I have read of one who, seeing in a vision many snares of Satan spread upon the earth, he sat down and mourned, and said with him- self^ 'Who shall pass through these?' whereunto he heard a voice answering, * Humility shall pass through them.' A proud heart is as easily conquered as tempted, vanquished as assaulted. But the hum- ble soul, when tempted, says with that worthy convert, ' I am not the man that 1 was.'' There was a time when my heart was proud and lifted up, and then thou couldst no sooner knock but I opened ; no sooner call but I answered ; no sooner tempt but I did assent. Oh ! but now the Lord taught me to be humble ; I can resist, though I can- not dispute ; I can fight, but not yield.
Mistress Katherine Bretterge, an humble precious soul, being once in a great conflict with Satan, said thus to him, ' Satan, reason not with me, I am but a weak woman ; if thou hast anything to say, say it to my Christ; he is my advocate, my strength, and my redeemer, and he shall plead for me.'^ An humble soul is good at turning Satan over to the Lord Jesus, and this increases Satan's hell. It is reported of Satan, that he should say thus of a learned man, Tu me sertiyer vincis, thou dost always overcome me ; when I would throw thee dowm, thou liftest up thyself in assurance of faith ; and when I would exalt and promote thee, thou keepest thyself in humility ; and so thou art too hard for me. The only way to avoid cannon-shot, as they say, is to fall down flat ; no such way to be freed from temptations as to keep low.
And so I have done with the first head ; namely, the motives that should move and provoke us to keep humble, to be base, to be nothing in our own eyes.
I shall now come to some helps and directions that may be useful to keep us humble and low in our own eyes. And the first is this :
[1.] Dwell much wpon the greatness of God's mercy and goodness to yon.
Nothing humbles and breaks the heart of a sinner like mercy and love. Souls that converse much with sin and wrath may be much ter- rified ; but souls that converse much with grace and mercy will be much humbled. Luke vii., the Lord Je.sus shews mercy to that noto- rious sinner, and then she falls down at his feet, and loves much and weeps much, &c.* In the 1 Chron. xvii., it was in the heart of David to build God a house. God would not have him to do it, yet the mes- senger must toll David that God would build him a house, and estab- lish his Son upon the throne for ever. Look into the 1 5th, IGth, and 1 7th verses, and there you shall find that David lets fall such an humble speech, which he never did before that God had sent him tliat message of advancement. * And David the king came, and sat before the Lord, and said, \\'ho am I, O Lord God ? and what is mine house, tliat 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
' Qui* pertransiit ista ? The answer was, Ilumililas pertrnnairt. . . . Ego non sum ego. * As before : see our Index under Bretterg^o. — G.
' It is said of Adnni, tliat lio turned lii.s face to the giirden of Eden, and wept soro. [Query, by tlio Habbins ? or 18 it a tacit alluyioD to Milton's description? Par. Lost, b. xii. 645.— G.]
EpH. III. 8.] RICHES OF CHRIST. 37
a great while to come,' &c., 2 Sam. vii. 18, 19. And this sweetly and kindly melts him, and humbles him, before the Lord. Oh, if ever you would have your souls kept low, dwell upon the free grace and love of God to you in Christ' Dwell upon the firstness of his love, dwell upon the freeness of his love, the greatness of his love, the fulness of his love, the unchangeableness of his love, the everlastingness of his love, and the activity of his love. If this do not humble thee, there is nothing on earth will do it. Dwell upon what God hath undertaken for you. Dwell upon the choice and worthy gifts that he has bestowed on you ; and dwell upon that glory and happiness that he has prepared for you, and then be proud if you can.
[2.] Secondly, Keep faith in continual exercise, upon Christ as crucified, and upon Christ as glorified.
There are two special sights of Christ, that tend much to humble and abase a soul.
The one is a sight of Christ in his misery, in the 12th of Zech. ver, 10.
And the other is a sight of Christ in his glory (Rev. i. 7, Isa. vi. 1, 3, 5, compared). It is dangerous to be more notion than motion ; to have faith in the head and none in the heart ; to have an idle and not an active faith. It is not enough for you to have faith, but you must look to the acting of your faith, upon Christ as crucified, and upon Christ as glorified. Souls much in this will be very little and low in their own eyes. The great reason why the soul is no more humble is because faith is no more active.^
[3.] Thirdly, Study your own natures more, and ivhatever evil you behold in other men's practices, labour to see the same in your oicn nature.
There is the seed of all sins, of the vilest and worst of sins, in the best of men. When thou seest another drunk, thou mayest see the seed of that sin in thy own nature. When thou seest another unclean, the seeds of uncleanness thou mayest see in thy own nature. And in that thou dost not act uncleanness as others, it arises not from the goodness of thy nature, but from the riches of God's grace.^ Remember this, there is not a worse nature in hell than that that is in thee, and it would discover itself accordingly ; if the Lord did not restrain it, it would carry thee to those horrid acts that are against the very light of nature.*
There was one that was a long time tempted to three horrid sins : to be drunk, to lie with his mother, and to murder his father. Being a
' As houey flows naturally from the bee, so does mercy flow naturally from God.
* As one scale goes up, the other goes down ; so as faith goes up, the heart goes down. ' Imibria sued Scenola, for that he received not his weapon deep enough into his
body. — Augustine. [Qu. Scavola? — G.]
* I liave read of an Italian monster, who, taking his enemy upon an advantage, set his dagger to his heart, and made him to abjure and blaspheme the Lord, that so he might save his life ; which being done, he thrust him through, and with a bloody triumph, in- sulting over him, said, Oh, this is right noble and heroical revenge, which doth not only deprive the body of temporal life, but bringeth also the immortal soul to endless flames everlastingly. See what natures you curry with you. Jt was a good saying of one of tlie fathers : Other vices are in sins, saith he ; but pride and high confidence is most apt to creep in upon duties well done. [Related in Wauley's Wonders, with authority, book iv. c. xi. — G]
38 THE UNSEARCHABLE [EPH. III. 8.