then, that no unworthiness whatever is, or can be, a bar to your union with Christ, if only you will accept his overtures of love and mercy. Nay, if, after having been by profession united to him, you have dishonoured him by the basest un- faithfulness, still he says to you, " Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the Lord. Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord, for I am married unto you*." Thus you see, that neither unworthiness before your union to him, nor unfaithfulness after it, need cause you to despair: for " where sin has abounded, his grace shall much more abound b;" and " those who come unto him, he will in no wise cast out0."]
2. Endeavour, by works, to recommend and adorn
it—
[Persons who hear of your high pretensions, will naturally ask, "What do ye more than others'1?" They have a right to ask this question : and we ought to be able to answer it. If we ax-e brought into so near a relation to the Lord Jesus Christ, we ought to shew the effect which it produces on us. We ought to walk worthy of the new condition into which we are brought, and worthy of Him who has raised us to ite. The King's daughter ought to be " all glorious within ; and her clothing should be of wrought goldf." There should be in us universal holiness, both in heart and life. The whole " spirit of our minds should be renewed^;" and we should be altogether " new creatures in Christ Jesus; old things haying passed away, and all things having become newh." Beloved brethren, see that ye answer to this character: see that ye " walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work'," and " filled with all the fruits of righteous- ness, which are by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of Godk." This will honour your divine Husband: this will answer the end for which he has chosen you to himself, and will best prove the truth and excellence of the communications you have received from him. Then will another mystery be seen. Men will wonder how it is that you have been enabled so to " put off the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts ; and so to put on the new man, which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness1." But they will have the true solution of the phenomenon, when
a Jer. hi. 13, 14. b Rom. v. 20. c John vi. 37.
d Matt. v. 47. e Eph. iv. 1. 1 Thess. ii. 12.
f Ps. xlv. 13. e Eph. iv. 23. h 2 Cur. v. 17.
1 Col. i. 10. k Phil. i. 11. ' Eph. iv. 22, 24.