Obs. 8. The word must be received with all meekness. Christ was anointed to preach glad tidings to the meek, Isa. Ixi. 1. They have most right in the gospel. The main business will be to show what this meekness is. Consider its opposites. Since the fall graces are best known by their contraries. It excludeth three things: — (1.) A wrath- ful fierceness, by wdiich men rise in a rage against the word. When they are admonished, they revile. Deep conviction provoketh many times fierce opposition : Jer. vi. 10, ' The w^ord of the Lord is to them a reproach.' They think the minister raileth when he doth but discover their guilt to them. (2.) A proud stubbornness, when men are resolved to hold their own ; and though the premises fall before the word, yet they maintain the conclusion : Jer. ii. 25, ' Refrain thy foot from bare- ness, and thy throat from thirst ; ' that is, why will you trot to Egypt for help, you will get nothing but bareness and thirst ; but they said, ' Strangers have we loved, and them will we follow ; ' that is. Say what thou wilt, we will take our own way and course. So Jer. xliv. 16, 17, ' We will not hearken to tliee, but will certainly do whatsoever goeth out of our own mouth.' Men scorn to strike sail before the truth, and though they cannot maintain an opposition, yet they will continue it. (3.) A contentious wrangling, which is found in men of an unsober wit, that scorn to captivate the pride of reason, and therefore
150 AX EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [ JaS. I. 21.
stick to every sliift. The psalmist saitli, Ps. xxv, 8, 0, * He will teach sinners the way. The meek he will guide in Judgment ; the meek he will teach his way.' Of all sinners, God taketh the meek sinner for his scholar. There is difficulty enough in the scriptures to harden the obstinate. Camero^ obscrveth that the scriptui-es are so penned that they that have a mind to know may know ; and they that have n mind to wrangle may take occasion enough of ofience, and justly perish by the rebellion of their own reason ; for, saitli he, God never meant to satisfy hominibus prcefracd ingenii, men of a stubborn and " perverse wit. And Tertullian^ had observed the same long before him : that God had so disposed the scriptures, that they that will not be satisfied might be hardened. Certain we are that our Saviour Christ saith, j\lark iv. 11, 12, that ' these things are done in parables, that seeing they might not see, nor perceive and understand ;' that is, for a just punishment of wilful blindness and hardness, that those that would not see might not see. So elsewhere our Lord saith, that ' he that will do the will of God shall know what doctrine is of God,' John vii. 17. When the heart is meekened to obey a truth, the mind is soon opened to conceive of it.
Secondly, My next work is to show what it includeth. (1.) Humi- lity and brokenness of spirit. There must bo insection before insition, meekness before ingrafting. Gospel revivings are for the contrite heart, Isa. Ivii. 15. The broken heart is not only a tamed heart, but a tender heart, and then the least touch of the word is felt : ' Those that tremble at my word,' Isa. Ixvi. 2. (2.) Teachableness and tract- ableness of spirit. There is an ingenuous as well as a culpable facility : ' The wisdom that is from above is gentle, and easy to be entreated,' James iii. 17. It is good to get a tractable frame. The servants of God come with a mind to obey ; they do but wait for the discovery of their duty : Acts x. 33, ' We are all here present before God, to hear the things that are commanded thee of God.' They came not with a mind to dispute, but practise. Oh ! consider, perverse opposi- tion will be your own ruin. It is said, Luke vii. 30, ' They rejected the counsel of God,' but it was ' against themselves ;' that is, to their own loss. So Acts xiii. 46, ' Ye i)ut it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life.' Disputing against the word, it is a judging yourselves ; it is as if, in effect, you should say, I care not for God, nor all the tenders of grace and glory that he maketli to me.
Ohs. 9. The word must not only be apprehended by us, but planted in us. It is God's promise : Jer. xxxi. 33, ' I will put my laws in their hearts, and write them in their inward parts;' that is, he will enligliten our minds to the understanding of his will, and frame our hearts and affections to the obedience of it, so that we shall not only know dnty, but have an inclination to it, which is the true ingrafting of the word. Then ' the root of the mattei- is within us,' Job xix. 28 ; that is, the comfort of God's promises rooted in the heart. So 1 John iii. 9, ' His seed abidetli in him ;' that is, the seed of the word ])lanted in the heart. Look to it, then, that the word be ingrafted in you, that