(illegible text) as the creeping Worm, whoſe nature it is to go on his belly. So the humble and the gracious are equivalent terms, Pſal xxxiv 2, 3. My ſoul ſhall make her boaſt in the Lord, the humble ſhall hear thereof and be glad, O magnify the Lord with me and exalt his name together. There is a law work followed with gospel grace wrought on them iſſuing in a thorough humiliation, breaking down their natural ſelf conceit, tumbling down their towering imaginations about themſelves, which they had in their ſtate of blindneſſ, bringing them in their own eyes the conſiſtance of mountains to that of Worms and convincing them they are, have, and can do nothing. Luke xv 17. 2 Cor x 4, 5
2ndly. Actually humbled in reſpect of their frame as the Worm ſtill retains its creeping way on the mountain as in the valley ſo God's people do, difficulties to be happy surmounted, ſtill keep up the ſenſe of their own utter emptineſs and we knots for them. 2 Cor. i 5. Not that we are ſufficient of ourſelves to think anything of ourſelves: but our ſufficiency is of God. In the Worm Jacob being ſo well again he will be ſo unwieldy that he will threſh no mountains till he fall a new. 2 Cor xii 11.
3. Deſpiſing creatures as the lofty mountains cover the crawling Worms:- ſo doth the ⟨cauld⟩ world contemn Worm Jacob Pſal. xxii 6. But I am a Worm and no man: a reproach of men, and deſpiſed of the people And cxxxv 4 Our ſoul is exceedingly filled with the ſcorning of ⟨thoſe⟩ that are at eaſe, and with the contempt of the proud. Though they may value Worm Jacob for his gifts which he has in common with themſelves they will never value him for his grace, that leaves him ſtill as a Worm in their ſight. What of religion lies beyond the reach of the nature of man, they deſpiſe the Chriſtian entertainment on words and promiſes, they deſpiſe as we do, the duſt the Worms lick up the Chriſtian way of doing in faith, they deſpiſeknot
