382.]
Now here was real piety : here was a manifest regard for the honour of God and the good of men. This it is that most exalts a character. Many there are who will be extremely zealous against open profaneness, who yet have no real con- cern for God's honour and glory. But we must combine " godliness with honesty." We must labour, each in his sphere, to promote the knowledge and the worship of God : and ha\ang given up ourselves to him in a perpetual covenant, we must endeavour to engage others also to a like surrender of themselves to him. In a peculiar manner we should ourselves respect, and to the utmost of our power cause others also to regard, the wonders of redeeming love. Since " Christ our
passover is sacrificed for us, we should keep the feast "
Here is scope for the best energies of our souls. In reference to these things it is not possible to be too earnest, provided we are alike attentive to every duty, and careful " that God in all things may be glorified through Christ Jesus" ]
IV. In all he did he adhered strictly to the word of God—
[From the first moment that the Scriptures were found and read to him, he determined to make them the one rule of his conduct. He " humbled himself deeply before God" for the utter disregard of them which had obtained throughout the whole kingdom : and he himself read them in the ears of his people, and required a conformity to them in every parti- cular. In celebrating the passover, he was especially mindful of every direction given by Moses relative to that divine ordi- nance ; and indeed in the whole of his conduct he laboured to secure a perfect compliance with God's revealed will. This is the thing noticed, both in the text and in many other places ; and it forms a very essential part of that goodness, for which he is applauded in the sacred records ^.
It often happens, that men are zealous for their own party and their own opinions ; and men in such a state will some- times " compass sea and land to make one proselyte : " but unless we build according to " the model given us in the mount," we lose all our labour. To please our God, we must have a strict regard to his revealed will : and for this end we must study the Holy Scriptures, and " turn from them neither to the right hand nor the left."]
Address —
[Here we may rejoice, that we all have the Scriptures in our hands. They are not hid, as in the days of Josiah ; but are so freely and universally dispersed, that every man in the
<i 2 Chron. xxxv. 26.