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passages of Scripture in which God declares his approbation of humility, and his delight in the humble, are very numerous. "Though the Lord be high, he has respect to the lowly. He forgets not the cry of the humble, he hears their desire; he prepares their hearts, he causes his ear to hear. Thus, saith the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite one." And this is the declaration of Him who came to reveal the character and will of his Father, and who was himself meek and lowly in spirit, "Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; but he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." 1

Leighton's paraphrase on "God giveth grace to the humble," is characteristically beautiful. "He pours it out plentifully on humble hearts. His sweet dews and showers slide off the mountains, and fall on the low valley of humble hearts, and make them pleasant and fertile. The swelling heart, puffed up with a fancy of fulness, has no room for grace, is not hollowed and fitted to receive and contain the graces that descend from above. And again, as the humble heart is most capable, as emptied and hollowed out it can hold most; so it is most thankful, acknowledges all as received. But the proud cries all is his own. The return of glory that is due for grace, comes most freely and plentifully from a humble heart. God delights to enrich it with grace, and it delights to return to him glory. The more he bestows on it, the more it desires to honor him withal; and the more it doth so, the more readily he still bestows more upon it. And this is the sweet intercourse between God and the humble soul. This is the noble ambition of humility, in respect of which all the aspirings of pride are low and base. When all is reckoned, the lowliest mind is truly the highest; and these two agree so well, that the more lowly it is, it is thus the higher; and the higher thus, it is still the more lowly."

Surely this is a powerful motive for the cultivation of humility. What so much to be feared as God's disapprobation, and what so much to be desired as his favor? The command, "be ye clothed with humility," has great additional force from the consideration, that this was the chosen garb of our Lord and King, and chosen by him as that in which he could both best serve his Father and his people. Surely, to use the words of an old divine, "It is meet that we should remember, that the blessed Saviour of the world hath done more to prescribe, and transmit, and secure this grace, than any other, his whole life being a great continued example of humility; a vast descent from the glorious bosom of his Father to the womb of a poor maiden; to the form of a servant, to the miseries of a sinner, to a life of labor, to a state of poverty, to a death of malefactors, to an untimely grave, to all the intolerable calamities which we deserved; and it were a good design, and yet but reasonable, that we should be as humble in the midst of our calamities and base sins, as he was

1 Psal. cxxxviii. 6; x. 12, 17. Isa. lvii. 15; lxvi. 2. Matt. xxiii. 12; v. 3.

in the midst of his fulness of the Spirit, great wisdom, perfect life, and most admirable virtues." 1

And while the thought, that it is only by thus putting on humility that Christians can be mutually subject to and serve each other, and thus promote the peace and prosperity of the church on earth, should be felt as a powerful incentive to grow in this grace; we should remember, also, that the cultivation of this grace is a necessary preparation for the holy delights of the church above. They to whom, on that day when men's destinies shall be finally fixed, the universal Judge will say, "Come, ye blessed of my Father," are those who can scarcely recognize their own actions in those eulogized by him.3 And the exercises of heaven are such as only the humble can engage in with satisfaction. They fall down on their faces there before the throne and Him who sits on it; they cast their crowns at his feet. The only worthiness they celebrate is the worthiness of the Lamb that was slain; and the whole glory of their salvation is ascribed to Him, of whom, and through whom, and to whom, are all things. "Salvation to our God and to the Lamb forever and ever." We must be formed to the temper of heaven if we would be sharers in its joys. We must have the same mind in us as is in the holy angels and the spirits of the just made perfect, if we would be admitted to their society, and participate in their delights. Were we to carry pride with us to heaven, it would soon cast us out again, as it did the angels, who kept not their first estate. Let us then earnestly covet a large measure of this heavenly temper. Let it be our constant prayer, that the Spirit of all grace would so bring the truth before our minds, and keep it there, respecting our condition and character as creatures and sinners, sinners lost by their own inexcusable guilt, saved solely by the sovereign grace of God, as that every rising of undue self-complacency may be repressed, and that we may be enabled to "walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called, with all lowliness and meekness; with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Oh, how happy the church, where all the elders and all the members are habitually under the influence of christian humility! May that blessing, through the grace of Him who is exalted to be "Head over all things to his church," be increasingly ours! And to his name be all the glory.

NOTE A, p. 673.

How different was the spirit which animated those who pretended to be Peter's suc cessors, appears strikingly in a remarkable story told in the Clementine Homilies:-" Peter, wishing to establish in a bishopric, Zaccheus, who was backward to accept of it, cast himself at his feet, and entreated him to administer rh dox-the princedom. I would readily do,' said Zaccheus, whatever a prince ought to do; but I am afraid to bear the name, because it exposes to so much envy as to be dangerous.' Peter consented that Zaccheus should not take the name of prince; but he gave him all the authority of one.

