think as S. Paul describes the nature of Humility Rom. 1 2.3 Every Man by the instinct of his nature would be more excellent and perfect than he is God only is stable and immutable desiring and wanting nothing but we are weak and impotent always craving and never satisfied weary of our own condition as if we wanted something that was our due and envying the condition of our neighbour as if he had too much God has therefore obliged us to Humility or a just opinion of our selves and others that we may be sensible of our own miscarriages defects and faults as well as of the graces and good qualities of our Neighbour that we may be glad our own condition is so happy as it is and ready to acknowledge the Excellencies and be well contented with the Prosperity of others as the same St. Paul explains Humility Phil. 2.3 In lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than himself That is the first Secondly The second part of Humility respects our place and station in the World and teaches us to submit with chearfulness to the will of God under all the dispensations of his Providence It moderates Ambition regulates the desire of Worldly Goods and disposes us to a grateful liking to ease and satisfaction in the place we are in Our desires will be higher or lower according to the opinion we have of our selves but Humility subdues those false imaginations which Pride and Vanity impose upon us It shews us our weakness dependance faults and imperfections and inclines us to be well contented in our station and to believe our selves to be very well provided This is the definition the nature and principles of a Religious Humility as it respects our Neighbour and our Selves There is another considerable part of Humility that is exercised in a more immediate manner upon God Himself and consists in the most honourable apprehensions of His Sacred Majesty in the most sincere acknowledgement of our dependance upon Him and Obligations to Him for Life and all the comforts of it in the most profound respect and reverence in the most obsequious addresses to him in the deepest sorrow in the greatest indignation against our selves in the lowest demission of Mind whensoever we offend him together with all the outward expressions of our inward sense that Nature Reason Custom or Example shall direct us to But because this part of Humility towards God is more easy in the practice than the other there is no dispute between God and his Creature for preeminence he understands our thoughts and can easily punish our Pride and Arrogance and therefore no Man who believes his Being does directly oppose himself against him or set himself in competition with him And therefore at the present I shall only consider that part of Humility that is exercised upon our Neighbour and our Selves And it chiefly consists as you have already heard in a modest opinion of our own deserts and a chearful submission to the will of God under all the dispensations of his Providence As Pride on the other hand is an over-weaning opinion of ones self contempt and undervaluing of others with a sutable ambition of Worldly greatness to assert and support this vain conceit Thus Pride is explained by Arrogance Prov. 8.13 By Self-conceit Phil. 2.3 By a vain desire of Glory Gal. 5.26 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that boasts of his endowments Hesychius explains by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a proud Man Superbia says St. Aug. est perversae celsitudinis appetitus de Civ Dei and he describes a proud Man thus He cannot bear to be subject to any amongst his equals he affects precedency and what he wants in merits he will invade and force by flattering his superiours envying his equals and despising those below him Thus much for the definition the nature and principles of Humility in the general 2. I proceed as I proposed in the second place to consider the several parts and exercises of the duty so defined The Vertue of Humility is one and indivisible neither more nor less than a modest opinion of our selves a chearful contentation in our place with candor deference and good will to all But the practice upon these principles are as various and infinite as our capacities of expressing the sentiments of our Mind Ep. 66. Vertue is one says Seneca neither less nor greater but its species are many which are express'd according to the variety of life and actions And in our present instance I shall endeavour to illustrate the principal exercises of Humility in these following particulars 1. In our Desires and Aims 2. In our Looks and Gestures 3. In our Garb and Habit. 