his glory is the fulness of the whole earth "." So Rev. iv. 8. 10. "The elders fall down, and cast down their crowns before him that sitteth on the throne." and you will abhor your pride. Look up to heaven Direct. x. Look upon the great imperfection of thy grace and duties.' Should that man be proud that hath so little of the Spirit and image of Jesus Christ? That believ eth no more, and feareth God no more, and loveth him no more? And can no better trust in him, nor rest. upon his Word and love? Nor any more delight in him, nor in his holy laws and service? One would think that the lamentable weakness of any one of all these graces, should take down pride and abase you in your own eyes. Is he a Christian that doth not, even abhor himself, when he perceiveth how little he loveth his God, and how little all his meditations on the love and blood of Christ, and of the infinite goodness of God, and of the heavenly glory do kindle the fire, and warm his heart? Can we observe the darkness of our minds, and ignorance of God, and strangeness to the life to come, and the woeful weakness of our faith, and not be abased to a loathing of ourselves? Can we choose but even abhor those hearts that can love a friend, and love the toys and vanities of this life, and yet can love their God no more? That take no more pleasure in his name, and praise, and word, and service, when they can find pleasure in the accommodations of their flesh? Can we choose but loathe those hearts that are so averse to God, so loath to think of him, so loath to pray to him, so weary of prayer, or holy meditation, or any duty, and yet so forward to the business and recreations of the flesh? Can we feel how coldly and unbelievingly we pray, how ignorantly or carnally we discourse, how confusedly and vainly we think, and how slothfully we work, and how unprofitably we live, and yet be proud, and not be covered with shame? O! for a serious Christian to feel how little of God, of Christ, of heaven is upon his heart, and how little appeareth in any eminent ho liness and fruitfulness and heavenliness of life, is so humbling a consideration, that we have much ado to own ourselves, and not lie down as utterly desolate. Should that soul admit a thought of pride, that hath so little grace as to be uncertain whether he have any at all in sincerity or " Isa. vi. 1-3. not? That cannot with assurance call God, Father, or plead his interest in Christ or in the promises? nor knoweth not if he die this hour, whether he shall go to heaven or hell? Should he be proud that is no readier to die? and no more assured of the pardon of sin? nor more willing to appear before the Lord? If one pained member will make you groan, and walk dejectedly, though all the rest do feel no pain, a soul that hath this universal weakness, a weakness that is so sinful and so dangerous, hath cause to be continually humbled to the dust. Direct. XI. Look upon thy great and manifold sins, which dwell in thy heart, and have been committed in thy life, and there thou wilt see cause for great humiliation.' If thy body were full of toads and serpents, and thou couldst see or feel them crawling in thee, wouldst thou then be proud? Why, so many sins are ten thousand fold worse, and should make thee far viler in thy own esteem! If thou wert possessed with devils, and knewest it, wouldst thou be proud? Why, devils possessing thy body are not so bad or hurtful to thee, as sin in thy soul! The sight of a sin should more take down thy pride, than the sight of a devil. Should that man be proud that hath lived as thou hast lived, and sinned as thou hast sinned, from thy childhood until now? that hath lost so much time and abused so much mercy, and neglected so many means, and omitted so many duties to God and man, and been guilty of so many sinful thoughts, and so many false or foolish words, and hath broken all the laws of God? Should not he be deeply humbled that hath yet so much ignorance, error, unbelief, hypocrisy, sensuality, worldliness, hardheartedness, security, uncharitableness, lust, envy, malice, impatience, and selfishness, as is in thee? Should not thy very pride itself be matter of thy great humiliation, to think that so odious a sin should yet so much prevail? Look thus on thy leprous, defiled soul, and turn thy very pride against itself! Know thyself, and thou canst not be proud. Direct. x11. Look also to the desert of all thy sins, even unto hell itself, and try if that will bring thee low.' Though pride came from hell effectively, yet hell, objectively, may afford thee a remedy against it. Think on the worm that • See my "Treatise of Self-Ignorauice." never dieth, and the fire that never shall be quenched, and consider whether pride become that soul, that hath deserved these. Wilt thou be proud in the way to thy damnation? Thou mightst better be proud of thy chains and rope, when thou art going to the gallows! Think, whether the miserable souls in hell are now minding neat and well set attire, or seeking for dominion, honour, or preferment, or contending who shall be the greatest, or striving for the highest rooms, or setting out themselves to the admiration and ap→ plause of men, or quarrelling with others for undervaluing or dishonouring them! Do you think there is any place or matter there for such works of pride, when God abaseth them? Direct. XIII. Look to the day of judgment, when all proud thoughts and looks shall be taken down; and to the endless misery threatened to the proud.' Think of that world, in which your souls must ere long appear, before the great and holy God, whose presence will abase the proudest sinner. When the tyrants, and gallants, and wantons of the earth, must