44 HUMILITY nEPRESENTED. What an elegance of humility lies crouched in the last line as it were retired from the eye of man, and seen to God only But let not any of us imagine that a subscription to this great man's doctrines of grace, or a zealous vindication of his most evangelical opinions is a sufficient proof of a humble spirit. We may depress and even nullify the pride and power of fallen man with a spirit of pride and self-sufficiency. So Hiogenes the cynic or dogged philosopheris said to have set his dirty feet upon some fine furniture of Plato's bed, and thenhe boasted himselfthat hehad sunkdown and humbled the pride of Plato : Yes, replied themore civil philosopher, and thatwith a greater load of pride. Wemay talk ofour vileness and haughtiness with haughty and vain-glo- rious language, and defend the most self-abasing doctrines of the gospel with an arrogant and imperious temper. Give me the man that lays nature low before God under a living sense and consciousness of its guilt and wretchednessand impotence ; who appears to feel every word that he speaks, and his style and his airs are all as humble as his divine doctrine represents him. It is possible for us to take the language of heaven upon ourlips with a hell of fire and pride in our hearts, and support even truth or grace itself with intolerable and shameful haughtiness. H. As a low esteem of self will help us against many errors bf the mind, so it will guard us against the folliesof the humour- ist, which are a vice of the will. The wise and lowly mind has very fewhumours or unreasonable inclinations, and therefore he feels but little vexation or disquietude. He can conform him- self topresent circumstances without pain, there is no difficulty to please him, he finds an easy chair in every room of his house. It is the humouristthat creates perpetual vexation to himself as well as to all around him : You must watch as for your life, if you would never offend him ; you must be observant to all his motions and comport with every notice of his. pleasure : You can hardly move or speak, but you speak or move amiss : And if you would correct your mistake by doing the reverse of what you did be- fore, this may be quite wrong also and it is scarce possible for you to be in the right .So difficult, so tiresome, so impracticable a thing it is to please these vain animals, these pettish or way- ward creatures, these everlasting children, which are grown to a:e size of men and women. Methinks I hear them disdain the name ofchild and resent mydescription :'But let themgo on with their disdain and resentment, and swell with their own manly idea : Yet let them know that till they put off these childish and humourous behaviours, they are but infants in longer gar- ments, with all that high opinion and that overgrown esteem they have ofthemselves. They mustbegin their education again and unlearn these follies, if ever-they would find sincere honour among men of wisdom and goodness. What claim, what pre-
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