4. And principally in our Conversation 1. In our Pursuits Desires and Aims A Man that is truly humble in his own opinion will moderate his ambition of Worldy goods he will be always apt to think he has as much as he deserves and ready to rejoice in the rewards of Vertue upon whomsoever they shall light If any good befals himself he does not look upon it as his due but as a kind encouragement to pursue that Vertue which he thinks he wants at present But the desires of the proud are never satisfied if once a Man can perswade himself that his deserts are great he can never be pleased till he has attain'd the reward which his vain conceit has set upon his merit Besides it is Power and Riches that nourish his Pride that gratifie his fond opinion of himself and force at least a dissembled honour from abroad And therefore the vanity of his Spirit will inflame his desire after all such things as indulge and feed the humour St. Aug. sayes of Pride and Ambition that they are so far one and the same as Pride is never to be found without Ambition nor Ambition without Pride de Salut Doct. Is he made Tribune of the People Epist says Seneca speaking of a proud Man instead of returning thanks for that be complains that he is not promoted to the Praetorship nor would that content him unless they chuse him Consul Nay the Consulship it self will hardly please him unless he may rule alone So true is that account which Solomon has given of him That he always expects to divide the spoil Prov. 16 19. that is the first 2. The second exercise of Humility is in our Looks and Gestures A Man of an humble Mind that is truly sensible of his own desects will not estrange or separate himself from his Neighbour He does not delight in the distance of inferiour People nor strike an awe upon them by an haughty look He is always sensible of his own defects and is therefore glad that his Neighbour will be free and easy with him extreamly pleased with a good acquaintance with the intire and perfect Friendship of all about him Humilis ultimum se judicat blando vultu terram intuens De Salut docum sayes St. Aug. he
which irresistably gain the good-will of all Every one will be his Friend ready to assist him advise him inform him of any design that is upon him or of any good that may be in his way And indeed a stock in the favour and good-will of our Neighbour may prove the best estate in this uncertain World 3. And lastly By an efficacy Divine and Spiritual The Blessing of God will attend the humble and so dispose and order second Causes that they shall live in Plenty Peace and Honour to a good old Age. An humble compliance with the will of God Content in our Station Gratitude for Benefits received Patience and Self-denial under cross Events dispose in their nature to the Favour and Love of God the Governour of the World He cannot but be pleas'd with those that comply with his Providence and promote his own Designs And therefore upon whom shall I rest says God but upon him that is of an humble and a contrite spirit Humility is a Bed of Repose and Pleasure to God himself is St. Augustine's Note upon the place And though the Lord be high yet he hath respect to the lowly but beholdeth the proud afar off Ps 138.6 The Proud are in a manner out of his sight but the humble are under his particular care and providence And therefore the meek shall inherit the Earth Matth. 5. They shall have wisdom and counsel Prov. 11.2 They shall be exalted Luk. 1.52 They shall have rest and tranquillity in all conditions Matt. 11. ult But pride goeth before destruction and an haughty spirit before a fall Prov. 16.18 Tollitur altissimè ut majori casu ruat And thus By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honour and life as well in the Nature and Reason of the thing as by the special Promises of God Use It now remains that we earnestly endeavour to accomplish our Souls with this so useful so advantagious a Vertue You see it is every way your Interest as well as it is your Duty Pride is a vain and empty Satisfaction a continual Disappointment but Humility is a sure Foundation of Riches and Honour and Life Pride would fain be great but cannot but Humility is indifferent and is therefore courted by the World it follows it and offers it self unto it If you say that Pride is so natural to us that it is impossible to be rooted out that it has so obtained in the World that no Man with any Decency or Reputation can lay it now aside The Answer is this that if it were impossible it could not be made a Duty the truth is the Desire of a more perfect State to strive after greater Excellencies than we have the Emulation of vertuous and lovely Qualities These are the true dispositions and genuine Inclinations of humane Nature but the Vice of Pride is unnatural and wholly foreign to us it would be esteem'd for that which it has not it would be rewarded for that which it deserves not it is a Complication of Immoralities Rebellion against the Providence of God Detraction Envy Malice and vain Imagination This to be sure is a Disease we have brought upon our Selves we love the Vice we nourish the Distemper we force our Nature to it and vainly hope to come off at last by pleading a Necessity But did you ever endeavour to cure this Malady in earnest did you ever use the proper Means did you ever consider how little reason you had to be proud or haughty what a miserable imperfect Being the best of us is how insufficient how dependent St. James perswades to Humility from hence That we are all subject to God c. 4. v. 7. And what have you says St. Paul that you have not received If you receiv'd it why do ye glory Nay even that that we have received and is so precarious so intirely at the will of another is so little in it self so fading and imperfect that it is no Foundation of Conceit or Haughtiness For we are nothing but soreness and corruption says the Prophet Sordet in conspectu Judicis S. August quod fulget in conspectu operantis says the Father It is well that there remains a more perfect State hereafter for us who never attain to so great a Perfection of our Nature here as other Beings do