NOTES
NOTES
41. Affections: one's whole emotional and mental inclinations.
42. Bands: that is, bonds, originally a phonetic variant of bonds. Bands in Law's time C carried something of the sense of the material by which one was bound, or banded (cf. bandaged").
43. Indifferency: indifference, or being of no consequence one way or the other, implying a kind of impartiality.
44. Us] corrected by the 2nd ed., omitted by the 1st ed.
45. Birth] corrected by the 2nd ed.; the 1st ed. reads: breeding.
Chapter XVII
Showing how difficult the practice of humility is made by the general spirit and temper of the world. How Christianity requireth us to live contrary to the world. Every person when he first applies himself to the exercise of this virtue of humility must, as 1 said before, consider himself as a learner, that is to learn something that is contrary to former tempers and habits of mind, and which can only be got by daily and constant practice.
He has not only as much to do as he that has some new art or science to learn, but he has also a great deal to unlearn. He is to forget and lay aside his own spirit, which has been a long while fixing and forming itself; he must forget and depart from abundance of passions and opinions which the fashion, and vogue, and spirit of the world has made natural to him.
He must lay aside his own spirit because as we are born in sin, so in pride, which is as natural to us as self-love and continually springs from it. And this is one reason why Christianity is so often represented as a new birth and a new spirit.
He must lay aside the opinions and passions which he has received from the world because the vogue and fashion of the world, by which we have been carried away as in a torrent before we could pass right judgments of the value of things, is in many respects contrary to humility, so that we must unlearn what the spirit of the world has taught us before we can be governed by the spirit of humility.
The Devil is called in scripture the prince of this world because he has great power in it, because many of its rules and principles are invented by this evil spirit, the father of all lies and falsehood, to separate us from God and prevent our return to happiness.
Now according to the spirit and vogue of this world whose corrupt air we have all breathed, there are many things that pass for great and honorable and most desirable which yet are so far from being so that the true greatness and honor of our nature consists in the not desiring them.
To abound in wealth, to have fine houses and rich clothes, to be attended with splendor and equipage, to be beautiful in our persons, to have titles of dignity, to be above our fellow creatures, to command the bows and obeisance of other people, to be looked on with admiration, to overcome our enemies with power, to subdue all that oppose us, to set out ourselves in as much splendor as we can, to live highly and magnificently, to eat and drink and delight ourselves in the most costly manner, these are the great, the honorable, the desirable things to which the spirit of the world turns the eyes of all people. And many a man is afraid of standing still and not engaging in the pursuit of these things, lest the same world should take him for a fool.
The history of the gospel is chiefly the history of Christ's conquest over this spirit of the world. And the number of true Christians is only the number of those who, following the Spirit of Christ, have lived contrary to this spirit of the world.
"If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." Again, "Whosoever is born of God, overcometh the world. Set your affections on things above, and not on things on the earth; for ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." This is the language of the whole New Testament. This is the mark of Christianity; you are to be dead, that is, dead to the spirit and temper of the world, and live a new life in the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
But notwithstanding the clearness and plainness of these doctrines which thus renounce the world, yet great part of Christians live and die slaves to the customs and temper of the world.
How many people swell with pride and vanity for such things as they would not know how to value at all, but that they are admired in the world?
Would a man take ten years more drudgery in business to add two horses more to his coach, but that he knows that the world Most of all admires a coach and six? How fearful are many people of having their houses poorly furnished, or themselves meanly clothed for this only reason, lest the world should make no account of them and place them amongst low and mean people?
How often would a man have yielded to the haughtiness and ill nature of others and shown a submissive temper, but that he dares not pass for such a poor-spirited man in the opinion of the world?
Many a man would often drop a resentment and forgive an affront, but that he is afraid if he should, the world would not forgive him.
How many would practice Christian temperance and sobriety in its utmost perfection, were it not for the censure which the world passes upon such a life?
Others have frequent intentions of living up to the rules of Christian perfection which they are frighted from by considering what the world would say of them.
Thus do the impressions which we have received from living in the world enslave our minds that we dare not attempt to be eminent in the sight of God and holy angels for fear of being little in the eyes of the world.
From this quarter arises the greatest difficulty of humility because it cannot subsist in any mind but so far as it is dead to the world and has parted with all desires of enjoying its greatness and honors. So that in order to be truly humble, you must unlearn all those notions which you have been all your life learning from this corrupt spirit of the world.
You can make no stand against the assaults of pride, the meek affections of humility can have no place in your soul, till you stop the power of the world over you and resolve against a blind obedience to its laws.
And when you are once advanced thus far as to be able to stand still in the torrent of worldly fashions and opinions and examine the worth and value of things which are most admired and valued in the world, you have gone a great way in the gaining of your freedom and have laid a good foundation for the amendment of your heart
For as great as the power of the world is, it is all built upon a blind obedience, and we need only open our eyes to get quit of its power.
Ask who you will, learned or unlearned, everyone seems to know and confess that the general temper and spirit of the world is nothing else but humor, folly, and extravagance.
