from the remainder of the harvest. Being " a chosen genera- tion, they are to be a peculiar people11," " zealous of good works \" To this " the word of truth" bears testimony in every part. To think that God should " beget" any person by his word and Spirit, and leave him at liberty to be a servant of sin and Satan, is a thought from which one revolts with utter abhorrence. Thus at least did St. Paul : " Is Christ the mi- nister of sin ? God forbid >'." " Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid2." " Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound ? God forbid3." " God has not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness :" and, whatever men may say respecting God's " will" in ordain- ing us to life, or respecting our relation to him as his children, " begotten of him," this is a truth that must never for one moment be questioned, " Without holiness no man shall see the LordV]
See then that you,
1. Value the ordinances of God —
[The word is doubtless to be read with care and dili- gence at home : for, as we have said, it is the food of God's new-born offspring, and the great medium by which he com- municates his blessings to the soul. But it is through the ministry of that word that God chiefly works. He will bless those who read it in their own houses : but he will bless also, and more abundantly, those who at the same time attend upon the ministration of it by those whom he has sent to speak in his name ; for " he loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob." Let not any think light of the ordi- nances, because the persons who dispense them are weak as other men : for " God has put his treasure into earthen vessels, on purpose that the excellency of the power may the more manifestly appear to be of him." If indeed men look to the instrument, they will meet with nothing but disappointment: but if they will look through the instrument to God, they shall find the "word as quick and powerful0" as ever, and shall experience it to be " the power of God unto their ever- lasting salvation d." There is no blessing which God will not
dispense to them by means of it Nor, if only they mix
faith with what they heare, shall their most enlarged expecta- tions of " profit" ever be disappointed.]
2. Labour to improve them for their destined end —
u 2 Pet. ii. 9. * Tit. ii. 14. y Gal. ii. 17.
z Rom. vi. 15. a Rom. vi. 1,2. b Heb. xii. 14.
c Heb. iv. 12. <» Rom. i. 16. e Heb. iv. 2.