that man-pleasing is a very difficult and yet unprofitable task. Love Christ as he appeareth in any of his servants, and be followers of them as they are followers of Christ, and regard their approbation as it agreeth with Christ's: but O see that you are able to live upon the favour of God alone, and to be quieted in his acceptance, though man despise you; and to be pleased so far as God is pleased, though man be displeased with you; and to rejoice in his justification, though men condemn you with the odiousest slanders and the greatest infamy, and cast out your names as evil-doers. See that God be taken as enough for you, or else you take him not as your God; even as enough without man, and enough against man; that you may be able to say, "If God be for us, who can be against us? Who is he that condemneth? It is God that justifieth," Rom. viii. 31, 33, 34. "Do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be a servant of Christ," Gal. i. 10. Jer. xvii. 5-8, "Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh.[79]--Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit." Isa. ii. 22, "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?"