Who will not own that the wisdom of philosophy, the piety of religion, was always confined to a small number? And is not this expressly owning and confessing that the common spirit and temper of the world is neither according to the wisdom of philosophy nor the piety of religion?
The world therefore seems enough condemned even by itself to make it very easy for a thinking man to be of the same judgment.
And therefore I hope you will not think it a hard saying that in order to be humble you must withdraw your obedience from that vulgar spirit which gives laws to fops and coquettes, and form your judgments according to the wisdom of philosophy and the piety of religion. Who would be afraid of making such a change as this?
Again, to lessen your fear and regard to the opinion of the world, think how soon the world will disregard you and have no more thought or concern about you than about the poorest animal that died in a ditch.
Your friends, if they can, may bury you with some distinction and set up a monument to let posterity see that your dust lies under such a stone; and when that is done, all is done. Your place is filled up by another, the world is just in the same state it was, you are blotted out of its sight and as much forgotten by the world as if you had never belonged to it.
Think upon the rich, the great, and the learned persons that have made great figures and been high in the esteem of the world; many of them died in your time and yet they are sunk, and lost, and gone, and as much disregarded by the world as if they had been only so many bubbles of water.
Think again how many poor souls see Heaven lost, and lie now expecting a miserable eternity for their service and homage to a world that thinks itself every whit as well without them, and is just as merry as it was when they were in it.
Is it therefore worth your while to lose the smallest degree of virtue for the sake of pleasing so bad a master and so false a friend as the world is?
IS it worth your while to bow the knee to such an idol as this that so soon will have neither eyes, nor ears, nor a heart to regard you, instead of serving that great, and holy, and mighty God that will make all His servants partakers of His own eternity?
Will you let the fear of a false world that has no love for you keep you from the fear of that God who has only created you that He may love and bless you to all eternity?
Lastly, you must consider what behavior the profession of Christianity requireth of you with regard to the world.
Now this is plainly delivered in these words: "Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world" (Gal. 1:4). Christianity therefore implieth a deliverance from this world; and he that professeth it, professeth to live contrary to everything and every temper that is peculiar to this evil world.
St. John declareth this opposition to the world in this manner, "They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God" (1 John 4:5). This is the description of the followers of Christ; and it is proof enough that no people are to be reckoned Christians in reality who in their hearts and tempers belong to this world. "We know," saith the same Apostle, "that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness" (5:19). Christians therefore can no further know that they are of God than so far as they know they are not of the world; that is, that they don't live according to the ways and spirit of the world. For all the ways, and maxims, and politics, and tempers of the world lie in wickedness. And he is only of God, or born of God in Christ Jesus, who has overcome this world, that is, who has chosen to live by faith and govern his actions by the principles of a wisdom revealed from God by Christ Jesus.
St. Paul takes it for a certainty so well known to Christians that they are no longer to be considered as living in this world, that he thus argues from it, as from an undeniable principle, concerning the abolishing the rites of the Jewish law: "Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?" (Col. 2:20). Here could be no argument in this, but in the Apostle's taking it for undeniable that Christians knew that their profession required them to have done with all the tempers and passions of this world, to live as citizens of the new Jerusalem, and to have their conversation in Heaven.
Our blessed Lord Himself has fully determined this point in these words:
"They are not of this world, as I am not of this world." This is the state of Christianity with regard to this world. If you are not thus out of and contrary to the world, you want the distinguishing mark of Christianity; you don't belong to Christ, but by being out of the world as he was out of it.
We may deceive ourselves, if we please, with vain and softening comments upon these words, but they are and will be understood in their first simplicity and plainness by everyone that reads them in the same spirit that our blessed Lord spoke them. And to understand them in any lower, less significant meaning is to let carnal wisdom explain away that doctrine by which itself was to be destroyed.
The Christian's great conquest over the world is all contained in the mystery of Christ upon the cross. It was there and from thence that He taught all Christians how they were to come out of and conquer the world and what they were to do in order to be His disciples. And all the doctrines, sacraments, and institutions of the gospel are only so many explications of the meaning and applications of the benefit of this great mystery.
And the state of Christianity implieth nothing else but an entire, absolute conformity to that Spirit which Christ showed in the mysterious sacrifice of Himself upon the cross.
Every man therefore is only so far a Christian as he partakes of this Spirit of Christ. It was this that made St. Paul so passionately express himself, "God forbid that 1 should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." But why does he glory? Is it because Christ had suffered in his stead and had excused him from suffering? No, by no means. But it was because his Christian profession had called him to the honor of suffering with Christ, and of dying to the world under reproach and contempt as He had done upon the cross. For he immediately adds, "by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Gal. 6:14). This you see was the reason of his glorying in the cross of Christ because it had called him to a like state of death and crucifixion to the world.
