The Duty of Humility is plain in all the Scripture, but more frequently and earneftly inculcated in the New Teftament; infomuch that it may be reckoned among the diftinguishing Doctrins of the Christian Religion. The Heathen Morals almost overlooked it; and in the Old Testament Writings, 'tis but fparingly recommended; but in the Chriftian Inftitution we every where meet with it in Capital Characters, as a Precept of the first Magnitude, Jam. 4. 6. God refifteth the proud, faith St. James; and, 1 Pet. 5.5. beye cloathed with Humility, fays St. Peter. And our Lord himself, who was a perfect Example of all Moral and Divine Perfection, and in whom the Fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily, feems yet to commend himself to our Imitation, chiefly upon the Account of his Humility; Learn of me, fays he, for I am meek, and lowly in heart, Matth.

II. 29.

But there needs no Multiplication of Scripture for the Proof of this. I fhall therefore only farther obferve, That the greatest Perfonages that ever were in the World, were always molt eminent and confpicuous for this Excellency. Out of many, Ifhall select three Inftances, which may well deserve our Confideration. The firft shall be the great Fore-runner of our Bleffed Saviour, the Ho ly Baptift. This Great and Holy Perfon, when

when the Jews fent Priefts and Levites from Jerufalem, to demand of him who he was, not only difclaimed the Titles of Chrift, of Elias, and of that Prophet, (this his humble Spirit was not content with) but went farther, and gave this ftrange and mortified Account of himself, I am, fays he, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Joh. 1.23. The Prophet David, indeed, had faid before of himfelf, That he was a Worm, and no Man, Pfal. 22. 6. And this, one would think, was a fufficient Stretch of Humility: But the Baptift fpeaks in a Strain below him, allowing himfelf to be no more than a Voice. The fame holy Perfon thought himself unworthy to baptize his Saviour; nay, what makes that lefs admirable, not worthy fo much as to unloose the very Latchet of his Shooes.

The next Instance I fhall mention, is the ever-bleffed Mother of our Lord. She, if ever any Creature, had Caufe to be proud: 'Tis impoffible even to imagin a stronger Temptation. She was faluted by an ArchAngel, faid to be a Perfon highly favoured with God, and bleffed among Women; and, in particular, That the fhould be Mother to the Son of the Higheft, and that too by the Power of the Moft High. Was not here enough to betray a poor innocent Virgin into Pride and Vanity? Had the Angels half fo much Reafon for their Pride and Haughti nefs,

nefs, when they fell from the Heights of Glory? Well, how did fhe behave her felf under the dangerous Salutation? Why, the feemed to make it rather Matter of Obedience and Refignation, than of Triumph and Boa fting. Behold, fays fhe, the handmaid of the Lord: be it unto me according to thy word, Luk. 1.38.

But the most ftupendous Inftance of Humility that ever was, or can be, was in the Perfon of our Bleffed Lord; whether we conLider him in the Myftery of his Incarnation, or in the mean Circumstances of his Birth, or in the humble Method of his Life; whether we confider him as emptying himself of his Eternal Glories, and drawing a Cloud over his Brightnefs; or as forbidding the Devils to publifh his Divinity, and Men to declare his Miracles, and his Difciples to tell of his Transfiguration; or as washing his Difciples Feet, or as riding upon an Afs, or as converfing among Sinners; and laftly, chufing to die between Thieves. These, and many fuch other Inftances of Condefcenfion, argue the most profound Humility that can be imagined; and withal, how concerned our Lord was to commend and endear this most excellent Duty to the Practice of Men. Of all the Vertues and Excellencies in the World, one would have thought this of Humility leaft capable of being practifed and ex

emplified

emplified by the Son of God. Commend it, indeed, he might, by Precept, as well as any other; but fure, one would think, not by Example. But fee, what rare Arts and Myfteries God has found out, to teach us this Leffon. And therefore we may well cons. See, This clude, that there is Excellency and Neceffity in Author's it, as well as Difficulty; and how much it &cellent concerns us to learn, what God has been fo Treatise peculiarly follicitous to teach. It is then a Chriftian Duty,to be thus Poor in f Spirit: And the Reasonableness of it is as great as the Obligation. This I might fhew from the good Confequences, and happy Effects of this Difpofition of Spirit; but this falling in more properly under the Third Partition of my Difcourfe, Ifhall for the prefent content my felf with fome other Confiderations, taken from the Condition of Man; whom I fhall confider, I. As a Creature.

II. As a Sinner.

First then, Man is a Creature; and this is a very reasonable Ground for Humility, and Poverty of Spirit. We ufually think it a very humbling Confideration, to re-mind a Perfon of the Meannefs of his Original. But now, What Original can be fo mean, as to be from Nothing? It is enough to take down the Spirit of the brightest Intelligence, to confider, that nothing was his Original; a State more vile and dishonourable, than the Chaos

Humility

it felf. Now, this is the Condition of Man. He had his Rife from nothing; and derives his Pedigree, by his Mother's Side, from Darknefs and Emptiness: And though now, by the Omnipotency of his Creator, he is fomething; yet still he holds his Being as precarioully as he first received it, and depends as much for his Existence upon the Will of his Creator, as Light does upon the Sun, or the Image in the Glass upon the Prefence of the Body. If God does but turn his Face from him, and cease to behold him, he will vanish into nothing. God fpake the Word, indeed, before he was made; but to unmake him there needs no contradictory Fiat; he need only be filent, and not fuftain him by the Word of his Power. And fhall that Being be proud, which was once Nothing, and has till fuch a Natural Bent towards Annihilation, as to need only a bare Negative to make him Nothing again? No, fays the Wife Man, Pride was not made for man, nor furious anger for them that are born of a woman. Man muft forget his Extraction, to give the least Admittance to Pride; and he need but ftudy and confider that, to have the most inward and feeling Senfe of Humility.

This Confideration is yet farther improveable, if we admit the Hypothesis of those who fay, that to be a Creature involves a State of Nothing, as well as an Origination

from