should exercise all possible vigilance to keep his counsels, and preserve inviolate his holy commandments.]
3. They should be kept ready for use —
[It is not sufficient that we have reduced the counsels of God, as it were, to certain heads, and made memorandums of them in our books, so as to be able to refer to them when occasion requires : we should have them " inscribed on the tablet of our hearts," so that they may be always at hand, ready to direct and regulate our ways. Conscience, by looking inward, should be able to see them in an instant, and to suggest the line of conduct conformable to them. Moreover, we should have them " bound also upon our fingers," so as both to be reminded of them at all times, and be ever ready to carry them into execution. To this effect Solomon explains his meaning : " Bind them continually \ipon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck. When thou goest, it shall lead thee ; when thovi sleepest, it shall keep thee ; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee : for the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light : and reproofs of instruction are the way of life''."]
4. They should be guarded with the tenderest
affection —
[With persons standing in near and dear relation to us, we are accustomed to live in habits of intimacy, consulting them on any occasions of difficulty, paying considerable defer- ence to their judgment, and easily influenced by their opinions. Now in this light we should view the counsels of our God: we should be familiar with them ; we should consult them on all occasions, and yield them a willing ascendency over our hearts. Instead of standing aloof from them as strangers, we should claim, and glory in, our relation to them : we should " say imto Wisdom, Thou art my sister ; and call Understand- ing our kinswoman." We should, by our conformity to the dictates of Wisdom, prove, and manifest, our relation to her ; and constrain all who behold us to acknowledge, that God is our Father, and that Christ, " the Wonderful Counsellor," is our Friend.]
To encourage this acquaintance with the Divine counsels, we will proceed to state, II. The benefits which we shall derive from a due attention to them —
In our text itself, the great benefit of complying with the exhortation is stated, in short but compre- hensive terms ; " Keep my commandments, and live." But in the verses following our text, a particular ad-
e Prov. vi. 20—23.