he could have clone for you more than he has ;" or whether, if he had permitted you to ask whatever you would as the price of your services, you could have ventured to have asked a thousandth part of what he has already done for you ? Could you have dared to make such a request as that he would give you his dear Son to die for you, and his Holy Spirit to instruct and sanctify you ?
Has he not promised you assistance for the performance of every thing he has required of you ? We acknowledge your impotency for that which is good : but that is no excuse for your disobedience, while he says, " My grace shall be siiffi- cient for you." If his grace wrought effectually in the saints of old, it cannot but be as sufficient for you as for them
Will not his love and favour amply compensate for all that you can either do or suffer for himt I might ask this question in reference to the tokens of his favour which he would give you noiv ; but how much more hereafter ! Can it be imagined that one saint in glory ever had the thought pass through his mind, that his reward was an inadequate recom- pence for his former labours ?
Will not all of you at a future period ivish that you had dedicated yourselves unreservedly to God ? Many begin to express that wish on their dying bed ; though many are so insensible even to the last, as to feel no regret upon the subject. But what does the soul of every man wish, the very instant it is separated from his body ? If we could hear it speak then, we can have no doubt what its language would be. If it had not been convinced before, we have no doubt it is convinced then, that former reasonino-s were vain and delusive
Much more we might easily urge in God's name ; but this is sufficient to convince any one who is open to conviction, that an entire surrender of ourselves to God is a good and *' reasonable service."]
From the latter clause of the text we are led to reason more especially with you respecting, II. The efficacy of a religious life —
Men, driven from the false refuges of presumption, are ready to run into the contrary extreme of des- pondency; and, when convinced of the necessity of a holy life, to doubt, whether any efforts on their part will succeed for the attainment of eternal happiness.
Here, as before, let us briefly consider the reason- ings of flesh and blood —
[Many, under a sense of their past transgressions, will say, that it is too late for them to turn to God ; that tliov have