SECTION VI, 57 and blood: And when he entered our world there was nothing round him but the signs of 'humiliation and the marks of deep abasement He becamethe child of a poor maid in Galilee, he was content to be born in a stable, for there was no roomfor hint in the house: He lay down to take his first nap in a manger, be- low the rank and condition of men ; and as though he were a companion for meaner creatures, he borrowed his dwelling from the ox and the ass. Thiswas the accommodation, this the pre, sencc-chamber of theKing ofIsrael, of the .Son of God. Come let us thus-contemplate the glorious humility of the blessed Jesus, the humble infancy of our adored Saviour, and let us become infants and humble. Let us follow and observe him in the progress of life, when he appeared as a young carpenter, when he sweat and laboured in the trade of his Father Joseph, when he assisted him, as an- Oient history informs us, to make yokes for oxen, and lived ina lowly cottage suited to those circumstances. No rooms of state, no rich hangings, no carpets or furniture of silk and gold, no postly and glittering things aboút him, And when he began his ministry, he travelled through the country} on foot to preach his divine gospel, when he might have been borne on the wings of angels. He was content with mean lodging in the tents of fisher- men, and sometimes the Lord ofglory had not where to lay his head. He never accepted but of one gaudy day in the periodof his life, and then his highest triumph was to ride upon the coltof an ass into Jerusalem : His way was strewed with branches of trees, and the garments of the poor, and he was attended with a shouting train of the lower ranks of the people: But his more constant dwelling was in cottages, and bis accoutrements be- trayed universal poverty and meanness : An obscure life on earth veiled the majesty of the King of heaven ; contempt and scorn, infamy and reproach were his daily companions in the streets of Jerusalem, andhis table and his lodgingwere with poor fishermen in Galilee, the most contemptible part of all the country of the Jews. And let it beobserved here, that every instance of meanness and poverty in the life and circumstancesof the blessed Jesus was a distinct token of the humility of his soul, for it was chosen poverty, it was assumed meanness : When he was rich in the glories and splendors of his Father's court in heaven, he laid them all aside for our sakes, and became poor on earth, that through,his povertywemight be made rich ; 2 Cor. viii. 9. What a shameful dimness and disgrace, what divine con- tempt has the San of God cast on all the lustre and glory of this world, by his choice of so. mean accommodations and so poor an equipage ? What a holy disdain of all earthly grandeur and magnificence should we learn from the incarnation and the life
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