to him, Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart ? And Jeho- nadab answered, It is. If it be, give me thine hand. And he gave him his hand, and he took him up to him into his chariot ; and he said. Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord.' Come, make a greater blaze than fixed stars : ' Come, see my zeal for the Lord.' Jehu his words were for the Lord, but his project was for the kingdom. The actor in the comedy said with his mouth, 0 codum, O heaven, but with his finger he pointed to the earth. Lapidaries tell us of a stone called the chely- donian.stone,^ that it will retain its virtue no longer than it is enclosed in gold ; a fit emblem of an hypocrite, of a Jehu. Jehu made a great blaze, but he was but a comet. An hypocrite always loves the praise of men more than the praise of God, John xii. 43. He loves more to be honoured by men than to be honoured by God : ' How can ye believe which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour which Cometh from God only ?' John v. 44. Nothing below that power which raised Christ from the grave can make an hypocrite purely nothing in his own eyes. An hypocrite is always a great thing in his own eyes ; and when he is nothing, a great nothing in others' eyes ; he cannot bear it. An hypocrite cannot endure to be outshined in gifts, in graces, in experiences, in duties, in communion with God, in spiritual enjoy- ments. An hypocrite's heart is full of pride when his deportment is most humble. He always thinks best of himself, and worst of others ; he looks upon his own vices as graces, and he looks upon other men's graces as vices, or at least as no true current coin.^ A proud spirit will cast disgrace upon that excellency that himself wants ; as Licinius, who was joined with Galerius in the empire, he was so ignorant that he was not able to write his own name ; he was a bitter enemy to learning, and as Eusebius reports of him, he called the Hberal arts a public poison and pestilence.^ The emptiest barrels make the loudest sound, the worst metal the greatest noise, and the lightest ears of corn hold their heads highest. An hypocrite may well lay his hand upon his heart, and say, Is it not so with me, is it not just so with me ?
But now sincere Christians, they are men of another spirit, of another temper, of another metal, of another mind ; their hearts lie low when their gifts, and graces, and spiritual enjoyments are high. Abraham is but dust and ashes in his own eyes, Gen. xviii. 27. The higher any man is in his communion with God, the more low that man will be in his own eyes. Dust and ashes are poor, base, vile, worthless things, and such a thing as these was Abraham in his own eyes. So Jacob was a plain man, an upright man, and lo ! what a low esteem had he of himself : ' I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies which thou hast shewed unto thy servant,' Gen. xxxii. 10. In the Hebrew it is, ' I am little before thy mercies ;' for the Hebrews have no comparative, and therefore they are wont to express this by a positive and a preposition.* When Jacob bad to do with Laban, he pleads his merits ; but when he has to do with God, he pleads nothing but grace, setting a very low esteem upon him-
• * As before, see Index sub voce. — G.
* Accius [or Attius] the poet, though he were a dwarf, yet would be pictured toll of stature. [Cicero, Brutus, 28, et alibi.— G.'] The application to the hypocrite is easy.
' Eusebius, Eccl. Hist. lib. iv. cap. xiii., as before. — G.
* Gen. xxxi. from ver. 38 to 41 : the least mercy, saith Jacob, is more worth than I, and more weighty than I.
452 A CABINET OF JEWELS. [ChAP. IV.
self. He looks upon himself as less than the least of mercies, and as worse than the worst of creatures. The least of my mercies are greater than I deserve, and the greatest of my troubles are less than I deserve, saith Jacob. The language of a plain-hearted Jacob is this : O Lord, I might with Job have been stripped of all my comforts and enjoyments at a clap, and set upon a dunghill ; I might with Lazarus have been begging my bread from door to door ; or I might have been getting my bread with the peril of my life, because of the sword of the wilderness, Lam. v. 9 ; or I might have been with Dives in hell a-crying out for a drop of water to cool my tongue, Luke xvi. 24. A sincere Christian cannot tell how to speak good enough of God, nor ill enough of himself. Agur was one of the wisest and holiest men on earth, and see how greatly he debases himself : ' Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man,' Pro v. xxx. 1, 2. Agur had seen Ithiel, God with me, and Ucal, God almighty, and this made him so vile and base in his own eyes ; this made him vilify, yea, nullify him- self to the utmost. You know no man ever received a fairer or a more valuable certificate under the hand of God or the broad seal of heaven, for his being a soul famous in uprightness and holiness, than Job, as you may see. Job i. 8, ' And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil.'' Job was high in worth and humble in heart : Job xlii. 5, 6, * I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee, I abhor myself in dust and ashes.' This expression is the deepest act of abhor- rency. Abhorrency strictly taken is hatred wound up to the height : ' I abhor myself The Hebrew word that is rendered abhor signifies to reject, to disdain, to contemn, to cast off. Ah ! says Job, I abhor myself, I reject myself, I disdain myself, I cast off myself, I have a very vile and base esteem of myself. David was a man of great integrity, a man after God's own heart, and yet he looks upon himself as a flea ; and what is more contemptible than a flea ? 1 Kings xv. 5, 1 Sam. xxvi. 20. And as he looks upon hiinself as a flea, so he looks upon himself as a worm : ' I am a worm, and no man,' Ps. xxii. 6. The Hebrew word ny^in, tolagnath, that is here rendered a worm, signifies a very little worm which breedeth in scarlet, a worm that is so little that a man can hardly perceive it. A worm is the most despicable creature in the world, trampled under foot by man and beasts. He who was in God's eye a man after his own heart, is in his own eye but a despicable worm. A sincere Christian is a little nothing in his own eyes.