be filled with indignation if their acceptance with him were questioned, or their state before him made even for a moment a subject of doubt.
Others again found their confidence on their having embraced the principles of the Gospel, and professed themselves in a more peculiar manner the folloivers of Christ. These are apt to consider themselves as lights shining in a dark world0
— and, with more than ordinary boldness, will adopt as
their own appropriate and distinctive privilege that assertion of the ancient Church, " My Beloved is mine, and I am his."
Now I am far from saying that none are entitled to express this confidence ; for I know that it is the Christian's privilege to possess it, and to " hold it fast even to the end." But it is far too easily adopted, and too generally entertained. For thousands who " call God their Rock, and the Most High God their Redeemer, do, in fact, only flatter him with their mouths, and lie unto him with their tongue sd:" and many of the most confident among them will meet with that repulse in the last day, " Depart from me ; I never knew you, ye workers of iniquity e."]
Seeing, then, that there are so many who indulge a vain confidence before God, let me declare to you, II. The disappointment that awaits them —
Whatever have been the erroneous standards which men have adopted for themselves, there is one, and one only, by which they shall be tried in the last day; and that is, the word of God.
Accordingly God casts in the teeth of self-deceivers their violations of his word —
[The Jews, as Jews, were bound to walk according to God's law. But they had " cast off their allegiance to God, transgressing his covenant, and setting at nought his com- mandmentsf." And this is the very state of us Christians. What a covenant has God made with us in Christ Jesus, " a covenant ordered in all things and sure," and comprehending our every want, both in time and eternity! In this covenant we have the remission of all our sins accorded to us freely for Christ's sake, and all needful supplies of the Holy Spirit, for the sanctification of our souls, yea, and eternal glory also vouchsafed to us as the purchase of the Redeemer's blood. But how little have we regarded this covenant, or sought an interest in it ! In fact, " we have rather trodden under foot
c Ps. lxxviii. 34 — 37. d Matt. vii. 21 — 23.
e See Isai. lviii. 2. f ver. 1.