&nd shall bring clown into our souls all the blessings both of grace and glory.
Whilst then we are building up ourselves on our most holy faith, we must be " pouring out our hearts before him" through the assistance of his good Spirit, and be bringing down from hira such communications of grace and strength as our daily neces- sities require.]
The beneficial tendency of the two former direc- tions being thus clear and manifest, let me call your attention,
II. To the two latter, Tis perfective of your welfare — ■ " Keep yourselves in the love of God" — [This was primary in the wind of the Apostle : the two pre- Cfding being urged only as conducive to it. And certainly this is the great object which every Christian should keep in view, and at which he should aim day and night. To have a sense of " God's love shed abroad in the heart ^ ;" to '* have the light of his countenance lifted up upon us i;" to be going to him continually as a Father' ; to " walk with him," as Enoch did'; and, like Abraham, to commune with him as a friend*; to " set him always before us" ;" to have no wish or desire but to please him''; to be *' delighting ourselves in him^," as our God, our Portion, our eternal great Reward^: This is our wisdom ; this is our happiness ; this is our security. If we descend on lower ground, we are open to all manner of as- saults : but who can reach us there ? Who can break through to harm us, when we are " dwelling in God, and God is dwell- ing in us^'?" We are "encompassed as with a wall of fire'';" we are in a fortress that is absolutely impregnable "^ : we may defy the whole universe to " separate us from his love''."]
Let me then especially urge upon you this important duty. Live not at a distance from God : rest not in a formal acknow- ledgement of him : but endeavour to " walk worthy of him unto all pleasing :" get back, as far as possible, to the state of man in Paradise ; and labour to walk as on the very borders of the eternal world. My Beloved Brethren, "let your conversation be thus in heaven*:" and let all the faith which you exercise, and every prayer that you utter, be, as it were, a breeze to fill your sails, and bear you forward to your desired haven; that " so you may never fall, but have an abundant entrance minis- tered
•^ Rom. v. 5. n Numb. vi. 26'. '' Rom. viii. 15.
' Gen. V, 24- ' Jam. ii. 23. " Ps. xvi. 8.
' Col. i. 10. Heb. xiii. 21. y Ps. xxxvii.4.
» Gen XV. 1. ' 2 Cor. vi. \6. '' Zech. ii. 5.
= Prov, xviii. 10. -^ Rom. vili.Sp. • Phil, iii, 20.