refidence of this hidden man is the heart; hence he is called the hidden man of the heart; but the finner's heart must be broken, and thrown open too, before this new man can come in to hide himself, fo as to become a bidden man there. A ftony-hearted finner can give this new man no refidence; the ftone must be removed from the well's mouth-fin purged-an heart of flesh given -and a new spirit be received-self be debased and abhorred, and God discovered as pacified toward us, before this meekness will appear. God's word is a hammer tỏ break this rock, especially when accompanied with the thundering voice of God in his law, which pierces the deepest recesses of the foul, and makes inquifition for blood-demands perfect obedience on peril of damnationcarries the fcrutiny with all imaginable rigourftrikes the finner dumb at the dreadful tribunal, until he is finking between a double fenténce, namely, that of a broken law and an honest confcience, until the fting of death and wrath of God acquaint him with the fnares of death and pains of hell, which give him a foretaste of what he justly deferves. This man is fore broken in the place of dragons, and covered with the shadow of death, and knows the terrors of the Lord; yet all this will not produce meekness.

Such a finner will be drowned in tears, filled with felf-pity and univerfal candour; his deport and countenance will difcover a deal of humility; he will cry out against fin, and his words

will be fmoother than oil; but in heart he frets against the Lord-he curfes the day of his birthblames his Maker for bringing him into exiftence-wishes there was no God to punish himfain would fly out of his hand-or, like the devil himself, he would be glad to afcend above the height of the clouds, and be equal to the Moft High, while he is fenfibly finking into hell to the fides of the pit, Ifa. xiv. 14, 15. But when the Holy Ghoft opens the neart, and lets a divine ray into it, there is an healing balm that attends this wing or beam of the Sun of Righteousness; the understanding receives the unition or eye falve; and, beginning to fee, the poor finner pursues the beam up to the bleffed face from whence it came, and discovers fomething of the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jefus Christ. This unction difpels the vail from the understanding, influences the mind, and conveys to the heart the pleafing tidings of a door of hope being discovered; while the heart appears wide. open, broken with defires, pouring out petition after petition, backed with ten thousand wifhes, longings, fighings, and groanings, that the object of hope who has fhewed himself through the lattice, will but come into the garden, where he is to meet with the kindeft reception and the best entertainment that can be prepared by a loft, ruined, felf-loathed and felf-condemned finner.

At length the Lord defcends on his own beam, and tells the finner that he has overcome bim,

and

and appears the author of faith, and dwells in the beart by it; where the finner finds fuch an entertainment as none know but God and himself; now he feeds on the bidden manna; fings a fong, that none can learn but the redeemed; the new name of a fon of God by adoption is written on him; the white ftone, that witneffes his fonfhip, is received; he is established in hope like a pillar; and the name of God is written in legible characters on him, and appears as confpicuous to others as, Holiness to the Lord, did on the high priests mitre. Now he arifes and fhines, for his light is come, and the glory of God is rifen on him; this man knows what spiritual meekness is; Christ crucified, and his broken fpirit have had a meeting; he knows fomething of the meek and lowly Jefus experimentally; but thofe that are ftrangers to all these things, have no more of this meeknefs about them than thofe that Chrift calls weepers and wailers in hell. Such a foul as this cannot give an account of the goodness of God to him without being fenfibly and deeply affected: He will fan&tify the Lord in his heart, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that afketh him a reafon of the hope that is in him, with meeknefs and fear, 1 Peter iii. 15.

But the hypocrite goes another way to work; he calls for meekness and candour; and if you ask him a reafon of the hope that is in him, he waves the fubject, being confcious that 'tis experience

that worketh hope; and knowing he has no experience, he is afraid of his hypocrify being difcovered; for if his falfe hope be taken away, his countenance, profeffion, and reputation, all fall together. These call for meeknefs, but not for a reafon of our hope; meekness without hope, is like the full affurance of faith without a spiritual birth; one contends for the bowels, and the other for the feet of the new man; yet can give us no reafon of this hidden man of the heart, or of Christ in them the hope of glory. They have yielded up the palace by a profeffion, but they cannot tell us, whether the strong man armed keeps it, or he that is mighty to fave; but I fuppofe the former, because Chrift fays, be keeps it in peace; and if fo, he chufes not to be difturbed with a perpetual outcry about power of religion, but to be rocked to fleep with gentleness and candour. Thefe ferve us as Talkative ferved Bunyan's Chriftian; he was all knowledge and candour, until Chriftian began at his heart; then, fays John, like the moon into the wain he goes, and fo will all but he that heart work knows: This is a truth John, and I can fet my feal to it, for I have feen it verified in numbers of profeffors. John tells us, he knew nothing of the burden falling from his back at the cross; he had met with no difficulties at the wicket gate; he was a stranger to thofe things that make the gate fo ftreight, at the head of the path of regeneration. John fays, he came in of himself, and he will go out of himself, which is another truth. This meek

II

meekness, that I have described, lays in the hidden man; is a fruit of the bleffed Spirit of God, which makes the new-born foul behave itself before God as a weaned child; nothing afflicts it fo much as the lofs of the breafts of confolation, after which it will pine like the dove, until the founding of God's bowels is felt again towards the believer. A clear difcernment of the depravity of nature, and the defperate evil of fin, together with the long fuffering, mercy, and immutable love of God in Chrift Jefus, will perpetually draw forth in private before God thefe bowels of fpiritual meeknefs in a believer. Mofes found grace in God's fight, and dwelt perpetually in his favour, and none fo meek; but this did not destroy his faithfulnefs; he was zealous for his God, and faithful in his houfe. But nothing of this is to be found in unregenerate men; they may be quiet and fhew fomething like it, but there is a woe to them that are at eafe in Zion; finners at ease are not troubled like other men, nor plagued like them; they can talk about the meek and lowly Jefus, and well they may; for he has never met them as a bear bereft of her whelps, nor rent the caul of their hearts, Hofea xiii. 8. therefore they feel no plague, fear no wrath, nor fee any danger; they are alive (to fin) without the law, and dead (to God) being without the power of the gofpel; ftrangers to divine infpiration, and to divine inftruction; hence they always run counter to the