pressly told, All things are yours*: The Lord will give grace and glory, and no good thing will he withhold from you+: All the paths of the Lord, are mercy and truth to you ‡; and ere long you shall see how they are so. You have a sight by faith of the inheritance appointed for his children; but he does not intend merely a distant prospect for you: You shall go in, and possess that good land §, and shall ere long Be absent from the body, and present with the Lord : Yea, the Lord Jesus Christ ere long Shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe ¶, to be glorified and admired, in and by you in particular; when bearing the image of your heavenly Father, you shall rise far beyond this earth and all its vain anxieties, and vainer amusements, to dwell for ever in his presence. And what is there in this world, that you imagine you want, which is by any means to be compared with these enjoyments and hopes? Surely, Sirs, in such a view, you should be much more than content; and should feel your inward admiration, love, and joy, bursting the bonds of silence, and tuning your voices, that have been broken by sighs, into the most cheerful and exalted anthems of praise: Especially when you consider, 2. "How few there are that partake of this important favour, which God has extended to you." I hope, I need not, after all I have said, remind you at large, that I intend not by any means to speak, as excluding those of different forms and different experiences; as if, in consequence of that diversity, they had Neither part nor lot in this matter **. I hope that many, who are not so ready, as it were to be wished, to receive one another, are nevertheless in this respect Received by Christ to the glory of God ++. Yet the temper and conduct of the generality of mankind, even under a christian profession, too plainly shews, that they have the marks of eternal ruin upon them: And one can form no hope concerning them, consistent with the tenor of the whole word of God, any other than this, that possibly they may hereafter be changed into something contrary to what they are, and in that change be happy. Now that you are not left among the wide extended ruins of mankind, but are set as pillars in the building cf God, is what you have been taught by the preceding discourses to 1 Cor. iii. 21. || 2 Cor. v. 8, + Psal. Ixxxiv. 11. Psal. xxv. 10. **Acts viii. 21. § Deut. iv. 22. tt Rom. xv. 7, refer to the grace of God, which has taken and polished you to the form you now bear: Or, as the evangelist expresses it, in language more suitable to the subject before us, The power, or privilege, to become the Sons of God, is what he gives to as many as receive him; and it is manifest as to your regeneration, that you are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God*: For We love him, because he first loved ust; and whatsoever our attainments be, there is no true believer but will be ready, with the apostle Paul, to say, By the grace of God, I am what I am‡. And now when these two thoughts are taken in this comparison with each other, how deeply should they impress our minds! and how should it excite us to the most lively gratitude, to consider, that when so many of our fellow-creatures perish, even under the sound of the gospel; that when they live and die under the power of a corrupt and degenerate nature, despising all the means which God has given them of becoming better, and turning them into the occasion of greater mischief; God should graciously incline our hearts to a wiser and better choice! It is indeed a melancholy reflection, that the number of those who are made wise to salvation should be so small; yet it is an endearing circumstance in the divine goodness to us, that when it is so small, we should be included in it: As no doubt it would appear to every truly religious person in the ark, that when but eight souls were saved from the deluge, he should be one.There is now a remnant, says the apostle, according to the election of grace §: To that grace therefore should we render the praise. We have indeed chosen him; but it is in consequence of his choosing us. We have said, The Lord is my portion; but let us remember to bless him, that he has given us that counsel T, in consequence of which we have been inclined to do it. Again, 3. Consider, "in the midst of how much opposition the grace of God has laid hold on your souls, and wrought its wonders of love there." Christians, look into your own hearts; yea, look back upon your own lives, and see, whether many of you have not reason to say, with the great apostle, This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief **: And yet to me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given*, that I should be a regenerate adopted child of God, begotten to an inheritance of eternal glory. "Oh," may one christian say, "How obstinately did I strive against my own happiness! like a poor creature, that having received some dangerous wound, and being delirious with a fever attending it, struggles with the band that is stretched out to heal him. How did I draw back from the yoke of God! How did I trifle with convictions, and put them off from one time to another! So that God might most righteously have awakened any heart rather than mine. He admonished me by his word, and by his providence: He sent afflictions; he wrought out deliverances for me; and yet I went on to harden my heart, as if I had been afflicted, and Delivered, that I might work greater abominations; till The Lord being merciful to me, laid hold upon me, and drew me out of Sodom ‡." And here another christian will be ready to say within himself, "If the grace of God wrought sooner upon me, when my soul was more pliant, when my heart was comparatively tender, in infancy or childhood, or in early youth; yet what ungrateful returns have I since made for his mercy! How defective have I been in those fruits of holiness, which might reasonably have been expected from me, who have so long a time been Planted in the house of the Lord! Alas for me! that