CHAP. XIII.
Recommending devotions at nine o’clock in the morning, called in scripture, the third hour of the day. The subject of these prayers may be humility.
I AM now come to another hour of prayer, which in scripture is called the third hour of the day; but according to our way of numbering the hours, it is called the ninth hour of the morning.
But if the practice of the saints in all ages, if the customs of the pious Jews and primitive Christians be of any force with us, we have authority enough to persuade us, to make this hour a constant season of devotion.
I have in the last chapter laid before you the excellency of praise and thanksgiving, and recommended that as the subject of your first devotions in the morning.
And because humility is the life and soul of piety, the ground and security of all holy affections, this may be the subject of your devotions at this hour.
This virtue is so essential to the right state of our souls, that there is no pretending to a reasonable or pious life without it. We may as well think to see without eyes, or live without breath, as to live in the spirit of religion, without the spirit of humility.
But altho’ it is the soul and essence of all religious duties; yet is it, generally speaking, the least understood, the least regarded, the least intended, the least desired, and sought after, of all other virtues.
*No people have more occasion to be afraid of the approaches of pride, than those who have made some advances in a pious life. For pride can grow as well upon our virtues as our vices, and steal upon us on all occasions.
Every good thought we have, every good action we do, lays us open to pride.
*It is not only the beauty of our persons, the gifts of fortune, our natural talents, and the distinctions of life; but even our devotions and alms, our fastings and humiliations, expose us to fresh temptations of this evil spirit.
And it is for this reason, I so earnestly advise every devout person to the exercise of humility, that he may not fall a sacrifice to his own progress in those virtues, which are to save mankind from destruction.
As all virtue is founded in truth; so humility is a true sense of our weakness, misery, and sin.
*The weakness of our state appears from our inability to do any thing of ourselves. In our natural state we are entirely without any power; we are indeed active beings, but can only act by a power, that is every moment lent us from God.
We have no more power of our own to move a hand, or stir a foot, than to move the sun, or stop the clouds.
*When we speak a word, we feel no more power in ourselves to do it, than we feel ourselves able to raise the dead. For we act no more within our own power, or by our own strength, when we speak a word, or make a sound, than the apostles acted within their own power, or by their own strength, when a word from their mouth cast out devils, and cured diseases.
As it was solely the power of God that enabled them to speak to such purposes, so it is solely the power of God that enables us to speak at all.
This is the dependent, helpless poverty of our state, which is a great reason for humility. For since we neither are, nor can do any thing of ourselves; to be proud of any thing that we are, or of any thing that we can do, and to ascribe glory to ourselves for these things, has the guilt both of stealing and lying. It has the guilt of stealing, as it gives to ourselves those things which only belong to God. It has the guilt of lying, as it is denying the truth of our state, and pretending to be something that we are not.
♦3. The misery of our condition appears in this, that we use these borrowed powers of our nature, to the torment and vexation of ourselves, and our fellow creatures.
♦ Numbers 1. and 2. omitted in text.
*God has entrusted us with reason, and we use it to the disorder and corruption of our nature. We reason ourselves into all kinds of folly and misery, and make our lives the sport of foolish and extravagant passions: seeking after imaginary happiness in all kinds, creating to ourselves a thousand wants, amusing our hearts with false hopes and fears, using the world worse than irrational animals, envying, vexing, and tormenting one another with restless passions, and unreasonable contentions.
Let any man but look back upon his own life, and see what use he has made of his reason. What foolish passions, what vain thoughts, what needless labours, what extravagant projects, have taken up the greatest part of his life: how foolish he has been in his words and conversation; how seldom he has been able to please himself, and how often he has displeased others; how often he has changed his counsels, hated what he loved, and loved what he hated; how often he has been enraged and transported at trifles, pleased and displeased with the very same things, and constantly changing from one vanity to another. Let a man but take this view of his own life, and he will see cause enough to confess, that pride was not made for man.
*Let him but consider, that if the world knew all that of him, which he knows of himself; if they saw what vanity and passions govern his inside, and what secret tempers sully and corrupt his best actions, he would have no more pretence to be honoured and admired for his goodness and wisdom, than a rotten and distempered body to be loved and admired for its health and comeliness.
4. This is so true, and so known to the hearts of almost all people, that nothing would appear more dreadful to them, than to have their hearts thus fully discovered to the eyes of all beholders.
