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SERMON IV.

THE REWARD OF HONOURING GOD.

1 SAM. ii. 30.

For them that honour me I will honour.

SERM. THE words are in the stricteft fenfe the word of God,

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uttered immediately by God himself; and may thence command from us an efpecial attention and regard. The history of that which occafioned them is, I prefume, well known; neither fhall I make any defcant or reflection thereon; but to take the words separately, as a propofition of itself, affording a complete inftruction and ample matter of difcourfe. And as fuch, they plainly imply two things: a duty required of us to honour God; and a reward proffered to us, upon performance of that duty, being honoured by God. It is natural for us, before we are willing to undertake any work, to confider the reward or benefit accruing from it; and it is neceffary, before we can perform any duty, to understand the nature thereof. To this our method of action I fhall fuit the method of my discourse; first endeavouring to estimate the reward, then to explain the duty. Afterward I mean to fhew briefly why in reafon the duty is enjoined; how in effect the reward is conferred.

I. The reward may be confidered either abfolutely, (as what it is in itself ;) or relatively, (as to its rife, and whence it comes.)

1. For itself, it is honour; a thing, if valued according to the rate it bears in the common market, of highest price

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among all the objects of human defire; the chief reward SERM. which the greatest actions and which the best actions do pretend unto, or are capable of; that which usually bears most sway in the hearts, and hath strongest influence upon the lives of men; the defire of obtaining and maintaining which doth commonly overbear other most potent inclinations. The love of pleasure ftoops thereto : for men, to get or keep reputation, will decline the most pleasant enjoyments, will embrace the hardest pains. Yea, it often prevails over the love of life itself, which men do not only frequently expofe to danger, but fometimes devote to certain lofs, for its fake. If we obferve what is done in the world, we may discern it to be the fource of most undertakings therein: that it not only moveth the wheels of public action, (that not only for it great princes contend, great armies march, great battles are fought ;) but that from it most private business derives its life and vigour : that for honour especially the foldier undergoes hardship, toil, and hazard; the scholar plods and beats his brains; the merchant runs about so bufily, and adventures fo far; yea, that for its fake the meanest labourer and artificer doth spend his sweat, and stretch his finews. The principal drift of all this care and industry (the great reason of all this fcuffling for power, this fearching for knowledge, this fcraping and ferambling for wealth) doth feem to be, that men would live in fome credit, would raise themselves above contempt1.

In fuch request, of fuch force, doth honour appear to be. If we examine why, we may find more than mere

ὁ Ἴδοις δ ̓ ἂν καὶ τῶν ἰδιωτῶν τοὺς ἐπιεικεςάτους, ὑπὲρ ἄλλου μὲν οὐδενὸς ἂν τὸ ζῆν ἀντικαταλλαξαμένους· ὑπὲρ δὲ τοῦ τυχεῖν καλῆς δόξης, ἀποθνήσκειν ἐθέλοντας. Ifocr. Orat. ad Philip.

Mors tum æquiffimo animo appetitur, cum fuis fe laudibus vita occidens confolari poteft. Cic. i. Tufc.

– Laudis avidi pecuniæ liberales erant, gloriam ingentem divitias honeftas volebant; hanc ardentiffime dilexerunt, propter hanc vivere voluerunt, pro hac et mori non dubitaverunt. Cæteras cupiditates hujus unius ingenti cupiditate prefferunt. Aug. de Civ. Dei, v. 12.

Αἱ γὰρ δυνατεῖαι καὶ ὁ πλᾶτος διὰ τὴν τιμήν ἰσιν αἱρετά. Arif. Eth. iv. 3. Honos alit artes, omnefque incenduntur ad studia gloria, &c. Cic. Tufc. Quaf. 1.

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SERM. fashion (or mutual imitation and confent) to ground the experiment upon. There is one obvious reafon why no mean regard fhould be had thereto; its great convenience and usefulness: for that a man cannot himself live safely, quietly, or pleasantly, without fome competent measure thereof; cannot well ferve the public, perform offices of duty to his relations, of kindness to his friends, of charity to his neighbours, but under its protection, and with its aid: it being an engine very requifite for the managing any business, for the compaffing any defign, at least sweetly and smoothly; it procuring to us many furtherances in our proceedings, removing divers obftacles out of our way, guarding a man's perfon from offences, adding weight to his words, putting an edge upon his endeavours: for every one allows a favourable ear to his discourse, lends an affifting hand to his attempts, grants a ready credence to his teftimony, and makes a fair conftruction of his doings, whom he esteems and refpects. So is honour plainly valuable among the bona utilia, as no fmall accommodation of life; and as fuch, reason approves it to our judgmentm. But fearching farther, we shall find the appetite of honour to have a deeper ground, and that it is rooted even in our nature itself. For we may defcry it budding forth in men's first infancy, (before the use of reafon, or speech ;) Vidi ego et even little children being ambitious to be made much of, fum zelan- maintaining among themselves petty emulations and comtem parvu- petitions, as it were about punctilios of honour. We may lum, &c. obferve it growing with age, waxing bigger and stronger together with the increase of wit and knowledge, of civil culture and experience; that the matureft age doth most resent and relish it; that it prevails moft in civilized nations; that men of the best parts, of the highest improve

expertus

Aug.

m Vide Hier. Ep. ad Celant.

