Armatura Dei, or, A preparation for suffering in an evil day showing how Christians…Armatura Dei, or, A preparation for suffering in an evil day shewing how Christians…

2. Humility puts the Soul into a capacity to have larger effusions of Grace bestowed upon it; God resisteth the proud, but ⟨p. 106⟩giveth grace unto the humble, Jam. 4.6. God hath two hands; with the one, he casts down the proud that lift up themselves against him; with the other, he lifts up the humble, that lye at his feet for mercy. Humility is not only a Grace, but a capacity to receive more of it. He, that goes to a River to take up water, puts the mouth of his Vessel downward to do it; he that goes to God for Grace, must put his mouth in the dust, and cry to have it, not for his worths sake, but for his spiritual poverty. An humble Heart is (as Parisiensis calls it) a spiritual Vacuum; and as nature doth not suffer a Vacuum in Bodies, but fills up the space one way or other, so Grace doth not suffer a Vacuum in Spirits, but fills up the humble Soul with fresh supplies of Grace. St. Austin sets out this by a notable similitude,¹ The water that falls down from Heaven upon the Mountains, flows away, but the water that falls upon the Valleys, stays there; In like manner the Divine Grace, that distils from above, doth not rest upon high proud persons, but upon humble ones: God leaves the full Souls, and fills the empty; abases the exalted, and exalts the abased: All other Graces grow together with Humility; the more humble we are, the more we have of God with us, the more we have of Grace in us; and the more ⟨p. 107⟩we have of these, the more we have of strength in the inner man, and the more we have of preparation for a day of Trial. If we build so high as suffering for Christ, we must dig deep, and lay the Foundation low; that, when the storm comes, we may stand fast and unmovable.

2. Humility puts the Soul into a capacity to have larger effusions of Grace bestowed upon it; God resisteth the proud, but ⟨p. 106⟩giveth grace unto the humble, Jam. 4.6. God hath two hands; with the one, he casts down the proud that lift up themselves against him; with the other, he lifts up the humble, that lye at his feet for mercy. Humility is not only a Grace, but a capacity to receive more of it. He, that goes to a River to take up water, puts the mouth of his Vessel downward to do it; he that goes to God for Grace, must put his mouth in the dust, and cry to have it, not for his worths sake, but for his spiritual poverty. An humble Heart is (as Parisiensis cals it) a spiritual Vacuum; and as nature doth not suffer a Vacuum in Bodies, but fils up the space one way or other, so Grace doth not suffer a Vacuum in Spirits, but fils up the humble Soul with fresh supplies of Grace. St. Austin sets out this by a notable similitude,