And perhaps there are very few people in the world, who would not rather chuse to die, than to have all their secret follies, the vanity of their minds, the frequency of their vain and disorderly passions, their uneasiness, hatreds, envies, and vexations, made known unto the world.
And shall pride be entertained in a heart thus conscious of its own miserable behaviour?
*Shall a creature in such a condition, that he could not support himself under the shame of being known to the world in his real state; shall such a creature, because his shame is only known to God, to holy angels, and his own conscience; shall he, in the sight of God and holy angels, dare to be vain and proud of himself?
5. If to this we add the shame and guilt of sin, we shall find still a greater reason for humility.
No creature that had lived in innocence, would have thereby got any pretence for pride; because, as a creature, all that it is, or has, or does, is from God, and therefore the honour of all that belongs to it is only due to God.
But if a creature that is a sinner, deserving nothing but pains and punishments for the shameful abuse of his powers; if such a creature pretends to glory for any thing that he is, or does, he can only be said to glory in his shame.
Now, how monstrous and shameful the nature of sin is, is sufficiently apparent from that great atonement that is necessary to cleanse us from the guilt of it.
Nothing less has been required to take away the guilt of our sins, than the sufferings and death of the Son of God. Had he not taken our nature upon him, our nature had been for ever separated from God, and incapable of ever appearing before him.
And is there any room for pride, whilst we are partakers of such a nature as this?
*Have our sins rendered us so abominable ♦to him that made us, that he could not so much as receive our prayers, or admit our repentance, till the Son of God made himself man, and became a suffering advocate for our whole race; and can we, in this state, pretend to high thoughts of ourselves? Shall we presume to take delight in our own worth, who are not worthy so much as to ask pardon for our sins, without the mediation and intercession of the Son of God?
♦ duplicate word removed ‘to’
Thus deep is the foundation of humility laid, in these deplorable circumstances of our condition; which shew, that it is as great an offence against truth for a man, to lay claim to any degrees of glory, as to pretend to the honour of creating himself. If man will boast of any thing as his own, he must boast of his misery and sin; for there is nothing else but this, that is his own property.
6. Turn your eyes towards heaven, and fancy that you saw what is doing there; that you saw cherubim and seraphim, and all the glorious inhabitants of that place, all united in one work; not seeking glory from one another, not labouring their own advancement, not contemplating their own perfections, not singing their own praises, not valuing themselves, and despising others, but all employed in one and the same work, all happy in one and the same joy; casting down their crowns before the throne of God, giving glory, and honour, and power to him alone. Rev. iv. 10, 11.
Then turn your eyes to the fallen world, and consider how unreasonable and odious it must be, for such poor worms, such miserable sinners, to take delight in their own fancied glories, whilst the highest and most glorious sons of heaven seek for no other greatness and honour, but that of ascribing all honour and greatness, and glory to God alone?
*Pride is only the disorder of the fallen world, it has no place amongst other beings; it can only subsist where ignorance and sensuality, lies and falshood, lusts and impurity reign.
Let a man, when he is most delighted with his own figure, contemplate our blessed Lord stretched out, and nailed upon a cross: and then let him consider how absurd it must be, for a heart full of pride and vanity, to pray to God, through the sufferings of a crucified Saviour?
These are the reflections you are often to meditate upon, that you may walk before God in such a spirit of humility, as becomes the meak, miserable, and sinful state of all that are descended from fallen Adam.
7. But you must not content yourself with this, as if you was therefore humble, because you acknowledge the reasonableness of humility, and declare against pride.
You would not imagine yourself to be devout, because in your judgment you approved of prayers, and often declared your mind in favour of devotion. Yet how many people imagine themselves humble enough, for no other reason, but because they often commend humility, and make vehement declarations against pride?
Cæcus is a rich man, of good birth, and very fine parts; is very full of every thing that he says or does, and never imagines it possible for such a judgment as his to be mistaken. He can bear no contradiction, and discovers the weakness of your understanding, as soon as ever you oppose him. Cæcus would have been very religious, but that he always thought he was so.
There is nothing so odious to Cæcus as a proud man; and the misfortune is, that in this he is so very quicksighted, that he discovers in almost everybody, some strokes of vanity.