1 Jeremy Taylor.

2 Matt. xxv. 37-39.

Καὶ σοῦ μὲν ἔργον, said he, κελεύειν τῶν δὲ ἀδελφῶν ὑπείκειν καὶ μὴ ἀπείθειν. ‘It is your business to command; and, as to the brethren, it is theirs to submit to and obey you.'" It is universally admitted that the Clementine Homilies are forgeries; but they are very authentic evidences of the spirit of the Roman Church at the time of their production. The bishops are there represented as Δυνασταὶ, βασιλεῖς, δεσποταὶ, κύριοι. How strangely does all this contrast with the words of the One Master,-" Call no man master on earth: be not ye called masters."-Hom. Clem. iii. 63, 64, 66, p. 646.

:

NOTE B, p. 681.

“ Τῶν κλήρων plurale: singulare ποίμνης. Ποίμνη μία, Grex unus sub uno Pastore principe Christo sed λño portiones multæ, pro numero locorum et antistitum.-BENGEL. This view throws light on the whole passage. Among the Nomadic tribes wealth consisted almost entirely in flocks and herds. The great proprietors were just shepherds on a great scale. Αρχιποιμένες, ποιμένες ὧν εἰσὶ τὰ πρόβατα ίδια. The whole ποίμνη belonged to them: but under them there were roueves, each of whom had his own Añpos. The 'Aoxov was often absent-but, on his coming to see his flocks, he would notice the manner in which the under-shepherds had treated his property, and deal with them accordingly.

"Vetustus quidem fuit ille loquendi modus, ut totum ordinem ministrorum clerum vocarent: sed utinam Patribus nunquam venisset in mentem ita loqui: quia quod toti Ecclesiæ Scriptura communiter tribuit, minime consentaneum fuit ad paucos homines restringere." -CALVIN.

"Clerus temporibus Apostolorum erant plebeii, quod apparet ex prima Petri Epistola majestuosa."-SCALIGER.

"Cleros vocat non diaconos aut presbyteros, sed gregem qui cuique fortè contigit gubernandus ne quis existimet, Episcopis in Clericos interdictum dominium, in ceteros esse permissum. Et presbyteros hic Episcopos vocat. Nondum enim increverat turba sacerdotum; sed quot erant Presbyteri, totidem erant Episcopi."-ERASMUS.

"Olim populus Israeliticus Años, sors, sive patrimonium Dei, Deut. iv. 20; ix. 29. Nunc populus Christianus; cujus singulæ partes ut fieri solet v bμoycvéσɛɩ idem nomen participant."-GROTIUS.

"KAñpous hereditates vocat Ecclesias singulas, quibus singuli pastores præficiuntur.”— SUICER.

"All believers are God's clergy."-LEIGHTON.

It deserves notice, that it is a verb derived from λpovs which is used, Acts xvii. 4, to describe the association of the believers with Paul and Silas at Thessalonica-poσεxλпpwÐŋσav. Our translators have preserved the reference in their version "consorted."

66

"KAńpovs multi Latinorum interpretantur clericos; veruntamen longe probabilius est, per cleros intelligi gregis dominici portiones, quæ singulis Episcopis pascendæ ac regendæ velut sortito obtigerunt, juxta id quod Cyprianus dicit, Ecclesiam esse unam, cujus singulas portiones singuli Episcopi in solidum tenent."-ESTIUS.

VATER takes a singular view of the meaning of the term here: "KAñowv plurali numero, non nisi, Acts i. 26, eodemque forsan significatu et hic." In this case KaтakvρcбELV TV λnow would signify arbitrarily to overrule the votes, to disregard the will of the church, when manifested by their giving forth their κλήρους.

NOTE C, p. 687.

A word of similar meaning (Neaviícko) is apparently used in the New Testament to signify common soldiers, Mark xiv. 51, as well as in the profane Greek (Polyb. iv. 16; iii. 62). A similar usage prevails in the Latin language, as to the word of corresponding meaning (Juvenis). We find the same thing in the Hebrew language: Abraham's armed servants are called "the young men" (), Gen. xiv. 24. We have the same use of the word, Jos. ii. 1; 2 Sam. ii. 14; Gen. xviii. 7; Psal. cx. 3: "The word young,' possesses, in the christian usage of various languages, the sense of 'lay'- -see Bolten." STEIGER.

