It generally excites opposition in those who are subjected to it—]
Nor are Riches at all more worthy objects of our glorying—
[Wealth is very apt to produce covetous and sordid tempers —
It frequently renders its possessors proud and oppressive — At best it can furnish us with little more than food and
raiment —
And we are liable to be deprived of it in a tnousand
ways c — ]
To glory therefore in any of these things would be absurd d —
Having removed these common but insufficient grounds of glorying, we shall,
II. Propose such as are true and sufficient —
The knowledge of God in Christ Jesus is the only object of glorying —
[The knowledge that there is a God is not the knowledge here spoken of —
Nor is it the knowledge of God as He is seen in the works of creation —
But the knowledge spoken of in the text is a view of him in redemption —
It is in the Gospel only that God's loving-kindness to his friends appears —
In that too especially He denounces his judgments on his enemies e —
And in both He displays equally his unspotted righteous- nessf —
Not that a speculative knowledge even of this will suffice —
The words " understand and know" imply a practical know- ledge— ]
c Prov. xxiii. 5.
d Who that considers what Wisdom is, would ever glory in it ; so limited as it is in its extent — so defective in its operations — and so uncertain in its continuance ? Or who in Might, the possession of which is so dangerous — and the exercise of which is so vexatious to themselves and others ? Or who in Riches, which are so defiling in their influence — so contracted in their benefits — and so precarious in their tenure ? If to this we add, that all these things perish and de- part at death, and are utterly useless in the day of judgment, we can have no doubt but that the prohibition in the text is as reasonable as it is decisive.
e Mark xvi. 16. f Ps. lxxxv. 10.