tion upon the fubject. If it confirm our good opinion of our own conduct, it will give us great delight: if not, it may do us great service, by leading us to amendment.;

III. Humility of behaviour towards our inferiors, on which I fhall chiefly enlarge, must be differently expreffed in different cafes. For fome kinds of fuperiority ought not to be concealed, but fupported and exerted. Parents, mafters, magif trates, rulers and officers of all kinds, would offend againft their duty, were they to make their authority infignificant, by too large or unfeasonable condefcenfions. Their humility therefore confifts in acting as perfons, intrufted with power, nor for their own fake, but that of others: in affuming no greater dignity, than is manifeftly requifite for good ends in joining with it always humanity and affability, and continuing, in the midst of it, to know themfelves in procuring diligently, and hearing impartially, true information and faithful ad vice being reasonable in their commands and expectations, moderate in the burthens they impofe, merciful in the punishments they inflict; and in watching over all committed to their care, as they that must give account; that they may do it with joy, and not with grief*.

But, where pre-eminence carries no authority along with it, an humble mind will be very backward to claim it; for feldom any defirable effects will follow, and often many bad ones.. It may not only give needlefs pain to others, which ought never to be done, but incite them to envy and ill-will, produce contentions and injuries. Moft perfons are uneafy at seeing themselves in a state of inferiority: and therefore both goodnature and prudence forbid us to remind them of it without neceffity. If we are acknowledged to be fuperiors, humility, affifted by a little difcretion, will contribute much to perpetuate the acknowledgement. And if the cafe be doubtful, haughtiness is by no means the way to procure a determination in our favour. People are not willing to let that be extorted from them by overbearing violence, which, if left to themfelves, they would have granted with pleafure, and invited us to accept, as an equitable tribute. Finding any one take upoņ him, without a call to do fo, alarms every one: they know not, how far the matter will be carried; put themselves op

Heb. xiii. 17.

their

their guard, and fet up pretenfions in oppofition. And, if the queftion comes once to be tried by popular opinion, the world, we know, is exceedingly apt to judge wrong, especially when provoked to it. And if,, after all, the point fhould be given againft us; what a fuperfluous difgrace fhall we have brought down upon our own heads, by indulging a spirit, the most incapable of bearing difgrace that can be! Solomon's counfel therefore is full of wifdom. Go not forth baftily to strive, left, thou know not what to do in the end thereof, when thy neighbour bath put thee to shame *. But indeed fuccefs, in a competition of this nature, may be altogether as hurtful, as disappointment by infpiring men with a vanity, which may prove the parent of many fins and follies; may expofe them to much ridicule, and bring them alfo into more ferious inconveniences.

Nor muft we avoid only fuch open and grofs claims to fuperiority, but the indirect one of an affuming air and manner: which fome have, to so strange a degree, that they neither do nor fay any thing, without intimating their own importance. Indeed our very expreffions of civility may have infolence mixed mith them: for what is it lefs, if inftead of treating thofe unaffectedly and frankly as our equals, whom we ought, whether abfolutely fuch in all refpects or not; we take pains to fignify to them politely, that we have the goodness to stoop beneath our rank, in order to put ourselves on a level with them? Nay, were we in no way to claim regard from others, but in the moft fubmiffive and infinuating way to court it; yet fcarce any thing is remoter from true lowliness of mind, than that behaviour, which moft folic toufly difguifes itfelf under the appearance of it, and enables us to climb by creeping. Or even fuppofing neither intereft nor advancement to be our point, but applaufe only: ftill, both acting from a view to gain it, and taking too much pleasure in the consciousness of having gained it, are fnares highly dangerous to humility. And many a man, of otherwife virtuous difpofitions, hath by this one weaknefs, of delighting in his own praifes, been cor rupted infenfibly within; and brought to deferve an extremely different character from that which he coveted.

But to return. If concealing our fuperiority be for the moft part right; refenting a delay, or even refufal, to acknowledge.

Prov. xxv. 8.

knowledge it, must be exceedingly wrong. Other persons may very innocently be ignorant of our merit; may have no concern to inquire about it; may be no judges of it; or may be, on the other hand, better judges than we; and perceive, that we over-value ourfelves. But fuppofe they mistake, or, yet worfe, are unwilling to do us juftice; we are all fo liable to the fame failing, that we must forgive it each other of course, or there can be no longer any peace upon earth.