Thus was the cross of Christ in St. Paul's days the glory of Christians, not as it signified their not being ashamed to own a Master that was crucified, but as it signified their glorying in a religion which was nothing else but a doctrine of the cross that called them to the same suffering spirit, the same sacrifice of themselves, the same renunciation of the world, the same humility and meekness, the same patient bearing of injuries, reproaches, and contempts, and the same dying to all the greatness, honors, and happiness of this world which Christ showed upon the cross.
To have a true idea of Christianity, we must not consider our blessed Lord as suffering in our stead, but as our representative acting in our name and with such particular merit as to make our joining with Him acceptable unto God.
He suffered and was a sacrifice to make our sufferings and sacrifice of ourselves fit to be received by God. And we are to suffer, to be crucified, to die and rise with Christ, or else His crucifixion, death, and Resurrection will profit us nothing.
The necessity of this conformity to all that Christ did and suffered upon our account is very plain from the whole tenor of scripture.
First, as to His sufferings, this is the only condition of our being saved by them, "if we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him"
Secondly, as to His crucifixion. "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him" etc. (Rom. 6:6). Here you see Christ is not crucified in our stead; but unless our old man be really crucified with Him, the cross of Christ will profit us nothing.
Thirdly, as to the death of Christ, the condition is this: "If we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him." If therefore Christ be dead alone, if we are not dead with Him, we are as sure from this scripture that we shall not live with Him.
Lastly, as to the Resurrection of Christ, the scripture showeth us how we are to partake of the benefit of it: "If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God" (Col. 3:1).
Thus you see how plainly the scripture sets forth our blessed Lord as our representative, acting and suffering in our name, binding and obliging us to conform to all that He did and suffered for us.
It was for this reason that the holy Jesus said of His Disciples and in them of all true believers, "They are not of this world, as 1 am not of this world." Because all true believers conforming to the sufferings, crucifixion, death, and Resurrection of Christ live no longer after the spirit and temper of this world, but their life is hid with Christ in God.
This is the state of separation from the world to which all orders of Christians are called. They must so far renounce all worldly tempers, be so far governed by the things of another life, as to show that they are truly and really crucified, dead, and risen with Christ. And it is as necessary for all Christians to conform to this great change of spirit, to be thus in Christ new creatures, as it was necessary that Christ should suffer, die, and rise again for our salvation.
How high the Christian life is placed above the ways of this world is wonderfully described by St. Paul in these words: "Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh; yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet henceforth know we him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Cor. 5:16).
He that feels the force and spirit of these words can hardly bear any human interpretation of them. Henceforth, says he; that is, since the death and Resurrection of Christ, the state of Christianity is become so glorious a state that we don't even consider Christ Himself as in the flesh upon earth, but as a God of glory in Heaven; we know and consider ourselves not as men in the flesh, but as fellow members of a new society that are to have all our hearts, our tempers, and conversation in Heaven.
Thus it is that Christianity has placed us out of and above the world; and we fall from our calling as soon as we fall into the tempers of the world.
Now as it was the spirit of the world that nailed our blessed Lord to the cross, so every man that has the Spirit of Christ, that opposes the world as He did, will certainly be crucified by the world some way or other.
For Christianity still lives in the same world that Christ did; and these two will be utter enemies till the Kingdom of Darkness is entirely at an end.
Had you lived with our Savior as His true disciple, you had then
been hated as he was; and if you now live in His Spirit, the world will be the same enemy to you now that it was to Him then.
"If ye were of the world," saith our blessed Lord, "the world would love its own; but because ye are not of the world, but 1 have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you" (John 15:19).
We are apt to lose the true meaning of these words by considering them only as a historical description of something that was the state of our Savior and His Disciples at that time. But this is reading the scripture as a dead letter; for they as exactly describe the state of true Christians at this and all other times, to the end of the world.
For as true Christianity is nothing else but the Spirit of Christ, so whether that Spirit appear in the person of Christ Himself, or His Apostles, or followers in any age, it is the same thing; whoever hath His Spirit will be hated, despised, and condemned by the world as He was.
For the world will always love its own, and none but its own: This is as certain and unchangeable as the contrariety betwixt light and darkness.
When the holy Jesus saith, "If the world hate you," he does not add by way of consolation that it may sometime or other cease its hatred, or that it will not always hate them; but He only gives this as a reason for their bearing it, "You know that it hated me before it hated you," signifying that it was He, that is His Spirit, that by reason of its contrariety to the world was then and always would be hated by it.
You will perhaps say that the world is now become Christian, at least that part of it where we live; and therefore the world is not now to be considered in that state of opposition to Christianity as when it was heathen.
It is granted, the world now professeth Christianity. But will anyone say that this Christian world is of the Spirit of Christ? Are its general tempers the tempers of Christ? Are the passions of sensuality, self-love, pride, covetousness, ambition, and vainglory less contrary to the spirit of the gospel now they are amongst Christians than when they were amongst heathens? Or will you say that the tempers and passions of the heathen world are lost and gone?
Consider, secondly, what you are to mean by the world. Now this is fully described to our hands by St. John. "All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life," etc. (1 John 2:16). This is an exact and full description of the world. Now will you say that this world is become Christian? But if all this still subsists, then the same world is now in being, and the same enemy to Christianity that was in St. John's days.
