Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.-Is. vi. 5.

Then said I, Woe is me. He is not lifted up with the dignity, that he should be honored with such a vision of God; but on the contrary, is struck with humble, holy fear: Oh, I am undone! This constitutes much of the exercise of souls admitted nearest to God; even this astonishment and admiration that such as they should be regarded and raised to that height, and holy fear in a sense of their unholiness. When the blessed Virgin heard a voice very much to her own advantage, instead of rising in her own conceit upon it, she was troubled, and marvelled what manner of salutation it should be, and was struck with fear, so that the angel found it needful to say, Fear not.

Illusions and deceits of spirit of this kind, can not be better distinguished from true manifestations of God, than by this, that they breed pride and presumption in the heart; while true senses, and joys, and discoveries of love, in what kind soever, do most powerfully humble.

For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts. The mother and nurse of pride, is ignorance of God. A small glance of him will make the best of men abhor themselves, and still the nearer sight of him, the lower conceit will there be of self, and the deeper sense of impurity and vileness. This tells us, though we hear and speak of God, alas! we know him not.

I am a man of polluted lips. He mentions this the rather because he heard that song, which he would have joined with, but durst not, because of polluted lips. Thus we must confess we are polluted all over, but much of our pollution breaks out by the lips, yet, commonly, we think not on it.

I am undone. We could not indeed bear much, could not see God and live; therefore he veils himself. But surely we might see much more that we do, and live the better for it, the more humbly and holily. Our pollutions hinder and unfit us, as he implies when he says, A man of polluted lips. But oh, that we saw so much of him as to see this pollution, which makes us so unworthy and so unfit to see him.

He first cries, I am a man of unclean lips, and then adds, I

dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. This is the true method; there can be no right sense of pollutions about us, but that which begins with a sense of those within us. Few men

reflect much on themselves; or, if they do, they view themselves by a false light.

Polluted lips. This he says in regard of the voice he heard. And with regard to the much irreverence with which we mention God, both ministers and people, as much of all our heart pollutions have their vent this way, so the promise of sanctifying his people runs much on this. Zeph. iii. 9. They of a pure lip shall offer. All are of the holy order, a royal priesthood, and through sanctified lips, as the censer, still they offer incense of prayer and praise. He is a perfect man that offends not in word. Commonly, by much speaking, there is much pollution: In many words there wants not sin. Therefore let your speech be always seasoned with salt. Now, many speeches need much salt, otherwise some part will be rotten, at least unsavory. Much of the sin of the land consists in this: there are few companies where God is not dishonored and provoked by your communication; and till this be laid to heart, judgments will multiply and grow instead of decreasing. Few, even of those who fear the Lord, speak often one to another, in a strain that God delights, not only to hearken to, but to write down and register for their good.

And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. We infect each other when we meet. There is little converse that a man returns the better by, yea, by the most he is the worse: he brings back often more pollution, more folly and vanity by most companies and discourses. But we see here, that impurity humbly acknowledged, is graciously removed.

Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.-Rom. v. 20.

Ir man had been only restored to his forfeited rights, to the enjoyment of the same happiness which was lost, his first state were most desirable; and it had been greater goodness to have preserved him innocent, than to recover him from ruin. As he that preserves his friend from falling into the hands of the enemy, by interposing between him and danger, in the midst of the

combat, delivers him in a more noble manner, than by paying a ransom for him after many days spent in woeful captivity: and that the physician is more excellent in his art, who prevents diseases, and keeps the body in health and vigor, than another that expels them by sharp remedies. But the grace of the gospel hath so much mended our condition, that if it were offered to our choice, either to enjoy the innocent state of Adam, or the renewed state by Christ, it were folly like that of our first parents, to prefer the former before the latter. The jubilee of the law restored to the same inheritance; but the jubilee of the gospel gives us the investiture of that which is transcendently better than that which we at first possessed. Since the dayspring from on high hath visited us in tender mercy, we are enriched with higher prerogatives, and are under a better covenant, and entitled to a more glorious reward, than was due to man by the law of his creation.

Human nature is raised to a higher degree of honor, than if man had continued in his innocent state.

