Lord, I am not worthy, (I have no claim, SER M. no pretence to expect,) that thou shouldft X. come under my Roof: Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee; but fpeak the word, and my Servant shall be healed. And of St Paul, Eph. iii. 8. Unto me, who am less than the least of all Saints, is this Grace given; The expreffion is hyperbolical; But the meaning is, that he had not any the least claim of Right or Defert to that fingular Favour, of being made the Apostle to the Gentiles. And in like manner, of Abraham, Gen. xviii. 27. I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but duft and ashes. And of Jacob, Gen. xxxii. 10. I am not worthy of the least of all thy Mercies. And accordingly our Saviour directs his Difciples; St Luke xvii. 10. When ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, fay, We are unprofitable Servants; we have done that which was our Duty to Nevertheless, upon This Head of Merit, 'tis alfo to be obferved, that there is a Fault even in the contrary Extreme ; a pretended Humility, in imagining, that as we cannot Merit, fo neither are we 2 3 able

do.

·SER M. fect ;-but this One thing I do; forgetting X. thofe things, which are behind, and reaching

forth unto thofe things which are before, I prefs towards the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Chrift Fefus. And that of fob ch. ix. 20. and ch. xlii. 6. If I justify myself, my own mouth fhall condemn me; If I fay, I am perfect, it Shall alfo prove me perverse;

-Wherefore

I abbor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.
The meaning of all which, is, not that
good men fhould fpeak or think of them-
felves, in the fame manner and fenfe as
wicked men ought to do; but that when
they confider the infinite purity of
God and the perfection of his law, they
should then humble themselves in a deep
sense of their own many Follies and im-
perfections. 4thly,
4thly, There is still a fur-
ther degree of spiritual Pride, in pretend-
ing to Merit, at the hands of God; as
thofe of the Church of Rome have pre-
fumptuously affumed to themselves to do.
And in oppofition to This fort of Pride,
Humility confifts in that Difpofition of
Mind, which is recorded of the good
Centurion, St Luke vii. 6. and Mat. viii. 8.

Lord,

Lord, I am not worthy, (I have no claim, SER M. no pretence to expect,) that thou shouldft X. come under my Roof: Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee ; but fpeak the word, and my Servant shall be healed. And of St Paul, Eph. iii. 8. Unto me, who am less than the least of all Saints, is this Grace given; The expreffion is hyperbolical; But the meaning is, that he had not any the leaft claim of Right or Defert to that fingular Favour, of being made the Apostle to the Gentiles. And in like manner, of Abraham, Gen. xviii. 27. I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but duft and ashes. And of Jacob, Gen. xxxii. 10. I am not worthy of the least of all thy Mercies. And accordingly our Saviour directs his Difciples; St Luke xvii. 10. When ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, fay, We are unprofitable Servants we have done that which was our Duty to Nevertheless, upon This Head of Merit, 'tis alfo to be observed, that there is a Fault even in the contrary Extreme; a pretended Humility, in imagining, that as we cannot Merit, fo neither are we

do.

able

X.

SER M.able to Do any thing, but muft leave the Grace of God to do All for us. Which Opinion, does as effectually deftroy Religion in one extreme, as the doctrine of Merit does in the other. For, as, according to the Doctrine of Merit, the Reward is not of Grace, but by Claim of Right; fo on the other fide, if we are able to do nothing at all, then the Punishment cannot be by Justice, but by mere arbitrary Power, which is inconfiftent with the Attributes of God. 5thly, There is yet a higher degree of this Spiritual Pride, in pretending to Works of Supererogation. This alfo is a fond Pretence of the Church of Rome. And This feems to have been the Fault of the Young man in the Gofpel; who when our Saviour had faid unto him, if thou wilt enter into life, keep the Commandments; would needs reply further, St Mat. xix. 20. What lack I yet? This alfo is what St Paul fo juftly reproves, Col. ii. 18. Let no man beguile you of your reward, in a voluntary bumility and worshipping of Angels, intruding into those things, which he hath not feen, vainly puft up by his fleshly mind; which

X.

which things bave indeed a Show of WifSER M. dom, in will-worship and humility: But True humility, in oppofition to this falfe and proud appearance of it, confists, in making, not our own Will, but the Will of God, the Rule of our Duty; cafting down imaginations, and every high thing, that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God; and bringing into captivity every Thought to the Obedience of Chrift, not, of Men but, of Chrift. Laftly, There is a Spiritual Pride, in feeking after and being fond of myfterious and fecret things, to the neglect of our plain and manifeft Duty; In allufion to which, the corrupt Church in the Revelations, is ftiled, Mystery, Babylon the Great. And in oppofition to This, true Humility is that which the Wiseman describes, Prov. iii. 7. Be not wife in thine own eyes; Fear the Lord, and depart from evil: And Mofes, Deut. xxix. 29. Secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but thofe things which are revealed, belong unto us, and to our children for ever, that we may do all the Words of this Law: And the Pfalmift, Pf. cxxxi. 1. Lord, mine heart is not haughty, nor mine