SERM. now more than ever seemeth to judge, and accordingly LXII. to act; and thence is the ftate of things vifibly fo bad and calamitous; thence fo little honefty in dealings, thence fo little fettlement in affairs are difcernible. But how falfe that judgment is will appear if the cafe be weighed in the balance of pure reafon; and moft foolish it will appear being scanned according to the principles of religion. In reason is it not very abfurd that any man fhould look upon himself as more than a single perfon; that he fhould prefer himself before another, to whom he is not in any respect fuperior; that he fhould advance his own concernment above the public benefit, which compre hendeth his good, and without which his good cannot fubfift? Can any man rationally conceive that he can firmly thrive or perfift in a quiet and fweet condition, when he graspeth to himself more than is due or fitting, when he provoketh against himself the emulation, the competition, the oppofition, the hatred, and obloquy of all or of many other perfons?) May not any man reasonably have the fame apprehenfions and inclinations as we may have? may not any man juftly proceed in the fame manner as we may do? will they not, feeing us mainly to affect our private interest, be induced, and in a manner forced, to do the like? Thence what end can there be of progging and serambling for things? and in the confufion thence arifing, what quiet, what content can we enjoy ? Again; Doth not nature, by implanting in our conftitution a love of fociety and averfation from folitude, inclinations to pity and humanity, pleasant complacencies in obliging and doing courtefies to others, appetites of honour and good esteem from others, aptness to approve and like the practices of juftice, of fidelity, of courtesy, of beneficence, capacities to yield fuccour and benefit to our brethren, dictate unto us, that our good is infeparably connected and complicated with the good of others, fo that it cannot without its own impairing fubfift alone, or be fevered from the good of others; no more than a limb can without fuffering and deftruction be torn from SERM. the whole? Is there not to all men in fome measure, to fome men in a higher degree, a generosity innate, most lovely and laudable to all; which difpofeth men with their own pain, hazard, and detriment to fuccour and relieve others in distress, to serve the public, and promote the benefit of fociety; fo that inordinately to regard private intérest doth thwart the reason and wifdom of nature? LXII. The frame of our nature indeed speaketh, that we are not born for ourselves; we fhall find man, if we contemplate him, to be a nobler thing than to have been defigned to ferve himself, or to fatisfy his fingle pleasure ; his endowments are too excellent, his capacities too large St. Paul, for fo mean and narrow purposes e. How pitiful a creature were man, if this were all he was made for! how forry a faculty were reason, if it ferved not to better uses! he debaseth himself, he difgraceth his nature, who hath fo low conceits, and pursueth so petty defigns. Nay, even a true regard to our own private good will engage us not inordinately to pursue self-intereft; it being much hugged will be fmothered and destroyed. As we are all born members of the world, as we are compacted into the commonwealth, as we are incorporated into any fociety, as we partake in any converfation or company, fo by mutual support, aid, defence, comfort, not only the common welfare first, but our particular benefit confequently doth fubfift; by hindering or prejudicing them, the public first, in confequence our particular doth fuffer; our thriving by the common prejudice will in the end turn to our own lofs. As if one member fucketh too much nourishment to itself, and thence fwelleth into an exorbitant bulk, the whole thence incurreth disease, fo coming to perifh or languifh; whence confequently that irregular member will fall into a participation of ruin or decay: fo it is in the ftate of human cor • Nec fibi, fed toti natum fe credere mundo. Subrepfit, partemque tulit fibi nata voluptas. Rom. ix. SERM. porations; he that in ways unnatural or unjust (for jus LXII. tice is that in human focieties, which nature is in the rest of things) draweth unto himself the juice of profit or pleasure, so as thence to grow beyond his due fize, doth thereby not only create diftempers in the public body, but worketh mischief and pain to himself; he must not imagine to escape feeling fomewhat of the inconvenience and mifery which arifeth from public convulfions and diforders. So doth reafon plainly enough dictate; and religion with clearer evidence and greater advantage discovereth the fame. Its exprefs precepts are, that we fhould aim to love. our neighbour as ourfelves, and therefore should tender his interests as our own; that we should not in competition with the greater good of our neighbour regard our own leffer good; that we should not seek our own things, but concern ourselves in the good of others; that we should not confult our own ease and pleasure, but should Phil. ii. 4. contentedly bear the burdens of our brethren: Look not every man to his own things, but every man alfo to the 1 Cor.x. 24. things of others; Let no man feek his own, but every man Gal. ii. 6. another's wealth; Bear one another's burdens, and fo ful1 Cor. xiii. fil the law of Chrift; Charity feeketh not its own: thefe are apoftolical precepts and aphorifms; these are fundamental rules and maxims of our holy religion. 5. It chargeth us induftriously to employ our pains, liberally to expend our goods, yea (in fome cafes) willingly to expose and devote our lives for the benefit of our brethren. It recommendeth to us the examples of those who have underwent unfpeakable pains, loffes, difgraces, troubles, and inconveniences of all kinds, for the furthering the good of others; the examples of our Lord and of his Apoftles, who never in any case regarded their own interests, but spent and facrificed themselves to the public welfare of mankind. It reprefenteth us not only as brethren of one family, who should therefore kindly favour, affift, and grace one LXII. 1 Cor. xii. 15. another, but as members of one spiritual body, (members SERM, one of another,) compacted by the closest bands of common alliance, affection, and intereft; whofe good much Rom. xii. 5, confifteth in the good of each other; who should together 25. rejoice, and condole with one another; who fhould care Rom. xii, for one another's good as for our own; looking upon ourselves to gain by the advantage, to thrive in the profperity, to be refreshed with the joy, to be graced with the honour, to be endamaged by the loffes, to be afflicted with the croffes of our brethren; fo that, If, as St. Paul 1 Cor. xii, faith, one member fuffer, all the members fuffer with it; if 26. one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. These which I have already handled are the principal kinds of vicious felf-love; there are farther fome special acts of kin to them, fprouting from the fame ftock; which I fhall touch: fuch as Vain-Glory, Arrogance, Talking of One's Self, Thinking about One's Self. Of thefe I fhall treat more briefly. VOL. III. SERMON LXIII. OF VAIN-GLORY, ARROGANCE, TALKING AND 2 TIM. iii. 2. For men fhall be lovers of themselves, &c. OF VAIN-GLORY. SERM. WHEN a regard to the opinion or defire of the esteem LXIII. of men is the main principle from which their actions do proceed, or the chief end which they propound to themfelves, instead of confcience of duty, love and reverence of God, hope of the rewards promised, a fober regard to their true good, this is vain-glory. Such was the vainglory of the Pharifees, who fafted, who prayed, who gave Matt. vi. alms, who did all their works that they might be feen of men, and from them obtain the reward of estimation and Phil. ii. 3. applaufe: this is that which St. Paul forbiddeth; Let nothing be done out of ftrife or vain-glory. &c. xxiii. 5. 6. When men affect and delight in praise from mean or indifferent things; as from fecular dignity, power, wealth, ftrength, beauty, wit, learning, eloquence, wifdom, or Pfal. xlix. craft: as, There are many, faith the Pfalmift, that boast themfelves in the multitude of their riches. Nebuchadnezzar was raised with the conceit of having built a palace for the glory of his majesty, Herod was puffed with Does applaufe for his oration, the Philofophers were vain in To the esteem procured by their pretence to wisdom, the Rom. i. 22. Pharifees were elevated with the praise accruing from ex ternal acts of piety, (fasting twice a week, making long |