' ny^iri' ^olaynaUi, an humble soul is a little, little notliing in his own eyes.
< (juA lines to lu-ar this as a parcel of his praise, parcere sul>jectis et delellare super- Los, to spare the lowly and strike down the proud.
EpH. III. 8.] RICHES OF CHRIST. 11
fourteen years converted, as some judge. He was a man that lived at as high a rate in God, as any we read of ; a man that was filled with glorious discoveries and revelations, and yet under all discoveries and revelations, he remembers that body of sin and death that made him cry out, ' O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me 1' Who shall ease me of my burden, who shall knock off these chains that make my life a hell ?' 1 will by a few instances prove the other branch : Gen. xxxii. 10, ' I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies,' says Jacob, ' for with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am be- come two bands.' I remember, saith he, when I went over Jordan, I was as a footman that carried all his wealth with him. Under his outward greatness he forgets not his former meanness. An humble soul is good at looking back upon his former low estate, upon his thread- bare coat that was his best and only robe.^
So David, 1 Chron. xvii. 16, 17, ' And David the king came and sat before the Lord, and said. What am I, O Lord God, and what is mine house, that thou hast brought me hitherto ? And yet this was a small thing in thine eyes, O God ; for thou hast also spoken of thy servant's house for a great while to come, and hast regarded me according to the Slate of a man of high degree. Who am I, 0 Lord God, and what is mine house ?' David remembered the meanness of his birth ; he remembered his shepherd's crook, as Jacob did his travelling staff."* Mercies make an humble soul glad, but not proud. An humble soul is lowest when his mercies are highest ; he is least when he is greatest ; he is lowest when he is highest ; he is most poor when he is most rich. Nothing melts like mercy, nothing draws like mercy, nothing humbles like mercy. Mercy gives the humble soul such excellent counsel, as Plasilla the empress gave her husband Theodosius, ' Remember, O husband,' saith she, ' what lately you were, and what now you are ; so shall you govern well the empire, and give God his due praise for so great an advancement.'* The voice of mercy is, Remember what lately thou wert, and what now" thou art, and be humble. Now proud men that are lifted up from the dunghill, that abound in worldly wealth, ah ! how does their blood rise with their outward good ! The more mer- cies they have, the more proud they are ; mercies do but puff and swell such souls. In a crowd of mercies, they cry out in the pride of their hearts : ' Depart from us, O God, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. W^hat is the Almighty that we should serve him ? and what profit shall we have, if we pray unto him t Ps. Ixxiii. 3-13 ; Job xxi. 7-16, xiv. 15.
[2.] A second property of an humble soul is this. He overlooks his
1 Chrysostom observes it of Paul, as his greatest honour, that although he had obtained pardon of God for his sins, yet he is not ashamed to reckon them up to the world. The spouse of Christ, under all the kisses and embraces of Christ, acknowledges herself to be black : Cant. i. 2, 5, compared.
" Omnia mea mecum porto, all my goods I carry with me, said Bias, one of the seven wise men of Greece. [^As before. — G.]
3 Iphicrates, that noble captain, cried out. From how small to how great an estate am I raised! [Son of Timotheus, a shoemaker. — G.] So does the humble soul, when God turns his brass into silver, his iron into gold, his pence into pounds. Agathocles, who, of a potter's son, was made king of Sicily, would always be served in earthen vessels. [A. was himself a ' potter.'— G.]
* Rather Flacilla, sometimes Flacilla and Placidia. Cf. Tillemont, as be/ore. — G.
12 THE UXSEARCHABLE [EPH. III. 8.