Exodus 23:33

REFLECTIONS

Though, through the merciful bounty of a covenant God in Christ, I dare not seek justification before God, by the deeds of the law, yet as the grace of God, which bringeth salvation, hath taught me to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, may that grace enable me, to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world! And may all my life, and conversation prove, that though I work not for life, yet by his grace enabling me I am working from life, even the hidden life which is with Christ in God, that when Christ who is my life shall appear, I may also appear with him in glory.

Reader! I would charge it upon your conscience, as upon my own, to be frequently examining the heart concerning these things. Oh! let us be very jealous, with a godly jealousy over those springs of action, and keep the heart with all diligence, and more especially beg of God to keep it for us, who alone can keep it, for out of it are the issues of life.

Dearest Jesus! let the view presented to me of thy presence going before thy people, however short and transient the view, revive in my heart everything that is tender and affectionate, humble and obedient, to the remembrance of thee, and of thy dear name. Lord! may I never lose sight of thee under this glorious character of the Angel of the Covenant going before me. May I rejoice in that sweet assurance that God my Father's name is in thee; that thou wilt, by little, and little, drive out the corruptions of my heart before thee; that thou wilt subdue the whole of them at length by the conquests of thy grace; that thou wilt safely conduct me through the whole of this wilderness state, and I shall at last, under thy power, arrive at the heavenly Canaan, to see thy face, and dwell with thee forever. Oh! when will the shadows of the night pass, and the day break from my beloved!