It was this world that St. John condemned as being not of the Father; whether therefore it outwardly professeth or openly persecuteth Christianity, it is still in the same state of contrariety to the true spirit and holiness of the gospel.
And indeed the world by professing Christianity is so far from being a less dangerous enemy than it was before that it has by its favors destroyed more Christians than ever it did by the most violent persecution.
We must therefore be so far from considering the world as in a state of less enmity and opposition to Christianity than it was in the first times of the gospel that we must guard against it as a greater and more dangerous enemy than it was in those times.
It is a greater enemy because it has greater power over Christians by its favors, riches, honors, rewards, and protections than it had by the fire and fury of its persecutions.
It is a more dangerous enemy by having lost its appearance of enmity. Its outward profession of Christianity makes it no longer considered as an enemy, and therefore the generality of people are easily persuaded to resign themselves up to be governed and directed by it.
How many consciences are kept at quiet upon no other foundation but because they sin under the authority of the Christian world?
How many directions of the gospel lie by unregarded, and how unconcernedly do particular persons read them for no other reason but because they seem unregarded by the Christian world?
How many compliances do people make to the Christian world without any hesitation or remorse, which if they had been required Of them only by heathens would have been refused as contrary to the holiness of Christianity?
Who could be content with seeing how contrary his life is to the gospel, but because he sees that he lives as the Christian world doth?
Who that reads the gospel would want to be persuaded of the necessity of great self-denial, humility, and poverty of spirit, but that the authority of the world has banished this doctrine of the cross?
There is nothing, therefore, that a good Christian ought to be more suspicious of or more constantly guard against than the authority of the Christian world.
And all the passages of scripture which represent the world as contrary to Christianity, which require our separation from it as from a mammon of unrighteousness, a monster of iniquity, are all to be taken in the same strict sense in relation to the present world.
For the change that the world has undergone has only altered its methods but not lessened its power of destroying religion.
Christians had nothing to fear from the heathen world but the loss of their lives; but the world become a friend makes it difficult for them to save their religion.
Whilst pride, sensuality, covetousness, and ambition had only the authority of the heathen world, Christians were thereby made more intent upon the contrary virtues. But when pride, sensuality, covetousness, and ambition have the authority of the Christian world, then private Christians are in the utmost danger, not only of being shamed out of the practice, but of losing the very notion of the piety of the gospel.
There is therefore hardly any possibility of saving yourself from the present world but by considering it as the same wicked enemy to all true holiness as it is represented in the scriptures, and by assuring yourself that it is as dangerous to conform to its tempers and passions now it is Christian as when it was heathen.
For only ask yourself, is the piety, the humility, the sobriety of the Christian world, the piety, the humility, and sobriety of the Christian spirit? If not, how can you be more undone by any world than by conforming to that which is Christian?
Need a man do more to make his soul unfit for the mercy of God than by being greedy and ambitious of honor? Yet how can a man renounce this temper without renouncing the spirit and temper of the world in which you now live?
How can a man be made more incapable of the Spirit of Christ than by a wrong value for money, and yet how can he be more wrong in his value of it than by following the authority of the Christian world?
Nay, in every order and station of life, whether of learning or business, either in church or state, you cannot act up to the spirit of I religion without renouncing the most general temper and behavior of I those who are of the same order and business as yourself.
And though human prudence seems to talk mighty wisely about the necessity of avoiding particularities, yet he that dares not be so I weak as to be particular will be often obliged to avoid the most substantial duties of Christian piety.
These reflections will, I hope, help you to break through those difficulties and resist those temptations which the authority and fashion of the world hath raised against the practice of Christian humility.
Chapter XVIII
Showing how the education which men generally receive in their youth makes the doctrines of humility difficult to be practiced. The spirit of a better education represented in the character of Paternus.
Another difficulty in the practice of humility arises from our education. We are all of us, for the most part, corruptly educated and then committed to take our course in a corrupt world, so that it is no wonder if examples of great piety are so seldom seen.
Great part of the world are undone by being born and bred in families that have no religion, where they are made vicious and irregular by being like those with whom they first lived.
But this is not the thing I now mean: The education that I here intend is such as children generally receive from virtuous and sober parents, and learned tutors and governors.
Had we continued perfect, as God created the first man, perhaps the perfection of our nature had been a sufficient selfinstruction for everyone. But as sickness and diseases have created the necessity of medicines and physicians, so the change and disorder of our rational nature has introduced the necessity of education and tutors.
And as the only end of the physician is to restore nature to its own state, so the only end of education is to restore our rational nature to its proper state. Education therefore is to be considered as reason borrowed at second hand which is, as far as it can, to supply the loss of original perfection. And as physic may justly be called the art of restoring health, so education should be considered in no other light than as the art of recovering to man the use of his reason.