I have flourished no more in the courts of my God §. How often have I forgotten and forsaken him! how cold and negligent has my spirit been! how inconstant my walk, how indolent my behaviour, for these many years that have passed since I was first brought into his family! How little have I done in his service, in proportion to the advantages I have enjoyed! All this he foresaw; all the instances in which my Goodness would be as a morning cloud, and as the early dew; all the instances in which this perverse heart of mine, so prone to backslide, should Turn aside, and start back from him, like a deceitful bow ¶: And yet he has mercy upon me, I know not why: I cannot pretend to account for it any otherwise than by saying, Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight**: Thou hast mercy on whom thou wilt have mercy, and thou hast compassion on whom thou wilt have compassion +t. I have revolted deeply from thee again and again; yet thou sufferest me not to be lost to this very day, nor wilt thou ever suffer it: Thou restorest my soul; thou leadest me in the paths of * Eph. iii. 8. Hos. vi. 4. + + Jer. vii. 10. Psal. xcii. 13. Rom. ix. 15. 1 righteousness for thy name's sake*. Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue to this day +: And Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and unworthy as I am so much as to enter into thine house below, I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever above‡. Thus, Lord, thou makest me, as it were, a wonder to myself; and I hope to express my admiration and my gratitude throughout eternal ages: And if I can vie with the rest of thy redeemed ones in nothing else, I will at least do it in bowing low before thy throne, and acknowledging that I am of the number of the most unworthy, in whom my Lord has been pleased to glorify the riches of his mercy, and the freedom of his grace." In the mean time, Christians, I call you often to entertain yourselves with such views as these, often to excite your hearts by such lively considerations: I call you, in the name of your Father and your Saviour, to a whole life of gratitude and praise. And this leads me to add, [2.] "Improve those experiences you have had of divine grace, as an engagement to behave in a suitable manner." Remember the lively admonition of the text, that you were begotten by him for this very purpose, that you should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures. See therefore that you be entirely consecrated to him, and behave as becomes The children of God, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, being not only harmless and blameless among them, but shining as lights in the world, and holding forth that word of life §, by which he has begotten you to himself, And quickened you when you were dead in trespasses and sins. God has now brought you into a most honourable relation: He may therefore well expect more, much more from you, than from others. He has Made you priests to himself ¶, and you are therefore To offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ**. You were once darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord; walk therefore as children of light ++. Remember, You are not your own‡‡; your time, your possessions, and all your capacities for service, are the property of your heavenly Father.And permit me to remind you, that if you desire to see this doctrine of regeneration prevail, you, who pretend to be experimentally acquainted with it, must take great care that your behaviour may not only be * Psal, xxiii. 3. ¶ Rev. i. 6, † Acts xxvi. 22. ‡ Psal. xxiii. 6. § Phil. ii. 15, 16. || Eph. ii. 1, 5. ‡‡ 1 Cor. vi. 19. innocent, but exemplary: Otherwise many will be ready to blaspheme the holy name of that God, whom you call your Father; and you are like to bring a reproach upon the household of faith, which probably you will never be able to roll away. Christians, the dignity of our birth and our hopes is too little considered and regarded; and the reason why the world thinks so meanly of it, is because we ourselves are so insensible of its excellency. Did we apprehend it more, we should surely be more solicitous to Walk worthy of that calling wherewith we are called, that high and holy calling. Let me therefore exhort you, to endeavour to loosen your affections more from these entanglements of time and sense, which so much debase our minds, and dishonour our lives. Field yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead : Employ, with a growing zeal, to the honour of God, that renewed life which he has given you: Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds §: And let your conversation and behaviour be like those, who feel the Constraining influences of divine love ; who are, not in form, but in reality, devoted to God; and who would be continually Waiting for his salvation, with that temper, in which you could most desire that salvation to find you when it comes. [3.] Let those who have experienced the power of divine grace themselves, "study to promote the work of God upon the hearts of others." Labour, as much as possible, to spread this temper which God has wrought in your hearts; for you cannot but know, that with it you spread true happiness, which alone is to be found in that intercourse with the great Author of our being, for which this lays a foundation, and in the regular exercise of those powers which are thus sanctified. No sooner was Paul converted himself, but he presently set himself to bring others. to Christ, and to Preach the faith which once he destroyed **. And David speaks of it as the effect of God's pardoning love to him, Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee++. If therefore God has called us to the office of the ministry, as the experience of this change on our own hearts will be our best qualification for our public work, (and indeed such a qualification that nothing else can supply the want of it ;) so it will *2 Sam. xii. 14. 2 Cor. v. 14. † Eph. iv. 1. Gen. xlix. 18. Rom. vi. 13. **Gal. i. 23. § Rom. xii. 2. |