or deign in any way to notice them k But greatly are
they mistaken : for " though the Lord be high, yet will he have respect unto the lowly ;" yea, if there were but one contrite soul in the universe, God would look through all the shining
a This part of the subject, though essential to a just view of the whole, should be passed over very briefly ; the bearing of it being the main point to be insisted on.
bIsai.lvii. 15. c Isai.lxvl. 1. d 1 Kings viii. 27. elTim.vi.l6.
f and e — These are opened at great length by God himself, Job xxxviii. to xli. But the bare mention of the passage will be sufficient.
11 Acts xvii. 28. " Ps. cxlv. 3. k Ps. viii. 4.
ranks of angels that surround his throne, to behold that favoured object : nay, more ; he would come down from the highest heavens to visit and revive him. He would even make that man's bosom his habitation. And though the man's state on earth were so abject, that he had no better place whereon to rest his weary- limbs than " a dunghill, yet would God raise him from thence, to set him among the princes in his king- dom '." Such respect would God shew him, that his every prayer should be heard, and his every desire, so far as it was for his good, be granted m. The very sighs of such an one would be as music in the ears of the Most High God ; and "his every tear be treasured up in Jehovah's vials n," as a most valued monument of his creature's love.]
2. " The proud"—
[Such are they who have no consciousness of their ill
desert, no deep contrition on account of it These, from
a mistaken view of the divine Majesty, are ready to exclude Jehovah from the concerns of this lower world, as though they were beneath his notice °. Whereas, there is nothing great or small in the eyes of Jehovah ; nor is it any more degradation to him to attend to the concerns of the smallest insect that floats invisibly in the air, than to the affairs of the mightiest empire upon earth. But, in fact, these persons ivish to be from under the cognizance of the Most High : they have no desire that he should inspect their hearts, or interfere in any of their concerns. But God takes notice of them and of their ways, no less than the ways of others ; and records in the book of his remembrance all their proud thoughts, and their atheistical imaginations. " He knows them afar off," with holy indignation. No access have they to him ; no gracious communications from him. "The lowly" can say, "Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." But not so " the proud." They may come, like the Pharisee, to the very altar of God, to tell God how good they are ; but it is the self- abasing Publican alone that goes away justified, or receives any tokens of God's approval. In death, too, the proud will be left, if not a prey to terror, yet, at all events, without any sense of redeeming love, or any foretaste of that blessedness which is the exclusive portion of the contrite and believing soul. And, O ! what will be his reception in the eternal world ? There, indeed, will God " know him afar off," and dismiss him from his presence with that indignant reproof, " Depart from me : I never knew thee, thou worker of iniquity p."] Application —
1 . Look well to your own character, as before God —
1 Ps. cxiii. 4 — 8. m Ps. cxlv. 19. n Ps. lvi. 8.
0 Zeph. i. 12. p Matt. vii. 23.
732.] god's views of the lowly and of the proud. 451
[It is not by your outward actions merely that you will be judged at the last day, but by the dispositions and habits of your mind. He that stands high in his own estimation will be proportionably low in God's esteem ; whilst the lowly will be approved of God, in proportion as he is abased in his own eyesq. The parable of the Pharisee and the Publican sufficiently evinces this. The one had made great attainments in religion, and was free from every thing that could be a subject of self- reproach ; whilst the other had shewn no attention whatever to religion, and had probably committed many great evils : yet the one, being penitent, was accepted ; and the other, being unhumbled, was dismissed with utter disapprobation and ab- horrence. I would, therefore, particularly entreat }-ou to examine to which of the two, in the habit of your mind, you are assimilated. And I would have you also carefully to dis- tinguish between the spirit of a creature and the feelings of a sinner : for there are many who have a consciousness of their insignificance as creatures, whilst they have very little sense of their guiltiness as sinners; and hence are looking for acceptance through their own works, instead of relying simply and alto- gether upon the Lord Jesus Christ. I say again, This will enter deeply into God's estimate of your character at the last day ; and, therefore, it must form a most essential part of your inquiry into your own state at this time.]