And therefore the Apostle, after the lamentation just men- tioned, adds, " I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord'." Let not this, tlien, prove a stumbling-block to any : nor let it be supposed, that, because a pious person uses, in reference to himself, terms which a worldly person would not deign to use, he must of necessity have committed any greater sin than others. His humihation, as we have seen, arises out of the views which he has obtained of holy things : and the nearer his intercourse with heaven is, the more ready will he be to exclaim with the Prophet, " Woe is me, I am undone ! I am a man of unclean lips, dwelling in the midst of a people of unclean lips ;" that is, a leper, in the midst of a leprous and ungodly world ".]
2. How far they are from piety who are filled with self-complacent thoughts —
[Persons who have been exemplary in their conduct, and punctual in their religious observances, are, for the most part, filled with a conceit of their own goodness, and confident of their acceptance with God on account of it. But little do they know how odious they are in the sight of God, whilst they are righteous in their own eyes. It is the Publican, and not the Pharisee, that will be justified before God : and " the sick, not the whole," that will experience " the Physician's" aid. Chris- tianity is not a remedial law, lowered to the standard of our weakness ; but a remedy, by which the soul that is sick unto death may be effectually healed. Christ is a Saviour; but he is so to those only who feel themselves lost, and renounce every other hope but him. Bear this, then, in remembrance. Bear in remembrance, that there are no terms too humiliating to express the real state of your souls before God. You have lived as without God in the world, unconscious of his eye upon you ; and his address to you is, " Understand ye brutish among the people ; and yc fools, when will ye be wise'' ?" This may be offensive to our proud hearts ; but it is such an address as we merit, and such a one as it becomes an holy God to deliver. The particular ground of Agur's self-abasement was, that " he had not learned wisdom, or attained the knowledge of the Holy One^." And have not many amongst you the same ground for self-abasement ? Yes, " There are many amongst you who have not the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame ^." Many amongst you have never yet walked in the ways of true wisdom. Humble yourselves, therefore, for your niore than brutish stupidity : and now, as the Psalmist says, " Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him^"]
t Rom. vii. 25. " Isai. vi. 5. * Ps. xciv. 8.
y ver. ;3. z 1 Cor. xv. 34. » Ps. ii. 12.
824.] agur's wish. 311