5334 P4ITII IN ITS LOWEST DEGREES. DISC. VIII. repeated' twice, to confirm our faith, so we can read them often, and dwell upon them with pleasure. All are yours ; for ye arc Christ's, .and Christ is God's ;" 1 Cor. iii. 4 23. Then by virtue of this promise we can look to the heavens and the earth ; to the sun, moon, and stars ; to Paul, Apollos, and Cephas; 'to, mini- sters, and to angels; to this world and the other ; to life and death, to things presentand to come ; with a hum- ble and pleasurable belief of our interest in them, so far as we have need ,óf them to make us holy or happy. And as we look on the promises of the bible with an- other eye than formerly, so we behold the precepts of it in a sweeter light : We read them now as the rules of our happiness, as the model of our new nature, as the holy transcript of the perfections of God, and the blessed advices of our dear Redeemer. We look on his com- mandments, and behold they are no more grievous tous for his law is our delight : 1 John v. 3. Ps. cxix. 77. As for the threatenings of the book of God, we once beheld them, perhaps, with a regardless eye, and astupid heart; or if we were awakened we read them with ut- most terror, as the messengers of our damnation : We beheld them as so many angels with flaming swords, to forbid our entrance into paradise. But since we have seen Jesus with an eye of saving faith, the threatenings of scripture have no more such a dreadful aspect. Since the sword has awoke against the map that was God's fellow, and all the necessary vengeance was exe,:- cuted on Christ, our surety, we behold the threatenings as disarmed of their terror, and no longer a bar to our salvation. 4. The face of God, shining in his terrible attributes of holiness and justice, was dreadful to our souls, so that we could not look upon him, and we turned our eyes away from God : As for his attributes of love and mer- Cy, we had no relish of them ; for we had no solid hope in them. We.saw nothing in God desirable and delight- ful to us : We stood afar off; we neglected and forgot him ; or elsewe hid ourselves from him, as Adam, did, because we were afraid. But now,.sitice we have beheld God in Christ, as reconciling sinners to himself, now we can look upon him is all his awful and his peaceful at- tributes without dismay; we can survey and dwell upon
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