í5O HUMILITY REPRESENTED. haughty thing self unlearn all its vanity ? When shall we be content to he unseen and unnoticed in the world ? To be un- known, as Jesus the Sou of God was, for thirty years. together ? Jesus the brightness ofhis Father's glory was content to be ;In- known in a world which he himself created : He came into the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew bins not ; John i. 10. When shall it be that theprofessed followers of the blessed Jesus shall have no vain boasters among them, no seekers of their own glory, nor any greedy devourers of their own praises ? The appetite of praise in the sense of the wisest is like the relish of honéy : To eat too muchof it takes away the refined pleasure, and to search out our own glory is not glory ; Prov. xxv. 27. But in vain bath Solomon beenpreaching to these men from his own age till this day, for the voice of wisdom is not heard where pride and self maintain their dominion. They are blind and deaf to all instructors. Yet it must be confessed there are some hours andoccasions, there are some companies and dccurrences in life which make it proper and almost necessary to speak of one's self to advantage : Prudence and religion should direct us how to distinguish those seasons and those occasions. A wise man when he is con- strained to speak of his own character, or to support his own honour, feels a sort of inward uneasiness lest he should be taken for a vain glorious fool, and is even ashamed to speak what is necessary for his own vindication, lest it appear like vanity and and . boasting. See this notably exemplified in the conduct of St. Paul the greatest of the apostles, who was furnished with more sublime talents and blessed with more illustrious success than all the messengers of the gospel of Christ. This very man who counts himself less than the least of all the saints, was once reviled by some upstarts in the Corinthian church, who pretended to rival his office, and thus they led his converts away from the troth : Thus he was compelled to produce his own credentials, to display his own divine commission, and to make his superior qua- lifications known to the people. See 2 Cor. xi. 5, 6. I sup- pose Iwas not u whit behind thevery chiefest apostles : though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowlerige : We have been thoroughly made manifest among you in all things : And then he recounts his abundant labours, his abundant sufferings and his services to Christ and souls : But mark how often this, man of heavenly wisdom represents this his conduct as acting like a fool, and he seems to blush at himself while he boasts himself a little, verse 16, &c. Let no man think me a fool indeed : but if you will think me so then as afool receive me and permit me to proceed foolishly in this confidence of boasting Are my rivals Israelites? So am I: Are they ministers of Christ ? 1 speak as a f col, I am snore: In labours, in suferings, in-deaths, mroe abundant than
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