On the other hand, he is exceeding fond of humble and modest persons. Humility, says he, is so amiable a quality, that it forces our esteem wherever we meet with it. There is no possibility of despising the meanest person that has it, or of esteeming the greatest man that wants it.
Cæcus no more suspects himself to be proud, than he suspects his want of sense. And the reason of it is, because he always finds himself so in love with humility, and so enraged at pride.
It is very true, Cæcus, you speak sincerely when you say you love humility, and abhor pride. You are no hypocrite, you speak the true sentiments of your mind; but then take this along with you, you only love humility, and hate pride, in other people. You never once in your life thought of any other humility, or of any other pride, than that which you have seen in other people.
8. The case of Cæcus is a common case: many people live in all the instances of pride, and yet never suspect themselves, because they dislike proud people, and are pleased with humility and modesty, wherever they find them.
All their speeches in favour of humility, and all their railings against pride, are looked upon as effects of their own humble spirit.
Whereas in truth, these are so far from being proofs of humility, that they are great arguments of the want of it.
*For the fuller of pride any one is himself, the more impatient will he be at the smallest instances of it in other people. And the less humility any one has in his own mind, the more will he demand it in other people.
*You must therefore act by a quite contrary measure, and reckon yourself only so far humble, as you impose every instance of humility upon yourself, and never call for it in other people. So far an enemy to pride, as you never spare it in yourself, nor ever censure it in other persons.
The loving humility is of no benefit to you, but so far as all your own thoughts, words, and actions are governed by it. And the hating of pride does you no good, but so far as you hate to harbour any degree of it in your own heart.
Now in order to set out in the practice of humility, you must take it for granted, that you are proud, that you have been so all your life.
You should believe also, that it is your greatest weakness, that your heart is most subject to it; that it is so constantly stealing upon you, you have reason to suspect its approaches in all your actions.
For there is no one vice that is more deeply rooted in our nature, or that receives such constant nourishment from almost every thing that we think or do; there being hardly any thing in the world that we want or use, or any action or duty of life, but pride finds some means or other to take hold of it. So that at what time soever we begin to offer ourselves to God, we can hardly be surer of any thing, than that we have a great deal of pride to repent of.
If therefore you find it disagreeable to entertain this opinion of yourself, and that you cannot put yourself amongst those that want to be cured of pride, you may be as sure, as if an angel from heaven had told you, that you have not only much, but all your humility to seek.
*For you can have no greater sign of a confirmed pride, than when you think that you are humble enough. He that thinks he loves God enough, shews himself to be an entire stranger to that holy passion; so he that thinks he has humility enough, shews that he is not so much as a beginner in the practice of true humility.
9. Every person, therefore, when he first applies himself to the exercise of humility, must consider himself as a learner, who is, to learn something that is contrary to all his former tempers and habits of mind.
He has not only much to learn; but he has also a great deal to unlearn: he is to forget, and lay aside his own spirit, which has been a long while fixing and forming itself; he must forget and depart from abundance of passions and opinions, which the fashion, and vogue, and spirit of the world, have made natural to him.
He must lay aside the opinions and passions which he has received from the world; because the vogue and fashion of the world, by which we have been carried away, as in a torrent, before we could pass right judgments of the value of things, is utterly contrary to humility.
The devil is called, in scripture, the prince of this world; because he has great power in it, because many of its rules and principles are invented by this evil spirit, to separate us from God, and prevent our return to happiness.
Now, according to the spirit of this world, whose corrupt air we have all breathed, there are many things that pass for great, and honourable, and desirable, which yet are so far from being so, that the true greatness and honour of our nature consists in the not desiring them.
To abound in wealth, to have fine houses and rich cloaths, to be attended with splendour and equipage, to be beautiful in our persons, to have titles of dignity, to be above our fellow creatures, to command the bows and obeisance of other people, to be looked on with admiration, to subdue all that oppose us, to set out ourselves in as much splendour as we can, to live highly and magnificently, to eat and drink, and delight ourselves in the most costly manner, these are the great, the honourable, the desirable things, to which the spirit of the world turns the eyes of all people. And many a man is afraid of not engaging in the pursuit of them, lest the world should take him for a fool.
10. The history of the gospel, is chiefly the history of Christ’s conquest over this spirit of the world. And the number of true Christians, is only the number of those who, following the Spirit of Christ, have lived contrary to the spirit of the world.
