regulates all our dispositions, and transforms us into the very
image of our God More cannot be said in confirmation
of this truth, than what St. John hath said, " God is love : and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in himc."]
4. Are they instrumental to the honouring of God— YES.
[We know of no other way in which God can be honoured ; because these two commandments comprehend the whole of our duty. But by abounding in a regard to these, we may, and do, honour him. This our Lord has plainly declared ; " Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit." By the preaching of his word, his name is known ; but it is by the practical effects of that word upon the hearts and lives of his people, that his image is reflected, and the efficacy of his grace displayed ]
A candid mind, we have said, must acknowledge the excellency of duties which are capable of stand- ing so severe a test : and, for the encouragement of such candour, we observe,
III. That an approbation of them argues a state of mind favourable to the reception of the Gospel —
When there is a readiness to approve the bound- less extent of these commandments, there must of necessity be,
1. An openness to be convinced of our lost estate —
[It is an ignorance of the spirituality of the law, that causes men to deny their desert of God's wrath and indignation. They think that a very small degree of love to God, and a very partial regard to their fellow-creatures, is the whole of their duty : and, if they have not violated the commandments by some gross and flagrant transgression, they imagine, like the Rich Youth in the Gospel, that they " have kept them all from their youth up." But let a person once acknowledge it his bounden duty to love God with all his heart, and all his under- standing, and all his soul, and all his strength, and to love his neighbour in all things as himself, and he can no longer resist the conclusion, that his whole life has been one continued act of sin ; for there has not been one day, one hour, one moment, wherein the frame of his mind has perfectly corresponded with the demands of the law. Tt was such a view of the law that made Paul confess himself a lost sinner, under a sentence of eternal condemnation ; and was the first thing which overcame his aversion to the Gospel d.]
c 1 John iv. 16. d Rom. vii. 9.