Now as the instruction of every art or science is founded upon the discoveries, the wisdom, experience, and maxims of the several great men that have labored in it so that human wisdom or right use of our reason, which young people should be called to by their education, is nothing 46 else but the best experience and finest reasonings of men that have devoted themselves to the study of wisdom and the improvement of human nature.
All, therefore, that great Saints and dying men, when the fullest of light and conviction and after the highest improvement of their reason, all that they have said of the necessity of piety, of the excellency of virtue, of their duty to God, of the emptiness of riches, of the vanity of the world, all the sentences, judgments, reasonings, and maxims of the wisest of philosophers when in their highest state of wisdom, should constitute the common lessons of instruction for youthful minds.
This is the only way to make the young and ignorant part of the world the better for the wisdom and knowledge of the wise and ancient.
An education which is not wholly intent upon this is as much beside the point as an art of physic that had little or no regard to the restoration of health.
The youths that attended upon Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, and Epictetus were thus educated. Their everyday lessons and instructions were so many lectures upon the nature of man, his true end and the right use of his faculties, upon the immortality of the soul, its relation to God, the beauty of virtue and its agreeableness to the divine nature; upon the dignity of reason, the necessity of temperance, fortitude, and generosity, and the shame and folly of indulging our passions.
Now as Christianity has, as it were, new 47 created the moral and religious world and set everything that is reasonable, wise, holy, and desirable in its true point of light, so one would expect that the education of youth should be as much bettered and amended by Christianity as the faith and doctrines of religion are amended by it.
As it has introduced such a new state of things and so fully informed us of the nature of man, the ends of his creation, the state of his condition; as it has fixed all our goods and evils, taught us the means of purifying our souls, pleasing God, and becoming eternally happy; one might naturally suppose that every Christian country abounded with schools for the teaching, not only a few questions and answers of a catechism, but for the forming, training, and practicing youths in such an outward course of life as the highest precepts, the strictest rules, and the sublimest doctrines of Christianity require.
An education under Pythagoras or Socrates had no other end but to teach youth to think, judge, act, and follow such rules of life as Pythagoras and Socrates used.
And is it not as reasonable to suppose that a Christian education should have no other end but to teach youth how to think, and judge, and act, and live according to the strictest laws of Christianity?
At least one would suppose that in all Christian schools the teaching youth to begin their lives in the spirit of Christianity, in such severity of behavior, such abstinence, sobriety, humility, and devotion as Christianity requires, should not only be more, but a hundred times more regarded than any or all things else.
For our education should imitate our guardian angels, suggest nothing to our minds but what is wise and holy, help us to discover and subdue every vain passion of our hearts and every false judgment of our minds.
And it is as sober and reasonable to expect and require all this benefit of a Christian education as to require that physic should strengthen all that is right in our nature and remove that which is sickly and diseased.
But alas, our modern education is not of this kind.
The first temper that we try to awaken in children is pride, as dangerous a passion as that of lust. We stir them up to vain thoughts of themselves, and do everything we can to puff up their minds with a sense of their own abilities.
Whatever way of life we intend them for, we apply to the fire and vanity of their minds, and exhort them to everything from corrupt motives. We stir them up to action from principles of strife and ambition, from glory, envy, and a desire of distinction, that they may excel others and shine in the eyes of the world.
We repeat and inculcate these motives upon them till they think it a part of their duty to be proud, envious, and vainglorious of their own accomplishments.
And when we have taught them to scorn to be outdone by any, to bear no rival, to thirst after every instance of applause, to be content with nothing but the highest distinctions, then we begin to take comfort in them and promise the world some mighty things from youths of such a glorious spirit.
If children are intended for holy orders we set before them some eminent orator, whose fine preaching has made him the admiration of the age and carried him through all the dignities and preferments of the church.
We encourage them to have these honors in their eye and to expect the reward of their studies from them.
If the youth is intended for a trade, we bid him look at all the rich men of the same trade, and consider how many now are carried about in their stately coaches who began in the same low degree as he now does. We awaken his ambition and endeavor to give his mind a right turn by often telling him how very rich such and such a tradesman died.
If he is to be a lawyer then we set great counsellors, Lords judges, 48 and chancellors before his eyes. We tell him what great fees and great applause attend fine pleading. We exhort him to take fire at these things, to raise a spirit of emulation in himself, and to be content with nothing less than the highest honors of the long robe.
That this is the nature of our best education is too plain to need any proof, and I believe there are few parents but would be glad to see these instructions daily given to their children.
And after all this we complain of the effects of pride, we wonder to see grown men acted and governed by ambition, envy, scorn, and a desire of glory, not considering that they were all the time of their youth called upon to all their action and industry upon the same principles.
You teach a child to scorn to be outdone, to thirst for distinction and applause, and is it any wonder that he continues to act all his life in the same manner?
Now if a youth is ever to be so far a Christian as to govern his heart by the doctrines of humility, I would fain know at what time he is to begin it, or if he is ever to begin it at all, why we train him up in tempers quite contrary to it?
