And now tell me, O son or daughter of poverty, tell me, bast thou no pride? Hast thou none of these symptoms of this mortal malady? No spots of this defilement of soul? No share in this universal crime of the children of Adam? Dost thou think that pride, never inhabits a cottage, and never travels but in chariots and coaches? Art thou so weak as to imagine that a thread-bare garment must needs cover a humble heart? When thou hast honestly made all these enquiries which I have pointed out, I hope thy own heart will unlearn this mistake, and teach thee that thou hast not escaped this general guilt and folly. Some of the poorest of mankind have happened to be some of the proudest in my observation that I ever met with, and it is possible that others have made the same remark, though it must be owned their temptations to pride are less.

Let us enquire next of the faint-hearted man, the coward of soul, who flatters his infirmity, and thinks himself, to be all humility and meekness. I own, saith he, I have a tenderness for myself, but I have no pride. If I am injured and reproached, I cannot well bear it, but I am all in tears; I tremble and answer not again; my soul sinks within me at the words of slander, and I die at the voice of a proud oppressor, surely this heart of mine is humble.

But tell me, O man, if thou hadst courage and power to revenge the affront, would thou be thus impatient? If thou hadst wealth and dignity in the world to support thee, wouldst thou not retort the reproaches of thy adversary, and look down with a sort of disdain upon him who now disdains thee? It is impotence then and cowardice, but not humility which makes thee imitate patience and meekness. It is abjectness of spirit and want of power, and not christian lowliness, that renders thee so silent under injuries. Christ Jesus could command legions of angels to destroy his blasphemers; yet when he was reviled, he bore it patiently, and reviled not again; he endured the contradiction of sinners against himself. But tell me, friend, dost thou never revile those in secret who have reviled thee in public, and that without any plain call of providence to publish their crimes or follies and to expose them? Art thou not impatient and inwardly fretful under the hand of God or man beyond all reasonable degrees? Are not thy lips open in slander where those whom thou slanderest cannot hear thee? Art thou not ready sometimes to take offence at some innocent words that are spoken, and where perhaps an affront was never designed? How dost thou bear a contradiction to thy sayings, or opposition to thy will? Dost thou not kindle into secret resentment and let wrath burn inwardly on such occasions? Doth not thy bosom swell with indignation at such a season, though thou art afraid to vent it? What is it but an excessive tenderness for thyself, and undue love of honour and

HUMILITY REPRESENTED,

applause, and the high opinion that thou hadst formed of thy worth, that makes thee bear contempt and reproach so ill, and die under a word of slander ?

Say again, What is it but the pride of thy heart that tempts thee never to acknowledge a mistake, but always to colour it over with a semblance of truth? Art thou a son or a daughter of Eve, and yet infallible and not capable of mistaking? Canst thou ever look back and remember the time when thou didst readily confess any folly, or say, I was mistaken or I acted amiss, and yet has not thy heart been sometimes sensible that thou wert in the wrong? What is it but pride then that makes these words so hard to be pronounced? Is it not thy vanity of mind, and unreasonable esteem of thyself that forbids thee even to see thy error, or to confess thy fault, while all that are around thee behold thy mistake and thy misconduct? Is it thy humility that makes thee abound so much in thy own sense? Is it humility that raises such an anguish of heart, and such a painful vexation within, when thou art treated with small indecencies by thy fellow-creatures ? Is it humility that ruffles thy temper, and tears thy spirit when thou art not esteemed and honoured according to thy worth? Or is it not rather excessive and criminal tenderness for self, and an over-value of thy own merit? That is but poor virtue that cannot bear to be despised, but faints under a word of contempt and scorn; poor pretence to virtue indeed that cannot support itself under an affront from a fellow-worm.

I will readily grant that the rich and the mighty, and the bold and the high-spirited and the high-born among men, lie much more under temptations to pride; it is the very sin of their constitution or their condition in life, and perhaps they are more frequently guilty of this iniquity; but if we would all of us search our hearts honestly, and examine our conduct by sincere enquiries, there is not one of us either in high or low state would be able to excuse ourselves from this universal contagion and guilt, this original degeneracy and over-spreading blemish of human nature.

SECT. VI.-The Humility and Exaltation of Christ proposed as our Puttern.

Among all the hearts that God ever made there have never been but three entirely free from this stain and poison; two of them were the hearts of Adam and Eve in the day of their innocence, and happy had it been for us, if pride had never found an entrance there. The third was the heart of the man Jesus who is God's most beloved Son. It was amazing humility indeed in this glorious person the Son of God that he would condescend to be born a son of man, that he should leave the bosom of the Father and all the glories there to dwell in flesh

and blood: And when he entered our world there was nothing round him but the signs of humiliation and the marks of deep abasement: He became the child of a poor maid in Galilee, he was content to be born in a stable, for there was no room for him in the house: He lay down to take his first nap in a manger, below the rank and condition of men; and as though he were a companion for meaner creatures, he borrowed his dwelling from the ox and the ass. This was the accommodation, this the presence-chamber of the King of Israel, of the Son of God. Come let us thus contemplate the glorious humility of the blessed Jesus, the humble infancy of our adored Saviour, and let us become infants and humble.

