.SECT. 1V .1 into the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not ;" John i. 10. When shall it be that the :professed followers of the blessed Jesus shall have no vain boasters among them, no seekers of their own glory, nor any greedy devourers of their own praises ? The appetite of praise in the sense of the wisest of men is like the relishof honey : " To eat too much of it takes away the refined pleasure, and to search out our own glory is not glory;" Prov. xxv. 27. But in vain bath Solomon been preaching to these men from his own age till this day, for the voice of wisdom is not heard where pride and self maintain their dominion. They are blind and deaf to all instructors. Yet it must be confessed there are some hours and occasions, there are some companies and occurrences in life which make it (proper and almost necessary to speak ofone's self to advantage : Prudence and religion should direct us how to distinguish those seasons and those occasions. A wise man when he is constrained to speak ofhis own character, or to support his own honour, feels a sort of inward uneasiness lest he should be taken for a vainglorious fool, and is even ashamed to speak what is necessary for his own vindication, lest it appear like va- nity and boasting. See this notably exemplified in the conduct of St. Paul the greatest of the apostles, who was furnished with more sublime talents and blessed with more illustrious success than all the messengers of the gospel of Christ. This very man who counts himself .less than the least of all the saints, was once reviled by some upstarts in the Corinthian church, who pretended to rival his office, and thus they led his converts away from the truth: Then he was compelled to produce his own credentials, to display his own divine commission, and to make his superior qualifications known to the people. See the 2 Cor. xi. 5, 6. "il suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles; though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge : We have been throughly made manifest among you in all things :" And then he recounts his abundant labours, his abundant sufferings and his services to Christ and souls : But mark how often this man of heavenly wisdom represents this his conduct as acting like a fool, and he seems to blush at himself while he boasts himself a little, verse 16, &c. K3 TNREGARD TOOURSELVES'. 501
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