SECTION IV. 808 If we are christians, and profess the faith of Jesus, we must ohearfully receive exhortations as well as doctrine. Exhortation I. Is it of such infinite importance, to know which is the true religion, whereby we may please God and ob- tain eternal happiness, " then christians, let our hearts be filled withgratitude, and our lips with praise, that God has brought us W up in the knowledge of the truth." e are here in a state of probation for eternity : The race is set, the goal is fixed, the prize appointed, and the variaus'rules are divinely prescribed, by which we must conduct ourselves in this important race. Happy are those mortals, to whom God has made known the nature of this contest, the appointed laws of it, and the glorious prize. We cannever sufficiently adore and bless the name of our God, who has brought us into being, in such a nation, and in such an age, wherein the gospel ofChrist is published, that gospel, which con- tains all thesemomentous discoveries. What is is it but rich and peculiar grace, that has appointed out birth in Great Britain, where the name of Christ and his gospel are known, while millions of our fellow-creatures, made of the same flesh and blood, are travelling onwards to eternity, with few or none of these advantages? 0 1 why was not I born among the wild and brutal nations of Africa, where they know neither themselves, nor their Creator ? Where they are not taught, nor have ever learned their own apostacy from God, and their necessity of a Saviour ? Why was not my soul united to a human body, in the midst of the American wilderness? Why am not I one of those fierce and ignorant savages, who know nothing of the dignity of human nature, nor have any acquaintance with the true God; their Creator and their Judge? And yet théy are hastening onward, as fast as days and hours can convey them, into an invisible and eternal state, utterly igno- rant of that heaven, or that hell, which awaits all that depart hence: Who isit that has made me to differ? What is it but divine sovereignty and rich mercy, that has appointed my station in the land of christian knowledge ? Is it not all owing to the free and unmerited love of the great God, that.he has made such an amazingdistinction between me and others ? They are making haste into eternity as well as.I ; but their way before them is all darkness, for they have lost the ancient divine light given to their ancestors of old : And when they pass from this world into another, they must venture in the dark, and without any clear and solid (rope ; for this is the character óf-the bulk of the hea- then world, that they are without God, without Christ, and with- out hope, bath in this world, and in that which is to come. What can I do butstand still and adore that rich mercy, that has con- ferred upon me so vast and so distinguishing a privilege that reaches into the eternal world?
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=