2. It may be inferred out of the former clause thus : ' He resisteth the proud, therefore submit yourselves;' that is, therefore let the Lord have a willing and spontaneous subjection from you ; and then the note will be : —
Ohs. The creature must be humbled either actively or passively. If you have not a humble heart, God hath a mighty hand : 1 Peter V. 6, ' Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.' He will cither break the heart or break the bones. You must judge your- selves, or else God will judge you, 1 Cor. xi. 32. God hath made a righteous law, sin must be judged in one court or another, that the law may not seem to be made in vain. If, at the last day, when the judgment is set and the books are opened, and sinners stand trembling before the white throne of the Lamb, and you are conscious to the whole process, Christ should then make you such an offer, ' Judge yourselves, and you shall not be judged,' with what thankfulness would you accept of the motion ! and the next work would be to inquire into your own hearts. Oh! consider, thus it must be; we must judge or be judged, be humble or be humbled. It were better to anticipate acts of vengeance by acts of duty. Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar were humbled, Dan. iv. 34, but to their cost. Passive humiliations are sore and deadly. It Avere better that we should humble a proud heart than that God, in the threatening of scripture, should humble our proud looks, and we should feel that which we would not do. You will not judge yourselves ; ah! but how terrible will it be when the Lord Cometh to judge us for all our hard speeches and ungodly deeds ! Jude 15. When justice taketh up the quarrel of despised mercy, it
358 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [JaS. IV. 7.
will be sad for us ; and then we shall know the diflference between God's inviting and God's inflictinj?.
Obs. But let us now go to the duty itself, submit yourselves to God. Observe, those that would seek the friendship of God must submit to him. He speaketh of getting in with God, which must be in a humble way. There is an infinite distance between God and his creatures ; we must come with reverence. But we are not only creatures, but guilty creatures, and therefore we must come with a holy awe and trembling.
I shall inquire, first, what this subjection is ? The word vTroTciyTjTe signifieth to place ourselves under God, and so noteth the whole duty of an inferior state. (1.) There must be a subjection to God's will, the whole man to the whole law of God. To submit to God is to give up ourselves to be governed by his will and pleasure ; our thoughts, our counsels, our affections, our actions, to be guided according to the strict rules of the word. Usually here the work of conversion sticketh ; we are loath to resign and give up ourselves to the will of God. Some commands of God, as those which are inward, are contrary to our affec- tions ; others, as those which enforce duties external, are contrary to our interests : but we must ' take Christ's yoke,' Mat. xi. 29. Amain thing to be looked at in our first applications to God is this, are we willing to give up ourselves to the will of God without reservation ? Can I subject all, without any hesitancy and reluctation of thoughts, to the obedience of Christ? 2 Cor. x. 5. (2.) It implieth humble addresses. Submit yourselves to God ; that is, lay aside your pride and stubbornness, humbly acknowledging your sins ; come as lost, undone creatures, lying at the feet of mercy. Ah ! how long is it ere our mouths are put in the dust ! Lam. iii. 29, ere we can come and say in truth of heart, If we be damned, it is just ; if we be saved, it is of much mercy. (3.) A referring ourselves to the disposal of God's providence : Acts xxi. 14, ' The will of the Lord be done/ It is a true Christian speech. Discontent is plain rebellion ; we would have our will done, and not God's ; when we murmur, God and we contend ; his will must be done upon us, as well as by us. Thus you see there is a threefold submission — of our carnal hearts to his holiness, our proud hearts to his mercy, our stormy minds to his sovereignty, that we may be obedient, humble, patient.
Secondly, I shall inquire in what manner this submission must be j)erformed ? I answer — (1.) Sincerely ; we must do his will, because it is his will, intuitu voluntatis. God's will is both the rule and the reason of duty. So it is urged 1 Thes. iv. 3, ' This is the will of God, even your sanctification.' So sec 1 Thes. v. 18, and 1 Peter ii. 13. This is enough, warrant enough, and motive enough : God will have it so. Hypocrites do the matter of the duty, but they have other motives. This is indeed to do a duty as a duly, when we do what is commanded because it is commanded. (2.) Freely ; subjection is best when it is willing. If the beast came struggling and unwillingly to the altar, they never offered it to their gods, but counted it unlucky.i