12. Thou hopest to be saved――but what reason hast thou to give of the hope that is in thee? Is it because thou hast done no harm? Or, because thou hast done much good? Or, because thou art not like other men; but wise, or learned, or honest and morally good? Esteemed of men, and of a fair reputation? Alas, all this will never bring thee to God. It is in his account lighter than vanity. Dost thou _know Jesus Christ whom he hath sent_? Hath he taught thee, that _by grace we are saved through faith? And that, not of ourselves. It is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast._ Hast thou received the faithful saying as the whole foundation of thy hope, _Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners_? Hast thou learned what that meaneth, _I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance? I am not sent, but to the lost sheep?_ Art thou (he that heareth, let him understand!) lost, dead? _Damned already?_――Dost thou know thy deserts? Dost thou feel thy wants? Art thou _poor in spirit_? _Mourning_ for God and refusing to be comforted? Is the prodigal _come to himself_, and well-content to be therefore thought _beside himself_, by those who are still feeding upon the husks which he hath left? Art thou willing to _live godly in Christ Jesus_? And dost thou therefore _suffer persecution_? Do _men say all manner of evil against thee falsely, for the Son of man’s sake_?
13. O, that in all these questions ye may hear the voice that wakes the dead, and feel that hammer of the word, which _breaketh the rocks in pieces!――If ye will hear his voice to day, while it is called to day, harden not your hearts._ Now _awake thou that sleepest_ in spiritual death, that thou sleep not in death eternal! Feel thy lost estate, and _arise from the dead_. Leave thine old companions in sin and death. Follow thou Jesus, and _let the dead bury their dead. Save thyself from this untoward generation. Come out from among them, and be thou separate, and touch not the unclean thing, and the Lord shall receive thee, Christ shall give thee light._
III.) 1. This promise I come, lastly, to explain. And how encouraging a consideration is this, that whosoever thou art who obeyest his call, thou canst not seek his face in vain. If thou even now _awakest and arisest from the dead_, he hath bound himself to _give thee light. The Lord shall give_ thee _grace and glory_; the light of his grace here, and the light of his glory, when thou receivest the _crown that fadeth not away_. Thy light shall _break forth as the morning_, and thy darkness be as the noon-day. _God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness_, shall _shine in thy heart; to give the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. On them that fear the Lord shall the sun of righteousness arise, with healing in his wings._ And _in that day it shall be said unto thee, Arise, shine: for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee_. For Christ shall reveal himself in thee. And he is the _true light_.
2. God is light, and will give himself to every awakened sinner, that waiteth for him: and thou shalt then be a temple of the living God, and Christ shall _dwell in thy heart by faith_: and _being rooted and grounded in love, thou shalt be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and heighth of that love of Christ which passeth knowledge_.
3. Ye see your calling, brethren. We are call’d to be _an habitation of God through his Spirit_: and through his Spirit dwelling in us, _to be saints_ here, and _partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light_. So _exceeding great_ are the _promises which are given unto us_, actually given unto us who believe. For by faith _we receive, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God_, the sum of all the promises, _that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God_.
4. The Spirit of Christ is that great gift of God, which at sundry times, and in divers manners he hath promised to man, and hath fully bestowed since the time that Christ was glorified. Those Promises before made to the fathers, he hath thus fulfilled: _I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes[7]. I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring[8]._