3. To examine well the tendencies and inclinations of our hearts —
[In the prospect of death and judgment, men may be led to adopt sentiments which they do not cordially approve, and to follow a conduct in which they have no delight. I ask not, then, what you either say or do under such circumstances. I ask not whether you put a force upon your inclinations, ab- staining from indulgences in which you would be glad to revel, and performing services from which you would gladly be excused: I ask. What are the pursuits which your heart affects? What is your real and predominant taste ? and what is the employment in which you chiefly delight? I need not say what would be the taste of an angel, if he were sent to sojourn here ; nor need I tell you what was the taste of our blessed Saviour and his holy Apostles : of these things no one of you can entertain a doubt. This, then, I say. Seek now to be, what ere long you will wish you had been : seek to be in heart, what you are bound to be in act. It is by the inward dis- positions of your souls that you will be judged in the last day. What if, like Doeg, you were " detained before the Lord," if yet you had no pleasure in the service of your God ? Would your worship be pleasing and acceptable to God ? No ; " your heart must be right with him," if you would either please him here, or be accepted of him hereafter. To every one of you, therefore, I say, Inquire not where your bodies are, but where your hearts ; " for as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he'."]
4. To conform ourselves to the suggestions offered in our text —
[Let not any one think them too strong, or that the con- duct which they recommend is too self-denying. I have already shewn, that the same things are s|)oken by Christ himself; and I must further observe, that the whole tenour of God's blessed word suggests and enjoins the same. " Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world : if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him : for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world '^." What is there " in the house of mirth " which is not here proscribed? Again : " God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom (or by which) the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world'." Think at how low a rate the world esteems an object that is crucified, and a man, in the very article of death upon a cross, affects all that the world could give him. Surely, if these and other passages of the same tendency be duly weighed, there will be no difficulty
i Prov. xxiii. 7. ^ 1 John ii. 15, IC. i Gal. vi. 14.