guests; nor are they less mercenary than he; the one sells his meat for money, the other for praise. Far more generous is the practice of the pious man; who, as he chooseth most to benefit those who can make him no recompense, so he doth not trouble the world with the noise of his charity; yea, his left hand knoweth not what his right hand bestoweth: and that which doth most endear his bounty, is the love and affection whence it proceeds.

We shall name but one instance more wherein the righteous man excelleth his neighbour; and that is, his venerable temperance and purity. He hath, risen above the vaporous sphere of sensual pleasure, which darkeneth and debaseth the mind, which sullies its lustre, and abates its native vigour; while profane persons, wallowing in impure lusts, do sink themselves below the condition of men. Can there be any spark of generosity, any degree of excellency in him who makes his belly his god, or places his felicity in the embraces of a strumpet? We spoke before of the slavery, we speak now of the deformity of these sins: and shall add, that one of the most shameful and miserable spectacles in the world, is, to see a man born to the use of reason, and perhaps to an eminent fortune, drink away his religion, his reason, his sense; and so expose himself to the pity of wise men, the contempt of his own servants, the derision of his children,—and fools to every danger, and to every snare; and that this must pass in the eyes of many for a piece of gallantry, and necessary accomplishment of a gentleman. Good God! how are the minds of men poisoned with perverse notions? what unreasonable measures do they take of things? We may expect next they shall commend theft, and make harangues to the praise of parricide; for they are daily advancing the boldness of their impieties, and with confidence avowing them. Other ages have practised wickedness; but to ours is reserved the impudence to glory in them. But would men but open their own eyes, and give way to the sentiments of there own minds, they would soon alter

their maxims, and discover the miserable deformity of vice, and the amiable beauty and majesty of religion; that it doth at once adorn and advance the human nature, and hath in it every thing generous and noble, cheerful and spiritual, free and ingenuous; in a word, that the righteous is more excellent than his neighbour. Before we proceed further, it will be necessary to take off some prejudices and objections that arise against the nobleness and excellency of religion. And the first is, That it enjoineth lowliness and humility; which men ordinarily look upon as an abject and base disposition. What, will they say, can ever that man aspire to any thing that is excellent, whose principles oblige him to lie low and grovel on the ground; who thinks nothing of himself, and is content that all the world think nothing of him? Is this a disposition fit for any but those whose cross fortune obliged them to suffer miseries and affronts? Such are men's thoughts of humility, which God loves so much, that we may say he sent his own Son from heaven to teach and recommend it. But if we ponder the matter, we shall find, that arrogance and pride are the issues of base and silly minds, a giddiness incident to those who are raised suddenly to unaccustomed height; nor is there any vice doth more palpably defeat its own design, depriving a man of that honour and reputation which it makes him aim at.

On the other hand, we shall find humility no silly and sneaking quality; but the greatest height and sublimity of the mind, and the only way to true honour: Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honour is humility. Lowliness is the endowment of highborn and well-educated souls, who are acquainted with the knowledge of excellent things; and therefore do not doat upon trifles, or admire little things merely because they are their own. They have no such high opinion of riches, beauty, strength, or other the like advantages, as to value themselves for them, or to despise those who want them: but they study to surmount themselves, and all the little attainments they have hitherto reached, and are still aspiring to higher and more noble things. And

it is worth our notice," that the most deep and pure humility doth not so much arise from the consideration of our faults and defects, (though that also may have its own place,) as from a calm contemplation of the divine perfections. By reflecting on ourselves, we may discover something of our own sinfulness and misery; and thereby be filled with a kind of boisterous and turbulent grief and indignation: but, by fixing our eyes on the infinite greatness and holiness of God, we are most fully convinced of our own meanness. This will sink us to the very bottom of our beings, and make us appear as nothing in our own sight, when beheld from so great a height." And this is really the greatest elevation of the soul; and there is nothing in the world so noble and excellent as the sublimity of humble minds.

