490 / 652
4$d
THE ADVAI4TA0L5
0F
RtTEtYLITY
tSÉCT.
llt:
pretences over
the
rest of
the
mass,
wherein
it
lay
in
common
pollution
and
wretchedness
?
Or
if
we
hope
that
we
are
called and sanctified and be-
come the
children
of
God,
who
was
it
made the
differ-
ence
?
Was it
not
the free
mercy
of God
that
called us
and
wrought
the divine change in
us
?
What
is
there for
us-
to
boast of
?
Let
us
allow those who
we
think
are yet
uncalled and unchanged
by
grace all the natural excel-
lencies and moral qualifications
that
belong
to them,
and
not
sully
and
darken the
evidences
of
our
own
christian-
ity
by
a
haughty and scornful carriage toward our
neigh-
bours.
Let
us
remember
yet further,
that
many others
are
called
and renewed
and sanctified as
well as
we,
and
perhaps
have brighter evidences
of their
graces, and bear
up
the
character
-of
the children
of God
with
more
honour
than
We
do
:
and
we
should
think
so
too if
our pride
and
conceit
would
but
suffer
-us
to
see
their
shining
vir-
tues, their
exalted
piety.
If
we
could
but maintain
such.,
thoughts
as
these
we
should
not
assume such
haughty
airs, such insolence
of
language over
our
fellow-worms
that
are crept out of
the
same bed
of
meanness and
de-
filement,
and some of them
perhaps
have
a
larger share
of
purifying grace than
ourselves.
Or
had
I
but
a
due
degree
of
self-
abasement,
how
swift
and ready should I
he
to
spy
out
the virtues
which
my
neighbour
possesses,
and to
pay
due honour
to
all
his
valuable qualifications
;
even as the
proud,
the
envious,
and the
malicious spirits
are 'ready
to spy
out
the ble-
mishes
of
their
fellows
and to expose them.
It
is
the voice
of
the humble
man concerning
his
poor
neighbour,
"
Though
he may
not
have
so
much
of
this
world
as
God
bas
given
to
me, yet,
perhaps,
he
has
a
larger
and fairer
interest
in
the inheritance
on high
He
may
not
have such
a
large acquaintance
with human
sciences
because
he has
not
had the advantages
which
I
have enjoyed,
but perhaps
he
is
richer
in
grace,
and has
laid up
a
better treasure against a
day to
come.
It
may
be
he
is
not
so
much
acquainted
with
courts
and palaces,
he has
little
to
do with
chariots and
horses and rich equi-
page,
but
perhaps
he
is
more
acquainted
with
God, oftner
at
the
gates
of
heaven, and
nearer
a-kin to
'the
spirits
made perfect,
to
the
saints
aid-
angels
on high.' Thus