charitable judgment upon others. But we are not capable of judging rightly for others, unless we can put ourselves ex- actly into their , situation. A person in lower life has little conception of what may be proper for a person of opulence and distinction. Besides, there are a thousand circumstances which may produce somewhat of a diversity of conduct in persons of equal rank and station. Persons in an inferior station are ready to think that the possession of things that are valuable or splendid, is wrong : but the text does not say, that we must not possess the world ; for we may possess crowns and kingdoms : nor does it say that we may not use the world, or e\enjind pleasure in it: for we may use it, and find pleasure in it too ; since, as has been before observed, God has " given us all things to enjoy, and richly to enjoy." The prohibition relates to the heart and the affections, which are not to be set on the world, or on any thing in it, in comparison of God. And who can judge the heart ? The man who lives in a pa- lace may have far less love to the world, than his censorious neighbour that is living in a cottage. Let us judge ourselves as severely as we please : but let us leave our neighbour to be judged by him who knows the heart. " To his own Master he standeth or falleth :" the rule for us to walk by is plain enough : " Judge not, that ye be not judged."]
2. Be firm and determined in your own course —
[What you are to love, is here plainly declared : " The love of the Father" is put in opposition to the love of the world : and " the doing of God's Avill," in opposition to the seeking of any transient enjoyment Let this then be your care, " even to love and serve, not the creature, but the Creator alone V Here you need fear no excess. On the contrary, as the prohibition extends to the world and to all that is in it, so the command of loving God extends to him, and to all that is in him; his whole mind, his whole will, all his perfections, all his purposes, all his dispensations. In this respect you may learn of wordly men. See how faithful they are in their adherence to the ^vorld; how active in its cause, how labori- ous in its pursuits, how immersed in its enjoyments, how in- satiable in their desires after its richest communications. And, if you tell them that they are seeking after a mere phantom, they account you either splenetic or mad. Be ye then firm against those who would deride your pursuit of heavenly ob- jects; and serve your God, as they serve theirs, wholly, unin- terruptedly, and in defiance of all that can be said to turn you from your ways. In a word, " Be stedfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord ;" and know, that when they shall reap only vanity for their recompence, you ^all find that your labour has not been in vain in the Lord."] ' Rom. i. 25. VOL. xr, R
242 ijoHN, III. 3. [1183,