66

Nerepot hic non videntur esse natu minores; nam opponuntur doctoribus, sed potius auditores et discipuli, eodem fere sensu, quo, Luc. xxii. 26, ó μɛígwv et i vsúrepos sibi opponuntur."-ROSENMULLER.

1 John x. 12. Gen. xlvii. 6. 1 Sam. xxi. 7.

“ Νεώτεροι opponuntur πρεσβύτεροις et ex lege oppositionis intelligendi sunt omnes reliqui qui exceptis Presbyteris ecclesiam constituerent."-KUTTNER.

SCHOTANUS, though obviously very averse, "a communi Doctorum sententia discedere videri," states very distinctly, and defends very successfully, what appears to me the true meaning::-"Hic per juniores intelligimus totam ecclesiam. Id autem probamus (1.) ex repetitione verbi presbyteri; (2.) ex collatione in verbis: similiter; (3.) quia summissionem regimini opponit; (4.) quia passim Apostoli quando agunt de officiis in quibus mutuus est respectus, solent utrumque urgere. Si autem quis dicat nomen illud juniores repugnari, respondemus-nequam. Nonne Apostolus Paulus totam Ecclesiam Galaticam filiolos' vocat, Gal. iv. 19, et hæc ratio est, quia tum temporis præcipue Ecclesiæ præficiebantur qui provectioris ætatis erant.”

"Per juniores autem hoc loco maxime intelligitur Grex qui pendet à pastoribus, quia pastores et presbyteri, maxima ex parte, electi fuerunt ex senioribus ætate, et proinde maxima pars gregis constabat ex junioribus."-AMESIUS. "Sicut nomen, senior, præfectum significat, etiam si ætate sit minor, ita nomen, junior, sive adolescens, recte interpretante Beda, subditum omnem, tametsi ætate superiorem designat."-HESSELIUS.

NOTE D, p. 703.

"Kópẞos nodus vinculum quo illigabantur manicæ præsertim in vestitu servorum.' BENGEL. Grotius gives the following quotation from Pollux, lib. iv., which is quite to the point:—Τῇ τῶν δούλων ἐξωμίδι καὶ ἱματίδιόν τί προσκεῖται λευκὸν, ὃ ἐγκόμβωνα λέγεται. Putting on the tykówpa, was preparing in a becoming manner to act as a servant; assuming the appearance and preparing for the duties of the servile state. "'Eykóμßwpa vestis humilis et servorum erat: qui cum breves tunicas quas rwuidas vocant gestarent, super has ¿yrówμa induere solebant; palliolum vilissimum sed candidum; quod et izißanpa ut observant antiqui dicebant."-HEINSIUS. Sac. Exercit. p. 577.

DISCOURSE XXII

TWO VIEWS OF AFFLICTION AND ITS DUTIES.

1 PET. v. 6, 7.-Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time; casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

THERE are few practical questions of deeper and more extensive interest, than how should we conduct ourselves amid the afflictions of life, so as to be best sustained under them, most improved by them, and soonest and most certainly delivered from them? This is a question which concerns us all; for, however we may differ in other points of view, here we all occupy common ground. We are all sufferers. It is not less universally true that "man is born of a woman," than that he is born to trouble." It is certain, too, that affliction, though in all forms in itself an evil, is far from being an unmixed evil; that by means of it, men, constituted and circumstanced as they are, may be made wiser and better, and ultimately happier, than they could have become without it. "It has been good for me that I have been afflicted," says the Psalmist. "Chastisement yieldeth peaceable fruits," says the apostle. And there is "a great crowd of witnesses" of the wisest and the best, in every age, all of whom have set to their seal that this testimony is true.

It

It is, however, just as certain that there have been many sufferers who could not truly make the psalmist's declaration their own. has not been good for them that they have been afflicted. They were bad when affliction seized them; they did not improve under its grasp; and now that it has let them go, they are worse than ever. Indeed, the waters sent forth from the fountain of affliction seem in themselves poisonous as well as bitter. The infusion of a foreign ingredient into them appears to be necessary to make them salutary, or even safe. Their effects are usually powerful; but they often aggravate rather than mitigate moral disease.

The different effects of affliction on different individuals, depend mainly on their being, or their not being, under the influence of the Holy Spirit; and that is chiefly manifested in the views they entertain of affliction, and in the dispositions they cherish under affliction, two things which are very closely connected with each other. The influence of affliction on the mind and character of a man who considers his sufferings as the effect of blind chance or unintelligent necessity, or of intelligent but malignant power; and who is inconsiderate, or proud, or fretful, or desponding under them-must be very

1 Job xiv. 1. Psal. cxix. 71. Heb. xii, 11.

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