. vi. 25; 1 Tim. vi. 5, &c.; 1 John ii. 15.

more of vexation and uneasiness than they can pretend to give us of satisfaction and delight. For why should we disquiet ourselves about these empty things in vain? why should we be so fond of this fleeting shadow of felicity? a slight, transient affection is enough for so slight and transient a good; but love requires a good that is truly excellent and solid and durable, that will appear still greater, the more and longer we enjoy it; and make us still more and more happy, the more full possession we have of it, and the more intimately we are united to it.

Such a good as this would be a treasure indeed inestimable, which we should love infinitely, desire and pursue with the greatest passion, embrace with the utmost joy, adhere to inseparably, and never be tempted, upon any considerations whatever, to part with our interest in it.

But then, here is the great inquiry-Where is such a good as this to be found? Is there nothing whereon our hitherto restless souls may fix, and which is sufficient to satisfy our keen hunger and insatiable thirst after happiness? Something certainly there must be, that is able to fill all the capacities of our souls, and answer our largest desires; or else those capacities were given us to no purpose, and those desires to a very ill one, only to torment and make us miserable.

Our own experience therefore, and that of all the world, assuring us, that no created good can make us happy, nor consequently deserve the full force of this noble passion of love; we must have recourse to the great Creator of all things, who is the supreme good, the fountain of being and perfection;