But now, in opposition to all this, let us notice, II. The standard proposed to us in the Bible —
This, also, is fully set forth in the chapter before us —
1. It has God alone for its object — -
[" Ye shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them ; but to the Lord: him shall ye fear, and him shall ye worship, and to him shall ye do sacrifice s." In the first and great connnandment that is given us, of loving God with all our heart and mind and soul and strength, there is no alienation admitted, no participation with any creature upon earth. " God is a jealous God," and must have our whole hearts. " If our heart be divided, we shall," as the prophet warns us, assuredly " be found faulty^\" Now, then, if there be any one thing under heaven that is not truly and entirely subordinated to him, we have not yet taken so much as one step in true religion. We may have some fear of God: but whilst there is any other god in the universe that we serve, or that stands in competition with him, we are yet Samaritans in heart, " liavmg the form of godliness, but not any of its power'."]
2. It has the covenant of grace altogether for its ground —
[" The covenant that I have made with you, ye shall not forget"^." We have no hope whatever before God, but as founded on that everlasting covenant which the Father en- tered into with his dear Son, as the head and representative of his elect people '. In oui'selves we were reduced to a footing with the fallen angels, and had in ourselves no more claim on God than they. By the first covenant we were all condemned™. But God has made a new covenant with us, " ordered in all things and sure";" and has " confirmed that covenant with an oath";" and according to the tenour of that covenant, shall mercy be vouchsafed unto us p. But who knows any thing about that covenant ? Wlio even thimks of it, or has any more respect unto it than if it never had existed? The utmost that people in general know about religion is, that they need to repent ; and that, if they repent, they shall obtain mercy : but under what considerations, and by what distinct means, mercy shall be accorded to them, they know nothing. They
B ver. 35, 36. ^ Hos. x. 2. > 2 Tim. iii. 5.
k ver. 38. ' Zech.vi.l3. Heb.xiii.20. ^ Gal. iii. 10.
" 2 Sam.xxiii.5. » Heb. vi. 17, 18. i' Heb.viii.8 — 12.
375. j THE BIBLE STANDARD OF RELIGION. 535
see not every thing as springing from the sovereign grace of God, and given to Christ for us, and received from Christ through the exercise of faith : verily, so miserably defective are the most of us in the knowledge of these things, that the Samaritans themselves had ahnost as good a discernment of them as we.]
3. It has the work of redemption for its great in- fluential motive —
[" Ye shall fear the Lord, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched-out armi." Throughout all the Old Testament, the deliverance from Egypt is urged as the chief incentive to serve and glo- rify God. Yet what was that, in comparison of the redemp- tion vouchfased to us through the blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? This is the substance, of which the redemption from Egypt was the mere shadow. And it is from the consideration of this stupendous work that we are exhorted to " yield up ourselves as living sacrifices to the Lord^" It is " because Christ has bought us with a price, that we are called to glorify him with our bodies and our spirits, which are his^" See the saints in heaven : even there are they actuated in all their services by a sense of redeeming love*: much more are we on earth induced by this wonderful mystery to " live to Him, who died for us, and rose again " ! "]