If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Again, Whosoever is born of God, overcometh the world. Set your affections on things above, and not on things of the earth; for ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. This is the language of the whole New Testament. This is the mark of Christianity; you are to be dead, that is, dead to the spirit and temper of the world, and live a new life in the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
But notwithstanding the plainness of these doctrines, most Christians live and die slaves to the customs and tempers of the world.
How many people swell with pride and vanity, for such things as they would not value at all, but that they are admired in the world?
Would a man take ten years more drudgery in business, to add two horses more to his coach, but that he knows that the world admires a coach and six? How fearful are many people of having their houses poorly furnished, or themselves meanly cloathed, for this only reason, lest the world should place them amongst low and mean people?
Many a man would drop a resentment, and forgive an affront, but that he is afraid, if he should, the world would not forgive him.
How many would practise Christian temperance and sobriety, were it not for the censure which the world passes upon such a life?
Others have frequent intentions of living up to the rules of Christian perfection; but they are frighted, by considering what the world would say of them?
11. Thus they dare not attempt to be eminent in the sight of God, for fear of being little in the eyes of the world.
From this quarter arises the greatest difficulty of humility, because it cannot subsist in any mind, but so far as it is dead to the world.
You can make no stand against the assaults of pride, humility can have no place in your soul, ’till you stop the power of the world over you, and resolve against a blind obedience to its laws.
For indeed, as great as the power of the world is, it is all built upon a blind obedience.
Ask who you will, learned or unlearned, every one seems to know and confess, that the general temper and spirit of the world, is nothing else but humour, folly, and extravagance.
Who will not own, that the wisdom of philosophy, the piety of religion, was always confined to a small number? And is not this expresly owning, that the common spirit and temper of the world, is neither according to the wisdom of philosophy, nor the piety of religion?
Therefore you should not think it a hard saying, that in order to be humble, you must withdraw your obedience from that vulgar spirit which gives laws to fops and coquets, and form your judgments according to the wisdom of philosophy, and the piety of religion.
12. *Again, to lessen your regard to the opinion of the world, think how soon the world will disregard you, and have no more thought or concern about you, than about the poorest animal that died in a ditch.
*Your friends, if they can, may bury you with some distinction, and set up a monument to let posterity see that your dust lies under such a stone; and when that is done, all is done. Your place is filled up by another; the world is just in the same state it was; you are blotted out of its sight, and as much forgotten by the world as if you had never belonged to it.
*Think upon the rich, the great, and the learned persons, that have made great figures, and been high in the esteem of the world; many of them died in your time, and yet they are sunk, and lost, and gone, and as much disregarded by the world, as if they had been only so many bubbles of water.
Think again, how many poor souls see heaven lost, and lie now expecting a miserable eternity, for their homage to a world, that thinks itself every whit as well without them, and is just as merry as it was when they were in it.
Is it therefore worth your while to lose the smallest degree of virtue, for the sake of pleasing so bad a master, and so false a friend as the world is?
Is it worth your while to bow the knee to such an idol as this, that so soon will have neither eyes, nor ears, nor a heart to regard you, instead of serving that great, and holy, and mighty God, that will make all his servants partakers of his own eternity?
Will you let the fear of a false world, that has no love for you, keep you from the fear of that God, who has only created you, that he may love and bless you to all eternity?
13. Consider our blessed Lord’s words, They are not of this world, as I am not of this world. This is the state of Christianity, with regard to this world. If you are not thus out of, and contrary to the world, you want the distinguishing mark of Christianity; you don’t belong to Christ, but by being out of the world as he was out of it.
We may deceive ourselves, if we please, with softening comments upon these words; but they are and will be understood in their first simplicity and plainness, by every one that reads them in the same spirit that our blessed Lord spoke them. And to understand them in any lower meaning, is to let carnal wisdom explain away that doctrine, by which itself was to be destroyed.
Christianity has placed us out of, and above the world; and we fall from our calling, as soon as we fall into the tempers of the world.
Now as it was the spirit of the world that nailed our blessed Lord to the cross; so every man that has the Spirit of Christ, that opposes the world as he did, will certainly be crucified by the world some way or other.
For Christianity still lives in the same world that Christ did; and these two will be utter enemies, till the kingdom of darkness is entirely at an end.
