strength. More especially should we pant after God as recon- ciled to us in Christ Jesus, " counting all things but loss for the knowledge of him," and saying, with the Psalmist, " Whom have I in heaven but thee ? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee^" ]
2. Whose affiance in him is entire —
[No man, who has not been taught of God, can conceive how difficult it is to divest ourselves of self-righteousness and self-dependence, These evils cleave more closely to us than tlie flesh to our bones. When we think that we are freed from them, we shall still find the workings of them in our hearts. But the truly upright person " renounces all confi- dence in the flesh^;" and, like the Apostle, "desires to be found in Christ, not having his own righteousness, which is of the Law, but the righteousness which is of God by faith in Christ." He considers " all fulness as treasured up in Him" for the use of his Church and people ; and from His fulness he desires to receive all the supplies which he stands in need of, whether of " wisdom, or righteousness, or sanctification, or redemption,"]
3. Whose devotion to him is unreserved —
[The upright has given up himself as a living sacrifice to Christ ''. He would not have any lust unmortified ; nor would he retain any thing that should stand in competition with his duty. Even life itself is regarded as of no value, in comparison
of Christ, and the glory of his name
Any thing less than this is hypocrisy : but to possess this character is to be " an Israelite indeed, and without guile."]
To these persons I will now address, II. The exhortation —
To rejoice in the Lord is your high privilege. Let me, then, exhort you to rejoice in him,
1. On account of what he has already done for you—
[Here I might speak of " the sorrows" from which you are delivered, and of the mercies with which you are en- compassed : but I will rather confine myself to that peculiar blessing vouchsafed to you, the being made " upright before God."
Who amongst the children of men ever attained this cha- racter by any power of his own ? No : whosoever possesses it, must say, " He that hath wrought me to the self-same
a PMl. iii. 8. Ps. Ixxiii. 25. ^ Phil. iii. 3. <" Rom. xii. 1.
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