DrsC. vIII.] A SOUL PREPARED FOR HEAVEN. 4.91 vation, yet let God arid his grace have all the honour of this work. It is to God you owe your sacrifices ofpraise. He that hath wrought you up for this felicity is God. It was he who awakened you first, and set you a thinking of your most important concerns : It was he that led you first into the way of salvation by Jesus Christ his Son, and bath thus far crowned your labours and your prayers with success and blessing. Every stumbling-block in your way might have thrown you down to perdition : Every temptation might have turned you back from this glorious pursuit : Every enemy of your souls might have discouraged or overcome you, if God and his grace had not been engaged on your side. It is he bath upheld you when you were falling, he bath taken you by the hand and led you right onward when you were wandering, and he bath supported you by his divine cordials of promise when you were faint- ing. It is God who hath enabled you to maintain your conflict with all the mighty obstacles of your faith and hope it is his grace hath renewed your nature, bath weaned you from this vain flattering world, and givenyou a sacred relish of divine blessedness. It is he who bath formed you again after his own image, and bath trained you up, and made you meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. Call up all your powers to praise his goodness, and say, " Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name : Bless the Lord for ever, and forget not all his benefits ;" Ps. viii. 1, 4. It is Godwho bath " called me out of darkness into his marvellous light," and given me to see the things that be- long to my everlasting peace. It is God who washed away my iniquities, in the blood of his own Son, and bath renewed me unto holiness by his blessed Spirit. It is God who hath taken me out of the family of sin and Sa- tan, and given me a place among his children ; who hath begun to prepare me for the joys and blessings of heaven, and in his own time he will fulfil all my hopes, and corn- plete my felicity. Walk before him with all holy care and watchfulness, and take heed that you lose not the things which you have wrought, nor the things which God has wrought in you, but that persevering to the end you may receive the full reward, and obtain the crown of everlasting life;" e John, verse 8. Arisen.
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