The Works of Thomas Secker

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SERMON II. On Humility. Romans xii. 3. 'For I fay, through tie grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himfelf more highly than he ought to think: but to think foberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the meafure of faith. t1 ACH of the virtues, which God requires us...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SERMON II. On Humility. Romans xii. 3. 'For I fay, through tie grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himfelf more highly than he ought to think: but to think foberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the meafure of faith. t1 ACH of the virtues, which God requires us to practife, may be confidered, either as being feated in our hearts, or exerted in our behaviour. That which the text enjoins, taken in the firft 6f thefe views, confifts in forming a right judge- inent of our own qualifications, rank and circumftances. If any one hath already no more than a juft opinion of thefe, he Tiath no need to lower it. But becaufe we almoft univerfally conceive too high notions of ourfelves; condefcending to entertain and act upon true and reafonable ones, hath acquired ttie name of humility or lowlinefs. And our obligation to be liumble in heart comprehends the following particulars: That we never imagine ourfelves to have any pre-eminences or ac- complifhments, that we have not; nor efteem fuch as we have, beyond their undoubted value: that we attend to our own faults and deficiences, no lefs than the things in which we excel: that we be not fond of comparing ourfelves with others; and that, if ever we do make fuch comparifons, we make them fairly, and with proper diffidence; and extend them to the perfons by whom, and the cafes in which, we are likelieft to be outdone: that we often call to mind the meannefs, the frailties, the infirmities, the uncertainties of our mortal flate; the immenfa numbers of known, and probably of unknown, orders of beings, adorned with glories, though finite, yet far beyond human conception; and the abfolutely boundlefs perfections of our and their creator: to whofe voluntary gift what any of us B 2 e...