2. That you commend it earnestly to others — [You are not to be content to go to heaven alone : you
must endeavour to draw all you can along with you. Has God imparted to you knowledge? you must labour to com- municate it. Has he given you influence ? you must exert it to the utmost of your power. Has he invested you with authority ? you must employ it for God. Are you as magis- trates ? you are " not to bear the sword in vain," but to use it for him, whose representatives and vicegerents you aree. Are you parents ? you must, like Abraham, " command your children, and your household to keep the way of the Lordf." Advice is not sufficient. If that prevail, it is well : you have gained your end by gentle means ; which should always be
° 1 John v. 11, 12. d 1 Cor. ii. 2.
e Rom. xiii. 1 — 4. f Gen. xviii. 19. with the text.
resorted to in the first instance : but, if advice will not effect your purpose, you must exert authority, yes, even though your children have arrived at man's estate. EH did reprove his sons, saying, " Nay, my sons, this is no good report that I hear of you ; you make the Lord's people to transgress." But when he saw that they persevered in their iniquities, he should have turned them out of their priestly office : and because he neglected thus to exercise his authority, God visited him and his posterity with the heaviest judgments, even to many gene- rationsg. To every parent, then, I say, The blood of your children will be required at your hands: and, though you cannot impart unto them any saving grace, you must keep a firm hand in restraining them from every thing that will be injurious to their souls ; and must labour in every possible way to bring them to Christ, that they may be saved from wrath through him.]
And let me mark,
II. The reasonableness of our duty in relation to this matter — The service of God altogether is " a reasonable service11;" and more especially that duty commended to us in our text.
1. The testimony itself is highly worthy of our regard —
[What is it that we testify ? It is, that God has redeemed us by the blood of his dear Son, and will cast out none who
come to him in his Son's name And " is this a vain
thing ? " is it doubtful, so that we may question it ? or unim- portant, that we may trifle with it? Let the Apostle Paul determine this : " This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners1." Yes, indeed ; it is " no cunningly-devised fable," but the very truth of God, to which the whole Scriptures bear witness : and it is " the very wisdom of God, yea, and the power of Godk," so that, in comparison of it, there is nothing, either in heaven or earth, that gives any just conception of the Deity. In this mystery all the perfections of the Godhead unite, and harmonize, and are glorified.]
2. On our regard to it our eternal happiness de- pends—
[" It is our life, whether theoretically considered, ox practi- cally applied. Our blessed Lord says, "I am the way, the
e 1 Sam. ii. 33 — 36. h Rom. xii. 1.
j 1 Tim. i. 15. k 1 Cor. i. 24.
238."] A minister's dying charge to his people. 521
truth, and the life : no man cometh unto the Father but by me1." There is no way of reconciliation with God but through the sacrifice of Christ. No man can make atonement for his own sins: and every soul that would be saved, must " submit to the righteousness of God," even to that mode of justification which God has proposed in his Gospel™. It was this that distinguished Abel from Cain: Cain brought an offering of the ground ; but Abel, looking forward to the Saviour, brought a living sacrifice from his flock n. And this is what we also must do. We must look to Christ, and believe in Christ, and lay our sins on him, as the Jewish offerer did on his sacrifice. If we do this, we shall be saved: for "all who believe in Christ shall be justified from all things0 :" but, if we do it not, " there remaineth for us no other sacrifice for sin, but a cer- tain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation p."]