The Christian must serve God with the faculties of the whole Man. ings of the present life, by just retribution to all men; by rewards to the good, and punishments to the wicked. He hath further shewn you that He created man to be happy, that he would have been for ever so, if he had continued in fidelity and obedience. He hath disclosed to you the origin of the sin and misery, which deform and afflict his creation, with the cause of the natural death, to which we are all irrevocably doomed. He hath shewn you also that from the beginning He decreed an atonement for sin; that the atonement is actually made and accepted; that the conditions of it, with the power to perform them, are offered to all men; that death is disarmed of his terrors, by the remission of sin, and a period is put to his dominion; that, in the quickening spirit of the second Adam, the restoration to eternal life and happiness was made obtainable by all the posterity of the first. Hence, it is the fault of every person who hears the Gospel; if his unrighteousness be not forgiven, and his sins covered; and, if he do not serve his God and Saviour in holiness and righteousness of life, for an eternal crown of glory. You are therefore The Christian must serve God with the faculties of the whole Man. alive from the dead. From the death of sin, you are risen with Christ to a new life of righ teousness, to an inheritance incorruptible, that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for you; if you will only walk as becometh the children of light and life. Consider, then, I beseech you, this peculiar privilege, and transcendant advantage of the Christian. The natural man, and the heathen, have only the probability, or faint hope, that God will pardon sin. The Jew with the pro mises of God to faith and obedience, had the obscure types, the many and laborious sacri fices, and tedious ceremonies, of the law. The Christian has the easy worship of God in spirit and in truth, and no sacrifice to make, but that of an humble, contrite, devoted, and faithful heart, proved in a blameless, useful, and holy life. To him the types and sacrifices of the law are explained and consummated in the effectual sacrifice of the Son of God, dead for our sins, risen again for our justification, ascended into Heaven, and seated on the throne of glory and dominion, continually interceding with the Father for his faithful followers, inviting M 3. The Christian must serve God with the faculties of the whole Man. inviting them by the words of his apostles, and by the influence of the spirit imparting to them all power, to follow him, in righteousness here, to the everlasting mansions of joy and love which he is preparing for them. By Him, who made light and darkness, the author of life and death-by Him, who gave and preserves all our perceptions of pleasure or pain-by Him, who fills eternity, and can annihilate the universe with a nod-by Him, who put off the glory, with which he was clothed in the everlasting mansions, humbled himself in the world, and in union with our nature, experienced its bitterest sorrows-by Him, who in the lowest ignominy, and severest pains, suffered death to make propitiation for our iniquities, and was awhile a prisoner in the grave, that we might be liberated from it, following his resurrection to everlasting glory and felicity-by Him, who loveth us as children and brethren, and ever watcheth over us with more unfailing remembrance than the mother watcheth her sucking child-by Him, who will judge the earth in righteousness, and recompense every man according to his work; those, The Christian must serve God with the faculties of the whole Man. those, who love and obey Him, with an eternity of inconceivable happiness, but those who discredit his word, and trample upon his laws, with unutterable and never ending torment we are enabled and commanded to subdue sin in our natural bodies, and yield our members as instruments of righteousness. Greater obligation and inducement Heaven itself has not to offer, nor can the reason of man expect or conceive. If this, my brethren, be insufficient to draw you from sin, and lead you in righteousness; there is no hope of your salvation; and you must be left to perish in your own ways; to share the destiny of the evil angel, if you will serve him. SERMON VII. The Christian must serve God with the faculties of the whole Man. Romans 6, 12, 13. Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body; that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead; and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. IN N a preceding discourse on these words, in order to impress your hearts with an effectual sense of the motives and obligations disclosed in the Gospel, to obey God in newness of life, with the faculties of the whole man; I considered the purpose of God in forming man for eternal happiness, with his wisdom and mercy, in redeeming him from the condemnation of sin. I have now to offer some assistance |