in theirs What is our Beauty it is commonly mistaken especially by our Selves but where indeed it is the Shades do so hide the Light that it generally spoils the Picture The Flowers of the Field excel us and what we have is fading and inconstant there is no security in it no propriety and therefore the value of it is not great Is it his Wisdom that a Man may value himself upon Which Wisdom That of Yesterday or his present Sentiments For alas a Man is so unstable so inconsistent with himself that his Principles Opinions and Institution of Life are seldom the same many years together There is always some byass or other that obstructs his Judgment and hinders the free and proper motions of his Mind which at the best are but imperfect What is it then Is it Wealth and Power that puff us up But Power without Reason and Goodness is a Whirlwind a Tempest Belluine Ferocity the degeneracy of humane nature and as for the Power that is justly exercised it is equally beneficial to the Subject with the Prince it equally secures them both in their Rights and Properties The Power and Dominion of one Man over another is at the best but a necessary evil brought into the World to restrain the exorbitant tempers of Men and indeed most evil to those that exercise it Does it not oblige them to a tedious attendance are they not subject to distracting Cares opprobrious Censures dangerous Envy treacherous Conspiracies and frequent Dissolutions Upon the matter then there is nothing in a Man's Possession that is sufficient to elate his Mind That that really commends him is an humble sense of what he has attained and an earnest endeavour to proceed and improve this at the same time will both prevent the assuming Glory and make you really deserving of it Finally Set the Example of our blessed Saviour before your Eyes who humbled himself to death upon the Cross for us Let us blush says the Father to be proud S. August for whom our Saviour is thus humbled We must needs be very undeserving Wretches who so provoked the Almighty Justice that nothing but the Blood of his Son could atone our guilt These things if well considered would be sufficient to keep down all the ebullitions of a haughty Spirit especially if we add to this our constant Prayers to God for his assistance who will be always ready to support our weakness prevent temptation facilitate our Victory and bring us at last to that Happy State where we shall all be as great and glorious as we can desire Matt. 5.3 For blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven To which God of his Mercy bring us all for Jesus Christ his sake the Righteous to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour Glory Praise Dominion and Obedience now and for Evermore Amen ERRATA PAge 3. line 4. for leaves read leads p. 6. l. 11. for devoted r. and rooted p. 12. l. 6. r. Doc. FINIS
A SERMON PREACHED Before the King and Queen AT WHITEHALL Jan. 19. 1689. By J. LAMBE Chaplain to Their MAJESTIES Published by Their Majesties Special Command LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1690. A SERMON Preach'd before the KING and QUEEN PROV xxii 4. By Humility and the fear of the Lord are Riches and Honour and Life LOrd who will shew us any Good is the general Enquiry the universal Question of all Mankind Every being pursues its own perfection and would fain be satisfied in all the Capacities it understands and in all the importunate Appetites it feels Desire and Want are the misery of Life but Good or Happiness is the free enjoyment of things convenient to us the gratification of all the genuine dispositions of the true and proper inclinations of our Nature But such is the ignorance and depravity of Man that we are not so sensible of the nobler and more excellent Capacities of our Minds as we are of the sensible and more obvious goods of the natural Life To preserve and defend that being we have acquired to enrich our selves with all such things as please the Body and conduce to the ease of our Lives and to secure our Acquisitions by a fair reputation in the World by the hearty good will esteem and love of all that know us this is the general design of all Men these are the practical Principles of every individual Person But the perfection of the Mind the improvement of our Reason the Government of our Will the fear of God and the preparation for an Eternal Life hereafter these because they are intellectual invisible and future are commonly less regarded too often lost and swallowed up of sense Wherefore God who loves and seeks our Happiness even more than we our selves allows to our Imperfections gives us His Laws as we can bear them and draws us insensibly to Virtue and Obedience by annexing those good things which we all perceive admire and prosecute to the practice of those Moral Duties which are equally our Happiness but not so easily discerned And thus of his Goodness he leaves us to the knowledge of our Souls and draws us to himself our chief and most absolute Good by the means of those sensible things which we understand esteem and love For By humility and the fear of the Lord are Riches and Honour and Life The Proverbs of Solomon are the Emanations of the great understanding which God had bestowed upon him 1 Kin. 3.12 above all the Men that ever lived the most perfect rules of Wisdom for the Government of humane Life piercing and awakening of