What can more properly belong to your consideration than the obligations you lie under towards the God of such unspeakable mercies to you, upon II. THE THINGS WHICH HE REQUIRES FROM US?-When these things are not much thought upon, those convictions which ought to be written in our very heart are hardly impressed upon it at all, viz. that we owe constant faith and trust, worship, adoration, thankfulness, obedience, submission, contentedness, and patience, to Him who is revealed to us as existing in three persons-Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,-to Him who is made known to us, as our Creator, Preserver, Redeemer, Mediator, Lord, Sanctifier, Comforter, and Judge.-Does it not deeply concern you to think much upon the way in which you may become, through grace, a partaker in the Redemption wrought out by Jesus Christ-upon the terms of your salvation through Him-upon that repentance towards God,-that turning of the mind, and heart, and affections, from every C thing forbidden, unto Him and to all that He has revealed and commanded-upon that faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ, who loved us and bought us with his blood, -that full acceptance of, and reliance upon Him as your Saviour from the punishment of sin by His death, and your Deliverer from its power over you, by His word and Spirit; that faith through which only you can be justified, accounted righteous, or pardoned, and made acceptable unto God through His Son; and which sees so clearly the love of God and Christ towards man, that the heart of him who truly believes it, is drawn to pray that the love of Him and His commands may be shed abroad in his own heart by God's Holy Spirit? Ought you not to think much upon the sanctification which might be wrought in your nature by the Spirit of God, and upon the earnestness with which you should apply yourself to the means which He has appointed for holding communion with Himself, such as prayer in the great congregation in His House of Prayer-prayer in the midst of your family—prayer in your chamber-the reading and hearing of the word of God both at Church, from the lips of His Ministers, and the reading and the hearing of it at home, meditating upon it, and comparing yourself with it-devout partaking of the Lord's Supper, especially ordained by Him, as a remembrance of Himself, and as a pledge of His love, and a means of grace for the strengthening and refreshing of your soul? And ought you not to reflect much upon the end and purpose of these means -growth in grace-that conformity of your will to the will of God, that denial of ungodliness and worldly lusts, that steadfast resistance of the Devil and all his wiles, of the flesh and all its sinful appetites and vain desires, of the world and all its vanities, its allurements and its terrors, and that "sober," pure, "righteous, and godly living,”* which the Gospel teaches and requires? Ought you not seriously to reflect upon yourself, *Titus ii, 11, 12, * as "not your own, but as bought with a price," even the precious blood of Christ, and of the consequent obligation under which you lie to make His glory the end of all your doings," to glorify Him in your body, and in your spirit, which are His?"* And as a mortal being, whose immortal spirit is contained in a body which the Scriptures describe as a tabernacle that must soon be put off,+ ought you not to lay to heart the shortness and uncertainty of this present life, and pray that God would 'sa teach you to number your days, that you may apply your heart unto that holy and heavenly wisdom which alone can give you peace at the last? Ought you not to think much upon the descriptions which the word of God gives us of the solemnities of the last judgment, and of the world to come; of "the Son of Man coming in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, when He shall sit upon the throne of His glory, and before Him shall be gathered all nations, and the † 2 Cor. v. 1. * 1 Cor. vi. 20. books shall be opened, and all men shall be judged out of those things which are written in the books, according to their works ;”* of that "blackness of darkness for ever," that never-dying worm and inextinguishable fire which shall be the everlasting portion of the wicked; that you may flee from every sin as for your life; of that "exceeding beyond measure and eternal weight of glory,"‡ into which the righteous shall, through Christ Jesus, be received, at the great and terrible. day of the Lord, that you may “give all diligence to make your calling and election sure," and speed onward day by day in your course towards the Heavenly City, having your best and chief affections set on things above, and not on things on the earth? PERSONAL APPLICATION. III. And now proceed to the serious application of these things to yourself. What can so properly belong to your consideration as this question? WHAT IS MY FAITH, AND * Matt. xxv. 31; Rev. xx. 12. 2 Cor. iv. + Jude 13. |