SERM.as the Flower of Grafs; The grafs witherXI. eth, and the Flower thereof falleth away, And Jam. i. 10.

1 Pet. i. 24.

Let the Rich rejoice, in that he is made low; becaufe as a Flower of the Grafs he shall pass away. It may be proper likewife to confider, that, if we are placed in High Stations, we have a larger Account to give, to him that ruleth over All; and poffibly, while we are honoured upon this fingle Account, others beneath us may be valuable for better and more really excellent Qualifications: And it will not be long before Death and Judgment level all worldly Diftinctions: And the greatest Men, if they have been wicked, fhall then be forced to cry out, What hath Pride profited us ? or what bath riches with our vaunting brought us ? All these things are past away as a Shadow, and as a Poft that hafteth by. Again: If we are apt to be puft up with the Advantage of Natural Abilities, fuch ás Learning, Knowledge, Wisdom, or the like; it may humble us to confider, how Small a Degree of these things, we can attain to even at the best; seeing that Knowledge, as fob moft elegantly expreffes it,

is

is bid from all men, neither is it found inSE RM. XI. the land of the living. And if we could attain to much more of it, than we do; ch. xxviii. yet ftill there is fomething far more Ex-21, 13. cellent than That: For Knowledge puffeth up, but Charity edifieth; And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, be knoweth nothing yet, as he ought to know, 1 Cor. viii. 1. Wherefore, Thus faith the Lord: Let not the wife man glory in his Wifdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his Might; let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth, glory in This, that be understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercife loving-kindness, judgment and righteoufness in the Earth; For in these things I delight, faith the Lord, Jer. ix. 23. Lastly, If our Advantages even in Religious Improvement itself, tempt us to spiritual Pride and Vain-glory, to judge or to despise our weaker Brethren; the Scripture admonishes us to confider, that all the members of Chrift, are useful in their feveral Stations; I say to every man, fays the Apostle, that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think

Soberly,

SER Mfoberly, according as God has dealt to every XI. man the measure of Faith, i. e. according to the Station wherein God has placed him in the Church; For, as (in our natural capacity) we have many Members in one Body, and all members have not the fame Office; foin our fpiritual capacity) we being many are one Body in Chrift, and every one members one of another, Rom. xii. 3. that therefore the Eye cannot fay to the hand, I have no need of thee; nor again the Head to the Feet, I have no need of you; 1 Cor. xii. 21. that our Saviour himself refused not to be baptized by John Baptift, though a perfon infinitely meaner than himself; but on the contrary declared, that thus it becomes us to fulfil all Righteoufnefs: that, how great foever our Abilities or Advantages be, yet the means by which we ar 2 Cor. iii. rive even at Thefe, are, not that we are fufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of our felves, but our Sufficiency is of God; Cor. iv. that therefore we must learn not to think of men, above that which is written, that no one of us be puffed up for one against ànother For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what haft thou, that thou

5.

6.

didft

XI.

didst not receive? The meaning of which S ERM. places, is not, that God acts upon Men as Machines, fo as that They do nothing at all themselves, but that the Gifts whereby they are enabled to become eminent, (and that not fo much in moral Virtues, as in miraculous fpiritual Powers in the Church, mentioned at large by St Paul, Cor. xii. These are all, not their own, but received from God's free Goodness and Bounty. Further, we are admonished to confider, in abatement of fpiritual Pride and Contempt of our weaker Brethren, and of those who differ from us in matters of opinion; and with whom we are apt to be angry for not complying with our Notions; that there is a day a coming, which, diftinguifhing men by their Works of Piety and true Holinefs only, fhall level them in all other refpects, and fet them upon Even ground before an impar tial Bar; where men's foolish pride and arrogance, fhall be entirely confounded; and thofe who looked with fcorn upon others as infinitely below them, fhall find themselves placed upon an equal foot with them whom perhaps they most despised:

Who

SERM. Who art thou therefore, that judgest anoXI. ther man's fervant? To his own Mafter, be flandeth, or falleth, Rom. xiv. 4. and ver. 10. Why dost thou judge thy Brother? and why dost thou fet at nought thy Brother ? For we shall all ftand before the judgment-feat of Chrift. That, how great foever our improvements be, even in real Virtue and Righteoufnefs; yet we have continual reafon to take heed leaft we fall; and Pride and Confidence, is the Security only of a blind man, who fees no danger: That even while we stand the most upright, we have nothing to glory of before God; For how can man be juftified with Jobxxv. 4iv. 18. God? Behold, he put no trust in his Servants, and his Angels be charged with Folly How much less in them that dwell in houfes of clay, whofe Foundation is in the Duft! That the greatest and most eminently pious men, have been exemplarily humble in This refpect; holy Job refusing to justify himself before God ; and Abraham ftiling himself Duft and lii. 6. Afhes; and Jacob acknowledging himself

jx. 20.

lefs than the leaft of God's mercies; and St Paul calling himself less than the leaft