' Gal. i. 16. a»iJi;^>/a*T«». Nec Christuanec cwliim patitur hyperbolfvi, a. man cannot hyperlmlize in speaking of Christ and heaven. Ovinc bonum in eummo bono, all g<iod is iu the chiefest good.
EpH. III. 8.] RICHES OF CHRIST. 9
See it in Job.^ No man ever received a fairer or a more valuable certificate under the hand of God, or the broad seal of heaven, for his being a soul famous in grace and holiness, than Job, as you may see, Job i. 8, "And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil V And yet no man could speak more undervaluingly of himself than Job did. Job xlii. 5, 6, ' I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee, I abhor myself in dust and ashes.'^ This expression is the deepest act of abhorrency. Abhorrency strictly taken, is hatred wound up to the height. ' I abhor myself The word that is rendered abhor signifies to reject, to disdain, to contemn, and to cast off.^ Ah ! says Job, I abhor myself, I reject myself, I disdain myself, I cast off myself, I have a vile esteem of myself* So our blessed apostle, who had been ' caught up into the third heavens, and had such glorious revelations as could not be uttered,' yet he accounted himself less than the least of all saints.^ Not that anything can be less than the least ; the apostle's holy rhetoric doth not cross Aristotle's philosophy ; but the original word beinof a double diminutive, his meaning is that he was as little as could be ; therefore he put himself down so little as could not be, less than the least.
Another proof you have, Isa. vi. 1, 5, 6. As Paul among the apostles was the greatest, so Isaiah among the prophets was the clearest and choicest gospel preacher, and holds out more of Christ and of his king- dom and glory, than all the other prophets do. Isa. vi, 1, He sees the glor}' of the Lord in a vision, and this makes him cry out, verse 5, 'Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts ; I am undone.' The Hebrew is, ' I am cut off,' I am a forlorn man ! Why? ' For I have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.'*^ Here you have the highest and choicest among the prophets, as you had Paul before among the apostles, abasing and laying low himself.
So Peter. Luke v. 8, ' Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.'^ When he saw that glorious miracle wrought by the Lord Jesus, he cries out as one very sensible of his own weakness and sinfulness. ' Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.' Ah ! I am not worthy to be near such majesty and glory, who am a mere bundle of vice and vanity, of folly and iniquity.
Take another clear instance : Gen. xviii. 27, ' And Abraham answered and said. Behold, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, who am but dust and ashes.' Here you have the father of the faithful, the
^ Job was a non-such in regard of those perfections and degrees of grace that he had attained to beyond any other saints on earth.
2 Job was high in worth and humble in heart ; humilitas animi, sublimitas Christiani.
■• A me, me salva Domine : deliver me, 0 Lord, from that evil man, myself. — Augustine. [Confessions. — G.]
* 2 Cor. xii. 1-7. Vide Bezam. [Nov. Test., Exp. in loco. — G.] a^j»)T« fr,ft.itTa, word- less words, such as words are too weak to utter.
® The clearest sight and vision of God does always give a man the fullest sight of his own emptiness, sinfulness, and nothingness. ^IT'OTyS, I am cut off.
^ 'Avn^ acfia^ruxis, a man, a sinner, a very mixture and compound of dirt and sin.
10 THE UNSEARCHABLE [EPH. III. 8.
greatest believer in the world, accounting himself dust and ashes.^ Dust notes the baseness of his original, and ashes notes his deserving to be burnt to ashes, if God should deal wdth him in justice rather than in merc}^ The nearer any soul draws to God, the more humble will that soul lie before God. None so near God as the angels, nor none so humble before God as the angels.
So Jacob, Gen. xxxii. 1 0, ' I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and all the truth which thou hast shewed unto thy servant/ &c.^ Jacob, a man eminent in his prevailing with God, a prince that had the honour and the happiness to overcome the God of mercy, yet judges himself unworthy of the least mercy. Ah ! how low is that soul in his OAvn eyes, that is most honourable in God's eyes !
David, you know, was a man after God's own heart, 1 Kings xv. 5 ; a man highly honoured, much beloved, and dearly prized by the Lord ; yet 1 Sara. xxvi. 20, he counts himself a flea; and what is more contemptible than a flea ? In Ps. xxii. 6, ' I am a worm,' saith he, ' and no man.' The word that is there rendered luorm, is a word that signifies a very little worm which breedeth in scarlet, a worm that is so little that a man can hardly see or perceive it. A worm is the most despicable creature in the world, trampled under foot by every one. Says he, I am a despi- cable worm in my own eyes, and in my enemies' eyes.'
And thus you see the point proved, that the most holy men have been always the most humble men.
II. The second thing that I am to do is, to sheiv you the properties of humble souls. I confess, when I look abroad in the world, and observe the carriage of all sorts of men, my heart is stirred to speak as fully and as home to this point as Christ shall help me. It is very very sad to con- sider, how few humble souls there be in these days. Ah ! the damnable pride that reig-ns and rules in the hearts and lives of most men. I think it is far greater than hath been known in the generations before us. Ah, England ! England ! what folly, what damnable wickedness is this, that thou shouldst be a-lifting thyself up in pride, when God is a-staining the pride of all glory, and bringing into contempt the honour- able of the earth, and a-setting his feet upon the neck of pride.*
[1.] Now the first property that I shall lay down of an humble soul is this :
An humble soul under the highest spiritual dicoveries, and under the greatest outward mercies, forgets not his former sinfulness and his fovmer outward meanness. Paul had been taken up into the third heavens, and had glorious revelations and manifestations of God, 2 Cor. xii. 1-4 ; he cries out, ' I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious,' 1 Tim. i. 13. Under the choicest discoveries, he remembers his former l)lasphemics. SoRom. vii. 23, * I see a law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law ot sin, which is in my members.' He had been at this time about
' "IDNI "iDy, gnaphar vorphar, dust and ashes: i.e. base, vile, worthless. Solemnly think that tliou art dust and ashes, and be proud if thou canst, Isa. vi. 1, 2.
* Dnonn 730 ^n3Dp, l am less than all mercies, to wit, in worth or weight, &c.