XIII. The short of the matter is this, the spirit and temper of Christ is the _strict measure_ of the Spirit and temper of all Christians. It is not in this or that particular temper of Christ, that we are to follow his example; but we are to aspire after his whole spirit, to be in all things as he was, and think it as dangerous to depart from his Spirit and temper in one instance as in another. For besides that there is the same authority in all that our Saviour did, which obliges us to conform to his whole example. Can any one tell why we should have more value for this world than our Saviour had? What is there in our _state_ and _circumstances_, that can make it proper for us to have more affection for the things of this life than our Saviour had? Is the world any more our _happiness_, than it was his happiness? Are riches, and honours, and pleasures, any more our _proper good_, than they were his? Are we any more born for this life than our Saviour was? Are we in less danger of being _corrupted_ by its enjoyments than he was? Are we more at leisure to take up _our rest_, and spend our time in worldly satisfactions than he was? Have we a work upon our hands that we can _more easily finish_, than he could finish his? That requires of us less _mortification_ and _self-denial_, less _devotion_ and _watching_, than our Saviour’s required of him? Now as nothing of this can be said; as this world is as little our happiness, and more our danger than it was his; as we have a work to finish that requires _all our strength_, it is plain there was no reason for his disregard of the world, but what is the same reason for us to disregard it in the same manner.
XIV. Take another instance of our blessed Saviour’s Spirit, _I came down from heaven_ (says he) _not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me_¹.
¹ John vi. 38.
And again, _My meat and drink is to do the will of him that sent me_. Now, can any Christian shew, why he may think otherwise of himself, than our Saviour here thought? Or that he need be _less devoted_ to the glory of God than he was? What is there in our nature and _condition_ to make any difference of this kind? Or can any thing else be the happiness of our nature, but that which was the happiness of his? Was he a _loser_? Did he leave the true happiness of _human life_, by devoting himself to the will of God? Or can this be our case, tho’ it was not his? *Can we be _losers_ by looking to God _alone_, and _devoting_ ourselves to his glory? Was it not the greatness and happiness of our Saviour that he lived to God alone? And is there any other greatness or happiness for us? We may as well seek out for another God, as for another happiness, or another way to it, than that in which Christ is gone before us. He did not mistake the nature of _man_, or the nature of the _world_; he did not overlook any _real felicity_, or pass by any _solid good_; he only made the best use of human life; and his spirit and temper is as _necessary_ for our condition as it was for his. For this world, and all the things of the world, signify as _little_ to us as they did to him. We are no more in our _true state_, till we are got out of this world, than he was; and we have no way to arrive at true felicity and greatness, but by so _devoting_ ourselves to God as our blessed Saviour did. We must therefore make it the business, and aim of our lives, to be like Christ: and this not in a _loose_ or _general_ way, but with great _nicety_ and _exactness_, always looking to his _spirit_, to his _ends_ and _designs_, to his _tempers_, to his ways and conversation in the world, as the exact _model_ and _rule_ of ours.
♦XVI. Again, _Learn of me_, (saith our blessed Saviour) _for I am meek and lowly in heart_.
♦ Number XV. omitted in text.