and " knows them afar off," as objects whom he disdains to look uponq.
He will not hear any prayer that they may offer up. See the Pharisee and the Publican. You would imagine that a man who could make such appeals to God, respecting his manifold and self-denying services, should surely find accept- ance at the throne of grace ; whilst a man so conscious of his vileness as the Publican was, and with so little to say in his own behalf, should, comparatively at least, be disregarded. But the very reverse was the case ; for " the publican went down to his house justified rather than the other:" and this is de- clared to be the universal rule of God's procedure ; for that " every one who exalteth himself shall be abased ; but he, and he only, that humbleth himself, shall be exalted1"."
Nor will God communicate to such persons any spiritual blessing. Instead of drawing them to himself, " he will scatter the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He will fill the hungry with good things, but the rich he will send empty aways." Their " esteeming themselves to be rich and increased in goods, and to have need of nothing, when they are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked," renders them perfectly disgusting in his sight : and the higher they are in their own estimation, the more he nauseates and abhors them t.
But this is not all ; for he will surely fight against them, to bring them doivn. Nebuchadnezzar from his own experience attested, that " those who walk in pride, God is able to abase ;" and he might with truth have added also, is determined to abase. For the Prophet Isaiah has plainly warned us, that " the lofty looks of men shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down ; and the Lord alone shall be exalted : for the clay of the Lord of Hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up ; and he shall be brought lowu."
Now, I pray you, let this consideration be duly weighed, in order that you may with zeal and earnestness address your- selves to the duty that is here inculcated. If you bring not a broken and contrite spirit before God, and if you exercise not a spirit of meekness and lowliness before men, think not that God will ever look with complacency upon you, or acknow- ledge himself as your friend: for assuredly he is, and will be, your enemy, and will sooner or later resent the dishonour which you do unto him. He may not inflict on you such judgments as he did on Nebuchadnezzar or on Herod: if he only leave you to yourselves, you will soon find what an evil
i Ps. cxxxviii. 6. r Luke xviii. 14. 8 Luke i. 51, 53.
* Rev. iii. 16, 17. u Isai. ii. 11, 12. VOL. XX. T