the Mind consented to of all as soon as the words are understood They are generally independent one of another but compleat and full in every period This before us encourages Humility from the consideration of the great advantages we may reasonably expect and are assured unto us from the practice of it even all that is good and desirable in this present World both Riches and Honour and Life Which words are a positive assertion of the certain effects and consequences of Humility that is to say that a modest opinion of our selves and a chearful submission to the will of God in all conditions arising from a pure and perfect Principle of Religion and the fear of God will procure us Wealth and Honour and secure the enjoyment of them both with Peace and Pleasure to a good old Age. By Humility and the fear of the Lord by such an Humility as proceeds from the fear of the Lord are Riches and Honour and Life So that the Text consists of these two Parts I. A Duty recommended Humility with the fear of the Lord. II. The Reward proposed to enforce and encourage the practice of it are Riches and Honour and Life I. I begin with the first the Duty recommended Humility with the fear of the Lord. And for the clearer and more perfect illustration of it I shall briefly consider these two things 1. The definition the nature and principles of Humility in the general And 2. The several parts and exercises of Humility so defined 1. I begin with the first the definition nature and principles of Humility Humility has a near relation to many Graces but if we consider it by it self as a single Vertue it is an habit or temper of Mind proceeding from a Principle of Religion or the fear of God which subdues all lofty false Opinions of ones self and disposes a Man to a chearful acquiescence in all Estates and conditions of Life that God shall place him in 1. It is an habit of Mind a frame or temper of Soul for a Virtue cannot be defined by single actions Fasting Weeping and Praying may be the effects of Repentance a submiss Behaviour of Humility or they may not because the outward acts be they what they will may proceed from divers causes and are therefore good or evil according to the intention of the Author they are the Servants of many Masters and receive their denomination from the inward Principle that produced them 2. Again Humility is such an habit of the Soul as must be framed and wrought by a Principle of Religion or the fear of God for so sayes the Text By Humility with the fear of the Lord proceeding from a Principle of pure Religion are Riches and Honour and Life God has commanded it I will therefore study the goodness of it that I may love it and chuse it and endeavour to attain the perfection of it Nothing can be a Vertue in us that we have not chosen Dispositions of Nature may be rewarded if by our care we preserve them uncorrupt and they are very happy that are naturally well inclin'd but the Vertue is far more perfect to say no more that is freely chosen against the bent of our inclination when reason exercises its proper power and subdues unreasonable Appetites devoted Customs to the Obedience of God In our present instance there is a depression of Mind in many Men by nature an indifference to every thing which is not so properly the grace of Humility as a natural Necessity Humility then is an habit or temper of Mind arising not from sinister respects not from reasons without our selves nay not from natural necessity but from a principle of Religion or the fear of God And it chiefly consists in these two things First In a modest just opinion of our selves and Secondly In a chearful submission to the will of God in all the conditions of Life that Providence shall place us in First Humility subdues all lofty false opinions of our selves of our own perfections and deserts It is the exercise of our Reason in judging and valuing our selves and others that we neither arrogate those qualities which indeed we never had nor magnify those we have in our own conceit above the degree of perfection we have attained but that we think of our selves as we ought to
compares him to a Ship that is tossed upon the Waves De Salut Doc. lib. without a Pilot. What humour lust or passion must be gratified to day is uncertain quite the contrary perhaps to Morrow Who shall be next in his favour or displeasure is hard to guess If you please him he is frequish in his favours for his kindness to you is only to use you as his Slave for a while if you fall into disgrace he designs and works your ruine These are the principal Acts the necessary Effects both of Humility and Pride where-ever the Principle is these will be the certain radical operations of it we shall fall into them naturally as occasion offers Only in this as in all other Vertues whatsoever allowance must be made to the Passion and Surprizes to the Frailty and Imperfections of humane Nature But where these outward acts are as stable and equal as even and uniform as our present state permits there and there only is the Virtue for it does not consist in any particular thing not in conversing with the Poor not in an abject Countenance not in a squalid Habit but in an uniform practice of all the necessary acts of Humility as occasion offers It is this alone that is the Grace because it is this alone that can never be acted or put on It is impossible that Hypocrisie