with trembling and amazement give up their accounts to the most righteous Judge of all the world, then where are their lofty looks and language? Then where are their glory, and gallantry, and proud, imperious domineering, and their scornful despising the humble, lowly ones of Christ? Would you then think that this is the same man, that lately could scarce be seen or spoken with? that looked so big, and swaggered it out in wealth and honour? Is this he that could not endure a scorn, or to be slighted, or undervalued, or plainly reproved? that must needs have the honour and precedency in wit, and greatness, and command? Is this the man that thought he was perfect and had no sin; or that his sins were so small, as not to need the humiliation, renovation, and holy diligence of the saints? Is this the woman that spent half the day in dressing up herself, and house, and furniture for the view of others, and must needs be in the newest or the neatest fashion? that was wont to walk in an artificial pace, with a wandering eye, in a wanton garb, as if she were too good to tread on the earth? Oh! then how the case will be altered with such as these! Can you believe, and consider how you must be judged by God, and yet be proud? Direct. XIV. Look to the devils themselves that tempt you to be proud, and see what pride hath brought them to; and remember, that a proud man is the image of the devil, and pride is the devil's special sin.' He that envieth your happiness, knoweth by sad experience the way to misery; and therefore tempteth you to be proud, that you may come, by the same way, to the same end that he himself is come to. "The angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, are reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, to the judgment of the great day "." Direct. xv. Look well upon thyself, both body and soul, and think whether thou be a person fit for pride.' God hath purposely clothed thine immortal soul in the coarse attire of corruptible flesh, and placed it in so poor and ruinous a cottage, that it might be kept from pride: yea, he made this frail and corruptible body to be a constitutive part of our very persons, that in knowing it, we may know ourselves. Some will have a dead man's skull stand by them, in their studies or chambers, as an antidote against pride. But God hath fastened us yet closer to mortality: death dwelleth in our bowels. We are apt to marvel that so noble a soul should be lodged in so mean a body, made of the earth to which it must return! A stone is durable and clean; but my flesh is corruptible, and must turn to loathsome filth and rottenness. A marble pillar will stand firm and beautiful from age to age, but I must perish and consume in darkness. The seats we sit upon, the pillars we lean to, the stones we tread upon, will be here, when we are turned to dust. The house that I build, may stand when I am rotten in the grave. A tree will live, when he that plant. ed it is dead. Our bodies are of no better materials than the brutes our substance is in a continued flux or waste, and loseth something every day; and if it were not repaired P Jude 6. 4 Fama est fictilibus cœnasse Agathoclea regem, Fortunam reverenter habe, quicunque repente Dives ab exili progrediere loco. Auson, Epigram. viii. Wetstein, p. 18. and patched up by daily air and nourishment, it would soon be spent, and our oil consumed. If you were chained to a dead carcase, which you must still carry about with you, it were not a matter so fit to humble you, as to be united so nearly to so vile a body of your own. We carry a dunghill continually within us. Alas! how silly a piece is the greatest, the strongest, and the comeliest of you all! What is that flesh which you so much pamper, but a skin full of corruption? a bag of filth, of phlegm, or choler, or such like excrements? If the curiousest dames had but a sight of the phlegm in their heads and bowels, the choler about their liver and galls, the worms or filth in other parts, they would go near to vomit at such a sight: the swine or beast hath as clean an inside. And what if this filth be covered with a whiter skin, or clearer colour than their neighbours have, is there any cause of pride in that? When sickness hath altered and consumed you, then where is that which you call beauty? If but the leprosy or the small pox deform it, or a fever, consumption, or dropsy waste it, or the stone, or gout, or any such torment seize upon thee, thou wilt feel or see that which may shame thy pride. Should such a worm be proud, that cannot, though he be a Herod, keep the worms from eating him alive? that in a flux cannot retain his excrements? that cannot bear easily the aching of a tooth? If thou be fit for pride, forbid diseases to touch thy flesh, or stain thy beauty; do not be sick, nor weak, nor pained: let not the worm and corruption be thy guests. Or if thou be so poor a thing, as cannot hinder any of these, then know thyself, and be ashamed of pride. And when thou art in sickness, thou wilt be burdensome to others. It is likely thou must have their helps, even to feed thee, to dress thee, to turn thee, and keep thee clean: and when all is done, thou must die, and be laid in darkness in a grave! There thou must lie rotting night and day, till thy flesh be turned into earth. The grass doth wither when it is cut down, but yet it is sweet: the tree that is cut down will rot in time, but not with such a loathsome stink as we. He that had seen what the late doleful wars did often shew us, when the fields were strewed with the carcases of men, and when they lay by heaps among the rubbish of the ditches of towns and castles that had been assaulted, would |