3. In a cheerful obedience to his commands — [This is to walk before God in deed and in truth "^ : and to
produce this, is the very end of all God's mercies towards us. Surely, if we are in any measure sensible of our obligations to God, we shall not account any of " his commandments grievous." We shall not wish so much as one of them to be relaxed, but shall attend to all of them without partiality and without hypocrisy. Happy would it be for us if more of this gratitude were found amongst us. Happy would it be if the love which God has shewn to us in Christ Jesus constrained us to live altogether unto God ; so that we could make the same appeal to him that Hezekiah did, " Remember now, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sights" This is the surest test of our integrity, and the most acceptable expression of our gratitude to God.]
In our REFLECTIONS on this subject, we cannot but view in it abundant matter,
1. For
"' Ps. xhi. 1,2, " ib. ver. 3, 4. " Ps. Ixxxiv. 1 — A.
V Eph. vi. 5 — S. 1 1 Kin. ii. 3, 4. ' Isai. xxxviii. 3.
1 . For our humiliation —
[How many mercies have we received, yet never stood amazed at the goodness of onr God ! Were it only this^ that our souls are not consigned over to everlasting death, we should have cause to bless our God day and night. Only reflect a moment, how dreadful it would have been to be cut off in our sins, and to be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where there is nothing but weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth ! And yet who amongst us has not richly deserved it ? who has not been ia constant danger of it from day to day ? Our sins have been more in numljer than the hairs of our head; yet not a thousandth part so great as they would have been, if we had been left to carry into act all the evil dispositions of our hearts. Truly if we have not run into the same enormities with others, it is God, and God alone, who has made the difference between us. What shall we say then to the insensibility which we have manifested under all these stupendous mercies ? Are we not ashamed ? Have we not reason to be ashanied, yea, and to abase ourselves before God in dust and ashes ? O let us remember that ingra- titude is a sin of the most crimson dye^ : and that, if we will not notice as we ought the operations of God's hands, his loving-kindness will ere long be shut up in everlasting dis- pleasure*.]
2. For our encouragement —
[To the evil and to the unthankful have all these mercies been vouchsafed : What then shall not be done for us, if we will seek after God in sincerity and truth ? Surely these present bless-
. ings shall be only as the drop before the shower ; they shall be a prelude to that blessedness, " where there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor sin, but where all tears shall be wiped away from our eyes for ever"." God offers himself to every one of
■ us, as a Covenant God : he says to each of us, as he did to Abraham of old, " 1 am God Almighty: walk before me, and be thou perfect"." In Christ Jesus he is already reconciled to us ; and he only requires that we come to him through Christ, em- bracing his proffered mercies, and yielding up ourselves to him as those that are alive from the dead. O that he may so draw us, that we may run after him ; and so subdue us to the obedience of faith, that we may become a peculiar people, zealous of good works !]