' Many Turks and heathens will rise in judgment against those professors that act not as Zaccheus did.
Rom. VIII. 32-34.] heaven on earth. 441
little and low in his own eyes, as you may see in the most knowing apostle : Eph. iii. 8, ' Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the un- searchable riches of Christ.' Paul's great light makes him very little. Though he was the greatest apostle, yet he looks upon himself as less than the least of all saints.'
Of all the evangelists,^ John was most sharp-sighted, most eagle-eyed. He had the clearest sight of Christ ; he lay most in the bosom of Christ ; he knew most of the mind of Christ ; he had the fullest manifestations and revelations of Christ ; and yet oh how little, how low is John in his own eyes ? John i. 26, 27, ' John answered them saying, I baptize with water ; but there standeth one among you whom ye know not. He it is, who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose.' In this phrase John alludes to the custom of the Hebrews. Those among them which were more noble than others, had boys who carried their shoes, and untied them when they laid them by. Oh ! says John, I am a poor, weak, worthless creature ; I am not worthy to be admitted to the meanest, to the lowest service under Christ ; I am not worthy to carry his shoes, to unloose his shoes. After Peter had been in the mount, and instructed and enlightened by Christ, he cries out, ' Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man,' (AvrjP djMa^TuXog) : a man, a sinner, a very mixture and compound of dirt and sin, of vileness and baseness, as you may see in comparing Mat. xvii. 1-5, Luke. v. 8. Abraham, under all his light and knowledge, acknowledges himself to be but dust and ashes. Gen. xviii. 27. Jacob, under all his knowledge, acknowledges himself to be less than the least of all mercies, Gen. xxxii. 10. David, under all his knowledge, acknow- ledges himself to be a worm, and no man, Ps. xxii. 6 ; he acknow- ledges himself to be foolish and ignorant, and as a beast before the Lord, Ps. Ixxiii. 22. Job, under all his knowledge, acknowledges that he hath much reason to abhor himself in dust and ashes. Job xlii. 1 -5. Agur was very good and his knowledge very great ; and yet under all his knowledge, oh, how did he vilify, yea, nullify himself ! ' Surely,' saith he, ' I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man. I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy,' Prov. XXX. 1, 4. The evangelical prophet Isaiah, under all his know- ledge and visions, which were very great and glorious, acknowledges himself to be a man of unclean lips, and to dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips,' Isa. vi. 1-8. Divine and heavenly knowledge brings a man near to God ; it gives a man the clearest and fullest sight of God ; and the nearer any man comes to God, and the clearer visions he hath of God, the more low and humble will that man lie before God. None so humble as they that have nearest communion with God. The angels that are near unto him cover their faces with their wings, in token
• ixaxi'Teri^f, & comparative made a superlative.
' A strange oversight, by vrhich Brooks confounds John the baptist with John the apostle and evangelist. — Ot.
* John in the Hebrew signifies the grace of God. This barbarian, said the philosopher, hath (comprised more in three lines, than we have done in all our voluminous discourses, Mat. xi. 9-11. Christ wonderfully extols John. Says Christ, he is a prophet, yea, and more than a prophet, yea, a greater is not born of woman. But the greatest wonder of ail is, that John is so low in his own eyes*
44!2 HEAVEN ON EARTH. [ROM. VIII. 32-34.
of humility. Divine knowledge makes a man look inwards ; it anatom- izes a man to himself ; it is a glass that shews a man the spots of his own soul, and this makes him little and low in his own eyes.^
In the beams of this heavenly light, a Christian comes to see his own pride, ignorance, impatience, unworthiness, conceitedness, worthlessness, frowardness and nothingness.* That knowledge that swells thee will undo thee ; that knowledge that putFs thee will sink thee ; that know- ledge that makes thee delightful in thy own eyes will make thee des- picable in God's and good men's eyes : 1 Cor. viii. 1,2,' Knowledge puffeth up;' that is, notional knowledge, speculative knowledge, know- ledge that ripens a man for destruction, that will leave him short of salvation. This knowledge putfs and swells a man, and makes him think himself something when he is nothing: 'And if any man thinketh that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know,' saith the apostle.^
Will not that philosopher rise in judgment against many of our high- flown professors, who swell, who look big, and talk big under their notional knowledge, which was very great: Hoc tantum scio, quod nihil scio, ' This only do I know, that I know nothing.'* Well ! if that knowledge thou hast be that knowledge that accompanies salvation, it is a soul-humbling and a soul-abasing knowledge. If it be otherwise, then will thy knowledge make thee both a prisoner and a slave to the devil at once.
(7.) The seventh property. That knowledge that accompanies sal- vation is an appropriating knowledge, a knowledge that appropriates and applies spiritual and heavenly benefits to a man's own particular soul. As you may see in Job, ' my Redeemer lives,' and ' my witness is in heaven,' and * my record is on high,' Job xix. 25, and xvi. 1 9 ; so David, ' the Lord is my portion,' Ps. xvi. 5. In Ps. xviii. 2, he useth this word of propriety eight times together, ' The Lord is my rock, and Tny fortress, and my deliverer ; m.y God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and tny high tower.' So the spouse, ' My beloved is mine, and I am his,' Cant. ii. 16; so Thomas, ' My Lord and my God,' John xx. 28 ; so Paul, ' I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who hath loved me, and gave himself for me,' Gal. ii. 20. Appli- catory knowledge is the sweetest knowledge ; it revives the heart, it cheers the spirits, it rejoices the soul, it makes a man go singing to duties, and go singing to his grave, and singing to heaven ;° whereas others, though gracious, that want this applicatory knowledge, have their hearts full of fears, and their lives full of sorrows, and so go sigh- ing and mourning to heaven.^
1 The light that the moon borrows from the sun discovers her own spots, and makes them the more conspicuous.
2 When a beam of divine light had shined upon Augustine, he cried out, Teneo in memoria, scribo in charta, sed non habeo in vita.