"Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you." I Peter 5:6
Below is Jonathan Edwards' (1703-1758) description of a humble person. Between this and yesterday's post, I have given you the very best I've found on this subject.
A brief word: The Puritans want their readers to engage in serious meditation. That explains why most of us find the Puritans a hard slog. Meditation on truth is difficult work! Also, we may struggle with a style of writing that seems strange and antiquated, and because some of their words meant different things 300 years ago, or have gone entirely out of use. But here I believe is the main problem: We just don't think in the elevated ways the Puritans did about God and holy things. They make sounds outside our normal range and we must strain ourselves to hear them. "It is not the bee's touching of the flower that gathers honey, but her abiding for a time upon the flower that draws out the sweet" (T. Brooks).
"Humility may be defined to be a habit of mind and heart corresponding to our comparative unworthiness and vileness before God, or a sense of our own comparative meanness in His sight, with the disposition to a behavior answerable thereto.
And a truly humble man is sensible of the small extent of his own knowledge, and the great extent of his ignorance, and of the small extent of his understanding as compared with the understanding of God. He is sensible of his weakness, how little his strength is, and how little he is able to do. He is sensible of his natural distance from God, of his dependence on Him, of the insufficiency of his own power and wisdom to lead and guide him, and his might to enable him to do what he ought to do for Him.
Humility tends to prevent an aspiring and ambitious behavior amongst men. The man that is under the influence of an humble spirit is content with such a situation amongst men as God is pleased to allot to him, and is not greedy of honor, and does not affect to appear uppermost and exalted above his neighbors. Humility tends also to prevent an arrogant and assuming behavior. On the contrary, humility disposes a person to a condescending behavior to the meekest and lowest and to treat inferiors with courtesy and affability, as being sensible of his own weakness and despicableness before God.
If we then consider ourselves as the followers of the meek and lowly and crucified Jesus, we shall walk humbly before God and man all the days of our life on earth.
Let us all be exhorted earnestly to seek much of an humble spirit, and to endeavor to be humble in all their behavior toward God and men. Seek for a deep and abiding sense of your comparative meanness before God and man. Know God. Confess your nothingness and ill-desert before Him. Distrust yourself. Rely only on God. Renounce all glory except from Him. Yield yourself heartily to His will and service. Avoid an aspiring, ambitious, ostentatious, assuming, arrogant, scornful, stubborn, willful leveling, self-justifying behavior; and strive for more and more of the humble spirit that Christ manifested while He was on earth.
Humility is a most essential and distinguishing trait in all true piety. Earnestly seek, then, and diligently and prayerfully cherish an humble spirit, and God shall walk with you here below; and when a few more days shall have passed, He will receive you to the honors bestowed on His people at Christ’s right hand."
Below is Jonathan Edwards' (1703-1758) description of a humble person. Between this and yesterday's post, I have given you the very best I've found on this subject.
A brief word: The Puritans want their readers to engage in serious meditation. That explains why most of us find the Puritans a hard slog. Meditation on truth is difficult work! Also, we may struggle with a style of writing that seems strange and antiquated, and because some of their words meant different things 300 years ago, or have gone entirely out of use. But here I believe is the main problem: We just don't think in the elevated ways the Puritans did about God and holy things. They make sounds outside our normal range and we must strain ourselves to hear them. "It is not the bee's touching of the flower that gathers honey, but her abiding for a time upon the flower that draws out the sweet" (T. Brooks)."Humility may be defined to be a habit of mind and heart corresponding to our comparative unworthiness and vileness before God, or a sense of our own comparative meanness in His sight, with the disposition to a behavior answerable thereto.
And a truly humble man is sensible of the small extent of his own knowledge, and the great extent of his ignorance, and of the small extent of his understanding as compared with the understanding of God. He is sensible of his weakness, how little his strength is, and how little he is able to do. He is sensible of his natural distance from God, of his dependence on Him, of the insufficiency of his own power and wisdom to lead and guide him, and his might to enable him to do what he ought to do for Him.
Humility tends to prevent an aspiring and ambitious behavior amongst men. The man that is under the influence of an humble spirit is content with such a situation amongst men as God is pleased to allot to him, and is not greedy of honor, and does not affect to appear uppermost and exalted above his neighbors. Humility tends also to prevent an arrogant and assuming behavior. On the contrary, humility disposes a person to a condescending behavior to the meekest and lowest and to treat inferiors with courtesy and affability, as being sensible of his own weakness and despicableness before God.
If we then consider ourselves as the followers of the meek and lowly and crucified Jesus, we shall walk humbly before God and man all the days of our life on earth.
Let us all be exhorted earnestly to seek much of an humble spirit, and to endeavor to be humble in all their behavior toward God and men. Seek for a deep and abiding sense of your comparative meanness before God and man. Know God. Confess your nothingness and ill-desert before Him. Distrust yourself. Rely only on God. Renounce all glory except from Him. Yield yourself heartily to His will and service. Avoid an aspiring, ambitious, ostentatious, assuming, arrogant, scornful, stubborn, willful leveling, self-justifying behavior; and strive for more and more of the humble spirit that Christ manifested while He was on earth.
Humility is a most essential and distinguishing trait in all true piety. Earnestly seek, then, and diligently and prayerfully cherish an humble spirit, and God shall walk with you here below; and when a few more days shall have passed, He will receive you to the honors bestowed on His people at Christ’s right hand."
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