you do not belong to this holy family : you may call your- selves Christians; but you are not Christians indeed. We read of those who " said that they were Jews, and did lie :" so you say that you are Christians ; but your whole conduct gives the lie to your profession. If you are Christians in deed and in truth, " your works of faith, and labours of love, and patience of hope, are known to all ;" and they vouch for you, that " you are the elect," the children of the living God ^.]
2. How to anticipate your certain end —
[All imagine that they are going to heaven ; and will not be persuaded to the contrary. But, if you have ears to hear, and hearts to understand, you shall know this day whether you are going to heaven or to hell. Ask yonder husbandman : * Have you been ploughing and sowing your ground this year V ' No : I have had other things to do.' — ' And do you expect a harvest V ' Yes, I shall have as good a crop as any of my neighbours.' — ' But do you think that you shall obtain the end without the means?' ' Tell me not about means and end: others give themselves a great deal of unnecessary trouble : and I shall have as good a crop as my neighbours : nor shall any one persuade me to the contrary.'
Now what, suppose you, will be the issue ? Will the event accord with this man's expectations ? Will he not, when the time of harvest comes, find that his confidence has been de- lusive ; and that his barns are empty, whilst the granaries of others are filled with store ? Then I agree that you shall be your own judges. If you can form a doubt about the issue of that man's confidence, especially when it is repeated for many years together, then I will be content that you shall buoy up yourselves with the hopes of heaven, though you never use any means to obtain it. But if you have no doubt about that man's folly, then see in it a just picture of your own.
Behold then, I declare to all of you, that the means must be used in order to the end. You must repent, " ploughing up your fallow ground," and "sowing in tears" of deep contrition. You must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, as the only Saviour of sinners ; and must look to him for " the former and the latter rain," whereby alone the seed of the word can live and grow in your souls. Lastly, you must make it the one labour of your life to prepare for his second coming, that you may give up your account to him with joy and not with grief. If you thus "go on your way weeping, bearing precious seed, you shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing your sheaves with you^:" but if you act not thus, knoM', that you shall reap according to what you sow. *' He that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption : whilst he who sow- eth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting ^"]
' I Thess. i. 3, 4. « Ps. cxxvi. 5, 6. " Gal. vi. 7, 8.