192 HOW TO LEAD A HEAVENLY [Chap. 12. their companion ? Canst thou not serve God in a low place as well as a high ? Are thy boastings restrained more by prudence or artifice than humility ? Dost thou desire to have all men's eyes upon thee, and to hear them say, " This is he ?" Art thou unacquainted with the deceitful- ness and wickedness of thy heart? Art thou more ready to defend thy innocence, than accuse thyself, or confess thy fault ? Canst thou hardly bear a close reproof, or digest plain dealing? If these symptoms be undeniably in thy heart, thou art a proud person. There is too much of hell abiding in thee, to have any acquaintance with heaven ; thy soul is too like the devil, to have any familiarity with God. A proud man makes himself his god, and sets up himself as his idol ; how, then, can his affections be set on God ? how can he possibly have his heart in heaven ? In- vention and memory may possibly furnish his tongue with humble and heavenly expressions, but in his spirit there is no more heaven than there is humility. I speak the more of it, because it is the most common and dangerous sin in morality, and most promotes the great sin of infidelity. O Christian ! if thou wouldst live continually in the presence of thy Lord, lie in the dust, and he will thence take thee up. " Learn of him to be meek and lowly, and thou shalt find rest unto thy soul." Otherwise thy soul will be "like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt ;" and instead of these sweet delights in God, thy pride will fill thee with perpetual disquiet. As he that humbleth himself as a little child shall hereafter be greatest in the kingdom of heaven, so shall he now be greatest in the foretastes of that kingdom. God " dwells with a con- trite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." Therefore, " humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up." And when "others are cast down, then thou shalt say, there is lifting up; and he shall save the humble person." 6. A slothful spirit is another impediment to this heavenly life. And I verily think, there is nothing hinders it more than this in men of a goodunderstanding. If it were only the exercise of the body, the moving of the lips, the bend- ing of the knee, men would as commonly step to heaven, as they go to visit a friend. But to separate our thoughts
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