SECT. tv.] be polite and fashionable, must be agreeable to their fancy, or else they are affronted, and their choler is raised. The man of vanity imagines his character and his figure so exalted, as though he had a right to claim honour from all around him ; and upon this account he has an unhap- py right to assume to himself more affronts than others, and to vex himselfwith many resentments above and be- yond his neighbours : The ideaof his own quality entitles him to it. " Well, let the vain man swell thus with his own idea, his grandeurs and his honours, let him maintain and ex- ercise this painful and vexatious prerogative of continual resentment, while the God of heaven fills my heart with humility and peace. Then shall I stand aloof from these honourable follies, and be delivered from this disquieting and uneasy consciousness of my own merit : I shall be free from this troublesome and tormenting right of tak- ing offence at every thing: I shall no more resent the little supposed neglects of my inferiors, nor teaze my own heart with those shadows of an affront, which a vain and busy fancy can create hourly. Grant, O my God, thou Father of my spirit, that there may be no dark cor- ner in my heart to keep such hellish tinder in it, lest I should be kindled and fired with every flying spark." V. The man who is not wont to raise a great and high idea himself can much more easily content himself in a middle station of life, without a fond and anxious pursuit of wealth and grandeur either for himself, or for his household. He can rest satisfied in a mean estate, if the providence of God so appoint it ; for what is there in me, saith he, to deserve or expect riches or greatness among men ? But he that carries about him an exalted image of his own worth, is pushed on by ambition to climb up to pinnacles, and to venture upon methods dan- gerous to his soul and conscience, in order to acquire wealth as the support of equipage and grandeur. It is hardly possible for a mortal to be full of self, but he must be worldly - minded. Whereas if we are christians and the sons of heaven in this vain and perishing world, God speaks to us for the most part as he did to Baruch ; fer. xlv. 5. " Seekest thou great things for thyself, seek them not." " Stand thou, Omy soul, among the ranks of humble 9, x4 IN REGARD TO OURSELVES. 503
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