3. The wisdom of all who profess to have em- braced it —
[Doubtless it is your privilege to be rejoicing in God your Saviour, and in the freeness and fulness of his salvation
But you must also keep in view the future judgment,
and be acting continually with a reference to it. There is no dispensation given to you to continue in sin : " Shall you continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid." The scrutiny which you shall undergo in the last day, so far from being less exact than that of others, will be more strict, in proportion to the advantages you have enjoyed, and the pro- fessions you have madea. Your acceptance, it is true, will be solely on account of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done and suffered for you : but the truth of your faith will be tried by the works it has produced : and according to the measure and quality of them will be your reward. I say then, in all that you say and do, have respect to the future judgment, when " God will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the heart:" and in order to your being approved of God in that day, " walk in love, as Christ has loved you1';" and, whilst you endeavour to " walk in his steps" " let the same mind also be in you as was in Christ Jesus0."]
* 1 Pet. iv. 17. b Eph. v. 2. « Phil. ii. 5.