should be uniform no Hypocrite can imitate so many several things The Expressions of Humility are copious and infinite and therefore are never to be taught or acted But the Grace it self is an inward living Principle and will influence our outward Actions easily naturally and without teaching Hence it appears that Kings and Noblemen may be humble as well as others they may use an outward Grandeur according to their Quality and yet be very meek for the Grace is within the Man he may possibly endure rather than be conceited of his Equipage much less a Despiser of others No we must take especial care to preserve the oeconomy of the World and the distinctions of Men in all our Meditations of Humility and Pride and endeavour according to what has been said to have a right understanding of both Thus as briefly as I could I have laid before you as well the Nature and Definition as the principal Acts and Exercises of a Religious Humility II. And I now proceed to the Second General the Reward proposed to perswade and encourage the Practice of it By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honour and life And here there are these two things to be considered 1. That Riches and Honour and Life are a real Blessing and the proper matter of Reward And 2. That Humility with the Fear of the Lord will certainly procure them 1. That Riches and Honour and Life are a real Blessing and the proper matter of Reward Happiness can be nothing else but the Satisfaction of natural Appetites according to and not exceeding the Intention of Nature God has made us capable of variety of Satisfactions and given us suitable Desires and therefore want in any of these is Misery in proportion for there is no notion of Misery but Emptiness and Desire unsatisfied What is contrary to our Nature frets and grates us but what is agreeable to our true and natural dispositions delights and pleases us the one is called Happiness the other Pain or Misery and therefore the Goods of the World comprehended here in Riches and Honour and Life having a real value in them in their order and degree are proposed as the Reward of Humility with the fear of the Lord. If Temporal Blessings prove pernicious to us as oftentimes they do the Fault is not in them but in us in that we resolve our final Happiness into them and set our Affections upon them to the prejudice of our higher and more excellent Capacities But they may be lawfully enjoyed to that degree that God allows and are worthy of a just pursuit in the way that he proposes and that is says the Text by humility and the fear of the Lord. This is the Method that God has appointed and they that seek them thus may expect to attain them 1. By a natural Power and Efficacy in the Vertue it self 2. By an Efficacy Moral there is something in the practice of Humility that disposes kindly to all those several ends 3. By an efficacy Divine and Spiritual the blessing of God will assist and forward the designs of the humble that he shall ordinarily attain his ends and live in Plenty Honour and Esteem to a good old Age. By Humility and the fear of the Lord c. 1. By a natural power and efficacy in the vertue it self An humble disposition tends to Riches procures Honour and preserves Health First It tends to Riches and promotes our interest in the World It causes us to propose such ends as are reasonable and within our reach it makes us cautious and prudent in our measures It gives us Patience under the crosses and disappointments of the World and encourages us to try contentedly again His Life is comfortable his matters are managed with silence and discretion his Mind is steddy calm and fit for business But the Proud are high and lofty in their aims furious in prosecution and impatient of any rub They propose more to themselves than they can compass which baffles all their projects and brings them to nothing in the end Secondly Again Humility naturally tends to Honour Wisdom and Steddiness Patience and an even prudent managery are so seldom seen that they never fail to procure esteem and a fair reputation in the World Those things have a lustre in them which by a necessary efficacy like the Sun it self dazle the sight and charm the spirits of all Men. Thirdly and lastly Humility naturally tends to Health and prolongs our Life Pride and solicitude Envy and desire unsatisfied nourish a continual Passion exhaust the Spirits disquiet sleep and so destroy the Health and Life of many Plut. As Themistocles says of himself that the Victory and Trophees of Miltiades interrupted his Peace and would not suffer him to take his rest But an humble indifference a meek and a chearful temper is the Fountain of all tranquillity and pleasure his Spirits do not rage and boil and overset the Body his rest is sweet his Mind is free neither empty of all design nor pressed down with care He has business enough to employ his thoughts leisure enough to regard himself content and quiet under all events And thus by natural causality From Humility c. 2. Again By an efficacy moral Humility disposes kindly to all these several ends because it conciliates the good opinion of all Men. The deigns of the humble are modest and therefore he uses no indirect provoking Arts to attain his Worldly ends He builds a Fortune upon no Man's ruine he is fair and upright in all his dealings candid and ingenuous without design or trick