Nor

Another objection against the excellency of a religious temper, is, That the love of enemies, and pardon of injaries, which it includeth, is utterly inconsistent with the principles of honour. Now, though it be highly unreasonable to examine the laws of our Saviour by such rules as this, yet we shall consider the matter a little. shall we seek to elude or qualify this precept, as some do, by such glosses and evasions as may suit with their own practices: nay, we shall freely profess, that there is no salvation without the observation of it. A man had even as well abandon Christianity, and renounce his baptism, as obstinately refuse to obey it. But if we have any value for the judgment of the wisest man and a great king, he will tell us, that it is the honour of man to cease from strife; and he that is slow to wrath, is of great understanding. The meek and lowly person liveth above the reach of petty injuries; and blunts the edge of the greatest by his patience and constancy; and hath compassion towards those who offend him: being more sorry for the prejudice they do themselves, than for that which they intended him. And let all the world judge whether it be more generous to pity and love even those who hate us, and to pardon the greatest offences, than peevishly to quarrel on every petty occasion, and make men fear our passion, hate our humour, and aban

don our society? So that what is here brought as an objection against religion, might with reason enough have been brought as an instance of its nobleness.

Having thus illustrated and confirmed what is asserted in the text, that the righteous is more excellent than his neighbour; let us improve it as a check to that profane and atheistical spirit of drollery and scoffing at religion, which hath got abroad in the world. Alas! do men consider what it is which they make the butt of their scoffs and reproaches? Have they nothing else to exercise their wit and vent their jests upon, but that which is the most noble and excellent thing in the world? What design can they propose unto themselves by this kind of impiety? Would they have religion banished from the face of the earth, and forced to retire for shame? What a goodly world should we then have of it! what a fine harmony and order of things! Certainly the earth would then become a kind of hell, with tumults and seditions, rapines and murders, secret malice, and open frauds, by every vice and every calamity. "Tis only some little remainders of piety and virtue in the world that keep it in any tolerable condition, or make it possible to be inhabited. And must not those be wretched persons, and woful enemies to mankind, who do what they can to reduce the world to such a miserable condition? But let them do what they will; they but kick against the pricks. Religion hath so much native lustre and beauty, that, notwithstanding all the dirt they study to cast upon it; all the melancholy and deformed shapes they dress it in, it will attract the eyes and admiration of all sober and ingenuous persons: and while these men study to make it ridiculous, they shall but make themselves so. And O! that they would consider how dear they are to pay for those dull and insipid jests wherewith they persecute religion, and those who practise it or recommend it! what thoughts they are like to have of them when sickness shall arrest, and death threaten them, when the physicians shall have forsaken them, and the poor despised minister is called in, and they expecting comfort from him they were wont to mock, and per

haps it is little he can afford them. O that they were wise, and understood this, that they would consider their latter end!

There are others who have not yet arrived to this height of profaneness, to laugh at all religion; but do vent their malice at those who are more conscientious and severe than themselves, under presumption that they are hypocrites and dissemblers. But besides that in this they may be guilty of a great deal of uncharitableness, it is to be suspected that they bear some secret dislike to piety itself, and hate hypocrisy more for its resemblance of that, than for its own viciousness; otherwise whence comes it that they do not express the same animosity against other vices?

Hitherto also may we refer those expressions which sometimes drop from persons not so utterly debauched, but which yet are blasphemous and profane; that this man is too holy, and that man too religious, as if it were possible to exceed in these things. What! can a man approach too near to God? Can he be too like his maker? Is it possible to be over-perfect or over-happy? I confess a man may overact some parts of religion, and be too much in some particular exercises of it, neglecting other as necessary duties. But this is not an excess of piety, but a defect of discretion. And reason would teach us rather to pardon men's infirmities for their pious inclinations, than to blame piety for their infirmities.

Let me therefore entreat you all, especially those whose birth and fortunes render them more conspicuous in the world, to countenance holiness, which you see is so excellent; and beware that you do not contribute to that deluge of wickedness that overfloweth the earth, by scoffing at the most serious things in the world. And, if I obtain this, I shall make bold to beg one thing more, but it is in your own favours; that you would also abandon every kind of impiety in your own practice, since in it every vile ruffian may vie and contend with you. In other cases you forsake modes and customs when they become common. Wickedness is now the