SERMON IX. LUKE xiv. 10, 11. But thou, when thou art bidden, go and fit down in the lowest room, that when he that bade thee cometh, he may fay to thee, Friend, go up higher; then fhalt thou have worship in the prefence of them who fit at meat with thee: for whosoever exalteth himself, fhall be abafed; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted T is an exhortation of our Saviour's to Hu In mility, addreffed by way of inference from what he had said in the three foregoing verfes of the chapter; where, upon entering the house of one of the chief Pharifees to eat bread, and marking how small a portion of this neceffary virtue entered in with the feveral guests, difcovering itself from their chafing the chief rooms, and most diftinguifhed places of honour;-he takes the occafion which such a behaviour offered, to caution them against Pride;-ftates - the inconvenience of the paffion;-shews the disappointments which attend it; the dif grace in which it generally ends; in being forced, at laft, to recede from the pretensions to what is more than our due; which, by the way, is the very thing the paffion is eternally promoting us to expect. When, therefor, thou art bidden to a wedding, says our Saviour, fit not down in the highest room, lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him; and he, that bade thee and him, come and fay to thee,-Give this man place: and thou begin with fhame to take the lowest room. But thou, when thou art bidden, go and fit down in the lowest room :-hard lecture! -in the lowest room?What!-do I owe nothing to myfelf? muft I forget my ftation, my character in life? refign the precedence which my birth, my fortune, my ta. lents, have already placed me in poffeffion of? --give all up! and suffer inferiors to take my honour? Yes;- for that, fays our Saviour, is the road to it: For when he that bade thee cometh, he will fay to thee, Friend, go up higher; then fhalt thou have worship in the prefence of them who fit at meat with thee:--for whosoever exalteth himself, fhall be abafed; and be that humbleth himself, fhall be exalted. To make good the truth of which declaration, it is not neceffary we should look beyond this life, and say, that in that day of retributi on, wherein every high thing fhall be brought low, and every irregular paffion dealt with ast it deferves;--that pride, amongst the reft, (confidered as a vicious character) fhall meet with it's proper punishment of being abafed, and lying down for ever in fhame and dishonour.- -It is not neceffary we fhould look fo far forwards for the accomplishment of this: the words feem not fo much to imply the threat of a distant punishment, the execution of which was to be refpited to that day; -as the declaration of a plain truth depending upon the natural courfe of things, and evidently verified in every hour's commerce in the world; from whence, as well as from our reasoning upon the point, it is found, That Pride lays us open to fo many mortifying encounters, which Humility in its own nature refts fecure from,-that verily, each of them, in this world, have their |