How dry and poor must the doctrine of humility sound to a Youth that has been spurred up to all his industry by ambition, envy, emulation, and a desire of glory and distinction? And if he is not to act by these principles when he is a man, why do we call him to act by them in his youth?
Envy is acknowledged by all people to be the most ungenerous, base, and wicked passion that can enter into the heart of man.
And is this a temper to be instilled, nourished, and established in the minds of young people?
I know it is said that it is not envy but emulation that is intended to be awakened in the minds of young men.
But this is vainly said. For when children are taught to bear no rival, and to scorn to be outdone by any of their age, they are plainly and directly taught to be envious. For it is impossible for anyone to have this scorn of being outdone and this contention with rivals without burning with envy against all those that seem to excel him or get any distinction from him. So that what children are taught is rank envy and only covered with a name of a less odious sound.
Secondly, if envy is thus confessedly bad and it be only emulation that is endeavored to be awakened in children, surely there ought to be great care taken that children may know the one from the other. That they may abominate the one as a great crime, whilst they give the other admission into their minds.
But if this were to be attempted, the fineness of the distinction betwixt envy and emulation would show that it was easier to divide them in words than to separate them in action.
For emulation, when it is defined in its best manner, is nothing else but a refinement upon envy, or rather the most plausible part of that black and venomous passion.
And though it is easy to separate them in the notion, yet the most acute philosopher that understands the art of distinguishing ever so well, if he gives himself up to emulation, will certainly find himself deep in envy.
For envy is not an original temper, but the natural, necessary, and unavoidable effect of emulation or a desire of glory.
So that he who establishes the one in the minds of people necessarily fixes the other there. And there is no other possible way of destroying envy but by destroying emulation or a desire of glory. For the one always rises and falls in proportion to the other.
I know it is said in defence of this method of education that ambition and a desire of glory are necessary to excite young people to industry, and that if we were to press upon them the doctrines of humility we should deject their minds and sink them into dullness and idleness.
But these people who say this don't consider that this reason, if it has any strength, is full as strong against pressing the doctrines of humility upon grown men lest we should deject their minds and sink them into dullness and idleness.
For who does not see that middle-aged men want as much the assistance of pride, ambition, and vainglory to spur them up to action and industry as children do? And it is very certain that the precepts of humility are more contrary to the designs of such men and more grievous to their minds when they are pressed upon them than they are to the minds of young persons.
This reason, therefore, that is given why children should not be trained up in the principles of true humility is as good a reason why the same humility should never be required of grown men.
Thirdly, let those people who think that children would be spoiled if they were not thus educated consider this.
Could they think that if any children had been educated by our blessed Lord or His holy Apostles that their minds would have been sunk into dullness and idleness?
Or could they think that such children would not have been trained up in the profoundest principles of a strict and true humility? Can they say that our blessed Lord, who was the meekest and humblest man that ever was on earth, was hindered by His humility from being the greatest example of worthy and glorious actions that ever were done by man?
Can they say that His Apostles, who lived in the humble spirit of their Master, did therefore cease to be laborious and active instruments of doing good to all the world?
A few such reflections as these are sufficient to expose all the Poor pretences for an education in pride and ambition.
Paternus lived about two hundred years ago; he had but one son, whom he educated himself in his own house. As they were sitting together in the garden when the child was ten years old, Paternus thus began to him.
The little time that you have been in the world my child, you have spent wholly with me, and my love and tenderness to you has made you look upon me as your only friend and benefactor and the cause of all the comfort and pleasure that you enjoy. Your heart, I know, would be ready to break with grief if you thought this was the last day that I should live with you.
But, my child, though you now think yourself mighty happy because you have hold of my hand, you are now in the hands and under the tender care of a much greater Father and friend than I am, whose love to you is far greater than mine and from whom you receive such blessings as no mortal can give.
That God whom you have seen me daily worship, whom I daily call upon to bless both you and me and all mankind, whose wondrous acts are recorded in those scriptures which you constantly read; that God who created the heavens and the earth, who brought a flood upon the old world, who saved Noah in the Ark, who was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whom job blessed and praised in the greatest afflictions, who delivered the Israelites out of the hands of the Egyptians, who was the protector of righteous Joseph, Moses, Joshua, and holy Daniel, who sent so many prophets into the world, who sent his Son Jesus Christ to redeem mankind; this God who has done all these great things, who has created so many millions of men, who lived and died before you was born, with whom the spirits of good men that are departed this life now live, whom infinite numbers of angels now worship in Heaven; this great God who is the Creator of worlds, of angels, and men, is your loving Father and friend, your good Creator and nourisher, from whom and not from me you received your being ten years ago at the time that 1
planted that little tender elm which you there see.
I myself am not half the age of this shady oak, under which we sit; many of our fathers have sat under its boughs. We have all of us called it ours in our turn, though it stands and drops its masters as it drops its leaves.
You see, my son, this wide and large firmament over our heads, where the sun and moon and all the stars appear in their turns. If you was to be carried up to any of these bodies at this vast distance from us, you would still discover others as much above you as the stars that you see here are above the earth. Were you to go up or down, east or west, north or south, you would find the same height without any top and the same depth without any bottom.
