In CONCLUSION, we will,
1. Inquire what plea you can offer in your own
behalf?
[We know that the young, the old, the rich, the poor, have all their appropriate excuses : but what plea have they that will avail them at the bar of judgment ? Will any deny the charge ! Alas ! alas ! Where is there one amongst us that has not been a rebel from the womb ? Where is there one amongst us that has ever equalled the ox or ass in their at- tachment to him who feeds them, and their willing submission to his yoke ? We must confess, every one of us, that we have not so much as considered our obligations, or our duties, or our interests, or our true happiness in any respect, unless we have been renewed in our minds by the Spirit of God himself. Let us then put away all our vain pleas and excuses, and adopt, each of us for himself, the language of Agur ; " I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding
1 Ps.x.4. m Prov. vi. C — 8. Jer. viii.7. " Jer. iv.22. and v.21.
of a man"." If we feel not the depth of our depravity, and refuse to humble ourselves before God, we do in fact " make God a liar," and provoke him to execute upon us the judg- ments we have deserved.]
2. Suggest a plea which you may offer with safety to your souls —
[Vile as we are, Christ died for us ; and his death shall avail even for the chief of sinners. Hear with what confidence it was pleaded by the Apostle Paul : " Who is he that con- demneth ? It is Christ that died." Does any one imagine that he is unworthy to hope that this plea shall ever avail for him ? God himself, at the very time that he most fully expatiates on our guilt, puts this plea into our mouths, and declares that, if we offer it before him, it shall avail for our justification in the ^ last dayP. Let us then rely simply on the blood and righteous-
ness of the Lord Jesus, and plead his merits at the throne of grace : then, if heaven and earth do testify our desert of eter- nal condemnation, they shall testify also our affiance in the Divine " promises, winch in Christ are yea, and in him Amen, to the everlasting glory of our offended God^."]
» Prov. XXX. 2. P Isai. xliii. 22—26. i 2 Cor. i. 20.