Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

* Thefe fins may be comprehended under the term boastfulness. The boaftful man speaketh of himself, and feeketh his own glory. His heart is lifted up; his mouth uttereth proud things: he giveth not the honour unto God: he vaunteth himfelf against the Moft High. When he meditates an important undertaking, he says not with the Apostle; If the Lord will, I shall do this or that. His language is that which the Scripture reprobates; To-morrow Fwill

80 into fuch a city, and stay there a year, and buy and fell, and get gain (v). When his enterprises profper, he remembers not that it is the Lord who giveth him power to get wealth. He exlaims with Nebuchad nezzar : Is not this great Babylon that I havè built? with the king of Affyria, By my zeifdom I bave done it; for I am prudent : with the vaunting Ifraelite, My power, and the might of my arm, hath gotten me this wealth (p). If he talks of religion, it is to fay to his neighbour; Stand by thyself: come not near to me: for I am holier than thou. I thank God that I am not as other men are. I am rich and increased with spiritual goods;

[ocr errors]

bing bas

(o) James, iv. 13. 15.
Dan. iv. 30. Ifaiah, x. 13. Deut. viii, 17.

and

and have need of nothing (q)., If he meets with oppofition, he cries out with the overbearing boafter defcribed by the Pfalmift: With my tongue will I prevail: my lips are my oren. Who is lord over me (r)? Even health and bodily ftrength and activity are with him the subjects of vain-glory, as though he had conferred them upon himhimself. Not unfrequently wickedness itfelf becomes his boaft. He openly triumphs in the violence with which he has borne down an opponent; in the cunning with which he has overreached a competitor; in the revenge which he has exercifed against a person who has offended him; in being mighty to drink wine, and a man of Strength to mingle strong drink (s). Solicitous in every circumftance of life to magnify himself, he speaks contemptuously and degradingly of others: and the more contemptuously and degradingly in proportion as he apprehends that they may be advantageoufly compared with him, or may ftand in the way of his enterprises and projects, This is he who feeketh honour from men, not the honour which cometh only from

(9) Ifaiah, lxv. 5. (~) PT. xii. 4,

Luke, xviii. 11. Rev. iii. 17 -(s) If. v. 22.

God.

God. This is he who perceiveth not that before honour is humility. This is he who knoweth not that every one who exalteth himself fhall be abafed. This is he who knoweth not that in each of the catalogues of grievous finners recorded by St. Paul as objects of divine vengeance, boafters have a place. Does the boafter call himself a difciple and imitator of the Lord Jefus? Come and learn of me, faid Chrift: for I am meek and lowly in heart. He did not found a trumpet before him; nor caufe his voice to be heard in the ftreet. Though commiffioned to display his miraculous power in public as one of the proofs that he was the predicted Saviour, he delighted to find occafions of exerting it in private he repeatedly enjoined the concealment of his mighty deeds: he ftudiously transferred the entire praise of his works from himself to his Father: he commanded the few witneffes, whom he permitted to behold his transfiguration, to make no mention of that display of glory until after his death. Seeft thou a man wife in his own conceit ? There is more hope of a fool than of him. Brethren; in honour prefer one another. Be courteous in word and deed. Let another man praife thee, and not thine own mouth : a ftranger,

a ftranger, and not thine own lips: Let nothing be done through ftrife or vain glory: but in lowlinefs of mind let each esteem others better than bimfelf (t).

[ocr errors]

Many other offences of the tongue require to be noticed: and will form, with the permiffion of God, the fubject of a future difcourfe. The number, however, and the magnitude of thofe which have been inveftigated are fufficient to awe the carelefs into reflection. Where now, ye inconfiderate, are your delufions Are words empty air? Are fins of the tongue like the path of an arrow through a cloud, undifcerned, undiscoverable, forgotten? If a book of remembrance is written before God for them that fear the Lord, and speak often

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

one to another: is there no book of remembrance for them who employ not his gift of fpeech to his glory? If the Lord bearkens and bears, when men glorify Him in the use of His gift: if He proclaims, They fhall be mine; and I will spare them, as a man fpareth his own fon that ferveth him (u): fhall he not hearken and hear, fhall he not avenge and deftroy, when the tongue

(1) Prov. xxvi. 12. xxvi. 2. 1 Pet. iii. 8. Philipp. ii. 3、r () Mal. iii. 16, 17.

14

labours

labours in the service of fin? In that fervice, my brethren, how long have our tongues wearied themfelves! How little in the application of fpeech have we imitated our Lord; his prudence, his patience, his calmness, his lowliness. By foolish talking, by fretful and impatient language, by ftrife, by boafting, by one or by all of these fins, how often has every one of us tranfgreffed! In proportion as we have refembled any of the pictures which have been drawn, fuch has been our guilt. Do we deem the difpenfation unreasonable, that words, no lefs than actions, fhall be grounds of punishment ? They reft on the fame bafis. ...nature effentially the fame. -actions are equally figns: figns

They are in

Words and
of the state

of the heart. The word, the deed, the meditated purpose, fpeak the fame language in the ear of the Moft High. Alike they reveal the governing principle of the foul. Alike they testify the fact which decides our doom: that we are fervants of God; or that we are fervants of the devil.

[ocr errors]
« AnteriorContinuar »