And yet my child, so great is God that all these bodies added together are but as a grain of sand in His sight. And yet you are as much the care of this great God and Father of all worlds and all spirits as if He had no son but you or there were no creature for Him to love and protect but you alone. He numbers the hairs of your head, watches over you sleeping and waking, and has preserved you from a thousand dangers which neither you nor I know anything of.
How poor my power is and how little I am able to do for you, you have often seen. Your late sickness has shown you how little I could do for you in that state, and the frequent pains of your head are plain proofs that I have no power to remove them.
I can bring you food and medicines but have no power to turn them into your relief and nourishment; it is God alone that can do this for you.
Therefore, my child, fear and worship and love God. Your eyes indeed cannot yet see Him, but everything you see are so many marks of His power and presence and He is nearer to you than anything that you can see.
Take Him for your Lord, and Father, and Friend; look up unto Him as the fountain and cause of all the good that you have received through my hands, and reverence me only as the bearer and minister of God's good things unto you. And He that blessed my father before I was born will bless you when 1
am dead.
Your youth and little mind is only yet acquainted with my family and therefore you think there is no happiness out of it.
But my child, you belong to a greater family than mine, you are a young member of the family of this almighty Father of all nations, who has created infinite orders of angels and numberless generations of men to be fellow members of one and the same society in Heaven.
You do well to reverence and obey my authority because God has given me power over you to bring you up in His fear and to do for You as the holy fathers recorded in scripture did for their children who are now in rest and peace with God.
I shall, in a short time, die and leave you to God and yourself, and if God forgiveth my sins I shall go to His Son Jesus Christ and live amongst patriarchs and prophets, saints and martyrs, where I shall pray for you and hope for your safe arrival at the same place.
Therefore, my child, meditate on these great things and your soul will soon grow great and noble by so meditating upon them.
Let your thoughts often leave these gardens, these fields and farms, to contemplate upon God and Heaven, to consider upon angels and the spirits of good men living in light and glory.
As you have been used to look to me in all your actions and have been afraid to do anything unless you first knew my will, so let it now be a rule of your life to look up to God in all your actions, to do everything in His fear and to abstain from everything that is not according to His will.
Bear Him always in your mind, teach your thoughts to reverence Him in every place, for there is no place where He is not.
God keepeth a book of life wherein all the actions of all men are written; your name is there, my child, and when you die this book will be laid open before men and angels and according as your actions are there found, you will either be received to the happiness of those holy men who have died before you or be turned away amongst wicked spirits that are never to see God any more.
Never forget this book, my son; for it is written, it must be opened, you must see it and you must be tried by it. Strive, therefore, to fill it with your good deeds, that the handwriting of God may not appear against you.
God, my child, is all love and wisdom and goodness, and everything that He has made and every action that He does is the effect of them all. Therefore, you cannot please God, but so far as you strive to walk in love, wisdom, and goodness. As all wisdom, love, and goodness proceeds from God, so nothing but love, wisdom, and goodness can lead to God.
When you love that which God loves, you act with Him, you join yourself to Him, and when you love what He dislikes, then you oppose Him and separate yourself from Him. This is the true and the right way; think what God loves, and do you love it with all your heart.
First of all, my child, worship and adore God, think of Bin' magnificently, speak of Him reverently, magnify His providence, adore His power, frequent His service, and pray unto Him frequently and constantly.
Next to this, love your neighbor, which is all mankind, with such tenderness and affection as you love yourself. Think how God loves all mankind, how merciful He is to them, how tender He is of them, how carefully He preserves them, and then strive to love the world as God loves it.
God would have all men to be happy; therefore do you will and desire the same. All men are great instances of divine love, therefore let all men be instances of your love.
But above all, my son, mark this: Never do anything through strife or envy or emulation or vainglory. Never do anything in order to excel other people, but in order to please God, and because it is His will that you should do everything in the best manner that you can.
For if it is once a pleasure to you to excel other people, it will by degrees be a pleasure to you to see other people not as good as yourself.
Banish therefore every thought of self-pride and selfdistinction, and accustom yourself to rejoice in all the excellencies and perfections of your fellow creatures, and be as glad to see any of their good actions as your own.
For as God is as well pleased with their well doings as with yours, so you ought to desire that everything that is wise and holy and good may be performed in as high a manner by other people as by yourself.
Let this, therefore, be your only motive and spur to all good actions, honest industry, and business, to do everything in as perfect and excellent a manner as you can for this only reason, because it is pleasing to God, who desires your perfection and writes all your actions in a book. When I am dead, my son, you will be master of all my estate, which will be a great deal more than the necessities of one family require. Therefore, as you are to be charitable to the souls of men, and wish them the same happiness with you in Heaven, so be charitable to their bodies, and endeavor to make them as happy as You upon earth',
As God ha has created all things for the common good of all men, so let that part of them which is fallen to your share be employed as God would have all employed, for the common good of all.
