inquire into the state of those who uphold each other in iniquity, we shall find that no one of them has peace in his own soul : for, how sliould they have peace who seek their happiness in the world rather than in God ? Compare, then, your state with tlieirs ; and you will have reason to bless God, even though the whole world be against you. For them nothing remains but " a certain fearful looking-for of judgment and fiery indignation:" for you is prepared an eternal weight of glory, which will be augmented in proportion to the trials which you sustained for God, and the services you rendered to him. Be of good cheer, then : for your trials do, in fact, " turn unto you for a testimony ; " and *' if you suffer with Christ," you are assured, by the voice of Inspiration, that " you shall also be glorified together."]
A saint's views of himself.
Prov. XXX. 1, 2. The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, even the prophecy : the man spake unto Ithiel, even unto Ithiel and Ucal, Surely I am more brutish tha7i any man, and have not the understanding of a man.
THE sayings of the wise and good have in all ages oeen regarded with veneration, and been treasured up in the minds of men as a kind of sacred deposit, for the enriching and instructing of future generations. We have here a very remarkable saying of Agur the son of Jakeh; to which I would now call your atten- tion. It does indeed, we must confess, appear, at first sight, a rash expression, savouring rather of intem- perance than of sound discretion. But as it was delivered to " Ithiel and Ucal," who were probably his disciples; and as it was introduced with the word, " Surely," which marks it as the result of his delibe- rate judgment ; and, above all, it being called " a prophecy," which determines it to have been inspired of God ; we should calmly inquire into it, and examine its import. That such an expression may be uttered by persons widely differing from each other in their moral and religious habits, I readily admit : and there- fore, in order to prevent any misapprehension, I shall consider the text, I. As the language of passion —
823.1 A saint's views of iiimsclf. 305
Sin, however fondlv cherished in the heart of ftillen man, is no other than folly and madness. So it is described by Solomon, in the Book of Ecclesiastes : " I applied mine heart to know and to search, and to seek out wisdom and the reason of things ; and to know the wickedness of folly, even of fooUshness and inadness^.'' And again : " The heart of the sons of men is full of evil ; madness is in their heart while they live ; and after that they go to the dead"." When a person, who has been led captive by it, comes to discern somewhat of its true character, he is apt to feel indignation against himself, and to reproach him- self in strong terms for the folly he has committed. We may well conceive of him as saying, in the lan- guage of our text, "■ Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man." But this indignation against himself may be the mere language of passion, and not of genuine humiliation : and it may be distinguished from that which is the fruit of piety,
1. In its object —
[An ungodly man may feel strongly, wliilst he has no real humility : he may hate his actions and himself on accovuit of them. But it is not sin that he hates, so much as tJie conse- quences of his sin. Nor does he hate all its consequences : he hates it not as defiling to his soul, as offensive to his God, as injurious to his eternal interests ; but as destructive of his peace, as degrading him in the eyes of his fellow-men, and as ruinous to his present welfare. A gamester, who has staked his all upon the cast of a die, and has thereby reduced himself and his family from affluence to want, curses his folly with the most indignant feelings ; and so hates himself for it, that he can scarcely endure his very existence. But, if his money were restored, he would do the same again : or, if taught wisdom by experience, he would not refrain from his former habits on account of any regard for God or his own soul, but only on account of the injury that was Hkely to accrue from them in a temporal view. The same may be said respecting the votaries of dissipation. When their fortune is wasted by extravagance, and their constitution ruined by excess, they may be strongly impressed with the folly and madness of their past ways ; whilst, if they covdd be restored to their former affluence and vigour, they would run the very same career again. Under all the a Eccl. vii. 25. ^ Eccl. ix. 3.