strongly to the performance of them. Moses says, " God has chosen you ;" " circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart." Here observe,
1. The duty enjoined —
[We are all by nature a rebellious and stiff-necked people. We wonder at the conduct of the Israelites in the wilderness: but in that we may see a perfect image of our own : we have not been obedient to God's revealed will. We have been alike rebellious, whether loaded with mercies, or visited with judg- ments. Light and easy as the yoke of Christ is, we have not taken it upon us, but have lived to the flesh and not to the Spirit, to ourselves, and not unto our God. But we must no longer proceed in this impious career : it is high time that we cast away the weapons of our rebellion, and humble ourselves before God. We must " be no more stiff-necked," but humble, penitent, obedient. Nor is it an outward obedience only that we must render to our God ; we must " circumcise the foreskin of our hearts," mortifying every corrupt propensity, and " cru- cifying the flesh with the affections and lusts." It must not be grievous to us to part with sin, however painful may be the act of cutting it off: we must cut off a right hand, and pluck out a right eye, and retain nothing that is displeasing to our God. There is no measure of holiness with which we should be satisfied : we should seek to " be pure even as Christ him- self is pure," and to " stand perfect and complete in all the will of God."]
2. The motive to the performance of it —
[To this duty the Jews are urged by the consideration of God's electing love, and of the distinguishing favours which he of his own sovereign grace and mercy had vouchsafed unto them. And what more powerful motive could Moses urge than this ? It was not to make them happy in a way of sin that God had chosen them, but to make them " a holy nation, a peculiar people, zealous of good works : " and, if they did not follow after universal holiness, they would counteract the designs of his providence and grace. They would deprive themselves also of the blessings provided for them. For it was only in the way of obedience that God could ever finally accept them. And thus it is with us also : we are " chosen unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them : " and it is only " by a patient continuance in well-doing that we can ever attain eternal life." We are " chosen to salvation," it is true ; but it is " through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth : " and it is in that way only that we can ever attain the end.
202.1 god's electing love excites to holiness. 331
But there is another view in which the consideration of God's electing love should operate powerfully on our hearts to the production of universal holiness ; namely, by filling our souls with lively gratitude to him, and an ardent desire to requite him in the way that he himself directs. There is nothing under heaven that can constrain a pious soul like a sense of redeeming love. Let any one that has been " brought out of darkness into the marvellous light of the Gospel, and been turned from the power of Satan unto God," look around him, and see how many, not of heathens only, but of professed Christians also, are yet in the darkness of nature and the bonds of sin ; and then let him recollect who it is that has made him to differ both from them and from his former self; and will not that make him cry out, " What shall I render to the Lord for all the benefits he has done unto me ? " Yes, that view of his obligations to God will so inflame and penetrate his soul, that its utmost energies will from thenceforth be employed in honouring his adorable Benefactor.