2. Again, That we may come to be poor in spirit, let us consider what we are, that we are creatures. The term whence creation begins is just nothing. It is so in the creatures in the world. God made all of nothing, and is it not so in the new creature much more ? Therefore if I will be anything in myself as of myself, surely I must look to no creature of God's making. For grace is God's creature. Therefore it must rise of nothing; there must be a sight of our own nothingness. Indeed a Christian in him- self is nothing now in the state of grace. Whatsoever he is for grace or glory, it is out of himself. He hath nothing in himself as of himself; all that he hath he hath from Christ. He is poor in himself, but he hath riches enough in Christ, if he sees his own poverty. He is a sinner in himself, but he hath righteousness enough in Christ, if he sees his sins. Let us know that this is a qualification to interest us in the good that is in Christ. We , renew our right in Christ no otherwise than we renew the sense of our own poverty and want. Would we see all in Christ, that we have riches, and wisdom, and happiness, and favour, and life, and all ia him ? With the same spiritual eye of the soul, let us see that we have nothing in ourselves ; for I can no otherwise renew that right and interest I have in Christ, but by renewing this sight. We altogether shine in the beams of our husband. The consideration of this will be a means to work our care and endeavour towards it; that we are creatures, ' new creatures;' and therefore we must rise of nothing in ourselves, and we must be main- tained and supported by the new Adam, ' the second Adam,' and have fresh grace from him continually. ' We move and live in him,' as I said before.
3. Again, That we may be poor in spirit, help ourselves icith presentinr/ to ourselves ahasimi, emptying considerations. What be they ? Among the rest reflect our minds back to what we were before God shewed mercy upon
252 THE RICH POVERTY ; OR,
US ; how unprofitably we spcut our daj-s ; what a deal of good we left undone that we might have done. For the present, consider the imper- fections that hang upon us, whereby we even defile the best performances that come from us. Let us have in the eye of our soul presented our special corruptions for the present. For the time to come let us present to our souls what will become of us ere long; that for outward things, that nature is prone to be highly conceited of, they shall lie in the dust. These bodies of ours must lie low in the dust ; all other things must be taken from us, and we from them, we know not how soon. Let us oft think and consider of the vanity of all things, what will all things be ere long. They must all come to nothing. The lire will consume all that is glorious in the world. There will be no excellency but the excellency of Christ, and his church and children ; and think of the day of judgment. AVhat will stand for current then? Think of the time of our dissolution, how we shall appear before Christ; what we have in us that will give us confidence at that day and time, to look upon him with comfort ; that those thoughts of the time to come, of death, and judgment, and eternity may not be frightful to us. The consideration of these things will make us to look about us, and make us indeed ' poor in spirit.'
Especially let us consider what our profession requires of us ; not by the law, let that go ; but what in the covenant of grace we should be, and are not, it will shame the best of us. Alas ! how much good might we have done that we have not ! How have we failed in bringing honour and credit to our profession ! How barren have we been in good works ! How unwatchful over our thoughts and speeches, whereby we have stained our religion and our consciences, and grieved the Spirit of God. Let us consider how short we are of that we might have been ; and this will bring inward shame and confusion of spirit, from whence this temper of poverty of spirit comes. Consider of these things, and enlarge them in your own meditations. There is not a more fruitful spending of our thoughts, next to the consideration of Christ, and the riches we have in him, than to consider what we are in ourselves ; that we may be in a perpetual disposition of soul, fit to receive the good that is to be had in Christ.
Two graces are the main graces that must go along with us all the days of our lives ; this grace to go out of ourselves ; and another grace to go to another that is better than ourselves, in whom lies our happiness. That we may go out of ourselves and the creature, and all that is in the creature, poverty of spirit is necessary, to see that there is not that in ourselves that will yield a foundation of comfort, and poverty of spirit sees that there is not that that we possess in the creature that will stand out. The creature, that is a particular good, for a particular case, to supply a particular want, and but for a time, it is fading and outward; but the comfort we must have it must be spiritual and universal, to give contentment to the soul. The consideration of these things will force us to go out of ourselves ; this poverty of spirit, that we have not enough to make us happy. The heathen men, by the use of discretion and knowledge, had so much to see that there is nothing in the world to make man happy ; the negative part they knew well enough. But there must be another grace to carry us to a positive happiness where that lies, and that is the grace of trust that follows. ' I will leave in the midst of thee an afllicted and poor people,' that shall be disposed and prepared by their outward poverty to inward spiritual poverty ; to go out of themselves to Christ, to trust in him.