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is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing won ders?"

2. A holy fear and dread of God always on his spirit; especially in his immediate approaches unto the presence of God, in the duties of his worship. Says he, The very angels cover their faces with their wings before him, crying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts;" how then shall I, “a man of polluted lips," take his holy name into my mouth? This makes him, with the publican, to smite upon his breast; to stand afar off, crying, "God be merciful to me a sinner." That is the language of the humble soul, which you have, Psal. xv. 1: "Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? and, Psal. xxiv. 3: Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? and who shall stand in his holy place?"

3. It has in it an admiring of every expression of the divine bounty and goodness toward men in general, and toward himself in particular. O, says he, "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? and, Who am I, that thou hast brought me hitherto? Is this the manner of men, O Lord God? And what can I say more?” as David. And what more can be said! for "praise is silent for thee, O God, in Zion." A silent admiration of the grace and condescension of the great Jehovah, is the highest degree of praise we can win at in this life, while our harps are so mistuned by sin.

4. It has in it a giving God the glory of all that we are helped to do in his service. When the man succeeds in discharging duty in any measure comfortably, he will not sacrifice to his own net, nor burn incense to his own drag: he will not, like proud Jehu, say, "Come, and see my zeal for the Lord." No, that is not the way of the humble soul; he knows that he has all from the Lord, and therefore he will give all the glory to him, saying, "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to thy name be the glory. I laboured," says Paul, "more abundantly than all" the rest of the apostles; "yet not I, but the grace of God, which was with me.—By the grace of God I am what I am."

5. It has in it a silent resignation to the will of God, and an acquiescence in the disposals of his providence, let dispensations be ever so cross to the inclinations of flesh and blood. "Here am I," will the poor soul say, with David; "let him do to me as seemeth good unto him." The man sees awful sovereignty in the dispensation, which makes him to say, "Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?" He sees, that his furnace is not by the ten thousandth part so hot as his sins deserve; and therefore silences

his soul, with the church, saying, "Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? Thou hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve." He sees, that the cup put into his hand, is far from the bitterness of that cup that was put into the hand of Christ; and this makes him to say, "If these things were done in the green tree, what shall be done to" such a withered stick as I am? and therefore I will even be dumb with silence before him, not opening the mouth, because it is the Lord that doth it.

6. Although all these things I have named be the ingredients and concomitants of true humility; yet I think the very soul and essence of gospel-humiliation lies in the soul's renunciation of itself, and going out of itself, and going in to, and accepting of the Lord Jesus Christ, as its everlasting all; as the all of its light, life, strength, righteousness, and salvation. And I think, that a man never passes the verge of moral humility, till self-righteousness be dethroned, till the high and towering imaginations of the man's own righteousness by the law be levelled by the mighty weapons of the gospel, and he brought to submit to the righteousness of God for justification, which is, in the gospel revealed " from faith to faith."

In a word, the humble and lowly believer is content to be nothing, that Christ may be all in all to him: content to be a fool, that Christ may be his only wisdom; content to be, as he really is in himself, a guilty condemned criminal, that Christ may be his only righteousness; content to be stript of his filthy rags, that he may be clothed with a borrowed robe. O says the humble soul, "Surely in the Lord alone have I righteousness and strength: in him will I be justified, and in him alone will I glory," Is. xlv. 24, 25: "Yea, doubtless," says humble Paul, I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: and do count them but dung that I may win Christ, and be found in him; not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith," Phil. iii. 8, 9. And so much for the first general head, namely, the nature of this lowliness.

II. The second thing proposed was to show that the lowly and humble soul is the peculiar favourite of Heaven. This will be abundantly evident, if we consider,

1. That when the Son of God was here in our nature, he showed a particular regard to such. You have a clear instance of this in the centurion, Matth. viii. 8. The centurion there addresses Christ in behalf of his servant, who was grievously tormented of the palsy: Christ, in the 7th verse, promises to come to his house and heal him. Well, see the lowliness of the man's spirit, ver. 8: "Lord," says he, "I am not worthy that

thou shouldst come under my roof." And what a large commendation Christ gives to the man, you see in ver. 10: "I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel." And (ver. 13,) he grants him all that he asked, "Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee." The same we see in the Syrophenician woman, Matth. xv. 27. The lowliness and humility of her spirit made her to submit to all the repulses she met with. When Christ calls her a dog, she takes with it, saying, "Truth, Lord," I am a dog, and shall be content if I may but have a crumb, the dog's portion. And what follows on this? "O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt." Thus, I say, Christ in the days of his flesh, discovered the greatest regard to the humble; and he is the same now in a state of exaltation that he was in a state of humiliation.

