Wonderful is the promise here given for our en- couragement; "He will direct our paths." But how will he direct us ? Will he speak to us in dreams, or visions, or by Urim and Thummim, or by an audible voice ? Or will he go before us in the pillar and the cloud, as he did before his people in the wilderness ; or answer us, as he did David, in reference to the men of Keilah, and the Amalekites^? No: we are not authorized to expect any thing of the kind : yet will he direct us sufficiently to preserve us from any material error,
1. By his Spirit —
[To " open the eyes of our understanding" is one of the most important offices of the Spirit : and, in doing this, he will purge away from our eyes that fihu which obstructs our sight. Pride, passion, interest, and a thousand other things, incapaci- tate us for a clear and perfect discovery of our duty : and, till these be mortified, we are constantly exposed to the most awful delusions : we are ready at all times to " call good evil, and evil good ; to put darkness for light, and light for darkness." But, when our minds are duly enlightened, we see things in their proper colours. On different occasions, when the apostles would have called fire from heaven to consume a Samaritan village, and when they contended with each other who should be the greatest, our blessed Lord instructed them better : and so will he do with us, bringing to our remembrance some por- tion of God's word which bears upon the point in hand. Thus he fulfils that blessed promise, "that we shall hear a word behind us, saying. This is the way, walk ye in it ; when we should otherwise have turned either to the right hand or to the left ''." We say not, that the Holy Spirit does not sometimes eflTect this imtliout the tvord : we are inclined to think he does ; and that too by a kind of impression on the mind deterring us from evil and guiding us to good ' : but he never does it con- trary to the tvord. Suffice it to say, that whether with or without the word, he will guide us into all truth, so far as shall be necessary for the rectifying of our views, and the regulating of our conduct.]
2. By his Providence —
[God often interposes for men in a most wonderful man- ner, to preserve them from evil, and to guide them into that which is good. Even a wicked Balaam was obstructed in his way by God's appointment, in order to awaken him to a just
s 1 Sam. xxiii. 4, 11, 12. and xxx. 8. ^ Isai. xxx. 21.
i Ps. Ixxiii. 24. 1 John ii. 20, 27.