■• Cirius [Cyrus?] and Scipio. These heathens will rise in judgment against many proud professors in these days, who scorn to stoop to mean services, &c. Venial, vmiat verbttm Domini, et submittemus illi sexcenla etsi nobis essent colla, said Baldassar, a German minister. So it is with all that are high in worth and humble in heart. Lev. x. 2, 3, God will be sanctified either actively or passively ; aut a nobis aut in nos, either in U3 or upon us.
14- THE UNSEAECHABLE [EPH. III. 8,
[4.] A fourth property of an humble heart is this, An humble heaH luill submit to every truth of God, that is made knoivn to it ; even to those divine truths that are most cross to flesh and blood. 1 Sam. iii. 17, EH would fain know what God had discovered to Samuel concerning him ; Samuel tells him that he must break his neck, that the priesthood must be taken away from him, and his sons must be slain in the war ; why ' it is the Lord,' saith he, ' let him do what seemeth him good.' So in Lev. x. 3, the Lord by fire from heaven destroys Aaron's two sons. ' Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is that the Lord spake, saying, I Avill be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified ; and Aaron held his peace.' If God miss of his honour one way, he will rain hell out of heaven, but he will have it another way. This Aaron knew, and therefore he held his peace, when God shewed himself to be ' a consuming fire.' The Hebrew word' that is here rendered peace, signifies the quietness and silence of his mind. He did not hold his tongue only, for many a man may hold his tongue, and yet his mind and heart may kick and swell against God, but his very mind was quiet and still ; there was a heavenly calm in his spirit ; he was dumb and silent, because the Lord had done it. So in Acts x. 33, ' We are all here present before God, to hear all things that are commanded thee of God.' We are not here to hear what may tickle our ears, or please our fancies, or satisfy our lusts. No ; but we are here to hear what God will say. Our hearts stand ready pressed to subject them- selves to whatever God shall declare to be his will. We are walling to hear what we may do, that we may obey sincerely and universally the good pleasure of our God, knowing that it is as well our dignity as our duty so to do.
There are three things in an humble soul that do strongly incline it to duty.
The^rs^ is divine love.
The second is divine presence.
The third is divine glory.
The dove made use of her wings to fly to the ark ; so doth an humble soul of his duties to fly to Christ. Though the dove did use her wings, yet she did not trust in her wings, but in the ark. So though an humble soul does use duties, yet he does not trust iu his duties, but in his Jesus. But now proud hearts they hate the truth, they cry out, ' Who is the Lord, that we should obey him V And what are his command- ments, that we should submit to them ? Ay, but an humble soul falls under the power of truth, and counts it his greatest glory to be obedient to all truth.
[5.] A fifth property of an humble soul is this: An humble soul lives not upon himself, nor upon his own actings, but upon the Lord Jesus^
' Dl^l. The word often signifies a modest quietness of mind, tlie troubled aflfec- ticns being allayed ; so here. In Lam. iii. 27-2^1 it signifies to submit unto God, and to be patient in aflliction ; and so it may be taken here. Nunquam nintis dicittir, quid nun- quam satis discitur, we can never hear that too often that we can never learn too well. Milili mulla agcndii, patienda phira, tlie Christian soldier must do many things, and sutler more. If Seneca said of his wise man, Mnjore parte illic est, unde descrndit, ho is more in heaven than in earth, this is much more true of humble, holy souls. [Seneca : I)« Constantia Sapientis. — G.] Dulce nomen Christi, sweet is the name of Christ. Christ may well be compared to the trees of the sanctuary, EzcL xlvii. 12, which were both for meat and medicine.
EpH. III. 8. J RICHES OF CHRIST. 15
and his actings. Poor men, you know, they do not live upon them- selves, they live upon others ; they live upon the care of others, the love of others, the provision of others. Why ! thus an humble soul lives upon the care of Christ, the love of Christ, the promise of Christ, the faithfulness of Christ, the discoveries of Christ. He lives upon Christ for his justification, Philip, iii. 7-10 ; he lives upon Christ for his sanc- tification. Cant. iv. 16, ' Awake, O north wind, and come thou south, blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out ;' and he lives upon Christ for his consolation : Cant. ii. 3, ' As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste ;' and he lives upon Christ for the performance of all holy actions : Philip, iv. 13, ' I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me ;' Gal. ii. 20, ' I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me ; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.' An humble soul sees in Christ^ a fulness of abundance, and a fulness of redundancy, and here his soul lives and feeds. An humble soul sees that all his stock is in the hands of Christ. His stock of graces, his stock of comforts, his stock of expe- riences are in the hands of Jesus Christ, who is thegreatLord-keeperof all a believer's gi-aces, and of all his comforts ; and therefore, as children live upon them in whose hand their stock is, be it a brother or a friend, why, so an humble soul sees its stock is in the hand of the Lord Jesus, and therefore he lives upon Christ, upon his love, and his pro- vision, and his undertakings, &c. But now proud hearts live not upon the Lord Jesus Christ ; they live upon themselves, and upon their own duties, their o^;\ti righteousness, their own actings, as the Scripture evidences. Christ dwells in that heart most eminently that hath emptied itself of itself Christ is the humble man's manna, upon which he lives, and by which he thrives, Isa. Iviii. 2, 7; Luke vii. 47.