368 CHRISTIAN MORALITY, VIZ. [SHIM. 74&61. to come ? What a load of calamities would at once come upon You, and overwhelm you in soul and body! You. would fall under universal distress and wretched Hess in this world, and have no hope for eternity; and yet if you are careless to fulfil your covenants, or wil- fully break .your engagements, why should you. expect that God should fulfil any on his side ? Or why should his kind providence incline any creature to fulfil anyon ,their side ?. " O blessed and holy God, how false have we been to 'thee ! How fickle ! "How unfaithful! How often have :we. broken the solemn engagements under which we have laid ourselves to thymajesty ! Our comforts are all for- feited. into thy hands, and yet we have food and clothing given us; the mercies of the night and the day are con. tinned to us; thy compassions are renewed every morn- ing, and in the evening thy faithfulness is glorified. We, are ready to charge our fellow-creatures with unfaithful- .i3ess, and reproach their breach of promise, when we .v,urselves perhaps have been the unfaithful dealers,. and ,bave broken all those engagements and bonds of ,kind- ness or duty, which are the foundation of their promises. ,We seldom or never think of our own unfaithfulness to ,them:or to thee, but delight ourselves in accusations, while thou delightest in forgiveness. O how often hast .thou pardoned our broken vows, and hast been slow to anger! But we 'though we are wretchedly unfaithful our- selves, yet are slow and backward to forgive. . We have been guilty of;many failures in thy covenant, and our cverlaEting hopes, had been utterly lost, if thy covenant had not stood firmer on thy side than it has on ours. Blessed be the name of Jesus, our glorious Surety, our Advocate at thy right -hand, to whom thy promises were first,given ! Be has fulfilled all his sacred engagements: Thy: faithfulness to him cannever fail; in him are all our hopes established; by his grace we arekept from an utter renouncing of thy covenant, though we have .so often wîetchedly failed in the performance Of it. Glory, ho- nour, and praise be given to a faithful God, to a kind andfaithful Mediator." I come now to propose a rule or two for the preserva- tion of our constancy,. ,which is the third part of truth or
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