The Communicant's Companion (continued)
let thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before God." It is the character of the virtuous woman, that "she considers a field and buys it." And it hath been thought a dictate of prudence, though it seem a paradox,—"Take time, and you will have done the sooner." Many that, without consideration, have put on a profession, when the wind hath turned, have in like manner, without consideration, thrown it off again. Light come, light go. Those, therefore, that herein would prove themselves honest, must prove themselves wise.
3. We must do it humbly.—When we come to covenant with God, we must remember what we are, and who he is with whom we have to do, that the familiarity to which we are graciously admitted, may not beget a contempt of God, or a conceit of ourselves; but rather, the more God is pleased to exalt us, and condescend to us, the more we must honor him, and abase ourselves. "Abraham fell on his face," in a deep sense of his own unworthiness, when God said, "I will make my covenant between me and thee," and began to talk with him concerning it. And afterwards, when he was admitted into an intimate communion with God, pursuant to that covenant, he drew near as one that knew his distance, expressing himself with wonder at the favor done him: "Behold, now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, who am but dust and ashes." When the covenant of royalty was confirmed to David, and "God regarded him according to the estate of a man of high degree," he sits down as one astonished at the honor conferred upon him, and humbly expresses himself thus—"Who am I, O
Lord God, and what is mine house, that thou hast brought me hitherto?"
Thus must we cast ourselves down at the footstool of God's throne, if we would be taken up into the embraces of his love. He that humbles himself, shall be exalted.