ft shine as lights in the world, holding forth" in our whole deportment " the word of life0;" we are made his on purpose that we may " shew forth his virtues?-" we are to be " epistles of Christ, known and read of all menq;" and shewing in the whole of our spirit and temper what the will of the Lord is : we are to "have the same mind as was in himr," and to "be changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lords." This will surely become our state, if once we cleave, like a girdle, unto him : and all who see us shall be constrained to " glorify our Father who is in heaven*."]
Who would conceive, that when such honour is offered unto man, there should be found a creature in the universe unwilling to accept it ? Yet the se- quel of our text leads us to shew,
II. The way in which this honour is contemned —
The melancholy testimony that was almost inva- riably borne against the Jews was, that " they would not hearu —
[See how they conducted themselves in relation to the very offer before us ! " they refused to hear God's words, and walked in the imagination of their own hearts, and worshipped and served other godsx."]
And what can be a more just description of our- selves ?
[Unspeakable as the honour is which God desires to con- fer upon us, we will not seek it at his hands : we are, like those who were invited to the wedding-feast, all with one consent making excuses, and pleading the urgency of our worldly affairs as a reason for neglecting our spiritual concerns y. If we bow not down to stocks and stones, we " worship and serve the creature more than the Creator2." We have idols in our hearts ; and to those we dedicate all our powers and faculties, whether of soul or body. We are justly characterized as "walking after the imagination of our own hearts3:" each serves the god that suits him best. One follows all his vicious propensities, and seeks his happiness in sensual indulgence : another grasps after riches ; another aspires after honour ; another affects rather the more refined pleasures of science and
0 Phil. ii. 15, 16. Pi Pet. ii. 9. See the marginal reading, i 2 Cor. iii. 3. r Phil. ii. 5. s 2 Cor. iii. 18.
1 Matt. v. 16. » Compare with the text, Jer. vi. 16, 17. x ver. 10. y Luke xiv. 16 — 20.
z Rom. i. 25. a See Isai. liii. 6.