Confcientia nobis neceffaria eft, fama proxima. Qui confcientia fidens, famam negligit, crudelis eft. Aug.

Πρὸς χρείας ἐπιτήδειον ὄργανον ἡ δόξα. Galen.

Nec vero negligenda fama eft ; nec mediocre tełum ad res gerendas exifti. mare oportet benevolentiam civium. Cic de Amic.

Vide Chryf. tom. vi. Orat. 17.

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repit fuper

ments, of the weightieft employments, do moft zealously SERM. affect it and stand upon it; that they who moft ftrugglė with it do moft feel its might, how difficult it is to refift and restrain it, how impoffible it is to ftifle or extinguish it. For the philofopher with all his reafons and confiderations cannot dispute it down, or persuade it away; the anchoret cannot with all his aufterities starve it, or by his retirement fhun it: no affliction, no poverty, no wretchedness of condition can totally fupprefs it. It is a spirit that not only haunts our courts and palaces, but frequents our schools and cloifters, yea, creeps into cottages, into hospitals, into In folitudiprisons, and even dogs men into defarts and folitudes; fo ne fitis fubclose it sticks to our nature. Plato faith, it is the last coat bia. Hier. which a wife man doth put off. But I question whether he could fhew us that wife man who had done it, or could tell us where he dwelt, except perhaps in his own Utopian republic. For they who moft pretend to have done it (who in their discourse most vilify honour; who talk like Chryfippus, that a wife man for reputation fake will not Cic. de Fin. fo much as ftretch out his finger; or like Seneca, that we should do every thing purely for confcience fake, without any regard to men's opinion; who make harangues and write volumes against glory n) do yet appear by their practice, fometimes, by fo doing, to aim at it: even as men do ufually complain of and eagerly quarrel with that which they most affect and woo. Chryfippus wrote, as we are told, above 700 books, most of them concerning logical Laert. quirks, and fuch as one can hardly imagine what other drift he could have in compofing them, befides oftentation of his fubtilty and sharpness of wit. Seneca, if hiftory do not wrong him, and the face of his actions do not mifreprefent him, was not in his heart exempt from a fpice of ambition. Yea, that excellent emperor M. Aurelius, who would often speak like a Stoic, could not but commonly act like a man, more by his practice commending honour,

Nihil opinionis caufa, omnia confcientiæ faciam. Sen, de V. B.
Nil fit illi cum ambitione famaque commune, sibi placeat. Epift. 113.
Juftum effe gratis oportet. Ib.

Id. de Ira, iii. 41.

3.

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SERM. than he difparaged it in his words. For ftory represents him very careful and jealous of his credit, very diligent to preTert. Apol. ferve it and to repair it. Tertullian calls fuch philofophers negotiatores famæ, merchants for fame: and it is perchance fome part of their cunning in that trade, which makes them ftrive to beat down the price of this commodity, that they may more easily engrofs it to themselves. However, experience proves that fuch words are but words, (words spoken out of affectation and pretence, rather than in good earnest and according to truth;) that endeavours to banish or to extirpate this defire are but fond and fruitless attempts. The reason why is clear: for it is as if one should dispute against eating and drinking, or fhould labour to free himself from hunger and thirst: the appetite of honour being indeed, as that of food, innate unto us, fo as not to be quenched or fmothered, except by fome violent diftemper or indifpofition of mind?; even by the wife Author of our nature originally implanted therein, for very good ends and uses, refpecting both the private and public benefit of men; as an engagement to virtue, and a restraint from vice; as an excitement of industry, an incentive of courage, a support of constancy in the prosecution of worthy enterprises; as a ferviceable inftrument for the conftitution, confervation, and improvement of human fociety. For did not fome love of honour glow in men's breasts, were that noble spark quite extinct, few men probably would study for honourable qualities, or perform laudable deeds; there would be nothing to keep fome men within bounds of modefty and decency, to deter them from doing odious and ugly things; men, not caring Aidas do what others thought of them, would not regard what they xquin av did themselves; a barbarous floth, or brutish ftupidity, των γενέτει qa xaxísav. would overspread the world, withdrawing from common Naz. Carm. life moft of its ornaments, much of its convenience; men

56.

• Erat famæ fuæ curiofiffimus, et male loquentium dictis vel literis ve fermone refpondebat. Capit.

P Ut quidam morbo aliquo et fenfùs ftupore fuavitatem cibi non fentiunt; fic libidinofi, avari, facinorofi veræ laudis guftum non habent.

Philipp. 2.

Cic.

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