HUMILITY REPRESENTED IN THE CHARACTER OF ST. PAUL, &c. Ens. iii. 8. Less than theleast of all theSaints. TT INTßODUCTION. howmeanly does thisgreat and holyman, this chiefestof the apostles speak of himself? To how low a degree does he sink himself andhis exalted virtues? To how narrow a compass does he.reduce all his own natural talents, his acquired excellencies and evenhis divinequalifications ? Less than the least, :7,xx4r11-Epos : It is a Greek word made on purpose to signify the exceeding di- minutive idea he had of himself, and it is very happily rendered byour English translators ? How different is our common behaviour from that of holy Paul ? When we thinkof selfwe are ready to raise our thoughts beyond all measure and aggrandize our ideas to a vast and shame- ful degree, as though we stood as fair and as large and as high in the eyes of our fellow-worms as we do in our own eyes. Vain imagination ! Wretched self-flattery and foolish pride ! We take the least of all words, the least of syllables, the least of letters, I, and swell and amplify it, if I may so speak, to fill a page, or to spread over a whole leaf, and we scarce leave a scanty margin for all other names to stand in : Nothing less than a volume will contain or display our characters and our due praises. We set so many flourishes round our own names and fill our own eyes with them, that we can see nothing else. All other names lie con- cealed and disappear, while our own ingrosses our sight and ad- miration. We make every thing else look so little, as though it were fit only to lie neglected and forgotten, while self, or I, should be alone beheld and alone regarded. But the great apostle who had more excellencies and real honours than a thousand of us put together, gives his thoughts 'a different turn; what am I says he, a little mean worthless thing, to be intrusted with this glorious gospel, and to have such divine favours conferred on me ? " I amnothing that is grand and exalted, but the least of all the saints, and less than the least of them." When, O my soul, when wiltthou learn to copy after so illustrious an example, so divine a pattern ofhumility ? But not to paraphrase any longer on this matter here at large let us enter intoparticulars. Perhaps some persons may expect that I should spend time as
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