in that part of the divine administration which His word unfolds perfectly level to every capacity, so as to suggest no questions of perplexity, and to give no occasion for the exclamation-" Such knowledge is too wonderful for me!"— there would be an incongruity between His word and His works. And when we are lost among the works of God, in every direction in which we can explore them, how specially unreasonable to suppose that in the divine nature itself there should be nothing transcending our comprehension;that we should be competent to search out GOD, when we are unable to search out any one of His works!-that we should be able to comprehend the mode of His subsistence, when we are unable to understand our own,—unable to answer the question What is life?—unable to explain the connection between the soul and the body—their mutual influence upon each other, and the power which, on the formation of any volition, sets the energies of the physical frame to work for its accomplishment. Let all, then, be diffident and humble in regard to divine communications; and beware of that spirit of lofty and independent speculation which makes light of all that it is required to receive on dictation. Let the evidences of revelation, by all means, be studied and investigated; and when the Bible has had its claims to divine authority satisfactorily established, let the sole question be,—— What saith the Scripture? The design of revelation is infinitely gracious—“to show unto men the way of salvation.” That is its own peculiar lesson. If that is missed, all is missed that is worth finding:—for what is all else besides, if it leaves you WITHOUT SALVATION}

LECTURE XCII.

PROV. XXX. 7—12.

"Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die: remove far from me vanity and lies; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain. Accuse not a servant unto his master, lest he curse thee, and thou be found guilty. There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother. There is

a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness."

In the first of these verses there is no form of address; but there can be no doubt that we are to regard the words as a prayer to God:-to God as the God of providence—the supreme Disposer of all events, that He would order everything, in sovereign wisdom, agreeably to the spirit and design of the suppliant's prayer; and to God as the God of grace—that in whatever situation He might be pleased, in His providence, to place him, He would furnish him with all the supplies of divine influence required to keep him from evil.

When, with regard to the different petitions of the prayer, Agur says, "Deny me them not before I die," his words are, obviously, not to be understood as meaning that he would be satisfied if, at any time before he closed his earthly life, the things he asks for were granted. The petitions are not of a description to admit of any such interpretation. He could never consider it enough that "vanity and lies should be removed from him" ere he died, though they should continue with him till the latest stage of his course; or that he

should only learn contentment before he took his final leave of the world. The words properly signify-" until I die;" that is, grant me them from this time forward to the end of my life, till I shall "go the way of all the earth.”

His first petition is-"Remove far from me vanity and lies." What may we regard as included under “ vanity and lies?" First, all idolatry. This is often, in Scripture, alluded to under such designations as "vanity," "falsehood," "a thing of nought:" and I cannot doubt it was in Agur's mind. In this view, what he asks is, that his heart might be "right with God, and steadfast in His covenant,"-that his affections and desires might be supremely and solely to God, and that Him only he might serve. Secondly, all error in sentiment; -that he might be so enlightened from above, as to embrace no false views, but might clearly understand divine truth, as revealed in the divine word, and might under a becomingly deep impression of the authority and sacredness of that word, cleave to it in its simplicity and purity, with full purpose of heart, unto the end:-Thirdly, the folly and deceitfulness of sin;—that he might not be the foolish dupe of temptation to those idulgences in evil by which many, in the vanity and infatuation of their minds, cheated themselves of their best blessings, and forfeited the final and eternal inheritance; that he might not hearken to the lying promises of Satan, and, at the expense of such a forfeiture, follow " the pleasures of sin which are but for a season:"-Fourthly, the thinking, inventing, and uttering of falsehood;—that he might ever keep his heart, as under the eye of Him who "desireth truth in the inward parts;" and that he might ever “speak the truth as he thought it in his heart," putting away all lying, deception, and folly from his lips, and practising all that was "true, and pure, and honest, and lovely, and of good report:"-and lastly, having, or expecting foolishly and selfdelusively, to find, his portion in this life,—that he might not be of those who were the victims of the world's delusions, vainly pleasing themselves with that "fashion of the world which passeth away.”

And this naturally leads me to the threefold prayer which

follows. The prayer, let it first be observed, is a very extraordinary one. In the first of its petitions, indeed,—“Give me not poverty"—who is there that will not join? What man of the world, if he thought he should be heard and answered, would not, with his whole heart, say-Give me not poverty?—the great object of the world's deprecation and dread!-But ah! on what different grounds from Agur's would the petition be presented !—for this must be specially remarked -that it is not on account of anything in the situations themselves, considered in a temporal respect, that this good man. deprecates either the poverty on the one hand or the riches on the other. It is not on account of the difficulties, privations, and hardships of the one, nor is it on account of the cares, and risks, and anxious encumbrances of the other. It is solely on account of the temptations to sin—the hazard to the religious principle-involved in them. Here, the world cannot go along with him. But all the true children of God will. They will, like Agur, regard every situation and every want in life, as it bears upon and affects their highest and best interests—their relations to the unseen world and to eternity. Look then at the petitions as they lie before us, in this light. We take them in the order of the reasons assigned.

2. "Give me not riches-lest I be full and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord?" The gifts of God's kind providence ought to draw the grateful hearts of those who receive them to himself as the Giver: and it is truly affecting to think that they should work on our hearts in the very opposite way to that which is reasonable and right, and in the best sense of the word, natural—in agreement with the true and eternal nature of things:-that the gifts should so often usurp the Giver's place, the place in the affections and desires which should be occupied by Himself. This is one of the strong and melancholy indications of our depravity; that the more we enjoy of God's goodness, the more prone are we to forget Him; the more we get, the more apt to forget. What should we think of such treatment of us? and yet such is our treatment of God. It has been in all ages the

manifested character of our fallen race. It is under the influence of this sad tendency, that the man of wealth "denies God and says, Who is the Lord?" This is quite similar to the description of the same character by Asaph:-"They speak loftily: they set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth."-"Who is the Lord?"that is, that I should seek Him, or serve Him. Agur had seen this exemplified, and he was afraid of himself;—afraid lest he should imbibe the same spirit of lofty independence and high-mindedness, as if he were superior to the obligations of religion, and could do well enough without God.

Such, then, is the danger of "being full,”—of the ample enjoyment and free use of the wealth of the world,—to engender and cherish the spirit that "denies God,”—that owns not His providence,—that disdains the restraints of His authority, and that defies His threatenings, and spurns His grace; that says "Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us."-Agur did not consider himself as superior to the influences by which the principles of others had been shaken and overcome, or to the dangers before which others had fallen. He knew human nature better; he knew his own heart better. "Blessed is the man that feareth always!"

3. We have a petition, in the same spirit of self-jealousy, against poverty:-"Give me not poverty-lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.”—His apprehensions were the same in kind as before. He feared lest, when feeling the hardships of a state of penury, not to himself alone, but still more to his family, to those nearest and dearest to his heart, he should be tempted to fraud and theft,—that is, to any dishonest practices, for the supplying of his own and their wants,—to any thing inconsistent with the high principles of integrity and honour by which the people of God should be distinguished. And associated with this is the temptation to impiety—“and take the name of my God in vain." This may mean, that he might be tempted, having committed the theft, to conceal it by false swearingto perjure himself, and so try to cover one sin by the com