SECTION XVIII. 483 others ? Are you not formed of common earth ? Made of one flesh andblood withother men ? Shall a little finer house or finer clothes make a worm vain among his fellow- worms, and tempt him to scorn his kindred ? Consider what you shall be. Your flesh returns to corruption and common earth again ; nor shall your dust be distinguished from the meanest beggar or slave ; no, nor from the dust of brutes and insects, or the most contemp- tible of creatures ; and as for your soul, that must stand before God in the world of spirits, on a level with the rest of mankind, and divested of all your haughty and flattering circumstances. None ofyour vain distinctions in this life shall attendyou to the judgment-seat. Keep this tribunal in view, and pride will wither and hang down its head. 2. Ifyou have any fancied advantagesabove others, retnem- ber whence youderive them. Who is it made you der from the meanest and vilest ofmortals ? Ifyou have receivedall fromGod. Why do ye boast, and look big, as thoughyou hadnot received 2 1 Cor. iv. 7. 3. Set youself often in the presence of the great God. Think how mean and contemptible you are in his sight. Learn humility this,way as Job did, who abhorred himself in dasi and ashes, when he saw God in his majesty and glory ; Job xlii. 5, 6. 4. Think on the glorious condescension of Jesus the Son of God, who was the express image ofhis Father, and the bright- ness of his Father's glory ; lieb. i. 3. and yet put on our feeble flesh andblood, todwell with men, and to die for them. Theman Jesus united to God, is the highest of creatures, and yet the humblest. Fix your thoughts on the amazing instances of his humility, and imitate so fair and divine a pattern. 5. Survey the things that raise your pride, consider how vain they are. Is if silver and gold ? The dust of the earth ? Perishing treasures ! Poor comforters in a hour of inward dis- tress, of sickness or death ! Is it beauty, and youth and strength ? What withering flowers are all these ! What gay and dying vanities, that are wasting hourly, andmay be blasted with an east wind ! Is it honour and fame among men ? What an empty thing is the breath of mortals ! How subject to change ! How unjust and feeble a foundation for pride! It is sometimes' given to the worst of men without due merit; and even when it is best merited, and most justly given, it is but a sound that vanishes into empty air. Is it high birth thatmakes you proud and scorn- ful ? This is the 'honour of your ancestors more than your own, and perhaps it was not raised at first upon virtue or true merit ; then it is a worthless thing indeed. Is it your knowledge and wisdom that puffs you up with conceit ? It is a sign you want xh2
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=