But farther: As no displeasure should be expreffed towards our inferiors on fuch occafions, no contempt fhould be expreffed towards them on any occafion. The diftance is not fo extremely great between the highest and lowest of men; besides that they, who are inconfiderable in one respect, may deferve highly in another; perhaps more than he, who despises them. Indeed no one is truly defpicable, but for his wilful follies and fins and the fight of thefe ought to give us concern, instead of triumph; especially as we have all too many of our own. But for the rest, be the outward circumftances of others ever fo mean, be the defects of their perfons or understandings ever fo remarkable, the difpofer of all things might have placed us originally in a condition full as wretched, and may even ftill reduce us to it. Therefore laugh no man to fcorn in the bitternefs of his foul: for there is One, which humbleth and exaltcth*. Yet how needlefsly and wantonly do perfons often make their inferiors, especially in rank and fortune, fuffer by their fighting and over-bearing ufage of them, both in words and actions! For an infolent word, or even a haughty look, is enough to cause bitter affliction to him, that knows he must bear it, whether he deferves it or not. And when, to speak in the fon of Sirach's language, The rich man bath done wrong, and yet be threateneth withal; when the poor is wronged, and be muft intreat alfot; the more helplefs the condition is, the more feverely the injury is felt. For people of the lowest class have by nature juft the fame fenfibility that others have. And if others would reflect, how painful the feeling of fuch ill ufage is, they would furely fcruple inflicting it on their fellow-creatures; as not only barbarous, but ungenerous: for all the good ufes of fubordination might be as well, and much better, fecured by gentler means.

VOL. I.

C

Ecclus. vii. 11.

Ecclus. xiii. 3.

But

But fuperiors too frequently confider thofe beneath them, as worthy of no attention; and their moft ferious concerns in life; as things to be played with, and facrificed to every caprice. Now this is one of the moft pernicious kinds of pride. Let any one think ever fo much too highly of himfelf; fo long as he keeps it to himfelf, or only gives out a few flighter intimations of it, though he is very blameable, yet he is tolerably harmless. But there are many, who crufh their inferiors under their feet, without minding them: though perhaps, from principle, fuch as it is, they would behave to, one of their equals in a quite different manner. But fo far all men are equal, that the meanest wretch on earth hath the fame right to live unmolefted and free from infult, as the greateft monarch. And the elevation of one above others, far from authorizing him to trample upon them, ftrictly binds him, to fhow humanity, and afford protection, to all thofe, whom providence, by putting them under his power, hath intitled to his patronage.

This then is the conduct, which humility requires of fupe riors. And to preferve it fteadily, they fhould call to mind every day, that the world was not made for them alone, to gratify their vanity or love of pleasure, to indulge their humours, or purfue their advantages, whatever becomes of the reft: but with intent that each of them fhould contribute faithfully in his ftation, as well as others in theirs, to the common benefit of the whole. For God hath created all men of the fame nature and the fame blood and united them by ftrong inward ties of fympathy and mutual tendernefs, which it is both impious and unnatural to break or loofen. If I have withheld, faith Job, the poor from his defire, or have caufed the eyes of the widows to fail; if I did defpife the cause of my manServant or my maid-fervant, when they contended with me: what then shall I do, when God rifeth up; and when he vifiteth, what fhall I anfwer him? Did not be, that made me, make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb*? We, that are fo fond of exalting ourfelves above those of our own fpecies, who are equal to us in most things; preferable, it may be, in many; and beneath us only in accidental circumftances; do we con fider, before how awful a fuperior we ftand all the time? One

that

* Job xxxi. 13,—16.

that accepteth not the person of princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor: for they are all the work of his bands*. But, happily for the univerfe, his infinite greatnefs is inleparably joined with infinite mercy and bounty: which bleffed union is the very ground of the worship that we pay him, of the honour and love, that fills our hearts at the thought of him. And what is it then, that deferves love and honour amongst men? Surely to imitate this adorable goednefs of him, who is high above all nations, and his glory above the beavens: who yet humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven and earth †. For though the Lord be high, yet bath be refpect unto the lowly; but as for the proud, he beholdeth them afar off t

Let us therefore delight in fhewing ourselves, by all fit. proofs of condefcending benevolence, the true children of our heavenly Father, and the true difciples of our gracious Redeemer; who hath made us all members of one, that is, his own body: and whose rule it is, whofoever will be great among you, let him be your minifter; and whofoever will be chief among you, let him be your fervant; even as the fon of man came, not to be miniftred unto, but to minifter, and to give his life a ransom for many §. The fame leffon, of not difdaining the very meaneft offices of kindness, one to another, when occafion requires them, he taught his apoftles, and through them all his followers, in a manner fo unfpeakably engaging, juft before his death, as one of the farewel demonstrations of his tender affection to them; (for fo the evangelift puts it ;) conveying his meaning the more expreffively, as the eastern cuftom was, by an outward action, peculiarly fitted to exemplify it: that I fhall read you almost the whole paffage, as the beft conclufion, that can be made to a difcourfe on the present fubject.

Now before the feast of the pallover, when Jefus knew that bis hour was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the Father; having loved his own, which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. And fupper being ended, he laid afide his garments, and took a towel and girded himself, After that, he poureth water into a bafon, and began to wash the difciples feet, and to wipe them with the towel, wherewith he

was

Job xxxiv. 19. † Pf. cxiii, 4, 6. ‡ Pf. cxxxviij. 6. § Mat. xx. 26, 27, 28.