5. And consider that the nature of the holy employment that you are upon, one would think, should be enough to humble you. It is a confessing of sin, unworthiness and guilt, and will you be proud of this? It is a confessing that you deserve everlasting torment; and will you be proud of such a confession as this? The Lord be merciful to us, and save us from this unreasonable vice; who would think that it should be thus with a man in his wits? To confess that he deserveth hell-fire; and to be proud of that confession! your petitions are all humbling, if they be according to the word; you are beggars for your lives, for pardon of many and heinous sins, and should come as with a rope about your necks; you beg for deliverance from eternal misery: and should you be proud of such requests? Should beggars be proud, yea, such needy, miserable beggars, and be proud of their very begging? Nay, your very thanksgiving itself is humbling. For what do you give thanks for, but for salvation from these odious sins, and the damnation which you have deserved? And shall a thief be proud that he is pardoned and taken from the gallows? Pride is contrary to the very nature and meaning of all those holy duties that you are proud of.

6. Yea, the gifts themselves that you are proud of, should humble you. For, 1. They are from God, and not yourselves. For who maketh thee to differ? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou didst not receive it?" 1 Cor. iv. 7. 2. You received them not for yourselves, but for God; and therefore have no reason yourselves to be lifted up by them. 3. All gifts are for labour and duty, and must be once accounted for; and therefore should keep you in humility and fear. To be proud of God's gifts, is to be proud of that which is given you to destroy pride in yourselves and others; for this is the end of them.

7. And it is a sign that you want exceeding much of that which you are proud of. You are proud of knowledge; whereas, if it were not for want of knowledge of that which should humble you, you would not be so proud. You are proud of your worth; and it is for want of real worth that you are proud. More light, and grace, and parts, would shew you that which would make you blush at the things that you were proud of.

8. And consider that you take the course to provoke God to bereave you of his gifts. He gave them to you for another use. If you will turn them against his face by pride, when he gave them to keep you humble; when you will exalt your carnal selves by it, which he gave you to exalt his Majesty, what can you expect but he should take them from you? And it is an easy matter with him to do it; yea to take away your very understanding, and leave you to the heavy plague of madness, seeing you were proud of your understandings, when alas, poor worms, you had so little cause.

9. If once you grow proud of your parts and gifts, you are in the high way to be given over to some fearful fall; at best to particular scandals, if not to some damnable heresy or apostacy. God may prevent it by your humiliation, but you are in the common road that leads to it. It is much to be feared that God will so far leave you to yourselves, as to let you fall into the dirt of some notorious sin, that your shame may fly abroad the world, instead of the vain-glorious fame which you desired; and that you may have somewhat to humble you, that shall be written in your foreheads, and cannot he denied or hid. Or if you be hypocrites, and for damnation, it is most likely that you are in the ready way to some desperate heresy, or flat apostacy. For we see that these are too frequently the consequents of spiritual pride.

10. Lastly, consider that the gifts you are proud of, are in danger of being unsuccessful to the church; God may, I confess, do good to others by them, though they do but choke yourselves; but ordinarily he denieth success to the proud, and blesseth weaker endeavours of the humble. Yea, often such men and all their parts become a plague and trouble to the church. For they use them to foment the heresies and divisions which they are given over to; and do more hurt than the ignorant, or the common sort of the profane. Learn therefore to deny yourselves of the reputation of your performances. If you feel any tickling delight when you are applauded, cast water on it suddenly, as on a fire kindled in your souls from hell. If you perceive the least stirring of discontent or envy, when the preaching or prayers of another are preferred, and yours less set by, take heed, and quench it; for you are entertaining a dangerous temptation. But if you should be so far lifted up, as to set up

your judgments above their worth, and rise against your teachers and the church of Christ, and desire to step beyond your callings, that your parts may be taken notice of, and you may be somebody in the church, and verify the prophecy of Paul, “Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them;" Acts xx. 30. I say, when once you come to this, it is time to fear lest you be utterly forsaken, and become the shame and scorn of men, as you became the scourge. and troublers of the church, and lest your self-exalting lay you as low as hell.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

