loughing and borrowing and trafficking and reaping very necessary, yet
certainly these are but as trifles and toys to the main business. O what a
dreadful account will souls make! They come here for no purpose but to
serve their bodies and senses, to be slaves to all the creatures which
were once put under man's feet. Now man is under the feet of all, and he
has put himself so. If you were of these creatures, then you might be for
them. You seek them as if you were created for them, and not they for you,
and you seek yourselves, as if you were of yourselves, and had not your
descent of God. Know, my beloved, that you were not made for that purpose,
nor yet redeemed either to serve yourselves, or other creatures, but that
other creatures might serve you, and ye serve God, Luke i. 74, 75. And
this is really the best way to serve ourselves and to save ourselves,--to
serve God. Self seeking is self-destroying, self denying is self-saving,
soul saving. "He that seeketh to save his life shall lose it, and he that
loseth his life shall find it, and he that denies himself and follows me,
is my disciple." Will ye once sit down in good earnest about this
business? 'Tis lamentable to be yet to begin to learn to live, when ye
must die! Ye will be out of the world almost, ere ye bethink yourself, Why
came I into the world? _Quindam tunc vivere incipiunt, cum desinendum est,
imo quidam ante vivere desierunt quam inciperent_, this is of all most
lamentable,--many souls end their life, before they begin to live. For what
is our life, but a living death, while we do not live to God, and while we
live not in relation to the great end of our life and being,--the glory of
God? It were better, says Christ, that such "had never been born." You who
are created again in Jesus Christ, it most of all concerns you to ask, Why
am I made? And why am I redeemed? And to what purpose? It is certainly
that ye may glorify your heavenly Father, Mat. v. 16; Ps. lvi. 13. And you
shall glorify him if you bring forth much fruit, and continue in his love,
John xv. 8, 9. And this you are chosen and ordained unto, ver. 16, and
therefore abide in him, that ye may bring forth fruit, ver. 4. And if you
abide in him by believing, you do indeed honour him, and he that honoureth
the Son honoureth the Father, John v. 23. Here is a compendious way to
glorify God. Receive salvation of him freely, righteousness and eternal
life, this sets to a seal to God's truth and grace a