CHAP. XXXV. THERE ARE MANY FIRST, THAT SHALL BE LAST. OUR opinion of persons and things is usually taken from outward forms and appearances; but God looketh on the heart, or spirit, which is the true and only substantial essence or being. What a wonderful revolution shall the day of God make upon the earth! Many high and towering professors, extolled by others and prized by themselves, shall be glad to take even the meanest and the lowest rooms, deeply thankful not to be quite thrust out of the kingdom; while some poor dejected and despised souls, who passed their days almost unknowing and unknown with respect to the world, shall shine forth as the stars in the firmament of heaven, to the surprise and astonishment of every eye. We greatly mistake, in general, with respect to spiritual glory. It doth not consist in the splendour of gifts and talents, or any bodily exercise (as the apostle calls it) of the animal frame, but in the less glaring, though far more solid, ornament of a meek and quiet spirit; not in the attraction or admiration of men, but in the love and enjoyment of God; not in the subtle and lofty aspirings even of the inward man, but in self-abasement, sim plicity, humbleness and sincerity of mind, resignation of soul to God, victory over self, and every thing else that belongs to lowliness and profound humiliation. This is real and living glory; but not the glory of the world or of the flesh, for these neither understand nor desire it. Alas! how little is it considered, that an outward religious act and reli gion itself are Two things, very distinct and very separable! Scribes, pharisees, and hy pocrites, have performed the one with the greatest care and exactness; but, all the while, were farther from the kingdom of God than even publicans and harlots: The other, consisting in divine life and inward union of the soul with Christ, is the portion and experience of none but the children of God. We may be proud of pretended virtues; and, perhaps, it is possible to be proud even of grace itself, opposite as it is to that fallen principle of corrupted nature; but it is not so possible to think nothing of ourselves, and to be contented with the slight and contempt of others; to prefer all God's children to ourselves, and to place our seat far below theirs; to love our meekest and our humblest thoughts, and to hate bitterly the emotions of pride, and the urgings of anger and arrogance. Yet all this is the true and solid dignity of a christian soul, and brings it nearest to the likeness of Christ, if not nearest to his throne. O Lord, help me to understand myself.-- May I wish to see, not how great and good (as flesh would have it) but how mean and vile, I am. Preserve me from high thoughts of myself; for these become not a sinful, dying worm, who lives every moment upon a breath of air; nor yet do they become a redeemed sinner, whose only plea must be mercy, who hath nothing of his own but sin, and who by grace alone can be saved, according to thy will, O Lord, my God! CHAP. XXXVI. ON TALENTS. Ir is the sentence of an apostle, uttering S profiteth me nothing.--Aweful words! The possibility of such a case (and surely the apostle had not been led to state it, if it were not possible) should alarm the mind of every one, who professeth to believe and follow the gospel of Christ. It is obvious, at first view, that GRACE and GIFTS are two things; and that their separate effects or consequences to the possessors of either, may be different also. Grace, or charity, or love, which have nearly the same sense when applied to the life of God in the soul of man, is the special influence of the Holy Spirit, dwelling in the heart. This, coming from God, unites man in love to God through Christ, and shows itself in the various ways of patience, resignation, self-denial, abstraction from envy and other malignant passions, with all those other blessed fruits, which the apostle beautifully describes as growing out of it, and which cannot truly grow out of any other principle. But eloquence, prophecy, understanding of mysteries, attainment of theoretic knowledge, and even that sort of faith itself which rests on rational evidence only, the working miracles, as well as almsgiving and the surrender of life, may all be possessed without grace, and may answer ends too that are not gracious. They may be gifts indeed from God; and so is food, or health; but they have been sometimes gifts to the mere 5 natural man, aud may be held, like all other of his faculties, either with or without any thing better. A man may understand and reason upon the terms, grace, justification, regeneration, and other holy and spiritual principles, so far as they can be the objects of human apprehension; and yet have no share in the truths implied by them, and consequently be ruined at the last. Ahithophel was eloquent and wise, almost as the oracle of God; 2 Sam. xvi. 23. Saul, as well as Balaam, was among the prophets; 1. Sam. xix 24. Solomon understood all mysteries and knowledge, but found them vain and insufficient to keep him from falling. Judas preached, and wrought miracles; but, at the same time, had a devil; Luke ix. 1,2. The pharisees gave great alms; but were a generation of vipers. Even heathens themselves, and amongst them poor Indian women, have surrendered up their bodies to torture and to death; but none of them, certainly, either with any sense of the love of God, or for his glory. The apostle's argument is, that these outward gifts ALONE cannot possibly profit to eternity, because they cease or vanish in time: Even the believer's holy knowledge, as it is possessed here, shall be done away, because it is partial, and he sees through the medium of corruptible sense, as through a glass darkly, or enigmatically; which will not be the case in |