Do good, my son, first of all to those that most deserve it, but remember to do good to all. The greatest sinners receive daily instances of God's goodness toward them; He nourishes and preserves them that they may repent and return to Him. Do you therefore imitate God and think no one too bad to receive your relief and kindness when you see that He wants it.
I am teaching you Latin and Greek, not that you should desire to be a great critic, a fine poet, or an eloquent orator. I would not have your heart feel any of these desires, for the desire of these accomplishments is a vanity of the mind and the masters of them are generally vain men. For the desire of anything that is not a real good lessens the application of the mind after that which is so.
But I teach you these languages that at proper times you may look into the history of past ages and learn the methods of God's providence over the world; that reading the writings of the ancient sages, you may see how wisdom and virtue have been the praises of great men of all ages, and fortify your mind by their wise sayings.
Let truth and plainness therefore be the only ornament of your language and study nothing but how to think of all things as they deserve, to choose everything that is best, to live according to reason and order, and to act in every part of your life in conformity to the will of God.
Study how to fill your heart full of the love of God and the love of your neighbor and then be content to be no deeper a scholar, no finer a gentleman, than these tempers will make you. As true religion is nothing else but simple nature governed by right reason, so it loves and requires great plainness and simplicity of life. Therefore, avoid all superfluous shows of finery and equipage and let your house be plainly furnished with moderate conveniences. Don't consider what your estate can afford but what right reason requires.
Let your dress be sober, clean, and modest, not to set out the beauty of your person but to declare the sobriety of your mind that your outward garb may resemble the inward plainness and simplicity of your heart. For it is highly reasonable that you should be one man, all of a piece, and appear outwardly such as you are inwardly.
As to your meat and drink, in them observe the highest rules of Christian temperance and sobriety; consider your body only as the servant and minister of your soul; and only so nourish it as it may best perform a humble and obedient service to it.
But, my son, observe this as a most principal thing which I shall remember you of as long as I live with you.
Hate and despise all human glory, for it is nothing else but human folly. It is the greatest snare, and the greatest betrayer that you can possibly admit into your heart.
Love humility in all its instances, practice it in all its parts, for it is the noblest state of the soul of man; it will set your heart and affections right toward God and fill you with every temper that is tender and affectionate toward men.
Let every day, therefore, be a day of humility. Condescend to all the weakness and infirmities of your fellow creatures, cover their frailties, love their excellencies, encourage their prosperities, compassionate their distress, receive their friendship, overlook their unkindness, forgive their malice, be a servant of servants, and condescend to do the lowest offices to the lowest of mankind.
Aspire after nothing but your own purity and perfection and have no ambition but to do everything in so reasonable and religious a manner that you may be glad that God is everywhere present and sees and observes all your actions. The greatest trial of humility is a humble behavior toward your equals in age, estate, and condition of life. Therefore, be careful of all the motions of your heart toward these people. Let all your behavior toward them be governed by unfeigned love. Have no desire to put any of your equals below you, nor any anger at those that would put themselves above you. If they are proud, they are ill of a very bad distemper; let them therefore have your tender pity and perhaps your meekness may prove an occasion of their cure. But if your humility should do them no good it will, however, be the greatest good that you can do to yourself.
Remember that there is but one man in the world with whom You are to have perpetual contention and be always striving to exceed him, and that is yourself.
The time of practicing these precepts, my child, will soon be Over with you; the world will soon slip through your hands, or rather YOU will soon slip through it. It seems but the other day since I received these same instructions from my dear father that I am now leaving with you. And the God that gave me ears to hear and a heart to receive what my father said unto me will, I hope, give you grace to love and follow the same instructions.
Thus did Paternus educate his son.
Can anyone now think that such an education as this would weaken and deject the minds of young people and deprive the world of any worthy and reasonable labors?
It is so far from that, that there is nothing so likely to ennoble and exalt the mind and prepare it for the most heroical exercise of all virtues.
For who will say that a love of God, a desire of pleasing Him, a love of our neighbor, a love of truth, of reason and virtue, a contemplation of eternity and the rewards of piety, are not stronger motives to great an and good actions than a little uncertain popular praise?
On the other hand, there is nothing in reality that more weakens the mind and reduces it to meanness and slavery, nothing that makes it less master of its own actions or less capable of following reason, than a love of praise and honor.
For as praise and honor are often given to things and persons where they are not due as that is generally most praised and honored that most gratifies the humors, fashions, and vicious tempers of the world, so he that acts upon the desire of praise and applause must part with every other principle; he must say black is white, put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter, and do the meanest, basest things in order to be applauded.
For in a corrupt world as this is, worthy actions are only to be supported by their own worth, where instead of being praised and honored they are most often reproached and persecuted.
So that to educate children upon a motive of emulation or a desire of glory in a world where glory itself is false and most commonly given wrong is to destroy the natural integrity and fortitude of their minds and give them a bias which will oftener carry them to base and mean than great and worthy actions.