Advice —
1. Let all be ambitious to attain this honour —
[To be acknowledged as the friends and favourites of earthly monarchs were no honour at all in comparison of that which is mentioned in our text. Yet this is within the reach of all. As for that common objection, " If God has not chosen me, how can I help myself?" it is impious in the ex- tremeg. We have nothing to do with the decrees of God, any farther than to refer all good to him, as its true and only source : our duty is, not to dispute, but to obey : and if, in obedience to God's command, we will believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be numbered amongst his spiritual seed, and be " blessed in him with all spiritual and eternal bless- mgs. ]
2. Let those who possess it endeavour to walk worthy of it —
[Remarkable is that exhortation of St. Paul, in his Epistle to Timothy, " The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his: but11, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.'''' Do we profess to be of the seed which the Lord has blessed ? let us shew that we are so by our conduct and conversation. If we are " sons of God, we must be blameless and harmless, shining as lights in the world, and holding forth in our conduct the word of life i." It is in this way only that we can approve ourselves to be God's chosen people ; and in this way only can we constrain our fellow-creatures to acknowledge the justice of our pretensions.]
g Rom. ix. 19, 20.
h 2 Tim. ii. 19. The word Kai has this meaning, in this and many other places.
1 Phil. ii. 15, 16.