The SEVENTH direction is, —
Rise mightily against the first actings of thy distemper, its first conceptions; suffer it not to get the least ground. Do not say, " Thus far it shall go, and no farther." If it have allowance for one step, it will take another. It is impossible to fix bounds to sin. It is like water in a channel, — if it once break out, it will have its course. Its not acting is easier to be compassed than its bounding. Therefore doth James give that gradation and process of lust, chap. i. 14, 15, that we may stop at tlie entrance. Dost thou find thy corruption to begin to entangle thy thoughts? rise up with all thy .strength against it, with no less indignation than if it had fully accomplished what it aims at. Consider what an imclean thought would have; it would have thee roll thyself in folly and filth. Ask envy what it would have; — murder and destruction is at the end of it. Set thyself against it with no less vigour than if it had utterly debased thee to wick- edness. Without this course thou wilt not prevail. As sin gets ground in the aifections to delight in, it gets also upon the under- standinfT to slight it.
SELF-ABASEMENT BEFOEE THE MAJESTY OF GOD. G3
CHAPTER XII.
The EIGHTH direction: Thoughtfulness of the excellency of the majesty of God — Our unacquaintedness with him proposed and considered.
Eighthly, Use and exercise thyself to such meditations as may- serve to fill thee at all times with self-abasement and thoughts of thine own vileness; as, —
1. Be much in thoughtfulness of the excellency of the majesty of God and thine infinite, inconceivable distance from him. Many thoughts of it cannot but fill thee with a sense of thine own vileness, which strikes deep at the root of any indwelling sin. Wlien Job comes to a clear discovery of the greatness and the excellency of God, he is filled with self-abhorrence and is pressed to humiJiation, Job xlii. 5, 6. And in what state doth the prophet Habakkuk affirm himself to be cast, upon the apprehension of the majesty of God ? chajD. iii. 16. "With God," says Job, " is terrible majesty." ^ Hence Yv-ere the thoughts of them of old, that when they had seen God they should die. The Scripture abounds in this self-abasing considera- tion, comparing the men of the earth to " grasshoppers," to " vanity," the " dust of the balance," in respect of God.^ Be much in thoughts of this nature, to abase the pride of thy heart, and to keep thy soul humble within thee. There is nothing will render thee a greater indisposition to be imposed on by the deceits of sin than such a frame of heart. Think greatly of the greatness of God.
2. Think much of thine unacquaintedness with him. Though thou knowest enough to keep thee low and humble, yet how little a portion is it that thou knowest of him ! The contemplation hereof cast that wise man into that apprehension of hhnself which he ex- presses, Prov. xxx. 2-4, " Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man. I neither learned wis- dom, nor have the knowledge of the holy. Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his Son's name, if thou canst tell?" Labour with this also to take down the pride of thy heart. What dost thou know of God? How little a portion is it! How immense is he in his nature! Canst thou look without terror into the abyss of eternity? Thou canst not bear the rays of his cflorious bemg.
Because I look on this consideration of great use in our walking with God, so far as it may have a consistency with that filial bold- ' Jobxxxvii. 22. 2 Isa. xl. 12-25.
G4 MORTIFICATION OF SIN IN BELIEVERS.
ness wliich is given us in Jesus Christ to draw nigh to the throne of grace, I shall farther insist upon it, to give an abiding impression of it to the souls of them who desire to walk humbly with God.
Consider, then, I say, to keep thy heart in continual awe of the majesty of God, that persons of the most high and eminent attain- ment, of the nearest and most familiar communion with God, do yet in this life know but a very little of him and his glory. God reveals his name to Moses, — the most glorious attributes that he hath mani- fested in the covenant of grace, Exod. xxxiv. 5, 6; yet all are but the " back parts" of God. All that he knows by it is but little, low, com- pared to the perfections of his glory. Hence it is with peculiar re- ference to Moses that it is said, " No man hath seen God at any time," John i. 18; of him in com^Darison with Christ doth he speak, verse 17; and of him it is here said, "No man," no, not Moses, the most eminent among them, " hath seen God at any time." We speak much of God, can talk of him, his ways, his works, his coun- sels, all the day long ; the truth is, we know very little of him. Our thoughts, our meditations, our expressions of him are low, many of them unworthy of his glory, none of them reaching his perfections.