Had you lived with our Saviour as his true disciple, you had then been hated as he was; and if you now live in his Spirit, the world will be the same enemy to you now, that it was to him then.
14. If ye were of the world, saith our blessed Lord, the world would love its own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. John xv. 19.
We are apt to lose the true meaning of these words, by considering them only as an historical description of something that was the state of our Saviour and his disciples at that time. But this is reading the scripture as a dead letter: for they as exactly describe the state of true Christians at this, and all other times, to the end of the world.
For as true Christianity is nothing else but the Spirit of Christ; so whether that Spirit appear in the person of Christ himself, or his apostles, or followers in any age, it is the same thing; whoever hath his Spirit, will be hated, despised, and condemned by the world, as he was.
For the world will always love its own, and none but its own: this is as certain and unchangeable, as the contrariety betwixt light and darkness.
15. You will perhaps say, that the world is now become Christian, at least that part of it where we live; and therefore the world is not now to be considered in that state of opposition to Christianity, as when it was Heathen.
*It is granted, the world now professeth Christianity. But will any one say, that this Christian world is of the Spirit of Christ? Are its general tempers the tempers of Christ? Are the passions of sensuality, self-love, pride, covetousness, ambition, and vain-glory, less contrary to the spirit of the gospel, now they are among Christians, than when they were among Heathens? Or, will you say, that the tempers and passions of the Heathen world are lost and gone?
16. And indeed the world, by professing Christianity, is so far from being a less dangerous enemy than it was before, that it has by its favours destroyed more Christians, than ever it did by the most violent persecution.
We must therefore be so far from considering the world as in a state of less enmity and opposition to Christianity, than it was in the first times of the gospel, that we must guard against it as a more dangerous enemy now, than it was in those times.
It is a greater enemy, because it has greater power over Christians by its favours, riches, honours, rewards, and protections, than it had by the fire and fury of its persecutions.
It is a more dangerous enemy, by having lost its appearance of enmity. Its outward profession of Christianity makes it no longer considered as an enemy; and therefore the generality of people are easily persuaded to resign themselves up to be governed and directed by it.
How many consciences are kept at quiet, upon no other foundation, but because they sin under the authority of the Christian world?
How many directions of the gospel lye by unregarded? And how unconcernedly do particular persons read them, for no other reason, but because they seem unregarded by the Christian world?
How many compliances do people make to the Christian world, without any hesitation, or remorse; which, if they had been required of them only by Heathens, would have been refused, as contrary to the holiness of Christianity?
Who could be content with seeing how contrary his life is to the gospel, but because he sees that he lives as the Christian world doth?
17. There is nothing therefore, that a Christian ought more constantly to guard against, than the authority of the Christian world.
And all the passages of scripture, which represent the world as contrary to Christianity, which require our separation from it, as from a monster of iniquity, are to be taken in the strict sense, in relation to the present world.
For the change that the world has undergone, has only altered its methods, but not lessened its power of destroying religion.
Whilst pride, sensuality, covetousness, and ambition, had only the authority of the Heathen world, Christians were thereby made more intent upon the contrary virtues. But when pride, sensuality, covetousness and ambition, have the authority of the Christian world, then private Christians are in the utmost danger, not only of being shamed out of the practice, but of losing the very notion of the piety of the gospel.
There is therefore hardly any possibility of saving yourself from the present world, but by considering it as the same enemy to all true holiness, as it is represented in the scriptures; and by assuring yourself, that it is as dangerous to conform to its tempers and passions, now it is Christian, as when it was Heathen.
Need a man do more to make his soul unfit for the mercy of God, than by being greedy and ambitious of honour? Yet how can you renounce this temper, without renouncing the spirit and temper of the world, in which you now live?
How can a man be made more incapable of the Spirit of Christ, than by a wrong value for money; and yet how can he be more wrong in his value of it, than by following the authority of the Christian world?
*Nay, in every order and station of life, whether of learning or business, either in church or state, you cannot act up to the spirit of religion, without renouncing the most general temper and behaviour of those, who are of the same order and business as yourself.
*And though human prudence seems to talk mighty wisely about the necessity of avoiding particularities, yet he that dares not be so weak as to be particular, will be obliged to avoid the most substantial duties of Christian piety.
These reflections, will, I hope, help you to break through those difficulties, and resist those temptations, which the authority and fashion of the world hath raised against the practice of Christian humility.