Reputation of being Orthodox, how far

8. ANOTHER piece of vainglory to be denied, is the reputation of being orthodox, or of the right religion. The thing itself is in the essentials of absolute necessity to salvation; but the reputation of it, is a thing that we must deny ourselves in. For it commonly falls out in most of the world, that the thing itself, and the reputation of it, are inconsistent; and no man can be orthodox, and of the right religion, but he must be taken to be heterodox, and of the wrong religion; for the wrong is in most places taken for the right. But through the great mercy of God, it is not commonly so in England, nor in the reformed churches abroad, in any great and necessary points. Among us truth hath the advantage of reputation! and so may it continue while the sun endureth! But yet there is use for this part of selfdenial, even with us. We converse among many sects and parties of various opinions; and all of them are confident that they are in the right, and that we are erroneous, and against the truth: so say the Papists, and so say the Libertines, and many others. And there is no way to gain the reputation of being sound and orthodox with any of these men, but by turning to them, and forsaking the truth, and ceasing to be orthodox indeed. In Spain, or Italy, or with English Papists, you must be accounted heretics, or yield to heresy; you must either cease to be true Catholics, or be

content to be esteemed no Catholics: you have your choice whether you really will be schismatics, or be esteemed and called schismatics. And so you will be used among most sects, who judge of truth and error according to their own deluded apprehensions. Yea, and among the orthodox indeed, because they also have their errors, and are not orthodox in all things, you must look for the same measure in those particulars wherein they are mistaken. For thinking themselves in the right, they will too often take it for their duty to let fly at others, as erroneous or dangerous persons, that are not of their mind; and in this mistake, they think they do God service to defame Dissenters, and raise jealousies and suspicions of them, and bid men take heed of them, as of them that hold some dangerous opinions; when it is themselves that are deceived, and should turn those jealousies and cautions homewards. In such cases as these it is a hard strait that a servant of Christ is put to; when he must either err or be supposed to err. But the principal temptation lieth in those countries, where error hath got the major vote, and is patronized both by book and sword, and custom hath fixed the name of truth, upon the foulest heresies; and the name of heresy upon saving truths: here a poor Christian is sorely tempted and put to a lamentable strait. O, saith he,' If I were reputed but to be base, or beggarly, or contemptible, I could bear it; but heresy and schism are such odious things that no man should be patient under the imputation of them.' Answ. Are they such odious things? Take heed of them then, lest out of your own mouths you be judged. If you think the matter so small that you will rather be a heretic or schismatic, than be called or accounted one, it seems you take it for no odious thing. Is the name or the thing more odious to you? Had you rather be erroneous, or be thought to be so? If the thing be most odious to you, the name will be the more tolerable. But if the name be most odious to you, it is dishonour, and not error or schism that you are against. Had you rather part with truth and religion, or with the name and reputation of them? If you set so much by self, and so little by truth, as to let go truth for fear of being thought to let it go; for shame, do not take on you to be lovers of truth, but of yourselves; nor haters of error, but of dishonour.

And consider further that you may lose the reputation

of being orthodox, and catholic, and of the right religion, without losing any of the favour of God; nay, it may be a suffering for his sake that may advance you in his favour, and assure you in the reward of martyrs. For saith Christ, "Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets that were before you;" Matt. v. 11, 12. So that you see the thing that you so abhor, is matter of exceeding joy; even to be falsely counted a heretic or erroneous for the sake of Christ and truth; we are blessed when we are falsely reviled as erBut to roneous, and have all these evil sayings against us. be such indeed, is to be accursed; though the name of heresy will stand with the special love of God, yet heresy itself he utterly abhors. And whether do you think it is better to part with truth, and the favour of God with it; or with the name and reputation of truth, while we keep both truth and the favour of God? Deny yourselves then, even as to the reputation of faith and orthodoxness; for you will certainly deny the faith, if you cannot deny the name of it, to pre

serve it.

CHAPTER XLIX.

Reputation of Godliness and Honesty, how far

9. ANOTHER piece of honour that self must be denied in, is, the reputation of godliness and honesty. Concerning both the former and this, I must say, by way of caution, that the reputation both of faith and godliness is a great mercy, and not to be despised, nor prodigally cast away by our own negligence or miscarriages; nor unthankfully to be received: but yet, 1. It is not to be desired for itself, but for God, that it may help and advantage us to serve him, or as it is a mercy that brings the report of his love. 2. And the greater the mercy is, the greater is our temptation, when it would deprive us of a far greater mercy than itself: I have oft thought it was a very high passage for a heathen to say as Seneca did, that No man doth shew a higher esteem of