they; but we must dedicate to God the first-fruits of our time, and the first-fruits of our property . We should fear the Lord in our youth, and not think it sufficient to give him the glean- ings and the dregs of life and we should " honour him
with our substance, and with the first-fruits of all our in- crease;" " giving liberally, if we have much, and, if we have but little, doing our diligence gladly to give of that little." But chiefly should we consecrate ourselves to God : for we ourselves are, as the Apostle calls us, "a kind of first-fruits of God's creatures3." Our bodies and our souls, together with all their faculties and powers, are his : " We are not our own ; we are bought with a price ; and to honour him is our bounden duty." This is the very intent of God's mercies to us ; nor do we ever requite them as we ought, till we " present ourselves to God as living sacrifices," and " glorify him with our bodies and our spirits which are his." This surrender of ourselves to him should be most solemn and devout. The image in our text admirably illustrates it : The priest took the basket that con- tained the first-fruits, and " set it down before the altar of the Lord his God." Thus should we go into the very presence of our God, and dedicate ourselves to him, as his peculiar people. Rather, if we may so speak, we should put ourselves into the hands of our great High-Priest, that he may " present us holy and unblamable, and unreprovable in his sight."]
Such is obviously our duty. We proceed now, II. To recommend it to your attention —
Persons in general are ready to defer the perform- ance of this duty under an idea that it pertains not to them, at least not at present, and that an attention to it would deprive them of much happiness : but we must press upon your consciences the observance of it ; for it is,
1. An universal duty —
[Who is there that has not received innumerable mercies for which he has reason to be thankful? Verily, marvellous as are the displays of God's goodness recorded in the Scriptures, there is no man who might not find as wonderful records of it in his own life, if he could trace all the dispensations of Providence towards him, as clearly and minutely as they are marked in the
inspired volume towards God's people of old
But there is one point wherein all mankind are upon a level : we may all look back to the state of Adam after he had fallen, and had reduced himself and all his posterity to ruin. How
a Jam. i. 18.