APPLICATION.
In all our actions, we should intend something useful and beneficial; for the standing value of all things is in proportion to their use. To undertake affairs with no other view but that of empty glory, whatever some curious dreamers may fancy, is employing our time after a very foolish manner. The Almighty created the world out of his infinite goodness, for the good of his creatures, and not out of a passion for glory, which is a vain, silly, mean principle; and when we talk of glorifying the Author of our being, if we think reasonably, we must mean shewing our gratitude to him, by imitating this goodness of his, as far as we are able, and endeavouring to make some good or other the aim of all our undertakings. For if empty glory be unworthy the pursuit of a wise man, how vastly improper must it be to make an offering of it to an all-wise Deity.
