Nay, in fome Cafes it will be neceffary that he fhould; for if a Phyfician does not think he has a Competent Knowledge in his Profeffion, nay, that he understands it better than he who has not made it his Study, he is unfaithful to his Truft, and I do not fee how he can practice with a good Confcience.

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6. Befides, if a Man may not be allowed. to be in any degree fenfible of his own worth, and to think he has thofe Perfections which he has, how fhall he be in a Capacity to thank God for them; or how fhall he think himself obliged to make a due Improvement of those Talents which he has received: And therefore fays St. Paul, I thank my God, I Speak with Tongues more than you all, 1 Cor. 14. 18. Not that a Man ought to be forward to proclaim his Excellencies, or to declare any good Opinion he has of himself but upon reasonable and weighty Occafions, of which more hereafter in its proper place; but fuch an Opinion he may have Salva Humilitate, without any violation of Humility, which does not oblige us to fuch a low fense of our selves, as not to think our felves poffefs'd of those particular Vertues which we really have. For that would be as much (though not fo dangeroufly) to deceive our felves, as if we fhould think our felves poffefs'd of those which we have not. But there is no neceffity of putting a Cheat upon

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our selves either way, though it be much eafier to deceive our felves by fancying an Imaginary, than by not perceiving a real Excellency. No, we cannot well avoid feeing it; and if we do fee it, we cannot but fet a juft value upon it, (I do not say upon. our felves for it) the fame that we would fet upon the fame Perfection in another Man there being no reason why an Excellency fhould be the lefs valuable for being in ones felf.

7. Much lefs does Humility oblige us to defcend fo Low,as to efteem our felves either the Meaneft or the Worft of Men, the Offfcouring or Refuse of all things, the greateft Fools, or the greatest Sinners in the World. Nor can that high strain of Self-Abasement ufed by St. Paul, out of a deep fenfe of his own Unworthiness, of whom I am Chief, I Tim. 1. 15. with any Reason as to the thing, or equity of Interpretation,be applied to this purpose. For St. Paul could not think himfelf the greatest of Sinners; it being manifestly a much greater Crime to Betray Christ, than to Perfecute his Church. Which St. Paul did not do neither out of Malice, but Ignorantly and in Unbelief, as he himself tells us, ver. 13 in this fame Chapter. And therefore when he calls himself the Chief of Sinners, there is no need of understanding any more by it than one of the Chief. But

indeed there is a place which feems with more colour of Intention, to make this a part of that lowlinefs of Mind which Humility requires of us, and that is, that of the fame Apostle to the Philippians, In lowlinefs of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves, Phil. 2. 3. which by confequence is to think our felves to be the worst of all. But 'tis plain that this refers not to Judgment (for then there could be no fuch thing as a good Confcience) but to Practice and outward Deportment. And fo Dr. Hammond Explains it, That ye do nothing out of Oppofition and Contention one against another, nothing Ambitionfly or Oftentatiously; but all things on the contrary with that Quietness and Humbleness, as if ye if ye had every one a better Opinion of the other's Wisdom and Piety than his own. Not but that there may be so much of Judgment in it too, as when we are not intimately well acquainted with others, to judge in favour of them against our felves, as not knowing but that they may have fome Perfection or other Preferable to that wherein we exceed them. But still as Charity does not put out our Eyes as to other Mens Visible Faults, fo neither does Humility as to our own Excellencies.

8. And indeed if it did, where would be the Vertue of it? If a Man does not see those Excellencies which he has, what Com

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mendation is there not to be Proud of them? A Man indeed may be Proud (and nothing more common) of fuch Excellencies as he really has not but then it must be upon a Suppofition that he has them. For Pride is not fo a Castle in the Air, as to have no Foundation at all to reft upon. It must have a Real or an Imaginary one; a Man cannot be Proud of an Abfolute Nothing. And what he does not fee, and knows nothing of, is to him no better than fuch. But then i fay, as there is no Vertue in fuch an Ignorance, fo neither will it be any Commendation not to be proud of that which we are thus Ignorant of. But then is Humility a Commendable Vertue, and truly deserving of that Praise which it does not feek, when a Man fees the height upon which he stands, and yet grows not giddy with it when a 5 Man knows his own Abfolute and Comparative Excellencies, and yet poffeffes them in Sobriety, with which his bare feeing of them, and thinking that he is endued with them, is not at all Inconfiftent.

9. But what then becomes of that Lowlinefs of Mind which Humility Imports, or whereby does it exprefs it felf? I Answer, that it confifts in this, that we think Meanly and Lowly of our felves upon the whole. That is, that though we think and know our felves to be Indued with fuch and fuch

Excellencies, which cannot be well hid from us while we have them; yet we are not Exalted with them, do not think the more Highly or Worthily of our felves for them, do not value our felves upon the poffeffion of them, or glory in them, any more than if we had them not, or knew not that we had them, as being fenfible not only of other Faults or Imperfections in our felves that Counter-ballance, and for the most part outweigh those Excellencies, and fo make it more reasonable for us, upon the whole, to be Low than High-minded; but also of our Dependency upon God, and that we have nothing but what we have receiv'd from him, and hold by his Will and Pleasure. For what though it be true that we have such and fuch Endowments and Perfections, yet fince it is as true that we have them not from our felves (according to that of the Apostle, I Cor. 4. 7. What hast thou that thou didst not receive) as we ought not to despise them that want them, fo neither to think the more highly of our felves for having them, because we have them not of or from, though in our felves. For though by the Grace and Bounty of God we are fome thing, yet of our felves we are nothing. And this I take to be that Lowlinefs of Mind which is Effential to Humility, and wherein the nature of it does precifely confift; not

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