SECTION III. 39 in agreat measure prevented or suppressed. Indeed a man will much sooner confess his passion than his pride : Yot will hear him sometimes acknowleding to his friend, " It is the frailtyof 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 be- coming 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 he 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 liard 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. ifany man will corne 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 Isis schemes, contri- vánces 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 Isis purposes and the wishes and humours of his heart, nothing is right, nothing is well : t-Iis 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 littlecircle of self : We shouldnot 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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