which they contract in maintaining that high Living which the extravagance of their Pride puts them upon, and will not be contented without, whether they can afford it or no. In fhort, there feems to be a Spirit of Emulation among Men who fhall appear greatest ; and the World is upon the stretch and the ftrain in this vain Contention, without any other fenfe or fhame of the Vice, but only that of being excell'd in it.

now.

25. If Pride was ever so great, fure it was never fo general as now, nor never so much among the Inferiour part of the World as For I must do the Higher that right as to say, that though there is too much of it every where, yet that the Pride of the Nation, that at least which is the Character of this Age, does not lie fo much in the Nobility and Gentry, who (here and there an upstart excepted) are much as they used to be, as in thofe of the middle and lower rank, particularly the Trading part of the Nation, and Country People, who indeed are much otherwise, I mean a great deal Prouder than they used to be. And the lower you go,still the more Pride you will find. For even the Poor are as Proud in their way as any, and for ought I know the very Proudest of all. For though they don't fhew it by their Habit and Port, or Pride of Life, (and a good reafon why) yet they fhew it as they can, by Y 3

the

the Language of their Humour and Temper. For there are none that are more captious and exceptious, more nice and difficult, and that must be treated with more Care, Caution and Obfervance. None that are more eafily offended, or more hardly reconciled, that are more apt to take, or more backward to forgive a Slight or an Affront, or so much as a Neglect.

26. But this latter Obfervation, is perhaps what may be made at all times. That which more peculiarly concerns the present, is the far advanced and very furprizing Pride of the middle and lower ranks, especially in the greater Towns, who have been for fome time treading upon the Heels of the Gentry, and are now got up to a ftrange degree of Pride and Vanity, affecting to live high, to eat nicely, and to appear great, to take state upon them, and to imitate the Manner, the Drefs, the Behaviour, and the way of living of those, whofe Birth and Quality gives them a fair right and title to a great many things which the other cannot imitate without an unpardonable Vanity. And left their Pride fhould Dye with them, due Care is taken that their Children be brought up in the fame vain way, (which is unhappily mistaken for Breeding and good Education) that fo when they come hereafter to reap the fruits of their Parents Industry, and to

inherit

inherit a plentiful Estate, they may not want Pride to appear great and graceful in it. So little is the far greater ornament of a Meek and Quiet Spirit valued among Men, tho' in the fight of God of great Price.

27. This gives Occafion for a more general, and indeed very fad Reflection, and the more fad because it is fo general, and that is to confider with what Care and Diligence, not to fay Coft and Expence, Parents are wont to Nurfe up their Children in Pride and Vanity; a Vice fo finful and odious, and of it felf fo very infinuating, and to which the Devil fo peculiarly tempts, as knowing that he himself fell, and what he loft by it, and to which the bent of our corrupt Nature ftands of it felf fo much difpofed. Sure there needs no Art nor Pains to promote this Vice, to incourage a Weed that so naturally grows almost in every Soil, but a great deal to kill and mortify it. And yet by the conduct of the World in this Affair, one would think that Pride were the Vertue, and Humility the Vice. For fure, if Pride were never so great a Vertue, People could not well take more care than they now do to inftill it into their Children, and to train them up in the Disciplin of it. To which vicious and moft deftructive Management, nothing I fancy more contributes than that unhappy Notion just now hinted at, in taking

YA

taking Pride, or at leaft those methods of Education which minifter to it, for good Breeding. But befides that the best and trueft Breeding is Humility, fure they have their Breeding at a very dear rate, if they must pay their Vertue for it.

28. But how two fuch chargeable and expenfive Vices as Pride and Luxury, either of which is enough to impoverish those that have them, fhould come to meet together at fuch a feafon as this, is a Question that I know not well how to answer. It is indeed a very ftrange Conjunction, and I wish it may not be a portending one. Pride indeed and Fullness, which was the Character of Sodom, Ezek. 16. 49. make no very unfuitable mixture, it being as natural for Plenty to beget Pride, as it is for Pride to beget Poverty. But Pride and Emptinefs do not do fo well together ; and one would think that we fhould have had Evacuations enough to bring down our Spirits, and to make us Humble, and that our Pride by this time might have been purged away among other things, But fometimes lofs of Blood and other great Evacuations cause Fevers, and Nature when reduced to a very low Ebb recollects its forces, and makes fome extraordinary efforts to exert it felf, and fo goes off with a dying flourish. I pray God this may not be our Cafe, and that these more than ordinary Exertions

of

of our Pride at this unfeasonable time for it, may not be tokens of our approaching Ruin. For of that, if we believe Solomon, Pride is the forerunner, and I wish those words of his may be confidered by us, before they are verified in us; Pride goes before deftruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall, Prov. 16. 18.

CHAP.