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.SECT.
1
V .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
relish
of
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
of
one'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
of
his 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
TN
REGARD
TO
OURSELVES'.
501