[" Other lords besides God, have liad dominion over you. The hp and the knee perhaps you have devoted to Jehovah in the observance of outward duties, both in the public assemblies of the Church, and in your own closets ; but where has been the heart^ ? You " have had the form of godliness perhaps, but where has been the power^'i Call to mind your prayers and your praises, how cold have they been ! Have they not even frozen, as it were, upon your very lips ? On the other hand, see with what ardour and delight you have followed your earthly pursuits, whether intellectual or corporeal, and whether
for pleasure or honour or emolument But God says,
" Give ME thine heart ;" and in the want of this, all the services you have rendered him are no better than " the cutting off a dog's neck for sacrifice, or the offering of swine's blood h" ]
Whilst I recommend the deepest humiliation before God in the review of your past lives, I cannot but urge for your adoption what is here suggested for, IT. Their prospective determination —
The Israelites were forbidden to make mention of the name of any of the gods which were worshipped in the land of Canaan'. By them no other name than that of Jehovah was to be uttered ; because He, and he alone, was God. Hence " the making mention of his name was equivalent to an acknow- ledgment of him as the only true God, and was there- fore considered as a just description of his peculiar people^. But this must be done in sincerity and truth ; else it would be regarded only as an act of hypocrisy and profaneness^ It must comprehend all that attachment which is due to the supreme God, who is the only proper object of fear, or love, or confidence
Now, then, I recommend this to you,
1. As your duty —
[Who else is entitled to any of these regards, except in entire subordination and subserviency to Him ? ]
2. As your interest —
[Wlio can so recompense your services, or so avenge the want of them ? ]
f Isai. xxix. 13. s 2 Tim. iii. 5. ^ Isai. Ixvi. 3.
* Exod. xxiii. 13. Josh, xxiii. 7. ^ Isai. Ixii. 6.
1 Isai. xlviii. 1.