Let us follow and observe him in the progress of life, when he appeared as a young carpenter, when he sweat and laboured in the trade of his Father Joseph, when he assisted him, as ancient history informs us, to make yokes for oxen, and lived in a lowly cottage suited to those circumstances. No rooms of state, no rich hangings, no carpets or furniture of silk and gold, no costly and glittering things about him. And when he began his ministry, he travelled through the country on foot to preach his divine gospel, when he might have been borne on the wings of angels. He was content with mean lodging in the tents of fishermen, and sometimes the Lord of glory had not where to lay his head. He never accepted but of one gaudy day in the period of his life, and then his highest triumph was to ride upon the colt of an ass into Jerusalem: His way was strewed with branches of trees, and the garments of the poor, and he was attended with a shouting train of the lower ranks of the people: But his more constant dwelling was in cottages, and his accoutrements betrayed universal poverty and meanness : An obscure life on earth veiled the majesty of the King of heaven; contempt and scorn, infamy and reproach were his daily companions in the streets of Jerusalem, and his table and his lodging were with poor fishermen in Galilee, the most contemptible part of all the country of the Jews.

And let it be observed here, that every instance of meanness and poverty in the life and circumstances of the blessed Jesus was a distinct token of the humility of his soul, for it was chosen poverty, it was assumed meanness: When he was rich in the glories and splendors of his Father's court in heaven, he laid them all aside for our sakes, and became poor on earth, that through his poverty we might be made rich; 2 Cor. viii. 9.

What a shameful dimness and disgrace, what divine contempt has the Son of God cast on all the lustre and glory of this world, by his choice of so mean accommodations and so poor an equipage? What a holy disdain of all earthly grandeur and magnificence should we learn from the incarnation and the life

of the holy Jesus? Even meanness and poverty should lose their disgraceful appearances, and seem almost an amiable sort of apparel to us, when we remember they were worn by the Son of God.

"Think with thyself, O my soul, what if thou art not scated among the glittering idols of this world, the men of figure and quality and exalted station? Remember the blessed Jesus was thy fore-runner in a low and humble rank of life; Jesus, who went through the deeps of abasement to the temple of the highest honour; and divine wisdom assures thee, that before honour is humility; Prov. xv. 33. What if thou hast not the favour of the rich and the society of the great ones of the earth? Dost thou not hear the promise of the God of heaven and feel the divine encouragement with surprizing delight? Thus suith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place: With him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit will I dwell; Is. lvii. 15. I will be his life and his support. The soul that is truly humble upon religious principles, when he is cast out of the company of the great and the wealthy with scorn, is a partner of the sufferings of the holy Jesus, is an imitator of his virtues, and he shall share in his sacred honours: he shall have the great and blessed God come down and dwell with him here on earth, to enrich him with grace, and he shall be raised to dwell for ever in the courts of heaven with God and with his Son Jesus, who is the Lord of glory.

Think yet further, O my soul, what if thy station and place in the visible church should be low and mean, as a door-keeper in the house of thy God, this will not give thy heart any sensible disquietude, while thou canst assume St. Paul's motto in my text, Less than the least of all the saints. Jesus and his disciples were even cast out of the synagogue; John ix. 22. Luke iv. 28. Yet he was the first beloved Son of God and the chief of all the saints both in the lower and in the upper worlds. Look up, my eyes, and behold him now on the throne of heaven, and there also the humblest among the holy ones sits nearest to his majesty; for that seat is prepared for those who are most like

himself.

"Labour hourly to subdue thy pride and fulness of self, O my soul, pursue the grace of humility here below in the deepest degrees of it, and this shall prepare thee for some exalted station on high. I am verily persuaded the man who called himself the least of saints in this world has a place of honour provided for him among the highest in the world above; and perhaps he sits next to the right-hand of Jesus who is enthroned in glory at the right-hand of God.

"Farewell then vanity and pride! Farewell ye scenes of

grandeur, ye flattering and fading glories of this life! Farewell ve vain and ambitious titles among my fellow-worms! Be my ears deaf and my heart dead to all the noisy pomp, to all the sounding honours of this world! Let me be a humble and a holy follower of the holy and the humble Jesus! I adore him, I love him, I would fain be more like him. He is my divine example and my fore-runner to the world of joy above: He has a crown there provided for every humble soul, a crown which shall never fade: he has names of dignity for all his saints, but on his own sacred head are many crowns, and to his name belong superior honours: To the Lamb that was slain ascribe glory and majesty and universal blessing for ever and ever.