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When God gives the grace of humiliation, it is a sign that he intends more grace for that soul: 1 Pet. v. 5. He giveth grace to the humble. You know men use to lay up their richest wines in their lowest cellars; so God lays up the richest treasures of his grace in the heart of the humble and lowly. And hence it comes, that the humble Christian is ordinarily the most thriving and growing Christian. The humble valleys laugh with fatness, when the high mountains are barren; so the humble Christian is made fat with the influences of Heaven, when lofty towering professors are, like the mountains of Gilboa, withered and dry, because the dew and rain of the graces and influences of the Spirit are suspended from them.

3. Honour, exaltation, and preferment is intended for the humble soul: "Before honour is humility," says Solomon. Psal. cxiii. 7, 8: "He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill; that he may set him with princes, even with the princes of his people." They shall be as it were his ministers of state, that shall attend his throne, and have place among them that stand by.

4. God's eyes are upon the humble. Indeed, the eye of his ommiscience beholds all the children of men; but his countenance beholds the humble and upright soul: Is. lxvi. 1, 2: "Thus saith the Lord, the heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? for all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word." The humble soul is the object of his peculiar love and care: "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in their behalf."

5. Not only God's eye, but his ear is toward the lowly soul: Psal. x. 17. "Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear." Would you have preparation for a communion-table? Would you be brought to God's seat, and have a hearing there? Then come with lowliness and humility of soul.

6. The great Jehovah, the infinite God, dwells in and with the humble: Is. lvii. 15: "Thus saith 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, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." God has a two-fold palace where he dwells; the one is in heaven, the other is in the heart of the humble Christian. He says of the humble soul, as he said of Zion, "This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell, for I have desired it." And for what end will he dwell in the heart of the humble? It is to revive and comfort them. The new wine of the consolations of God, which are not small, shall be poured into the heart of the lowly soul. He will "comfort them that mourn in Zion, he will give them the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness."

7. As God dwells with the humble, so the humble shall dwell with God in glory for ever: Matth. v. 3: "Blessed are the poor in spirit," (which is the same with the lowly spirit,) "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." They shall sit not only at his by-table here below, but be admitted to sit down at the high table of glory, and to eat and drink with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, yea, with the King of glory himself. It is the humble that surround the throne above, as you see, Rev. iv; they take their crowns off their heads, and cast them down before the Lamb, saying, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power." Thus, you see that the humble soul is the peculiar favourite of the high God.

III. The third thing in the method was, to inquire why God has such a respect to the lowly.

Ans. 1. God has such a respect to the lowly, not as if this frame of soul were meritorious of any good at his hand, but because this is a disposition that best serves God's great design of lifting up and glorifying his free grace. What think you, sirs, was God's design in election, in redemption, in the whole of a gospel-dispensation, and in all the ordinances of it? His grand design in all was to rear up a glorious high throne, from which he might display the riches of his free and sovereign grace: this is that which he will have magnified through eternity above all his other name. Now, this lowliness and humility of spirit best suits God's design of exalting

the freedom of his grace. It is not the legalist, or proud Pharisee, but the poor humble publican who is smiting on his breast, and crying, "God be merciful to me a sinner," that submits to the revelation of grace. And truly I never think a man truly humbled till he be brought so far off his law-bottom, on which he stands by nature, as to lie down like a worm at the feet of sovereign grace, heartily content to be indebted to free grace for life, righteousness, pardon, and salvation.

2. God has such respect to the humble soul because it is a fruit of his own Spirit inhabiting the soul, and an evidence of the soul's union with the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom alone we are accepted.

3. This is a disposition that makes the soul like Christ; and the more a person resembles Christ, the more God loves him, We are told, that Christ was meek and lowly; he did not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets: though he was the brightness of his Father's glory, yet he was content to appear in the form of a servant; though he was rich, yet he was content to become poor, that we through his poverty might be rich. Now, the humble soul, being the image of Christ, who is the express image of his Father, God cannot but have a regard to him.

IV. The fourth thing in the method was, to lay before you some marks by which you might try, whether you be among the humble and lowly, to whom God has such a regard. You have especial need to try this now, when you are to make a solemn approach to God at his table. "Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat." If you want this lowly frame of spirit, you cannot be welcome guests at the supper of the great King.

Now, for your trial, I shall suggest these things following. 1. The lowly soul is one that is many times ashamed to look up to heaven under a sense of his own vileness and unworthiness; as we see in the poor publican, and in David, Psal. xl. 12: Innumerable evils have compassed me about, mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up they are more than the hairs of mine head, therefore my heart faileth me." Indeed, when by faith he looks to his cautioner, and his everlasting righteousness, his mediation and intercession, he has bolduess to enter into the holy of holies, and can come with boldness to the throne of grace: I say, when he looks to Christ, he is not ashamed, Psal. xxxiv. 5. But when he looks to himself, as he is in himself, he is even "ashamed and confounded" before the Lord, and ready to cry out with the prophet, Is. vi. 5: "Wo is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips: " how shall I speak unto the King, the Lord of hosts? or how shall I appear before him?

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