III. What it is in humbling circumstances, to

humble ourselves under the nuj^hty hand of God, This is the great thing to be a'med at in ourhv'.ni hiding circumsuuces. And w^^ m-.iv take -- these eicrh: thinT^s,
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1. Noticing the mightii hand, as employed in bringing about cve»y thing that conctnis us, ei- ther in the way of efficacy or permission, 1 Sam, iii. 18. ** And he said, It is the Lord; let him " do what seemeth him good." 2 Sam. xvi. 10^ *' And the king said, The Lord hath said unto '* him, Curse David: Who shall then sav, Where " fore hast thou done so ?" H^ is the fountain of all perfection, but we must trace our imperfections to his sovereign will. It is he that has posted evc'ry one in their relations by his providence ; -without him we could not meet with such contradictions ; for, " the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, " as the rivers of water : he lurneth it whiiher- *^ soever he pleaseth," f rov. xxi. 1. lie sends on afflictions, and he justly punishes one sin with a- nother, Isa. vi. 10.
2. A sense of our own worthless?7»ss and ?iO' thingness before him. Psalm cxliv. 3. Looking to the infinite Majesty of the mighty hand dealing with us, v/e should say, v/ith Abraham, Gen. xviii. 27. " Behold I am but clust and ashes )" and say Amen to the cry, Isa. xl. 6. Allfcsh is grasst &c. The keeping up of thoughts c^ our own excellency, under the pressures of the migh- ty hand, is the very thing that swells the heart in pride, causing it to rise up against it. And it is the letting of all such thoughts of ourselves fall be- fore the eyes of his glory, that is Uie humbling re- quired. ^
3- A sense of our .§-?/i// axidjilthuiess, Rom. iii. 10. Isa. lx»v. 6. The mighty hard doth not press us down, but as sinners ; it is meet then that un- der it we see our sinfulness ; our guilt, whereby we will appear criminals justly caused to suffer . our fiUhine&s, wheieupoa vre anay be brought t^
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:othe ourselves ; and then we'l^ think nothing lays us lower than we well deserve. It is the overlook- ing our sinfulness that suffers the proud heart to :^well.
4. A silent submission under the hand of God. His sovereignty challengeth this of us, Rom. ix. 20. " Nay but, O man, who art thou that repli- ^' est against God?'' — And nothing but unsubdu- ed height and pride of spirit can allow us to an- swer again under the sovereign hand. A view of the sovereign hand humbled and awed the Psalm- ist into a submission, with a profound silence, Psalm xxxix. 9. "I was dumb, I opened not my " mouth ; because thou didst it." — Job i. 21. '" The " Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; bles- '' sed be the name of the Lord." — And xl. 4, 5. " What shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand " upon my mouth. Once have I spoken, but I " will not answer : vea, twice, but I will proceed " no further." And Eli, 1 Sam. iii. 18. " It is " the Lord ; let him do what scemeth him good."'
5. A magnifying of his mercies towards us in the midst of all his proceedings against us, Psalm cxliv. 3. Has he laid us low? If we be duly hum- bled we will wonder he has laid us no lower, Ezra ix. 13. For, however low the humble are laid, they will see they are not yet so low as their sins deserve, Lam. iii. 22.
6. A holy and silent admiration of the ways and counsels of God, as to us unsearchable, Rom. xi. 33. Pride of heart thinks nothing too high for the man, and so arraigns before its tribunal the divine proceedings, pretends to see thro' them, censures freeh' and condemns ; but humiliation of spirit disposes a man to think awfully and honour- ably of the mysteries of Providence he is not able to see through.
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7. A forgetting and laying aside before the Lord all our diq}iitij^ whereby we excel others, Rev. iv. 10. Pride feeds itself on the man's real or ima- ginar}^ personal excellency and dignity, and, being so inured to it before others, cannot forget it be- fore God. Luke xviii. 11. " God, I thank thee " I am not as other men." But humiliation of spirit makes it all to evanish before him as doth the shadow before the shining sun, and it lays the man in his own eyes, lower than any. '* Surely I *' am more brutish than any man, and have not *^the understanding of a man." Prov. xxx. 2.
8. A submitting readily to the meanest offices re- quisite in, or agteeablc to our circumstances. Pride at ever)' turn finds something that is below the man to condescend or stoop to, measuring by his own mind and will, not by the circumstances God has placed him in. But humility measures by the circumstances one is placed in, and readily falls in irith what they require. Hereof our Saviour gave us an example, (Phil. ii. 8. " He humbled him- *' self, and became obedient unto death,") to be imitated, John xiii. 14. *' If I theii your L^d *' and Master have washed your feet, ye ought al- ** so to wash one another's feet."
Use* Of exhortath?i. Lctyjhe bent of your heart ihen, in all your hunibling circumstances, be to- wards the humbling of your spirit, as under the mighty hand of God. This lies in two things.
1. Carefully notice g// your humbling circiun- stances, and overlook none of them. Observe your imperfections ; inferiority in relations ; con- tradictions you meet with ; your afflictions ; uncer- taintj" of all things about you ; and your sinful- ness.— Look thro' them designedly, and consider the steps of the 9onduct of Proviclcr.cc towards
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3^ou in these, that ye may know yourselves, and may not be strangers at home, blind to your o%vn real state and case.
2. Observing what thes€ circumstances do re- ^uire of you, as suitable to them ; bend your en- deavours towards it, to bring your. spirits into the temper of humiliation, that as your lot is really low in all these respects, so your spirits may be low too, as under the mighty hand of God. Let this be your great aim through your M^hole life, and your exercise every day.
Idotive 1. God is certainly at work to humble one and all of us. However high any are lifted up in this world, Providence has hung certain badges for humiliation on them, whether they will notice them or not, Isa. xl. 6. Now, it is our du- ty to fall in with the design of Providence, that while God is humbling us, we may be humbling ourselves, and that we may not receive humbling dispensations in vain.
2. The humiliation of our spirit will not take effect without our own agency therein ; vrhile God is working on us that way, we must work together v/ith him, for he works on us as rational agents, who being moved, move themselves, Phil. ii. 12, 13, Ciod by his providence may force down our lot and condition without us, but the spirit must come down voluntarily and of choice, or not at all ; therefore, strike in with humbling providen- ces in humbling yourselves, as mariners spread out the sails when the wind begins to blow, that they may go away before it.
3. If ye do not, ye resist the mighty hand oi' God, Acts vii. 51. Ye resist in so far as ye da ^.ot vield, hut stand a': a rock keening vour grcun-x
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114 i'ite Crook in the Lot.
against your iVIaker in humbling providences, Jer.