7. Our blessed Saviour and his apostles are wholly taken up in doctrines that relate to _common life_. They call us to differ in every _temper_ and _way_ of life from the spirit and way of the world: to renounce all its goods, to fear none of its evils, to reject its joys, and have no value for its happiness: to be as _new-born babes_, that are born into a new state of things; to live as pilgrims, in spiritual watching, in holy fear, aspiring after another life; to take up our daily cross; to deny ourselves; to profess the blessedness of mourning; to seek the blessedness of poverty of spirit; to forsake the pride and vanity of riches; to take no thought for the morrow; to live in the profoundest humility; to rejoice in sufferings; to reject the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; to bear injuries; to forgive and bless our enemies, and to love mankind as God loveth them; to give up our whole hearts and affections to God; and strive to enter thro’ the strait gate into a life of eternal glory. 8. Thus it is in all virtues and holy tempers; they are not _ours_, unless they be the virtues and tempers of our _ordinary life_. So that Christianity is so far from leaving us to live in the common ways of life, conforming to the folly of customs, and gratifying the passions and tempers which the spirit of the world delights in: it is so far from indulging us in any of these things, that all its virtues, which it makes necessary to salvation, are only so many ways of living, contrary to the world in all the common actions of our life. If our common life is not a course of _humility_, _self-denial_, _renunciation_ of the world, _poverty_ of spirit, and _heavenly_ affection, we don’t live the life of Christians. 9. But yet, tho’ it is thus plain, that this, and this alone, is Christianity, an uniform, open and visible practice of all these virtues; yet it is as plain, that there is little or nothing of this to be found, even among the better sort of people. You see them often at church; but look into their lives, and you see them just the same sort of people as others are. The difference that you find betwixt them is only the difference of their natural tempers. They have the same _taste_ of the world, the same worldly cares, fears, and joys; they have the same _turn_ of mind, are equally _vain_ in their desires. You see the same vanity of _dress_, the same _self-love_ and indulgence, the same foolish _friendships_ and groundless _hatreds_, the same _levity_ of mind and _trifling_ spirits, the same idle dispositions, and vain ways of spending their time in visiting and conversation, as in the rest of the world, that make no pretences to devotion.