584.]
audience were filled with indignation, which was visibly mani- fested in all their countenances, and which gave occasion to that exceedingly abrupt change in Stephen's address to them ; " Ye stiff-necked, and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost : as your fathers did, so do ye*^." Similar offence is given at this day, when we declare the worth- lessness of all external duties as detached from the feelings of the heart. But the very circumstance of God calling heaven and earth to hear his testimony against his people, sufficiently shews, that his accusations, against whomsoever brought, in- volve in them the deepest criminality, and subject the accused to the heaviest condemnation.]
Contrasted with mere ritual observances, we be- hold in our text,
II. The religion which alone is pleasing and accept- able to God —
Religion consists not so much in actions, as in the habit of the mind towards God. Holy actions of every kind spring fi'om it ; but they are only as the fruit, which originates in, and bears testimony to, the vital energy of the root. Wherever religion exists in the soul, it will have respect to God in all things, and will induce in us a habit towards him,
1. Of lively gratitude — [He is our Creator, our Benefactor, our Redeemer : and the very first motions of religion will lead us to view him under these relations, and with feelings suited to the obligations he has conferred upon us. Can we reflect on the faculties with which he has endowed us, so far superior to all the brute creation, and not adore and magnify his name ? Can we con- template the innumerable benefits with which we are loaded by him from day to day, and not feel how greatly we are indebted to him ? Above all, can we survey the wonders of redeeming love, and not have our whole souls penetrated with
an overwhehrdng sense of gratitude ? So infinitely does
this love surpass all human comprehension or conception, that if our minds were filled with it as they ought to be, we should
scarcely be able to think or speak of any thing else
Such, we are sure, is the religion of heaven ; for there " they rest not day nor night" in ascribing all possible praises to their redeeming God': and such, according to the measure of grace given to us, will be the dispositions and habits of all who
'^ Compare Isai. Ixvi. 1, 2. with Acts vii. 47 — 51. ' Rev. iv. 8—11. and v. 11 — 13.