to

and earnestly do I hope and pray, that you may find it such; a gain vast and incalculable, beyond your utmost thoughts! But remember, that you never can find death a gain, unless death finds you a real Christian. It never can be gain to you, to die, unless to you live is Christ. These are two things inseparably united. Think not that you can part them. Build not on so vain a hope. Think not that it is enough to be saying within yourself, May I die the death of the righteous! The question is, Are you living the life of the righteous? Are you living through the power of Christ, by faith in Christ, to the glory of Christ, after the pattern of Christ, under the law of Christ? Is it your desire thus to live? Is it your prayer thus to live? And while you desire and pray, are you diligently using all the appointed means, by which the spiritual life is nourished and sustained?

God forbid! that in stating these solemn truths, I should discourage any humble Christian, or in a single instance make the heart of the righteous sad, whom the Lord hath not made sad! But I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy; and I would have you jealous over yourselves. I would not have you conclude that all is safe, unless that all be safe. I would spare you the dreadful disappointment of discovering, when the discovery will be too late,

that you have been self-deceived. Think what unspeakable anguish will ensue, when death, which in expectation you have fondly regarded as a gain, shall on trial prove to be a loss, which you never can repair! And O, a loss how great! The loss of heaven; the loss of hope; the loss of your immortal soul! Spare yourselves this misery. Let Christ be now your life. Open your hearts to Him; that henceforth He may dwell within you. Seek of him grace, that, redeemed from your vain conversation, you may become new creatures in Christ Jesus. Here must the work of reformation begin. Here must the foundation of the spiritual edifice be laid; in a deep, an abiding renovation of the inner man by the Spirit of God. That which is born of the Spirit, and that only, is Spirit. carnal, and born in sin. must be born again. A

By nature you are Marvel not that new life must com

ye

mence in a new birth. Never can Christ be your life, till from him you have received a new principle of spiritual life. Pray then for this inestimable gift. Continue instant in prayer for it: till being transformed by the renewing of your mind ye may prove, experimentally know, what is that good, and perfect, and acceptable will of God.

Is Christ already your life? See that you live more diligently and closely to him. Let

his power be more fully manifested in your life. Live more humbly and simply dependent on his grace and promises. Live more devoted to his glory. Live more conformed to his image. Live more obedient to his word. Thus living, you may feel assured, that death, whenever it arrives, shall be your gain. In life you shall experience that peace of mind, which passeth all understanding: but at death you shall be completely blessed. You shall be transported from this vale of misery and tears to those regions of unfading bliss, where God shall wipe away all tears from your eyes: and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.-The sun shall no more be thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy Glory.

SERMON XV.

THE DUTY OF SURRENDERING OURSELVES TO

GOD EXPLAINED AND ENFORCED.

I beseech

ROMANS, XII. 1.

you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

THE ultimate object of Revelation, considered with respect to man, is to fit him for eternal happiness, by reclaiming him to the knowledge and practice of his duty, as a moral creature of God... To promote this object is the grand tendency of all the doctrines of the Gospel. With one voice they not only proclaim the necessity of holiness; but urge us by the most constraining motives to yield ourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and our members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

It is this duty, which St. Paul in the text so affectionately presses on the Romans, as a con

clusion obviously, and even necessarily, resulting from the doctrines, which he had stated and illustrated in the preceding part of his Epistle. He describes that cordial surrender of themselves to the divine service and glory, which it is his aim to recommend and enforce, in language borrowed from the circumstances of the ceremonial law. In allusion to the sacrifices, in which the bodies of the animals were solemnly presented and devoted to God, he exhorts his readers to present their bodies a sacrifice holy unto God. In contradistinction however to these sacrifices, in which the animals, being designed as a typical atonement for sin, were slain, and their dead bodies were burnt upon the altar, the apostle adds, But present your bodies a living sacrifice holy unto God. Devote your lives to God. Devote your bodies to him; and not your bodies only, but your souls also. The devotion of the body, unaccompanied with that of the soul, will be but a formal, lifeless service; a dead, and not a living sacrifice. Devote to him the whole man, body, soul, and spirit, to be set apart for his use, to be employed to his glory. This will be a sacrifice acceptable to him: a sacrifice, which reason requires, and which the infinite mercies of God compel you to offer.

Such is the duty, which the apostle here pre