tance from than base ingratitude. An humble and thankful recognition of past mercies is the best way to incline God to bestow upon us still more; and it was not merit, but the want of merit, that was good Jacob's plea, when he begged God's favour and protection. He confesseth himself unworthy of the least of the mercies which he had formerly received of himh; and therefore begs the continuance of his goodness to him; well knowing that of ourselves we have nothing to recommend us, but our miseries and wants; and therefore, that the deepest humility and great thankfulness for every thing best becomes such a wretched condition as ours.

These considerations, though so plain and obvious, are yet sufficient, without entering further into the depths of dispute, to preserve us from the infection of the pernicious doctrines of merit and works of supererogation, which the church of Rome is so fond of, for the sake of the worldly gain and advantage she has by them: they being the great foundation of indulgences for the living sinner and masses for the dead, which bring in so much treasure to her, and are the support of her outward pomp and splendour.

But, blessed be God, we have not so learned Christ; and our holy primitive mother, the church of England, whatever false imputations of being popishly affected some may throw upon her, utterly abhors what is popery indeed, and openly declares against it, and is at a greater distance from it than those who so maliciously, and without ground, asperse her. And as to the particular doctrines we have been now discoursing of, she utterly disowns any merit in our own good works, and reposes all

h Gen. xxxii. 10.

her trust in the merits of Christ Jesus only for salvation; as may be seen in her 11th Article: and in her 14th she censures the doctrine of works of supererogation, in and for others, as arrogant and impious, and directly contrary to our Lord's words in the close of this parable, When ye have done all those things that are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants.

I shall now infer some few things from what hath been discoursed that may influence our practice.

I. And first, from the consideration of our being at first nothing, and therefore having nothing now that we can call our own but our sins; and being liable to be reduced to nothing again, if our great Creator shall please, though but one moment, to withdraw his conservation and support: from hence we may see what little reason even the best and most excellent man living hath to be proud, and how much better the deepest humility would become him.

For shall a poor, dependent creature, that the other day was nothing, that now draws in precarious breath, which in a moment may be taken from him, and whose excellencies, whatever they may be, are only lent him, not his own; shall such a wretch as this be proud?

What shall he be proud of? His excellent nature, as being made after the image of God? It is true, it is an excellent nature; but then who made it so? Didst thou give being to thyself? that is a palpable contradiction; but if thou didst receive it from some other, glory not as if thou didst not receive it, but remember who made thee to differ from the more

inferior parts of the creation, and let his be all the praise and glory for ever.

Instead then of priding ourselves in our excellent endowments, let us be curious to search out our spots and our defilements; and those indeed are so many and so great, that without any curious search they are soon visible. But how came those defilements upon such excellent natures, which were made after the image of an infinitely pure and perfect God? Most certainly they came clean out of the hands of their divine Maker, not the least flaw or blemish did then adhere to them, for he himself approved of this part of the work of his hands as well as of the rest, and pronounced it very good.

Whence then these spots, these filthinesses which now overspread our natures, and render us so vile in the sight of our good God and his holy angels, and, when our eyes are open, in our own sight too? whence are they, but from our own base lusts and ungovernable affections? God made man upright, says the wise royal preacher, but he hath sought out many inventions; and those of such a nature as tend to degrade him from a man to a brute, and deface the image of God upon his soul, and in its room impress that of the prince of darkness. This is our own act and deed; and all the deformities consequent upon it we may challenge as our own. But is this a thing to be proud of? Will we glory in this our shame ?

If nothing be our own then, but such vileness as this is, (and this in very truth is all that we can lay claim to as our own propriety,) pride certainly was not made for man, but rather the greatest possible

i Eccles. vii. 29.

degrees of humility and self-annihilation, as being originally nothing, and since, by our own fault, all covered over with various pollutions. Whatever is good and excellent in us is entirely derived from God, and therefore to him should all the praise be ascribed; but our own are the blemishes and defilements that are upon us, the result of our great and manifold iniquities; and therefore to ourselves belongs nothing but shame and confusion of face.

II. Secondly, from what has been said against all pretence to merit, and that we are utterly unworthy of the least of those innumerable blessings which God's free bounty hath bestowed upon us; from hence I infer the vileness and unreasonableness of envy.

And this inference may well follow the former, because there is always pride at the bottom of envy; and if that be destroyed, this must fall together with it. For why does any man pine away at the sight of another's greater prosperity, but because he thinks he deserves at least as well as that other; and therefore cannot bear to see him more flourishing than himself?

And accordingly it is observable, that our equals are for the most part the objects of our envy, or those that are not very much above us. Thus one prince envies another, and one beggar too another; (for envy is no stranger even to the meanest cottages ;) but we shall seldom meet with a beggar that really envies a prince: he may admire him, and his splendid retinue and equipage, and the like; but there is too great a distance between these two conditions to admit of that which is properly envy; and the like may be said in any other instance where there

is any great inequality. But when men's circumstances and condition come nearer together, then it is that envy reigns; and because a man thinks himself in his birth, perhaps, and natural endowments, or upon any other account, as good and deserving as another, who hath much better fortune in the world than he; therefore this fury gnaws upon his liver, and consumes him into a skeleton.

Envy therefore manifestly proceeding from pride and high thoughts, and a great esteem of ourselves and our own deservings, could I throughly convince any man that the very least of the good things he enjoys is much more than he can pretend to deserve, no fear of his being envious at others that enjoy more and greater than he does. It is an overvaluing our own deserts, and an undervaluing God's present mercies to us, that produceth envy: but how vile and unreasonable he is, who values that very highly which deserves nothing at all, and looks upon that as nothing which deserves to be highly esteemed, I may leave even to the envious man himself to judge.

Wherefore for the future let us learn to look upon the least blessing God is pleased to bestow upon us as far beyond our desert, (which is no more than the real truth,) and then we shall find very little temptation to envy others' greater prosperity: for with what face can I repine, because another has more than I have; when at the same time I am sensible that I have much more than I can any ways pretend to merit or be worthy of already?

III. Thirdly, from what has been said of our great unworthiness and no desert, we may see how great the sin is of murmuring and discontent, (whether