CHAP. VI.

Of the particular Duties and Effects of Humility, with Some Remarks upon the Signs of it.

1. Having already fhewn what Humility

is,upon what it is immediately foun ded, the Reasonableness of it, the Excellency of it, and the indifpenfable Neceffity of it, I know not what in the handling of this Subject may better deferve to be next confider'd, than the particular Duties to which it obliges us, and whereby it expreffes it felf; to the Confideration of which accordingly I now proceed.

2. Though Humility, as was obferv'd be fore, be a Vertue which refpects our selves, and whereof we our felves are the only proper and immediate Object, yet the Effects and Expreffions of it reach further than our felves. And 'tis of thefe Effects that we are, I fuppofe, to be understood when we fpeak of Humility towards God, Humility towards our Neighbour, and Humility towards our Selves. For indeed there can be but one Humility in all, and that is that which regards our felves. But then this Humility towards our felves, Q

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(the fole Object of that low Opinion wherein Humility confifts) will have effects out of and beyond our felves. That is I mean, it will make us behave and comport our selves in a certain manner with relation to God, our Neighbour, and our Selves. Which Ef fects are also so many Duties, to which it obliges us, and which I fhall therefore confider according to that Threefold Relation.

3. And firft of the Duties of Humility towards God. This the Prophet expreffes in general by walking Humbly with him. He hath fhewed thee O Man what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love Mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God, Micah 6. 8. Walking here fignifies our Carriage, Behaviour, or Deportment in the ordinary practice of Religion, that being the pace which Men ordinarily use when they go, or move from one place to another. And by our walking Humbly with God, we are to understand in general our walking fo with him, or our comporting our felves in fuch a manner towards him, as may bespeak and exprefs the low and humble fense which we have of our felves. For that is properly our Humility, the other is but the Effect of it. Our Humility confifts in the low fense which we have of our felves, but then that low fenfe of our felves will oblige us to Comport our felves in a certain

manner

manner towards God, such a manner as may express that fenfe. And this is the general of what we are to understand by our walking Humbly with God. But then this more particularly includes,

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4. First, Our thinking Highly, Magnificently, Honourably, and Worthily of him, both as to his Being or Effence, and as to those feveral Perfections and Attributes whereby,by reafon of the narrowness of our Faculties, and their disproportion to fo vast an Object, we are forced as it were by parts, to conceive his fimple and undivided Effence. Our thinking highly of his Wifdom, highly of his Power, highly of his Goodness, &c. For though this be no more than what Religion in general obliges us to, fince we cannot ferve God as we ought, from a principle of Love, and with a filial Ingenuity, without having high and worthy Thoughts of him nay, though it be no more than what even the ftrictness of Philofophic Truth and Science demands, fince we cannot be good Philofophers without conceiving rightly of things, and according to their Natures, which rightly in God is Highly, yet this fame thing alfo flows in a particular manner from Humility, and may be confider'd as a special Effect and Duty of it. For as 'tis the Effect of being low one's felf, or in a low place, to make other things seem high, so the more Q 2 Hum

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Humble we are in our felves, and the lower we defcend into the Abyss of our own Nothing, the more raised and elevated thoughts we hall have of God, and be the more penetrated with the fenfe of his Infinite Greatnefs and Majefty.

5. Secondly, Our proftrating our Souls before him by Acts of the lowest and most profound Veneration, and even annihilating our felves in his Prefence, looking upon our felves as Nothing in comparison of his Incomprehenfible Being, and Addreffing him accordingly in our Religious Worship, not with a faucy Familiarity, or negligent Confidence, as if we were talking with an equal, but with that ferious Concern and awful Reverence that fo vaft a Distance and Difproportion requires. An inftance whereof we have in that of the Patriarch Abraham, Behold now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am bur Dust and Ashes, Gen. 18.27. Such a fenfe fhould we have of our own Meannefs and Vilenefs when we approach unto God, and put our felves more immediately into his Prefence. For when will we be Humble if not in our Prayers and Devotions? The Angels in Heaven Praife him with cover'd Faces; much more fhould we his poor Petitioners on Earth, put up our Humble Supplications to him with the moft regardful Concern. We fhould there

fore

fore approach him Reverently, with recollected Thoughts, filent Paffions, and an all over compofed pofture of Soul, paying him the lowest Submiffion of all our Intellectual Powers and Faculties, Honouring and Magnifying him by all that is within us; thus ferving the Lord, as St. Paul expreffes it, with all Humility of Mind, Acts 20. 19.

6. But this is but one part of us,and therefore our walking Humbly with God further requires in the third place all Humility of Body too. That we put our Bodies in fuch lowly Poftures, and ufe fuch fubmiffive and reverential Gestures, as either by Nature or by Custom serve beft to exprefs the Humility of our Souls. True Devotion indeed requires this, but true Humility requires alfo the fame; and 'tis much to be fear'd that he has neither the one nor the other that neglects it, or can difpenfe with it. For there is no fentiment of the Mind that does fo naturally communicate with the Body, as thefe two do, especially Humility. A Lowly Mind will even Naturally, I had almost faid Mechanically, put a Man into a lowly posture of Body, especially in our Religious Addreffes to God. Which however some may omit either out of Laziness, or out of Indevotion, or upon a pretence of a more Spiritual Worship, yet that any fhould fcruple it, and that in the most Sacred Office of our Re Q 3 ligion,