[3.] Our unprofitableness to God, who is above our injuries and benefits : Job xxii. 23, ' Can a man be profitable to God, as he that is wise is profitable to himself ? Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art righteous ? or is it any gain to him, that thou makest thy ways perfect ? ' Nothing that we do doth bring any advantage to God : Job xxxv. 7, 8, ' Thy righteousness may profit a man as thou art ; but what is it to God ? ' Our good and evil reacheth not to him ; so our Lord Christ : Luke xvii. 10, ' When you have done all that is com- manded you, say, We are unprofitable servants.'
[4.] The many interruptions of our obedience : James iii. 2, ' In many things we offend all ; ' 1 John i. 10, ' If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.'
Use 1. To exhort us to behave ourselves as a people called by the Lord, or to walk worthy of the calling. I shall urge it upon you —
1. Because your calling is a peculiar favour vouchsafed to you, and denied to others. Certainly distinct privileges call for a distinct con- versation, and they that have most favour from God should walk more holily and thankfully than others do, that they may comply with their obligations to him. Are all called ? No ; but a few only, that are distinguished by God's converting grace from the rest that peribh in their sius. And should not they that are made partakers of this grace do more for God than others ? Surely when we consider what the grace of God hath made us, and the miserable estate of so many thou- sands who have the image of Satan engraven upon them, it should raise our thankfulness. Thus should we have been, and thus we were before grace surprised us. Now, shall we live as others, and, when God hath made such a difference, unmake it again, and confound all again by walking according to the course of this world ? We keep up the difference by holy conversation and godliness ; but conformity
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to the world, if that still be, it is a confusion of what God hath separ- ated and distinguished, a blending the children of light with the chil- dren of darkness, Eph. v. 8, ' Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord ; walk as children of light.'
2. Because the calling is a great honour, that God should adopt us, and take us into his family, and pardon our sins, and sanctify us by his Spirit, and qualify us for his glory, and continually set his heart upon us to do us good. Surely we should do some singular thing for God, who hath put such an honour upon us. Will not you honour him again who hath called you, and live to the great ends to which, and for which, ye are called ? 1 Thes. ii. 12, ' That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory/ So excellent is the dignity, so blessed are the privileges, so rich the enjoy- ments, that no mean thing will become you. Though this calling found you not saints, yet it should leave you so. We must have a spirit becoming the excellent estate we are advanced unto. Saul, when a king, had another spirit, a princely spirit put into him. So you should have a spirit and conversation becoming the honour you are advanced unto.
3. This calling is a rich talent, faculty, and power. As it is a favour and honour, it doth oblige us ; but as it is a talent and power, it doth enable and incline us to do more for God than others. By call- ing we get a nature in part healed and sanctified : 2 Peter i. 3, 1 Through his divine power all things are given to us that are necessary to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who hath called us to glory and virtue.' By his first call he giveth us renewing grace, and by his continual calling he giveth us further degrees of grace, and power to walk acceptably in the ways of godliness ; and if we be thus inclined and enabled, a singular sort of walking is expected from us ; for all talents must be accounted for, the gifts of nature, the gifts of providence, the common gifts of the Spirit ; much more God's regen- erating grace. God's best gift must not lie idle, and be bestowed in vain.
4. It is a special trust. We are called by God, that we may be employed for his glory in the world : 1 Peter ii. 9, ' Ye are a chosen generation, that ye should show forth the virtues of him that called you out of darkness into his marvellous light ; ' t«? aperas ; to be the image and visible representation of God in the world, that, from the effects of the singular change wrought in you, the world may know what God is, how pure, holy, wise, good. God trusts his honour in our hands. Now to fail in a trust, and disappoint a trust of so high a nature, how culpable doth it leave us before God ! A christian should be the clearest glass wherein to see God, and the most lively resem- blance of the divine perfections on this side heaven. But alas ! most are but dim glasses ; much of the satanical, little of the divine nature, is seen in them.