ready to despise others, and bid them in thy thovights stand off', as not so holy as thyself; this smells of the Pharisee — beware of it. It is the nature of holiness to depress ourselves, and to give our brethren the advantage in measiu-ing their gifts or graces with our own : ' In lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves,' Phil. ii. 3. At another time possibly thou may est find a spice of the justiciary's disease hanging about thee, thy heart leaning on thy righteousness, and lifting up thyself into confidence of it, so as to expect thy acceptance with it, and salvation from God for that. O take heed of this, as thou lovest thy life. I may say to thee, as Constantine did to Acetius the Novatian, ' Set then up thy ladder, and go to heaven by thyself, for never any went this way thither ;' and dost thou think to be the only man that shall appear in heaven purchaser of his own happiness? Go, first, poor creature, and measure the length of thy ladder by the extent of the holy law ; and if thou findest it but one round short of that, thou mayest certainly conclude it will leave thee short of heaven : if, therefore, thou hast beheld, to allude to that in Job xxxi. 27, thy righteousness, when it hath shined, and thy holiness walking in its brightness, and thy heart thereby hath been enticed secretly, or thy mouth hath kissed thy hand, know this is a great wickedness, and in this thou hast denied the God above. Thou hast given the highest _part of divine worship unto a creature, the created son of thy inherent holiness, which God hath appointed should be given alone to the increated Son of righteousness, the Lord Jesus, the Lord our righteousness. Renounce thy plea, as now thou hast laid it, for life and salvation, or else give thy cause as lost. Now, the more effectually to keep down any insiuTCction of pride, from the conceit of thy holiness, be pleased to take often these soul-humbling considerations into thy serious thoughts.
First, Think frequently of the infinite holiness of God. When men stand high, their heads do not grow dizzy till they look down ; when men look down upon those that ai'e worse than themselves, or less holy than themselves, then their heads tiuni round ; looking up wovild cure this disease. The most holy men, when once they have fixed their eyes awhile upon God's holiness, and then looked upon themselves, they have been quite out of love with themselves, and could see nothing but unholiness in themselves. After the vision the prophet had of God sitting on his throne, and his heavenly ministers of state, the sera- phims about him, covering their faces, and crying, 'Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts,' how was this gracious man presently smitten with the sense of his own vileness ! they did not more cry up God as holy, than he did cry out upon himself as unclean, Isa. vi. 5. So Job, ' Now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I abhor myself,' chap. xlii. 5, 6. Never did the good man more loathe himself for the putrid sores of his ulcerous body, when on the dunghill he sat and scraped himself, than now he did for the impurities of his soiU ; we see our- selves in a dark room, and we think we are fine and clean ; but would we compass ourselves with the beams of God's glorious majesty and holiness, then the sun rays woidd not discover more atoms in the air, than the holiness of God would convince of sin to be in us. But it is the trick of pride not to come where it may be outshone ; it had rather go where it shall be adored, than where it is sure to be put to shame.
Secondly, Often meditate of the holiness of man's innocent state. It is true, now, if a believer, thou hast a principle of holiness planted in thee ; but alas ! what is that at present to what thy nature once had ? They who saw the second temple, and remembered not the first which Solomon built, they thought it no doubt a glorious fabric ; but others, whose eyes had seen the stately work and goodly buildings of the other, could not but rejoice with tears in their eyes, Ezraiii. 12 : ' Many of the priests and Levitcs, and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid, wept with a loud voice.' O, it revived the sad thoughts of the sacking of that glorious structure ; and so may this little beginning upon a new foundation of the new covenant, remind thee with sorrow to think of the ruins that man in all his glory fell into by Satan's policy. It is true, in heaven thou shalt have the odds of Adam in paradise ; but thou shalt have many a weary step before thou gettest up that hill ; when a man who hath some thousands a year, hath now but a few pounds per annimi allowed him, and the rest seques- tered from him for thirty or forty years, it is sad, though comfortable also, to
THE BREASn-LATK OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 343