1. By its intimate union with the Son of God. He assumed it as the fit instrument of our redemption, and preferred it before the nature of angels, which surpassed man's in his primitive state. The fullness of the God-head dwells in our Redeemer bodily. From hence it is, that the angels descended to pay him homage at his birth, and attended his majesty in his disguise. The Son of Man hath those titles which are above the dignity of any mere creature; he is king of the church, and judge of the world; he exercises divine power, and receives divine praise. Briefly, the human nature in our Redeemer is an associate with the Divine; and being made a little lower than the angels for a time, is now advanced far above all principalities and powers.

2. In all those who are partakers of grace and glory by the Lord Jesus. Adam was the son of God by creation, but to be joined to Christ as our Head by a union so intimate, that he lives in us, and counts himself incomplete without us, and by that union to be adopted into the line of heaven, and thereby to have an interest in the exceeding great and precious promises of the gospel; to be constituted heirs of God, and co-heirs with Christ, are such discoveries of the dignity of our supernatural state, that the lowest believer is advanced above Adam in all his honor. Nay, the angels, though superior to man in the excellency of

their nature, yet are accidentally lower by the honor of our alliance their King is our brother. And this relative dignity which seems to eclipse their glory, might excite their envy; but such an ingenious goodness dwells in those pure and blessed spirits, that they rejoice in our restoration and advancement.

To this I shall add, that as the Son of God hath a special relation to man, so the most tender affections for him. To illustrate this by a sensible instance: angels and men are as two different nations in language and customs, but under the same Empire; and if a Prince that commands two nations should employ one for the safety and prosperity of the other, it were an argument of special favor. Now the angels are sent forth to minister for them who are heirs of salvation. Besides in two other things the peculiar affection of the Prince would be most evident to that nation. 1. If he put on their habit, and attire himself according to their fashion. 2. If he fixed his residence among them. Now the Son of God was clothed with our flesh, and found in fashion as a man, and for ever appears in it in heaven; and will at the last day invest our bodies with glory like to his own. He now dwells in us by his Spirit, and when our warfare is accomplished, he shall in a special manner be present with us in the eternal mansions. As God incarnate he conversed with men on earth, and as such he will converse with them in heaven. There he reigns as the First-born in the midst of many brethren. Now all these prerogatives are the fruits of our redemption, evincing, how, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.

How great then is that mercy which hath raised mankind more glorious out of its ruins! The apostle breaks out with a heavenly astonishment, Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God! That we who are strangers and enemies, children of wrath by nature, should be dignified with the honorable and amiable title of his sons! It was a rare and most merciful condescension in Pharaoh's daughter, to rescue an innocent and forsaken infant from perishing by the waters, and adopt him to be her son; but how much greater kindness was it for God to save guilty and wretched man from eternal flames, and to take him into his family? The ambition of the prodigal rose no higher than to be a servant; what an inestimable favor is it to make us children!

When God would express the most dear and peculiar affection to Solomon, he saith, I will be his Father, and he shall be my son. This was the highest honor he could promise; and all believers are dignified with it. It is the same relation that Christ hath. When he was going to heaven, he comforted his disciples with these words, I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. There is indeed a diversity in the foundation of it Christ is a Son by nature, we are by mere favor; he is by generation, we are by adoption. Briefly, Jesus Christ hath made us kings and priests unto God, and his Father. These are the highest offices upon earth, and were attended with the most conspicuous honor; and the Holy Spirit chose those bright images, to convey a clearer notice of the glory to which our Redeemer hath raised us. Not only all the crowns and sceptres in this perishing world are infinitely beneath this dignity, but the honor of our innocent state was not equal to it.

"O how shall I thy goodness tell,

Father, which thou to me hast show'd?

That I, a child of wrath and hell,

I should be call'd a child of God,

Should know, should feel my sins forgiven,
Blest with the antepast of heaven."

JULY 13.

CHRYSOSTOM.

Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.—1 Cor. i. 20, 21.

HAVING said, It is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, he subjoins the demonstration from facts, saying, Where is the wise? where is the scribe? at the same time glancing at both Gentiles and Jews. For what sort of philosopher, which among those who have studied logic, which of those knowing in Jewish matters, hath saved us, and made known the truth? Not one. It was the Fisherman's work, the whole of it.

Having then inferred what he had in view, and brought down their pride, and said, Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? he states the reason also, why these things were so done. For after that by the wisdom of God, saith he, the